Matthew had his preschool orientation, meet-the-teacher, supply drop off on Thursday, September 9th. (Coincidentally, that was the exact same day that Ian had his 2 year old preschool orientation (9/9/08). How strange is that?!?!)

Matthew was all ready to go and wanted help do drop off for Ian. To the point, he really didn’t want to cooperate for pictures. The good news is, he finally allowed us to put his school bag on his back (we’ve been fighting about that for a while now).

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I’m sure it comes as a complete surprise that Matthew was not a happy camper when we came back home to wait for HIS school to start.

Getting ready to leave for Matthew’s orientation:

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Walking into school:

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Does that remind you of anything?!?! How about Ian and Daddy going into school on 9/9/08?!?!

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I swear on my life that I did not plan that. LOL

Playing in his classroom while the parents have a meeting with the teachers:

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Having a snack…including drinking from a cup!

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We had been practicing all summer with him on drinking from a cup. Every single time he’d dump the contents all over himself before he ever got it to his mouth. Imagine our absolute shock when he sat down at this table, picked the cup up and took a drink without one single spill! LOL

The really cool sign they put outside the classroom door to let the parents know what’s going on each day:

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Matthew had a several days to wait for his first day on Tuesday, September 14th.

Waiting to leave:

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Excited to go!

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Grouchy about picture taking:

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Walking into school:

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Going down the stairs to his classroom:

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Someone in his class has a Thomas the Tank backpack…Matthew needed to check it out:

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Getting his nametag from his teacher:

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Sign for the day:

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School is done, leaving for the day (and losing his pants):

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Happy First Day of School, Matthew!

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October preschool update:
About 2-3 weeks after school started, Matthew started crying when being taken to school. He would actually start before they left my parent’s house, he’d cry all the way to school and all the way into the building. We know he likes school because he doesn’t cry during school but it was tough forcing him to go through the tears (particularly tough on Mom and Dad who are doing drop off for us).

Matthew’s crying continued for about 2-3 weeks before finally stopping. We have to do a lot of pep-talking to get him revved up for school. We talk about how school is fun and the toys are fun. We love our friends and snack time. And, we remind him about how much we love the stickers that he gets at the end of the day. Talking about it over and over seems to be helping prevent the tears.

Matthew had about a week or so where he was 100% fine during drop off and completely tear free! Yay! Unfortunately, Matthew started back up with the tears when I did drop off last week while I was off. It wasn’t as bad as before and only started once we were in the building and people were starting to walk into the classroom. Hopefully, he adjusts to the normal, Papaw-drop-off routine quickly and we can kiss those tears good bye for GOOD!