The Family Room: Okay so maybe I overdramatized a little...

April 19, 2008

Okay so maybe I overdramatized a little...

...but we were all hecka edgy this morning, most notably Isaac, who informed J. that he was worried about going to his new school today. Worried.

Of course J. and I were delighted, because our lives are a grandly perverse science experiment in which we are both the lab rats and the scientists, endlessly jotting down our observations on a legal pad, chewing thoughtfully on the pencil eraser.

"Worried. Have you heard that before?"
"Nope. Have you?"
"Nope. It's great, isn't it?"
"Yeah."

And isn't it bizarre to think so.

*
After a few false starts, we finally managed to get Isaac dressed, with the help of many fulsome promises that he would have at least one elevator ride before we went to the new school open house. He was pretty reluctant, but a few rides and two cookies later, we were primed and ready for action.

He held J.'s hand as we walked from the car to the schoolyard (my heart tight in my chest, trying not to feel the weight of such a rite of passage, just to go with it, let it happen). He sidled through the gate and made a beeline for a clutch of kids playing with bubbles. He stayed there for a time, crouched down, happily blowing bubbles with the other kids, then edged over to the food table, where he availed himself of a rather large doughnut before hitting the climbing structure.

My friends, it was awesome.

J. and I introduced ourselves to some of the parents, the principal and a couple of the kindergarten teachers, one of whom was kind enough to give Isaac and us a guided tour of the classrooms. He wandered into each in turn, curiously examining the art materials, toys and books.

"Today's not a play day, sweetie, just a looking day. So no touching the toys."

He was fine with it.

One of the classrooms had a centrally-located "word wall" where they had organized a number of simple three-to five-letter words, arranged by letter of the alphabet. Isaac wandered over and traced his fingers along the words, spelling several of them aloud as he went.

"P-L-A-Y." Play!"

I admit, I don't want to be one of those parents who ostentatiously parades her child's accomplishments to anyone who will listen (yes I realize I am a hypocrite--here I am blogging about it after all) but...I was so damned proud of him. For spelling, sure, but mostly for working through his anxiety. For getting into the action with the other kids. For giving the whole thing a try.

He had a really good time. When we left, he said goodbye to the teacher who had given us the tour, and waved bye-bye to the school.

I burst into tears in the car on the way back.

I'm not a superstitious person, usually, and I know we're in for a big heap of change in the next few months, but I'm going to take this as a good sign.

Posted at 06:51 PM | Permalink

Comments

Hurray!!! So glad that it went well and Isaac worked it out for himself (well, mostly). Yeah, I'd take today's experience as a sign of good things to come, too!

Posted by: Niksmom | April 19, 2008 at 08:22 PM