I meant to write this on Saturday, but that of course didn't happen. I do want to make sure I write it though, because I want to remember Jake's first full week of school.
Monday - He was really excited Monday afternoon because they got to visit the library. The library is one of the things Jake was looking most forward to. Considering in 5 years, I've took him to the library once, I'm not sure he gets the love of a library from me. I give that credit to my mom who is a retired children's librarian. She had built him a pretty nice book collection before he was even born and has added to it since. Because he had so many books, we read a good bit. Jake loves for you to read to him. The librarian read the book Pete the Cat Goes to School. That is one of Jake's favorite books anyway, so that was icing on the cake for him. And I'm sure he didn't interrupt the librarian not even once to tell what happens next (which is one of his favorite things to do when I read to him). The only thing he was disappointed with, is that they didn't get to check out a book.
Tuesday - They got to visit the computer lab. He thought it was okay, but was disappointed that they didn't get to play any games and there were a lot of rules. (Which he couldn't remember any of them, so that's a great sign.)
Wednesday - Finally on Wednesday they had a lunch that I thought he would eat, so I let him buy his lunch from the lunchroom. Getting the whole thing setup was a disorganized nightmare, but that's a story for another day. Just in case something happened & Jake couldn't buy his lunch that day, I sent a lunch as back up. The lunchroom menu was cheeseburger or corn dogs, with the sides french fries, apples, & salad. I knew Jake would eat the cheeseburger, fries & apples. When I picked him up from school, I asked how eating the lunchroom food was (he has been so excited about it). He said he ate all of his fries & apples, but he didn't eat the corndog. I asked him why he didn't get a cheeseburger & he said they didn't have any. He said they gave him a corndog. He said he smelled it and didn't like it, so he didn't eat it. So basically he had fries & apples for lunch. As soon as we got home, he ate everything I had packed in his lunchbox. He told me the next day maybe I could just send his lunchbox. So the lunchroom food has lost its appeal after one day. I'll still let him eat in the lunchroom when they have food I think he'll like, but I'm at least glad to know I won't be fired for sending his lunchbox now.
Thursday - I knew this day would come at some point & I've been dreading it. The day Jake cries and says he doesn't want to go to school. He had been fine all morning. As soon as we turn into school, he says he is scared. I ask him of what, and he says he doesn't know. I give him a nice speech, I ask him some questions to see if I could figure out if he was really scared of something or was just being dramatic. Jake has a history of doing this. He did it in daycare, preschool & camp. He'll just randomly one day cry before dropoff and say he wants to stay home with me (aka - stay home & watch tv & eat snacks all day while mom works). As soon as he realizes the tears won't work, 5 minutes after I leave, he is playing and has a great day. It's like he just likes to test us at random times to see if it will work. So this isn't my first rodeo with this game. But it's a whole different game when it's big kid school. By this point, we are far enough in carpool line, that he has to get out. That's when the tears start falling and he is crying saying he wants to go with me. Even though he has done this before, when I've left him, it has been in the arms of his teacher. You can't walk them in at Jake's school and we had a line of cars behind us waiting for us to move on so they could drop off their kids. So I had to just tell him that he had to be a big boy and everything would be fine and I'd pick him up in the afternoon. Thankfully one of the carpool monitors saw him, and held his hand and walked him into school. As she was walking him away, he turned around and looked at me with tears falling down his cheeks. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't my proudest moment, but I burst into tears crying. (I'm going to blame it on being 9 months pregnant.) I quickly jump in my car, so I don't embarrass myself in front of others with my uncontrollable sobbing. It is a wonder that I didn't have a wreck on the way home, I was crying so hard. It broke my heart and it was all I could think about all day. Needless to say, I was one of the first cars there that afternoon for pickup. When I pick Jake up, he hops in my car, happy as can be. I asked him if he had a good day & he says yes. I ask him why did he cry when I dropped him off & he says he doesn't know. He just wanted to stay home with me. He says he likes school, he had fun and he is not scared. So I guess everything is fine. Until the next time he tries this.
Friday - After cry-gate on Thursday, I was nervous about Friday morning. Usually Jake tests the crying game 2 mornings in a row. The one saving grace was his new tennis shoes were delivered Thursday evening. Jake was so excited about them. The bad news was that they were a half size too small. They just did fit, but I knew he'd outgrow them in just a few months. So I planned on sending them back and ordering a half size larger. I had hid them Thursday night in hopes he would forget about them and just wear his old shoes on Friday. Friday morning, I made the horrible mistake of answering a few work emails before I left to take Jake to school. Once I start working, the emails flood in and it is so hard to just walk away. I knew I was pushing it on our time to leave. I finally just walk away from my computer. Everything was all ready for us to walk out the door, I knew I just had to put Jake's shoes on. When I walk downstairs, he has already found the new tennis shoes and put them on. I try to convince him that we need to send them back and get a bigger size, but he refuses, and states they fit perfectly. I try bargaining with him and everything, and nothing works. We are now 10 minutes past the time we need to leave. I was going to have to pry those new shoes off his feet. (To add a fun element to this story, Robbie was out of town, so I was holding down the fort for 4 days on my own.) I don't know if it was the "right" decision or not, but I let him keep the shoes. I mean, they fit. I just don't know for how long. But considering his tennis shoes from last year were worn out by the time Christmas came, there are worse things in life than having to buy 2 pair of tennis shoes in the same school year. As a parent, you just have to sometimes make the decision that is right for that moment. I'm sure there are some that would say I made the wrong decision by giving in, but for the sanity of both of us in that moment on that day, it was the right decision for us. And thankfully we made it to school just before the tardy bell (I mean, how embarrassing to be tardy in the first full week of school?!?!).
So I count the first full week of school as a success. Especially considering we had football 3 of those nights and Robbie was out of town 3 of those days. We only had tears once (by Jake, mom was a different story) and at the end of the week Jake was still happy & liking school.
On Friday, he was telling me how much he liked school. He said "We had a good week mom, I love school. Is it over now?". I had to break it to him. It WAS over for 2 days, but he'd have to go back on Monday. For this year, and the next 12 years.
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