It’s Labor Day, a day to rest and appreciate all the work you put in day in and day out. Even so, my mind is not at rest.

School officially starts tomorrow and I’m still not ready. I’ve been dreading it. Why? Well, still doubting myself on the decision to let him go full days. He will be the youngest kindergartner in his class, was I being too hopeful when summer started?

I can only pray that all goes well, but I’m already afraid of making sure we all have a good night’s sleep tonight for the day to begin. Kyson’ s hasn’t been able to adjust to sleeping. It’s been weeks, but he has a tendency to wake up at 3 am! How will we make it? Zombie mom and dad with a crabby son has been our life the last few weeks.

Reminder of the “Wins”

Last week was orientation, up till then we’ve taken Kyson to get familiar with the school building (at least the outside) and the playground. It’ll be a new school for him (and us). It took a few tries for him to actually step inside the fenced-in playground and play, but he did.

When it came time for orientation, we parked in the usual spot, he wouldn’t get out of the car as there were more cars than usual this time. 3 minutes of convincing and talking he got out but ran straight to the playground. No way was he going to go by the entrance where all people were.

Here I was, purse, bag, and backpack in hand trying to get my child down from the playground. He now thought it was a game, it’s hot out and I’m about to give up. Having to drop everything I finally get him to come down the slide. I take his hand, grab the bags and we walk. Kyson unwillingly walks along shouting.

1. Finally making it to the doors,

“It’s okay bud, we got this. Let’s go, it’s so very new, but we got this!”

We walk to his new classroom, Kyson’s eyes light up and he lets go of my hand. He’s so happy, he sees familiar pictures, new toys, and sensory areas. His teacher greets him, he shies away into the corner.

“Hi!” says the teacher.

1. Kyson slowly looks up and replies “Hi!”

The whole time he is laughing (loudly) and there are other families in the room. Kyson gravitated towards an older sibling that was there with his younger brother. He’s more willing to play with older children, especially boys because they’re more predictable.

1. Kyson tries to play with him by entering a fort the older sibling was checking out. He looks at the boy and smiles then giggles, not knowing how to have a conversation, but he’s trying.

We walk the rest of the building, he was amazed by the library with huge windows (loud laughter the entire time), then we came across the fish tank. Yep, I got stuck repeating “that is a fish,” “you got that right, it’s a fish,” “yes, buddy those are fishes!” Every time he would look at me to confirm that it was a fish he was seeing, “fish?”

We made way to the gym, paid or dues and left with ease. Progress, small steps, we all win! Now let’s prepare for our first day of school tomorrow.

Happy Labor Day!

-Anna MV