Carter's 1st Day of School

Today was Carter's first day of the 2012-2013 school year. It was also his first day at a new school Interactive Academy. He attended a different school February through May of this year but I decided to make a switch after hearing great things about IA from neighbors and after going to visit and finding that they have a full size gymnastics studio in-house. The kids get to use the studio during gym class and when it's too cold to go outside. Sweet! I wish this was an option when I was in school. I enrolled Carter in a one week long summer camp at IA at the beginning of August so he would have some familiarity with the school before starting today. His schedule is M, W, F from 8:30am-3pm. I know this may seem like a long day for a two year old but they nap for 1.5-2 hours of that time.  This is a significant increase from his schedule earlier this year which was T, Th 8:30am-12:20pm, after which he would come home and nap for 2 hours. The difference now is (in addition to the extra day) that I get to utilize nap time to get some stuff done outside of the house.

I was worried about how Carter would react when I dropped him off this morning because he has literally been connected at my hip all summer. If we hadn't already bonded we definitely solidified our bond during our two week solo road trip in June. "Carter, you're my boy!" (uhhh...literally) Anyhow, I was afraid he may have some separation anxiety. It took us about 10 minutes to get from the parking lot to the classroom because he seemed to be so fascinated with all the other kids and parents walking into the school. Then when we got to his classroom, his teacher greeted him with a "Hey Carter! So good to see you!" I thought this would be enough to warm him up so I took this as my opportunity to make a run for it. Not so fast. He was right behind me with that look of betrayal on his face that only kids can make. I like to call it the "you're not leaving me, are you" look. Darn it! So I tried again by coaxing him into the classroom and saying "Have fun Carter. See you later." That's our signature goodbye. I can only assume it worked because as soon as I said it I turned to walk out the door before giving him a chance to respond. I didn't hear any tears or screams as I left so I think he was alright.

At round 10:15am I received a phone call from my neighbor who was calling to tell she had seen Carter at school and that he seemed to be having a good time. She takes a boot camp class at IA and saw his class in the gymnastics studio. She said he was the most talkative of his classmates. No surprise there. We definitely have a little motor mouth on our hands. The funny thing is I knew he was going to be a motor mouth before he could even talk. He would just always make noises and used a lot of gibberish to try to communicate. My neighbor told me that he just kept saying "Mommy and Daddy coming soon." Awww...it just breaks my heart. Not really. Five hours later still counts as "soon" right? When I picked him up that afternoon he was all smiles as I thought he would be and his teacher said he had a great day. By Friday I'm sure there will be no issues at drop off and all he'll say is "Bye-Bye Mommy. See you later."

Here are a couple of pics from his first day.