Big boy!!!

Today was Henry's first day of "On My Own", which is the same class as Mommy & Me, with the same teachers, same kids, but now the moms get to leave!

I did NOT have high hopes by any means…Henry wasn't exactly a dream student in mommy & me.  He wasn't really bad, but he just wasn't all that interested in what the class was doing!  He wanted to play with the hundreds of new toys, including the big train set, so when the teachers told him it was time to go color his project, he didn't want to participate at all (can't say I blame him…we do arts & crafts at home all of the time, so crayons don't really compete with brand new toys!).  He rarely would sit down when they were reading books, didn't want to sing songs, wouldn't sit in the circle, etc.…one of the teachers, Miss Christina, just lets him be and seems to realize it is somewhat normal behavior for a 2 year old.  The other teacher, Mrs. Donehue, however, taught older children until this year, and she always goes and picks him up and tries to remove him from the toys and bring him to the circle…as I told my mom, I worry that one way he will just lose it when she does that.  Seriously, it wouldn't be unheard of for him to throw an epic tantrum and/or get physical…ugh.

I also didn't know how Henry would do when I left him…it could have gone either way.  He is VERY attached to mommy, and so I knew it was a distinct possibility that he would have a meltdown when I left the room and he realized I wasn't coming right back.

And also a concern was the fact that he still needs his own personal translator, haha.  He speaks incessantly, and can say just about anything…the only problem is that at times, he speaks so fast and in these mega "sentences", and I am the only one who can understand him :)  For example, he tends to add different endings to words…"trackie" is tractor, "blankie" is blanket, "Shadi" is Charlotte. So a lot of times the teachers aren't understanding what he is saying, which can be very frustrating.

BUT, drumroll please…when I went to go pick him up after his first day, he was SITTING quietly in the circle (see above about him not sitting in the circle) waiting for me, and Miss Christina told me "he was an angel!".  I asked her if she was talking about my Henry, haha.  She said he participated, he did his project (a snowman that he was so excited to tell me about), and he was very well behaved.  I had to call Jon immediately because I was honestly shellshocked haha.  But so proud.  Apparently I was the problem all along :)

When we got home, he was absolutely exhausted…school can be really tiring you know.  By 10:45am he was on the couch closing his eyes.  So sleepy!

We are so proud of our big boy!

Now the big test will be Wednesday, when he knows that I am going to leave.  Before, I didn't tell him I was going to go--I just went.  I think he is on to me now, though, so it will be interesting to see what happens next! :)

Xoxoxo