First Day of Pre-School

The little guy woke up around 5am this morning and waited in bed I gave him an ok to get up. He still felt a little bit warm but otherwise fine. I did give him a dose of Motrin before I dressed him. Since this is his first day of school, we decided to change the routine a little by dropping off Christine first at Ginger's place. When we arrived at Ginger's place, Boy Boy and I stayed in the car while Joyce carried Mui Mui up. Guess what? Mui Mui wailed when Joyce walked out. Never happened before. In the car, I told Joyce Mui Mui probably knew "something" even though we never exactly told her that her big brother is not going to Ginger's place with her any more.
Boy Boy's homeroom teacher, Ms Wanda, was already there greeting the kids and parents when we arrived at the preschool around 7:35am. We stuffed his supplies into a small cubby hole with his name on and headed out to the playground. I took a few snaps of Solar having a good time going up and down the slides. Joyce noticed another kid sneezing and coughing and still running around the playground area. Please be careful and don't get anything. I watched from the gate when Joyce told him that we're leaving. He didn't think much of it and said "ok". I told Joyce I would check on him later around lunch time, but she insisted to bring him home before lunch so that he could eat a square meal and take a good nap. Some of you may saw my "Half-time report" email:

First day of school for Alexander today. So far so good. He is attending the Olivet Baptist school on Beretania around the McCully area. He's on a schedule that dismisses at 2:30p, but being an over-worrying parent like my mom, I stopped by the school unannounced to check on him at 11:15a. After talking to an aide and then his teacher, we all agreed it's best to let him get adjusted to going full day. Her home-room teacher Miss Wanda said Alexander is one of the only few that didn't fuss or cry. She told me he's doing real well and I should let him stay. Before I had a chance to hide myself, he caught me and immediately sprinted towards my side with tears in his eyes and started mumbling. Miss Wanda squatted down to tell him that "daddy would pick you up after lunch" and gave me a wink to back out of the classroom. Last I saw was he going back to help laying out the cogs for their naps after lunch.

I think God has just told me again that "HE Knows my son better than I do." Amen.

I have tears in my eyes writing this, but I am happy.

C

PS. He had a high fever (but no other cold symptoms) between 100-104 this past weekend and hence we thought it might be best for him to come home and nap. Hope he'll be ok this afternoon.

Joyce came back late around 2:15p because of the traffic congestion. I met her downstairs and we drove straight to the preschool. It took us quite a while to get to the school, and I am thankful that we were not terribly late. I spotted him sitting on a bench with Nathan right outside the director's office. Nathan saw and waved at us, but Boy Boy didn't seem to notice. As Joyce walked quickly towards the little fellow, all of a sudden I saw an orange flash sprinted straight towards his mommy. As Joyce put it, "I've never seen him running so fast!" My heart sank about 6 feet as I could sense that he probably really missed seeing us. Never in his little life have we been away from him for that long except once in two May's ago. He's barefoot and I asked him where his shoes were in front of Ms Wanda. Then, Ms Wanda asked him if he put his shoes beneath the bench or in the classroom. I headed towards his classroom while Joyce held his hand. We saw a little bird inside the room and we let him chased it a little after putting his sandals back on. He seemed very happy to see us. Once she strapped him down into the Britax; however, he began crying loudly and asked for water. We didn't have his water bottle with us and so we stopped by Times Supermarket to get a 6-pack juicy juice. Little guy was really really thirsty, no doubt.
We seldom do but this time Joyce let herself sat in the rear seats with Solar while driving to Ginger's place to pick up Mui Mui. It took Joyce quite a while to bring Mui Mui down because Ginger told her that Mui Mui was "not herself" today. She did look a bit sad-faced and quite tired. Later in the evening Joyce said Mui Mui seemed to be quite "moody" today. I suppose my little princess is probably the true victim of separation anxiety. As Joyce told me, little Christine liked to stick real close to her big brother during nap time and I suppose today she wasn't too thrilled to be alone.