I go in by myself, Mama.

Bennett had his first day of school at UWO Lab School today! Talk about first day jitters - for me! He seemed cool as a cucumber, which was a total surprise. He didn't eat much breakfast, which is a sure sign he's worried about something - but when it was time to load up the cars and get moving, he hopped right into Brian's car and said, "Bye, mom." as if I weren't going to the same place!

We got to campus, parked and started to head into the building. The little rascal was ready to run down the ramp into the front door all on his own! We reminded him we were in a parking lot and all walked in together.

Now, when we got inside the front door, I could sense a little cooling off on his part. However, he walked right into his classroom holding Brian's hand and found his cubby quickly. He hung up his vest and then followed his teacher to the carpet where they do the morning meeting called Meeting Board. I had elected to stay for the whole time today, simply because I had no idea what was in store.

After Meeting Board, Bennett took off to play without a backward glance. I found a quiet unobtrusive place to plant myself and did just that. I watched for about ten minutes, then got busy doing other things. Thank goodness I'd brought my calendar! I was able to get a little organizing done.

He looked for me twice, but otherwise, was fine on his own. After snack and circle time it was outside play time and he sent me packing. HUZZAH! I  do not think I can adequately express how thrilled I was to see him thriving without me. The last month has been such a struggle with separation anxiety, poor eating, rocky sleeping, general unease, that I was very worried about how this change might affect him. I guess he was just looking for some "normalcy". He must have really missed going to school!

When the morning was over, I went back to the playground to pick him up and he was grinning and asked me if he could please stay for a few minutes. I let him do so and then swooped him up for a hug. As we were saying good bye to the teachers, I told him that he could come back tomorrow - I haven't seen him smile that big in a very long time. Yay!

Keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow goes as smoothly as he tells me it will.