I know I haven't wrote a blog in a while....okay fine, a couple of years. I've just been busy with my two boys. Trevor, who is now 3 (turning 4 in April), and Our 1 year old, Nolan. I never wrote a blog describing my experience in the hospital when Nolan was born because it was AWESOME!! I was able to go home and sleep in my own bed and not an uncomfortable hospital chair that Optimus Primed itself into a bed. I also was able to eat my own food and not hospital food which is usually hit or miss. The only thing that I remember being the same with both boys are my thoughts when I first held them. "Who are you going to resemble more? Your mother or me?" " Are all your fingers and toes there? Phew", and "Man I have years before I have to worry about you going to school."
Our drive is mostly spent in nervous silence. Danielle focusing on the road and myself buried in my thoughts, and wondering why she wouldn't let me wear any of my Star Wars t-shirts. Finally we reach our destination after about a 7 minute drive, which seemed more like 45. We pull into the drive and follow the signs to the back of the building. We find a parking spot rather quickly and then simultaneously ask each other "Is this the right place?" We both know it is. I tell Danielle to wait a little bit until we see some other parents with their kids go inside. It only takes a minute or two before a couple families come walking through the parking lot to head in the building. Danielle and I look at each other, take a deep breath and say "Let's do this." We head down the sidewalk and enter through the doors for our first preschool open house.
It's just Danielle and myself as we left the boys at home with my mom since it was their nap time. Looking back it probably would have been best to bring Trevor along but since we really didn't know what to expect and we just checking things out to see if we would want to enroll him there in the fall. We thought it best he stayed home and napped.
We were greeted by a nice woman who hands us a flier that describes what rooms are what. She tells us to walk around the classrooms and meet the teachers and not to hesitate to ask if we have any questions. We begin our slow awkward walk Down the hall....down the hall right past all the classrooms and to the end of the hall. We look at each other and Danielle asks me "where do we go?" Clearly the awkward anxiousness is written on our faces as we are greeted by another kind woman who asks if she can help us. We tell her that we don't know where we are going and do that nervous awkward laugh we all do. She takes us on super mini tour and asks if our son is currently enrolled. We reply that he's not and that we are feeling things out for the fall. I tell the kind woman that going through putting your first child into a school is kind of overwhelming. She goes on to tell a story about her child being in preschool and how she remembers a song that she learned a brought home about a pussy willow. The kind woman then begins to sing said song. The immature me does my best not to laugh every time she says "pussy". She tells us where the little cafeteria is and we head that direction. I need some water. We are once again greeted by another extremely nice woman. Who asks if we have any questions. We tell we are just checking things out and weren't sure where to start. She says to follow her to look for the head of the preschool. Looks like the water will have to wait.
We make our way back up to where the classrooms are and by the doors that we first entered the building. The nice woman tells the very first nice woman that gave us the pamphlet when we got there, that we are looking for the head of the preschool. (Which we never said we were) but she was so nice we just followed her anyway. So after failing to find the head, the nice woman departs and Danielle and I decide it's time to walk through the classrooms.
We slowly weave in and out of the classrooms, meeting different teachers and asking zero questions because we didn't know what to ask. So we would just listen to what other people would ask. We are in the last classroom about to leave when we here a familiar voice behind us say "This is the couple that was looking for you, Mike and Danielle." We turn around and there's the nice lady that had finally found the head of the preschool and evidently told her about us. The head was also extremely nice. Actually everyone that we talked to was incredibly nice. She answered what questions we could think of to ask and then kindly departed.
We moved on to the final room were a few other nice woman were asking questions and giving out other pamphlets. As we are standing listening to people ask questions, I lock eyes with a guy who is obviously a father and I can sense he is just as "this sucks" as I am. We share a head nod and move on to the cafeteria for a drink of water.
Danielle and I sit down and start to talk about everything and about Trevor and it just kind of hits me hard that in the fall he will start his first step into becoming his own person and begin his preparation for heading out into the world, and that's scary for me. I mean, that's my baby. I'm not ready for the world to have him. Except he's not a baby anymore. Four years has gone so fast. He is already becoming his own person. He talks about going to school all the time. He is ready. It's daddy who isn't. That's what made this open house so hard for me. So awkward and anxious. It was the knowing that he isn't a baby anymore. He is a little boy who is growing by the day. Then there's the thoughts of what if Trevor is being bullied or worse he IS the bully? What if he's the weird kid in class? What if he struggles? I mean I know I did through school. My wife was national honor society. That should balance him out, right? All these questions we ask ourselves as parents I'm sure. It's not that I am over protective. It's just a sobering reminder of how fast time goes and how much more I need to cherish my time with my boys.
We stand up and decide it's time to go home. We make our way back up the hall way and out the doors. I breathe a heavy sigh of relief that it was over. On our way home I tell Danielle that I'm glad I'll be working on the day of the next schools open house. That way she has to do that one without me.
