Big Bad Preschooler

Today was his official first day at preschool. No tears at drop-off. He seemed completely unaware that he was supposed to notice me telling him I was leaving him there, alone.

I stopped by Starbucks on my way home and leisurely enjoyed drinking my pumpkin spice latte while I looked over my extensive to-do-before-work-starts list. No toddler demanding my attention every 5 minutes. Toys and books magically stayed where I put them all day. It was fantastic.

Everyone keeps asking me what exactly I'm going to do all day while childless. I have some big plans; projects that have been on the back-burner for years, books that I have been dying to read, work-outs that I've been shamefully neglecting. Today I accomplished two big things. First, I cleaned out my pre-married email inbox. I send all of my non-personal email there (i.e. advertising emails and confirmations), and I don't check it regularly. Somewhere it snowballed out of control and this morning I had over 5800 unread emails. Now there are 0. That took a while. Second, I cleaned both bathrooms in my apartment. I am still smelling the fumes and bleach, but I am really hoping that's the last deep clean I'll ever do on these bathrooms. My paycheck, and therefore my cleaning lady that I shall hire, cannot come soon enough.

Anyway, back to Timmy. He did much better than I expected he would. Apparently he cried off and on, but he happily played for much of the day. He refused his lunch, but he did take a nap. I walked in when all the kids were listening to music class. He was not happy, but he was watching. Then he looked up, locked his gaze on my eyes, and proceeded to bawl. Tears gushing down his face, chest heaving. I picked him up and it took two minutes to calm him down, but then he was fine. He happily said goodbye to his teachers and was only slightly more clingy than normal the rest of the afternoon. Other than crying at bedtime tonight (which never happens anymore), I see no evidence that he had any disruption to his normal routine.

So day 1 is down. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well he did, and not at all surprised at how well I did. I honestly did not feel the slightest bit sad. That probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not actually going to work yet, I know this is just transition right now, so it's ok if he is a little bit sad in the beginning. I know he is going to love being there, and I'm glad that by the time I do start working, he'll be adjusted and happy to be there. For now, I'm going to just enjoy my me-time and try to organize my life while I still have the time and energy to do it.

Timmy didn't cooperate in posing for a picture on his first day of school, but I did manage to get him enjoying his breakfast before leaving and then testing out the little chairs and toys upon arrival.