Beaming

A's First Day of School

I cannot express how proud I am of this little guy right here.  Today was his first day of pre-school.  Whereas last year, he went to school for the last two months (only 9 times since it was only twice a week) and pitched a fit every single day when we dropped him off, today, he was a champ.

I dropped him off at the local, public Montessori school he got into (thanks to someone who had a soft heart for adoption) and  I stayed with him for about an hour.  At first, while kids were coming in and eating breakfast, he was sucking his thumb and was completely unresponsive.  Kibru would have interpreted what I was thinking:  "Oh, oh!"  By circle time, I convinced him to sit down on the carpet and we watched the other new 3 year old children straggle in (the 4 & 5 year olds in the class have been in school for about two weeks already).  He settled down a bit and got focused on trying to cross his legs criss-cross-applesauce while wearing his big new tennis shoes.  It was clearly a challenge, but it kept him busy.

The teacher called the roll and the students were to respond, "Good morning, everyone, I love you."  She called on A and he said, "Hi!"  I didn't expect him to speak, so the beaming began.  Then they sang the song:

Where is -----------?

Where is ---------?

Here I am, here I am!

How are you today, sir(maam)?

Very fine, I thank you.

We're happy you're here.

We're happy you're here.

A was about the 5th kid in the circle and when "Where is A?" began, he stood up and sang, "Here I am!  Here I am!"  My jaw dropped!  My boy!  I was so happy, beaming so much.  I had no idea how it felt to be just so stinking proud of your child.  He surprised the heck out of me!

Next, the teacher started calling kids one by one to go and work individually.  A turned to me and asked, "Me turn?"  He was ready for the day.  Soon he was busy enough that I just gave him a kiss and waved.  He was perfectly fine.  And I took my beaming self on home, perfectly fine as well.