Better Late than Never...

It's better late than never. I have yet to post my photo of Jake on his first day of preschool. It was taken with my phone and I ran across it tonight when I was taking this photo of my pumpkin pie (yes, fall IS here, finally). :) 

And, it was delicious, I have to say. I will have to run extra this week to make sure I don't add 10 pounds, since I plan on eating almost all of it by myself. I'm a quarter of the way there already. :) 

But, I digress. 

Back to Jake... 

He was so excited on his first day of preschool. Then, there were days of tears. He misses his mommy... and he doesn't like nap time. But, he does love lunch time and finds it fascinating that we always have his favorite foods in his lunch box. He also really seems to enjoy the other kids and telling me about how they get in trouble for not sharing. I wonder how much of that is because he isn't sharing, but I've not heard any reports... yet. And, now, the morning drop-off is getting easier. We have a routine about it now. We get ready, we get his breakfast (a morning pop tart and OJ to go, I know it isn't healthy, but that's what he loves and I'm not going to start off the morning with that battle), we drop off Bailey, and we make our way across town to his school. We listen to Three Doors Down's Kryptonite as many times as we can before we get there. We don't discuss much of anything, because we like to have our peace and quiet (if that's what you call the blaring radio and Jake's singing "yaaaaaaaahhhhhhh."). And when we get there, he is happy to get out of the car and go in. Well, most of the time. This morning, he wasn't so happy about going in. And he gave me the most pitiful pouty, puckered-up face ever. I literally had to turn my back and not look at him for a second because I knew he'd be able to see how much it hurt to see him so sad. I put on my best smile and gave him a little tickle, promised a fun day that would go by quickly, and a lot of fun with Spiderman and Batman when we got home. He sucked it up and fought back the tears. I was dreading actually leaving him. But, when we got in the room, we put his things away and he pulled his own chair up beside his friend at the computer. I snuck away unnoticed. 

What is most significant to me about all of this is not that drop-offs are getting easier, but that I see my little baby becoming more independent. He isn't as insecure as he was the first few days. He gets his backpack and lunchbox everyday when I pick him up. He pulls his own chair up to the computer. He cleans up his train set before his morning work begins. He's doing all the things that preschoolers do, without argument (which is really what I was worried about - he's a lot like his daddy, always finding a way to get out of things!). And, the most exciting development... he draws and colors every day when we get home. Before, I had to beg Jake to color or draw. He would beg me to hold my hand over his so that the drawing would be perfect. He would cry and claim he couldn't do it. He would flat out refuse to try. It was a struggle. Now, he is trying. And, he's getting better, too. He drew a Spiderman (of course) today that actually had a head and body. Now, it's a blob of red and blue, but as he drew, I could see the form of a person. Bailey and I celebrated every stroke and every color, telling him how wonderful it is that he is drawing. All good things... very good things. 

And, the reason for this post... this is my little boy on his first day of preschool two weeks ago. Of course, he had to wear his Superman shirt. My little superhero... just seeing his smile melts my heart. :)