A Sampling of School

There seems to be a problem right now with Google and Picasa.  Other bloggers are having the same problem and it is preventing us from putting pictures on our blogs.  Hopefully they get it straightened out soon.  In the meantime, let me tell you about our outing the other day; it doesn't involve pictures.

Eliot will be starting Kindergarten next February.  He'll be attending all day on Monday and Tuesday with a half day on Wednesday.  Talking to other moms about school stuff makes me feel like Spencer and I are standing on the brink of a whole new phase of parenting.  It's kind of like being pregnant for the first time with all of the worries and questions about the unknown.  It's exciting, but also a little scary.

Yesterday they had a welcome day for all of the new Kindergarten and Pre-Primary children at Eliot's school.  We were to drop our child off at their classroom at 9:30 and then proceed to the library where we would be given all kinds of information, and a nice morning tea, before returning to collect our child at 11:00.  I wondered how Eliot would react to my leaving him with a bunch of strangers for an hour and a half.  I spent all of Monday telling him all about it.  We had been there once, many  months ago, when we'd visited to check it out, and at the time Eliot had been delighted with a toy pizza he'd seen.  I made sure to remind him of it.  I also made it clear that Peter and I would not be joining him.  He seemed pretty excited about going to school, and even seemed comfortable with the idea that I would not be with him the whole time, but he did insist that Peter would be staying with him.

When we arrived at the classroom, however, his eyes widened.  We were the first ones there and he had to wait in the doorway while the room was readied.  He leaned in over the threshold, trying to take it all in.  When he was finally able to go in I bid him goodbye and see-you-later, but I don't think he even noticed me leave.

Peter and I had a nice time at the morning tea.  We munched on cookies and cupcakes and I chatted with some of the other parents.  When I went to pick Eliot up he was excited to see me, but wasn't in any hurry to leave.  He'd made a little paper Christmas mouse with a candy cane tail (which he ate on the drive home) and told me that he'd been able to play with the toy pizza.  It was a good day for both of us.  Something to make that Day in February just a little less scary.