Ethan | Taking on School

This past Monday was probably one of the hardest days for me.  It was Ethan’s first day at Summer Camp/Pre-Pre-School.  As most of you know, I watch Ethan and Brandon everyday at home and I am so lucky to be able to spend tons of quality time with them.  However, it was time to get Ethan ready for life without daddy for a few hours a day (and eventually ready for real school).  I was soooo dreading this day…

Jeanette and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this past weekend and we brought the kids to Niagara Falls.  It was a little get away for all of us to celebrate as a family.  One of the things we were also trying to do this weekend was get Ethan super excited for school !  I think it worked…he was totally ready to go.  Monday morning, he woke up smiling…I got him dressed and made breakfast for him and we were on our way.  Bed head and all, he was ready to rock and roll !

I strapped him into the car seat and headed over to the school.  9AM rolls around and it was time for the moment of truth — will he or won’t he let me leave.  I stayed with him for a bit, showed him where the washrooms were in case he had to go pee and got him familiar with the arts and crafts stations and such.  So far so good.  Then the rest of the kids and their parents were arriving and I think he noticed that the parents were leaving the kids there.  Then he started to cry.  I hate seeing my boys cry.  It’s my weakness.  After about 10 minutes of crying and jumping up and down, I gave him a kiss and a big hug and told him I’d be back at lunch to get him.  It was then that one of the coordinators there picked him up from me and tried to console him.  I said my goodbyes and started to walk away.  Of course, I just had to turn around again just to see him and all I saw was tears running down his face, hand extended out towards me crying, “Papa, come back ! Papa, nooooo !!!! “.  That was heartbreaking.

I went over the Starbucks to hang out until his program was done.  I had my phone on the table anticipating a phone call to come get him in case he was not calming down.  As every minute passed, I was getting more and more excited to see him.  He must be doing ok, I thought.  11:58AM and no call…NICE !  I started to head back to pick him up.  I arrived and opened the door in hopes to see him playing and laughing…only to see him crying again.  I happened to be one of the last parents to pick up their child, so he apparently started crying when he saw the other parents come and get their kids…and daddy wasn’t there.  Those were the longest 3 hours of my life.  But, I’m so proud of him.  It was a huge milestone for all of us and I hope it gets better from here.

Ethan’s 2nd day at school starts in about 8 hours, so I best be getting to bed.  Thanks for everyone’s words of encouragement.  Honestly, I’m not sure who needed more consoling that day…Ethan or ME.

-Joee