Transition Day One

My Mom sent me a mail this morning that said, “I could tell from your blog posting this weekend that you were tired”. This is further evidence that Mom’s know everything. We do have a full blown toddler on our hands – moving at the speed of light, and firm in his own opinions. We also have some firsts coming up that aren’t as exciting as others – one of them being this transition day.

I asked the teachers what usually works best for the kids on this first day of two whole hours with their new class – mainly I wanted to know about visiting. Could I visit? Should I visit? What would help my little boy feel most secure and happy about his first day with the big kids? The plan was that the group of kids who were transitioning would go meet their new classrooms out in the play yard, so the teachers were all busy getting last minute diapers changed and coats and shoes put on babies. There was a different energy in the class room. A mix of nervous energy and sadness and anticipation of change – with a little excitement thrown in for good measure. This energy was easily identified because it matched my mood precisely. I have never been more sure that these teachers are not just people paid to watch my child, they are family. I got Brendan’s coat on, and walked with them out to the play yard. Two little girls had to be carried, one needed to hold a hand – and then there was my confident boy who was perfectly happy to walk down the hall all by himself. We got outside and into the special toddler area when Brendan spotted a ball. Although he recently learned the word ‘ball’, sometimes he gets excited and calls them ‘bubbles’. So we retrieved the green bubble for him and he was very content throwing it around the yard. It was a happy scene, and it was time to let the transition start. I gave Brendan a hug, but he was too busy to really stop. We walked off the playground and that was that.

Later in the afternoon I went to visit and was greeted by an extra snuggly hug. I asked Miss Gracie how it went, and was shocked to hear her say, ‘Well, when he realized that you and all the teachers were gone, he got a little sad on the playground.’ This was a perfectly normal reaction for my son to have, but it broke my heart. Somehow I did not expect it. I have watched him walk around Harper’s party, Daddy’s work, and the mall liked he was the only sheriff in town. He’s an adrenaline junky. He eats change for breakfast. But he has never once been anywhere without his family around. I’m counting the teachers in the butterfly room as family, because they have been with us from pretty much the time he has been aware of his surroundings. And while I know these new teachers are perfectly wonderful loving human beings, they aren’t family. At least not yet.

The entire time I was there, Brendan stayed closer than he has in a long time. He was happy and smiling – but he wanted hugs and snuggles and kisses and I was so happy to oblige, because frankly, Mommy may have needed those things today even more than he did. He also repeatedly blew Miss Gracie kisses, and I got a report from Harper’s Mom later in the day that he blew her a kiss too. My baby let all of his favorite people at daycare know that he loved them. Miss Gracie called later and let me know that Brendan was exhausted and that she gave him an extra nap today. That is just what I want. Because Brendan may be a toddler, but he is still my tiny baby. He doesn’t need a strict schedule – he needs people around him who know him well enough to understand what his needs. People who know that he is the happiest and most easy going guy around – and that if he is sad, then either he’s tired or hungry. Or today we added a new one… if Brendan is sad, it might also be because he misses the people he loves.

Most of the time when I leave the butterfly room after a visit, Brendan is busy climbing something, or eating something or playing with someone. Every once in a while he really notices I’m leaving he gets sad – but then a hug from Miss Gracie makes everything okay. Today when I started to go, he was immediately sad. Miss Gracie reached right out for him, and for the first time he didn’t want to go. It makes me sad that today my baby learned that sometimes with change comes uncertainty. It won’t last. He will conquer this new fear – because he’s Brendan, and he’s a champ. And soon these new teachers will feel like family too. But today was hard. And tonight we spent every moment at home together as a complete family unit: Daddy, Mommy, Brendan, Chelsea. Moving from room to room together – smiling, laughing, chatting, cuddling, eating, bathing, diapering, pj-ing, looking at the moon-ing, and going to bed. I guess the other thing Brendan learned today was that when there are hard things in life, your family is always a place of happiness and safety and love. And that lesson is more important than anything. Tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll take each day’s joys and challenges as they come – together as a family.
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I don’t have any pictures from the first day of transition, (even though I should – the teachers deemed it ‘spirit week’ and today was “Giant’s Day”) but I do have some videos of Brendan’s first Lacrosse lesson. He loved it. Not as much as golf (he doesn’t actually *play* golf, but his current favorite thing is to walk around holding a club in one hand, and a golf ball in the other), but Lacrosse may be plotting a golf takeover:


Please note: These are long. Unless you are a Grandma you will never make it through all of them, but it was important to capture a good chunk of these moments because some day when Brendan is a world class athlete they will play these on his Sports Center profile piece.
Warning: the content in this last video is violent – Daddy hits his son in the face with a ball.