Huxley's First Day of Preschool: Is 10am too early for a drink?

Today was Huxley’s first day of Preschool. It was also one of the most stressful days of my life. Huxley had an awful time going to sleep last night and finally went down about an hour and a half after she first went to sleep. I on the other hand passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. My alarm went off at 7am and I got up and got ready in a record 20 minutes. 

I went in Huxley’s room and woke her up at 7:30. This is a cardinal sin in our house. Huxley does not like to wake up before 9:30. If I have to get her up before then I know I’m in for a hard day. She was in a crappy mood, crying and whining about everything (Like mother, like daughter). Her pajama pants were wet because she sweat in them after insisting she go to bed with a huge winter blanket. I took them off and tried to persuade her to eat breakfast pants free. I believe that if she could have slapped me in the face for suggesting such ridiculousness, she would have.  So we changed pants. Then she wanted a different shirt. In an effort to make our morning as stress free as possible, I went with it. She walked into the living room after me crying. Why? I don’t know. I handed her a cup of milk and turned on the news. She sat and watched while I made breakfast. 

Huxley's breakfast outfit

Huxley sat down and looked at her breakfast. Her face said it all. “Grits and sausage?!?! You expect me to eat this? Just because I eat it every other day of the week does not mean I will be eating it today!” She looked back up at me and said, “Stomach hurt!” as she grabbed her belly. I said, “That’s too bad. Eat your sausage.” Huxley has been know to make her self throw up in protest of eating so I proceeded with caution. After 10 minutes and with nothing more than 1/2 her sausage patty down I said, “Huxley, you have to eat.” Once again she said, “Stomach hurt!” I asked her if she wanted some grapes and all of a sudden her stomach was magically healed. Praise The Lord. 

I was so worried about her eating because when we went to open house last week she looked around the room, sat in her assigned chair at the long table, and then screamed, “I HUNGRY!” Everyone looked at me like, “Dang Lady, it’s 7pm. You didn’t feed your kid yet?” I nervously laughed and said, “No Huck, you’re not hungry. We just ate. {Looking around at everyone else in the room} It’s probably just because she’s use to having a snack when she sits at the table.” I could not let her go to school and scream out about how hungry she was again. Surely, they would think I wasn’t feeding her and call me into the Director’s Office about it. 

After Huxley made it abundantly clear that she wouldn’t be eating any grits. I gave her a handful of goldfish in a ziplock bag to carry around with her and eat at her leisure. 

Huxley: 2 Mom: 0

Huxley had zero interest in taking a first day of school picture. We started trying to work on what I call her “happy face” but it looks more like a “crazy face.”

 

We made it to school on time where I acted like a complete nut who didn’t know how to park or follow directions. If Huxley would have been a little older she surely would have yelled at me for embarrassing her. When one of the teachers came to get her out of the car during drop off she was very reluctant. As the teacher tried to unstrap her she cried out, “No! I stay with my Momma” as she reached for me. Like a good mom I said, “No, you’re going to stay here and make new friends who will play on the playground with you. You know Momma doesn’t like to sweat. You have to tell me all about it when I come back.” The idea of the playground was very appealing and she left with a small smile on her face. 

Langley and I then went to the parent’s meeting in the chapel but not before I almost got us in a wreck for not following directions in the parking lot. I can’t win for losing today. After the meeting the Director said we could go and check on our children through the two way glass in each room. I went not because I was worried she was crying but because I wanted to know how she was doing. 

Let me preface this by saying, Huxley is such a good child. I’m not trying to brag or give her credit to make her look good. She plays well by herself. She always follows directions for me. She doesn’t get into things she knows she shouldn’t. She will watch out for her sister. I seriously could not ask for a better child. I just knew she would do well in school. 

I looked in the window and saw the teacher sitting on the carpet with all the other children around her while she read a book. They were sitting so still and listening to every word coming out of her mouth. All the children except for two. One is sitting at the table by the play kitchen and the other is laying on her stomach, steam rolling all the other children as she rolls back and forth on the carpet. Oddly, this child is wearing exactly what I put Huxley in. Surely, I’m hallucinating and it’s not her. Nope. She stands up and I can see her face. The teaching assistant tells her to sit down which she does for about 15 seconds before going to play with the other child sitting at the table. It took all I had not to slam that door open and tell her to sit down and be still but I didn’t… I didn’t want the other parents standing there to know we were together. LC and I ran out of there, using a side door for a quick getaway.

When I picked her up I fully expected her to have on someone else’s clothes and a note in her bag about how difficult she had been. Thankfully, I didn’t. I did have a sweet little poem with her handprint on it. 

She was tired, thirst, and hungry. We stopped by McDonald’s before going home because it had been such a long day for both of us. I have no clue what happened the rest of the time I wasn't there. I just hope that tomorrow is better.  

One last shot at taking a decent picture after we got home from school.