First Few Weeks of School

I have been a bad mom and not posted any first day of school pictures but frankly, the whole time was stressful for not only the boys, but for me as well. Now that it has been a few weeks and they have settled into a groove, I can finally share the drama. The boys both attend Willowbrook International school, a 5 minute walk from our home. Conor goes 5 days a week from 8:30 to 2p (shockingly long for a 3yo, no?) and Aidan goes Tues/Thurs for half days.  At 17months, calling it school is a bit of a giggle. The first week I stayed with Aidan as part of transitioning for the young age group and was subjected to lots of silly songs. One particular song was called "Teddy Bear" and all the adults danced side to side like a drunk teddy bears. It's a prenap song, as all the teddy bears end up laying on the ground at the end.  I can handle hokey pokey but have to draw the line on "Teddy Bear". No fathers could have kept a straight face.  See what us moms are subjected to? This first week, since I was there, Aidan was like a cowboy in class..running everywhere,washing his hands constantly at the sink and  could have cared less about the singing (What clean up song?)... This week though, a different Aidan has emerged. At dropoff, I need to peel him off my body and hand him to the teacher as I run away. Five minutes later when I peak back after dropping Conor off, I find him still dramatically doing "fake"? heaves with his eyes still shut..no hysteria though. I am not worried about Aidan, he's a tough dude. Conor though is another story...

Since Conor has been here, his atopic dermatitis has acted up and he goes on fiendish missions of scratching, so I feared that the anxiety of school and teacher to student ratio (6:1) would leave poor old Conor in a corner scratching his knees and elbows all raw. And on top of that he is criminally shy and thus goes mute when around strangers.  So I expected the worse, and braced the teachers for such, and it was pretty painful the first week. He cried ALOT. Even when another student got close, he would cry. I even cried on the way home one day. I felt so bad making him go to school, the kid has had so many changes this past year. We moved 5 houses in 10months. He didn't see Paddy for 3 months. Now he is surrounded by a new language and dropped off with strangers for 6 hours a day. I feared the potty training would regress but thankfully, he has only had one poopy accident. I expected it would take a month but miraculously, with a lot of encouragement and Pooh stickers he just stopped crying at dropoff after a week and now, seems to almost rush into the school when we arrive. We get a daily newsletter with pictures of what the kids have done that day, and you could see in the beginning, Conor off in the corner looking out the window or seated on the teachers lap while the rest of the kids were on the floor listening to story time. They should have blacked out his eyes so I wouldn't realize that was my child being anti-social. And now, we see him playing with a hoola hoop or sitting on a chair by himself next to the kids on the floor (It seems Conor hates sitting on the floor!) He seems to be getting encouragement from the other older, more verbal children too. At home, he is singing clean up songs, "find a seat" song and another mysterious mealtime song which ends with Itadakimas! So, we are making progress and I will not be getting that stress ulcer.