First Day of Second Year at "School"

Today marks the first day of Riley's second year at school. I still vividly remember dropping him off for the first day of school last year and bawling my eyes out. To the point that it was actually embarrassing (thank goodness Riley was too young to be embarrassed). I have to admit, last night I didn't sleep well. All I could think about was his "trial" days in his new classroom and how his current teachers reported that he cried and cried and cried when they left him with the new teachers. Fearing the worst, I expected the new teachers to be monsters. As it turns out, they are both really sweet and fairly quiet ladies (wow, I hope they can handle my little ball of non-stop energy). Still, all I could think about as I tried to fall asleep was "what if he doesn't like them", "what if he misses Ms. Tamilia and Ms. Niga", "what if they let him get off of his routine", "what if he is scared", "what if he misses his little friends that have moved to a different classroom", and on and on and on.

Sweet little Riley, it was like he could sense my apprehension this morning as we were getting ready for school. He was especially happy and goofy. He drank all his milk (which he rarely does in the mornings anymore). When we got in the car, he kept saying "pool" over and over and over (he learned this word over the weekend - most likely as a result of me being able to take two Fridays in a row off of work and spending most of that time with him at the pool) - I was so proud. Best of all, though, was when I turned around to look at him in the back seat. He was blowing me kisses as if to say, "I love you, Mommy. This is no big deal, so quit be neurotic." Incidentally, he had never blown kisses before the drive this morning.

Dropping him off in his new classroom was no big deal. He clung to my legs and cried for a few seconds when one of his new teachers came to get him, but recovered quite quickly after she put him at the table to eat his breakfast. The official report from his teachers: not one tear after that for the rest of the day. The official report from Mommy: a few tears were shed on the drive to work after leaving him in his new classroom.

So far, in the official tally of coping with the first day of school, the score is Riley 2, Mommy 0. I wonder if I will have perfected this by the first day of kindergarten?