"School"

Preschools here do not accept children before they have turned 3 so Noah is still a year away from that milestone. However, over the last few weeks it suddenly occurred to me that Noah and I would both benefit nicely from perhaps spending a few hours apart each week. Well, there really aren't many options here unless you send your children to daycare. I realized that most of the mom's-day-out type programs were probably full already. And indeed, after making a few phone calls, it seemed that this was the case. However, late last week, a spot miraculously opened up at a church in Stillwater so I buckled the boys into their car seats and hurried over to register Noah. I told Noah that we were going to sign him up for "school" and he was very excited - especially after the teacher told him that there would be cars, trucks, trains, a play kitchen and a playground.
Well, today was Noah's first day - he goes for five hours, from 9-2. While we were getting ready this morning, he was thrilled about his "Cars" lunch box that we packed up and just kept on talking on and on about school. We then had to pack his special blanket for nap time and pick one "lovie" to bring along which presented quite a challenge since he sleeps with Panda, Hund, Elmo and Dewey. "Noah, pick one to bring." "Okay.....I want Panda and Hund and Elmo and Dewey." "Well, you can just pick one." "Panda and Hund and Elmo and Dewey." And so it went for a few rounds until we finally were down to Dewey and Elmo. The final compromise was to pack Elmo in his backpack and bring Dewey along just for the car ride. Noah very nicely said good-bye to Dewey when we got to "school". I dropped him off in his little classroom and he barely noticed me when I left. No seperation anxiety there! When I picked him up 5 wonderful hours later, we were both very happy to see eachother...his teacher reported that he had done wonderfully, had a lot of fun, ate his entire lunch and did not take a nap but rested quietly. I think we're going to like this!