Today marked Ellie's fifth day of preschool.
The last time I blogged, I wrote about some nervous feelings on my end about having my little girl head to preschool. For the record, those feelings were not aided at all by the whole shoe-licking incident (**sigh**). However, with "two weeks" in the book, I can definitely say that things are going well. Ethan may or may not agree though.
In case you're interested in knowing, Ellie is at preschool for the hours of 9:30 to 11:45 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week. I drop her off each day around 9:00 and pick her up at 11:45. Those time frames aren't anything too crazy and we thought it would give her a chance to test the waters with school and not get too nervous or anything. Honestly, things are going better than expected.
Each morning when we get in the drop-off line at Little Lambs, Ellie gets progressively more excited until our turn to drop off comes. Then she's out of the car like a bullet, barely even stopping to say goodbye. As for a hug? Ha, like that's going to happen when school's "a-callin'." When we return to pick her up, Ellie's generally excited to see Ethan and me. However, it may just be because she wants to tell us every last detail of what happened in school that day.
Thus far, Ellie has been working on the months of the year, days of the week, some letters, and sight words. We'll also hear plenty about whichever boy she decided to flirt with on the day. For the record, she doesn't have choice other than to play around with boys since there's only one other girl in her class. Outside of a small punching incident where Ellie and some boys picked on another little boy, things seem to be going quite well. Once again though, Ethan might disagree with that assessment.
While the thought of Ellie starting preschool initially caused me some distress, there was one thing that excited me about it. I was looking extremely forward to having regular periods of 1:1 time with my son. We've spent plenty of time together throughout his life but there's something special about those 1:1 times. In fact, I already had grand ideas for how to spend those hours each day. Park trips, puzzle time, reading books, maybe even a trip to the trampoline park. Anything is on the table.
For Ethan though, there was one thing that bothered him about Ellie being away and that was Ellie being away! On her first day of school, the second she hopped out of the car, Ethan began crying and didn't stop until he finally exhausted himself and passed out from all of his crying. Initially, I figured that would be a one-time reaction. However, it is now a traditional part of dropping Ellie off at school. The only difference is that it happens the moment we pull into the school's parking lot, persists through her leaving the car, and mercifully ends when we get home or he falls asleep in the car, whichever comes first.
Honestly, it is pretty cute seeing the love that my kids have for each other at work. Obviously, Ethan has his somewhat depressing reaction. Meanwhile, Ellie's reaction is sweet as well. One of the final things she does before heading inside the building with her teacher is to tell her brother "Goodbye."
Now, if they can just keep that kind of love for each on into their teenage years, I'll feel pretty good about this whole parenting thing. #DaddyWrite
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