It's Official, Danny's a Preschooler

Danny ready to go and views of the new backpack

Danny First day of School and Danny ready for me to stop taking pictures


Today is Danny’s first day at school. He woke up at his normal early hour (a little later than this spring thanks to the sun rise being later) and we began our normal, or what will be our normal morning routine. We of course got the milks and coffee (they need milk to start the day and I surely need my coffee at 6am) and then headed up stairs. We had to shorten our skype time, but were able to connect with both sets of grandparents. Then it was downstairs again, where Danny helped me make pancake batter. Dustin wandered down with the smell of cooking pancakes, and we all had a great breakfast together. I of course need to highlight the fact that while Danny and I were mixing those pancakes together, Josh was getting into everything. I will not list it all, but I will leave you of the worst of it which was him on top of the dinning room table holding a steak knife leftover from yesterday. Thankgoodness for two things—I caught him just as he reached for the knife and second the knife, while considered a steak knife is barely sharper than a butter knife. So, needless to say Josh was not helping me in the stay calm and stress free that I was shooting for, but he definitely kept my mind off that Danny was heading off soon.

After breakfast we were able to get a quick call into my brother (this is our normal day to connect—unfortunately it was too late to talk with Ryan, but once we get the routine down, we can catch them earlier). I gathered up the hat and extra clothes that the school requires for us to bring for the kids. They cannot play outside without a hat on—with the weather here, this is a good rule. I then slathered Danny with sunscreen (another requirement before school and for outdoor play) and Danny got dressed. I took a couple pictures (maybe one too many—see Danny’s face on last picture), and then off we went.

We of course still made it too school early (but better than late). We went into Danny’s class and he put his bag on his hook and I placed his extra clothes in his cubicle. I placed his hat on his hook as well. I don’t think I even had the hat on the hook, before Danny was heading out the classroom towards the play area. (This is the first thing they do before welcome circle time). He already had a train car in his hands before I got over to where he was, I asked if he was okay if we left, and he sort of glanced up with a look like he was surprised we were still there. I got a little hug and we left him playing there. Kids were streaming in and his teacher was trying to engage Danny in talk while he played. I can say that I made it out the door before misting up, and all the way home before crying. Overall, a big success—thank you for all the prayers.

I ran into a German family that I met at the Meet the Teacher event. He has been here for a couple months, but his wife and kids just arrived. They were also facing their “first” first day of school. We talked about the misty eyes and that we were grateful to still have one at home to hug throughout the day. Their daughter is Danny’s age, but apparently his class is full at 11 students, so she will be in the younger class—at least they will meet at the play times and lunch. I also ran into Monica with her daughter Jule (pronounced Ula) (also from Germany) as they headed to the school. It will be nice to connect with these moms as well as the American moms as the school year goes on.

After calling my mom and crying, I gather up our stuff to head off to do our typical Monday grocery shopping. Even Josh looked sad as he looked at his brother’s empty car seat and gave me a look like what did you do with Danny. I reassured him that it was okay and that it was going to be just him and mom (okay--and Tom our driver too). I only got misty eyed one other time—when Tom handed me a cart and put Josh in the one he was pushing. I pushed in my empty cart trying not to make an emotional scene that no one around me would be able to understand. Thankfully, I was able to pull it together without any tears dropping and off we went.

It helped to focus on buying a pitcher to make the grape juice (like kool-aid—but a Chinese brand—we will let you know how that turns out) and look for what else we needed. Shopping can be so frustrating here—we were blessed that they had Josh’s diapers, but we could not find squirt bottles and some other common items. The best was at the end checking out. I had gotten a funnel, because I do not have one yet in our kitchen and I needed it to pour the oil we used for French fries back into the container. I did not notice that the funnel did not have a proper sku number. It had a hand written one. Well, basically after three people assisting and putting different numbers into the computer, she smiled at me and placed it under the counter. No funnel today. Got to love China. With all the assistance, you think someone could have resolved the issue, but not here, I have come to expect that this rarely happens.

Well, I am off to bake chocolate chip cookies for Danny to have when he gets home from his first day and make up that grape Chinese koolaid. (A tradition my mom always had that I want to pass down—plus I have been craving cookies myself). There is only an hour before we pick up Danny, this day has gone really quickly. I have to take advantage of Josh taking his nap—who knows what he would be doing while I baked if he was awake. :-)