My boys are growing up!

Cameron's first day at Montessori was a rousing success! I spent the morning feverishly preparing, while Cameron calmly repeated, "Is it time to go to Montessori now? How about now? Now?" His one concern was the bag of extra clothes I sent with his name on it.


Cameron: What are you doing?
Mommy: Putting extra clothes in this bag with your name on it.
Cameron: Why?
Mommy: So you have extra clothes at school in case . . . hhmmm, don't want to mention accidents . . . might cause anxiety . . . you get dirty.
Cameron: But what if someone takes them?
Mommy: No one would take them.
Cameron: But what if they do! What if they think they belong to them!
Mommy: I put your name on them so no one will think they belong to them.
Cameron: But what if someone takes them and I say they are mine and they say, "No, MY name is Cameron!"


And later, on the way to school,


Cameron: Well, when we get there, I'll have to put my extra shirt on.
Mommy: No, no, you can keep on the shirt you are wearing.
Cameron: But I don't want to get it dirty! Great. I avoid "accident" anxiety only to produce a neurotic fear of dirtiness in my 3-year-old!

And when I picked him up from school,

Mommy: How was your first day?
Cameron: They TOOK my extra clothes!
Mommy: Oh, the teacher took them out of your bag to keep them at school.
Cameron: But I was keeping them in my bag, and they TOOK them and I don't know WHERE!


Despite his obsession with the extra clothes, Cameron did awesome! He posed for the obligatory photos, although he did insist on livening up the boring poses I had in mind.

There were no tears at drop-off. I watched him for a while through the super cool and top secret one way mirror. It brought back memories of my own Montessori days to see Cameron watch intently as his teacher demonstrated proper nose-blowing and subsequent hand washing techniques. Cameron was ecstatic to find that the bathroom is equipped with a hand dryer that turns on automatically! When I picked him up, he told me about some of the kids in his class, about the boy who brought in a tooth he lost ("It was a teeny tiny tooth!"), about playing a matching game with airplanes and about the great sandbox. He also asked, "Why is Montessori so quick?" Guess the three hour day seems short to him, too!


In addition to Cameron going off to big boy school, Matthew turned three weeks old! Where does the time go? Oh, that's right . . . the time goes to changing diapers, feeding, supervising big brother, changing diapers again, feeding again, disciplining big brother, changing . . . I loved this photo of Cameron and Matthew -- look at Cameron's little hand on his chest. He is still bursting with pride at being a big brother! Although he did tell me that he planned to share big news at circle time -- not his new brother, but his new Batman toy. Well, a boy has to have priorities, right?