In a year from now....

It's hard to believe that in a year from now, I'll be sending my baby boy off to kindergarten.  Kindergarten!!  But for now, I can enjoy him having one last year in his preschool program.  While he's technically still in the same class as last year, with a lot of his same friends, he did get a new teacher for this year, and the kids in his smaller group changed.  Jake does not always deal well with change, and there were a few tears on the first official day of preschool last week. 

That first picture kills me!!  Ugh.  It was hard to put on my brave mommy face for him that morning, and try to get him excited about going....when really, all I wanted to do was scoop him up into my lap, tell him he didn't have to go (as he was begging me to stay home with him), that he could stay with me and I'd make it all better.  But of course, that wasn't feasible and he'd have to face his new class eventually anyway.

So we found a good compromise; he would take in a sheet of stickers to pass out to his friends, both old and new.  He would give them to his new friends as a way of introducing himself, and to his old friends, so that they wouldn't forget him (his exact words!).  We were proud of him that he came up with that solution and eventually went into preschool looking forward to the day.

And of course, I was worried for nothing...when I picked him up that day, he ran over with a huge smile on his face and told me he had a great day and learned a lot of new things. 

It's amazing the things you can do as a mom....I'm crying on the inside for him, but all smiles on the outside, assuring him that it's ok to feel nervous, but oh it's going to be so much fun!  (cue my voice shaking as I was telling him this, trying to not cry myself!)  Big hugs all around, walk out the door, get in my car and say a silent prayer that he doesn't spend all day being sad.  Take a deep breath, go to work, and know deep down that you'll be met at the end of the day with a smiling kid....because you know that he IS that kind of kid.  He's the kind of kid who worries about things, worries about other people, doesn't like to have everything change...but he's also the kind of kid who, despite his fears, wants to make the best of a situation.  Who wants to learn, who strives to make other people happy, to make other people proud of him.  And sure enough, when I picked up that smiling kid at the end of the day and told him how proud I was, he was absolutely BEAMING.