Drew and his first weeks at pre-school.

Drew has been in pre-school for about 2 weeks now. Today he came home and said "I made my first friend today." As he said it he went and hid. He is the shyest kid. Funny because he talks so much at home but you really have to get to know him and he has to feel very comfortable with you for him to talk to you.

Here he is on his first day.
He spent the morning before school crying and hugging me, telling me he didn't want to go to school. I felt so bad. I ended up crying and calling Will to see if we were making the right decision sending him to pre-school. I also called his teacher and informed her that he was having severe anxiety about coming and that it might not be a good situation. She assured me everything would be ok and they would take good care of him even if that meant someone just sitting with him till he calmed down.

About an hour before we had to leave he completely changed his mind and decided he would go. We talked alot about how he wasn't going to miss anything at home. Emily and I would probably just take a nap while he was gone anyway. He asked if Emily and I could sit in the van and wait for him to get out of school. He really wanted to make sure we were going to be there when school got out. I told him we would wait there for him. He seemed a lot calmer after that.

I was dreading dropping him off. I even called Will and asked him to take a late lunch and come and meet me. Once we got to school he bravely walked up the sidewalk. Here he is in front of the school.
When the teacher opened the door he was a little hesitant. He was the last one to go in. He gave Dad a hug and then another to me and walked in all by himself. I couldn't believe it. I was expecting kicking and screaming but he was so brave.

Every day I ask him if he met anyone new or if he talked to anyone and he usually says "nope". I believe him, at least the part about not talking to anyone. He went the entire baseball season without saying a word to his coach. So it will take some time for him to get comfortable enough to talk to people at school. I was pretty excited for him today when he told me he made a friend.