The One Where Tommy Goes to School

As you may remember, Tommy was born in October which means he just misses the school deadline and will be old in his grade and young in his church class. Although he thinks he's "already 4" he's actually 3 and this was his first of 2 years of preschool.

I registered him last week when we finally stopped being afraid to commit because we realized school starts now.

Yesterday we went to meet his teacher and today he started class for the first time.

Yesterday we were probably the first ones there and when they asked him to find his name on the wall he froze. It said "Thomas" and the name he sees all the time and recognizes as his own is "Tommy" which he knew how to spell because we sing the letters to Bingo. "T.O.M.M.Y. and Tommy is my name-o" But then he started singing it faster and faster and now it's "T.O.N.O.Y" which is cute enough that I haven't tried hard to correct it.

Anyhow, he didn't see Tommy or Tonoy on the wall so I told him to find the one that starts with T and ends with S. After a bit more prompting he finally found it. I was surprised he had such a hard time finding it - but I don't really know if he's ever seen Thomas written out before. So, I guess we'll check off one thing learned in Preschool this week!

I was proud of him for being brave and amazed by how old he seems lately. He gets more and more capable every time I turn around.

After registering him for school last week I took him shopping for a backpack. For some reason I thought it would be hard for him to choose, but he took about .4 seconds to decide he wanted the Transformers backpack with flashing lights in the eyes. Awesome.

And since he loved it he wanted to make sure it was part of our first day of school photo shoot. Wherein Tommy played the role of director.

Cue pictures.

Hey T. It's upsidedown!

Muuuuch better - but I can't see your face!

Or my backpack!

Lookit' my cool transformers backpack!

And don't forget the garbage too mom!

And what about your face too mom?

This boy. I just can't tell you how I love him. It wouldn't be fair to try.

So why was I shocked when he jumped out of the car and I bawled like a baby?

There we were having a great time, talking about school and teachers and cool new backpacks and suddenly his teacher came out and he couldn't take his eyes off her. And when I opened the door to let him and his giant empty backpack jump out of the car he didn't even hesitate. He ran straight up the driveway, and turned around for a millisecond to wave goodbye and sign peace out.

I watched his empty backpack bounce up higher than his head and I couldn't stop the tears though I tried to smile through them as I waved to his teacher and drove down the road. They took me by surprise. I didn't expect to miss him or feel so proud.

But there I was - the pajammaed mom dropper offer sobbing over the loss of this baby.

And beaming with pride for this one.