First Day at Shining Stars

Barrett had his first full day at preschool today.  He attends the Shining Stars Co-0perative Preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.  I of course wanted to document this historic (in our family anyway) occasion and tried to get some photos of Barrett before I took him to school.  He did not want to cooperate, which was not surprising considering the morning we'd been having.  Last week when he had orientation he slept in until 8:30 a.m. and we ended  up being half an hour late for school.  That was not the problem today since he decided to get up with Justin at 6:30 a.m.  Blythe even managed to get him dressed before she left for school, in jeans, a Cars t-shirt and a Cars zip up hoodie, Thank you, Blythe!  Barrett is still insisting on wearing PJs all the time and instead of getting tired of this, it's actually getting worse because now he's even throwing a fit when we try to get clean pajamas on him.  

I'm finally realizing that Barrett has trouble making transitions and adjusting to change.  However, I still have trouble anticipating everything that is going to cause a melt down.  Case in point, this morning I realized that his sweatshirt was labeled John M.  because it's a hand-me-down from our neighbor.  Well, since John M. just happens to be in his preschool class I thought this might cause some confusion unless I crossed out John's name and wrote Barrett's name.  I explained this to Barrett and he said he didn't want to take the sweatshirt off.  I figured no problem I'll just pull the tag out and write on it while he's wearing it.  So I managed to get it relabeled and then he threw a fit.  He ran upstairs screaming, so I decided to let him cool off while I ate my breakfast.  He didn't reappear so I went to find him, hoping against hope that he hadn't put his jammies back on.  Luckily, I found him sitting on my bathroom counter with a wet washcloth trying to scrub his name off the tag in his sweatshirt.  So I explained that no matter how hard he tried that Sharpies are permanent and can't be washed off and reiterated why it was necessary to have his name on there.  So I threw his sweatshirt in the dryer so he could still wear it and put a video on for him until it was time to leave.  He did calm down until I pulled the camera out. . . . 

This was his first reaction when I asked to take a picture.

He did hold still with Ruby long enough

for me snap this photo.

It's always been a tradition to take

the first day of school photos in front 

of the front door.  This is how Barrett

decided to have his picture taken.

I persevered until I managed to 

get at least part of his face.

He literally ran into his school the

second I got him him out of the van.

I took this when I went to pick up him

from school and he was still eating his

lunch.  He still didn't care to pose for me.

I finally gave up when he resorted

to this technique again.

The good news is that his teacher said that he was an excellent student and listened and followed directions.  We'd had some trouble getting him off the playground at orientation so I was very relieved to hear that he didn't give his teachers any problems.  When I dropped him off he asked me stay and got a little upset when I said was leaving anyway.  His teacher, Ms. B, started playing trains with him and he was just fine after that.  I had a great morning.  I went to the store by myself to get Nathan a birthday present, then I took the dog for a hike, picked up the huge mess Barrett had made in the family room, took a shower without wondering if Barrett was destroying something, stopped at library and then it was time to pick him up.  The morning went by way too fast!