Westyn's First Day of School

As I mentioned at Meet the Teacher Night, Westyn seemed really comfortable at LODO and I inquired about him joining the toddler class for one day a week. I thought this would not only allow me to have a morning to run errands or clean the house child-free but also be a good exercise in separation for Westyn. I inquired about a spot for him right after meeting Garytt's teacher but as it turned out, the toddler class was full. I took it as a sign that Westyn and I should soak up the Mommy and Westyn time.

Then, a few weeks later, the director contacted me and asked if we would still be interested in a spot for Westyn. They had enough inquires about the toddler age group that she opened up a Friday class (previously they only had toddler classes M-Th). We agreed we would still be interested but we would like to switch Garytt to Wed/Fri instead of Tue/Thurs. It all worked out! There was room in Garytt's current class to switch days and they had enough kids sign up for the toddler class to open the Friday class.

Friday, October 4th, was Westyn's first day of school. So, of course, I had to take photos of him outside like I did for Garytt. He was easily distracted but I did get one at the end with him saying "cheese." (And, yes, his lunch box is nearly as big as he is but when you go this late to get one, there aren't many styles left...the bonus is that it was super cheap!)


Garytt looked unimpressed about this situation and was ready to go to school.


Westyn took his lunch box for a little walk.


Then, I tried to have him sit on the front step...not a lot of success there. You can see that his lunch box has planes on it though, which I thought was pretty fitting for little WD.


Finally, it was time to load up and head to school. I took a few more pictures of him outside the school building.


We dropped Garytt off at his classroom first so that I could have a few minutes with Westyn to take some pictures in class and chat with his teacher...ok, I lingered because it was a little bit hard to leave him, even though I think it will be good for both of us in the long run.


A little later in the morning, I noticed that Ms. Val, the director, had posted some pictures of Westyn's day. I was so happy to see those and to see that he was having fun...maybe not quite as much fun as the kid next to him though.


When I came to pick him up, he carefully finished putting together the wooden train his was playing with and then ran over to me with big hugs!

His teacher reported that he only cried for a short while about 10 minutes after I left. Then, he was pretty happy most of the rest of the morning. I think it probably helped that he saw for four weeks that we dropped Garytt off and always came back to pick him up. So, in that time he became familiar with the building, seeing these teachers and he knew Garytt was in the building, too.  In fact, Ms. Val said anytime his class was moving from the room, to the snack/lunch area or out to the playground, she could hear Westyn in the halls saying, "Garytt, where are you?" I thought that was so funny!

We walked down to Ms. Soncha's room to pick up Garytt next. She was very cute because she said they specifically went by Westyn's room a few times during the day so Garytt could wave at Westyn. I really appreciated her trying to make Westyn's day a little easier by showing him that Garytt was around! I have been so happy with the staff at LODO and I think the boys are loving it there!

And, are you wondering what I did with my morning?  I spent about half of the time working on their Halloween costumes, which are coming along nicely now.


The other half of my time I spent packing up the car for our trip to Topeka for the weekend. I can't believe how smoothly the packing goes without so much extra "help." Oh yeah, and the boys were so tired from their day at school, that the car trip smooth sailing!