All Grown Up

Cole had his first day of preschool this morning. (Sigh...) I'm not sure it's hit me yet that my baby boy has grown up to be this little boy who carries a school bag, has a cubby to hang it in, teachers, and classmates at his very own school. Although we had only planned on sending him 2 mornings a week this year, the 3 day class seemed to be a much better fit for him. Since he will always be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in his classes it was important for me to have some kids that also had fall birthdays for him to socialize with. The majority of the kids in the 2 day a week class had just turned 2, and so Justin and I decided that we'd rather send him the extra 3 hours a week if it meant more kids his age to play with. So he will be in school Monday/Wednesday/Thursday from 9:15-12:15. We were nervous about the switch because the teachers Cole met last week and the classroom we told him would be his at orientation was all going to change on his first day. Thankfully, we did have the weekend to talk to him about who his new teachers would be and that he would now be in the 'Marvelous Monkey' room instead of the 'Terrific Turtle' room :) The cut off is August 31st, so he is still in a 2 yr old class, but the 3 day a week class happened to have more older kids in it. Cole continues to amaze us as he adjusted seamlessly to his room and teachers, and didn't even notice that I left the room. The teacher said he had a great time, and although one of the little boys was crying for his Mommy when I went to pick him up, sweet Cole was happy as a lark playing with all the toys, seemingly unphased by the meltdown of his classmate. I guess I can thank Kellen for Cole being used to tantrums :) I am absolutely thrilled with St. John's Preschool, and can't be any more proud of my first born boy for being so brave and doing such a great job on his first day. I'm really looking forward to hearing about everything he does at school, and all the fun crafts he brings home. I'm also really looking forward to some quality Mommy-Monster (K) time!! Running errands with only one child is sounding pretty fabulous too! Here is Cole on "meet the teacher day" last Thursday.

He found the puzzles, no surprise there!

These are today- on his very first day of preschool. Justin was off work today, and offered to take Cole so that I could sleep this morning after working the last 2 nights, but I couldn't miss being with my baby on such an important day.

This just makes me melt!

Making silly "stop taking pictures of me smiles" and playing with the trucks in his classroom.

The teachers even wrote every childs name on the sidewalk up to the school as a welcome on their first day!

As I mentioned earlier, Cole is a Marvelous Monkey this year, and I'm loving his teachers sense of humor!! I think we will get along well!

I love you, Cole, and I couldn't be any prouder to be your Mommy than I am today. Happy First Day of Preschool sweet boy! (sniff sniff)