My Wonderful Life: First Day of School

Today was Elizabeth and James' first day of Kids Day Out. Elizabeth went last year 2 days a week and did pretty well. Her first day last year was very tough for her and for me. She cried quite a bit when we dropped her off and I cried quite a bit all day long. She grew a lot during the year last year - made some friends, got some confidence, things like that. The one thing the teachers told me at the end of the year is that she talked to the other kids, but she never talked to the teachers. So, that's our goal for this year - get her talking to the teachers. I've seen some major growth even since school finished in May, so I was hopeful about how this year would be. Well, it started off on a good note. She walked into her classroom today with no issues and no crying. When we picked her up, the teachers' said she did great. I asked whether she talked to them and Ms. Kay said a little bit - only when necessary. But, that's still better than last year, so hopefully that bodes well for the year. When we picked her up, she was under the table playing with her friend, Erin (from last year). She started to come to us when she saw us, but then turned around, to give Erin a hug and tell her bye. Dave and I were very encouraged by this.

Elizabeth on her first day of school. She's ready. And that's her lunchbox she's carrying, not a purse.

This is James' first year of Kids Day Out. I wouldn't have thought that we would put him in this young. But, he loves kids and we thought he would really enjoy it. So, we took him today, not at all sure how he was going to do. Just in the last 2 weeks he has started having some separation issues, so we were a little bit concerned. We made sure the teachers knew that we are doing this for him to have fun and if he was miserable, to please call us and we would come pick him up. We took him into the class and set him down - got him a few toys to play with, told him bye, kissed him and left. He did not start crying when we left, which was nice. It made it easier for me to leave him. When we went to pick him up, he was sitting across the room, sitting near a couple of kids. He saw me and started laughing which almost immediately turned into a cry. It was pretty funny. Ms. Phalysha said that he did great. She said he didn't sleep (we figured this would be the case) and he didn't eat (what? no clue what that is about, he's a great eater), but other than that he had a lot of fun. So, I guess he'll go back next week. He goes once a week and Elizabeth will go twice a week.

James on his first day of school.

James and Elizabeth ready for school.

So, Dave and I decided that since the kids were going to be occupied for 5 hours, Dave would take a vacation and we would spend 5 hours just us. Woohoo! So, what did we do with our 5 free hours with no naps, no feeding kids, no helping E with the potty, etc? We worked on cleaning the garage, Dave washed the car in the rain, went to lunch, and then did a little bit of shopping. It was a fun and profitable day. We thoroughly enjoyed it and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the kids after we had all had a break from each other. :)