Success!

If you're stopping by from the Ultimate Blog Party 2010, here's my party post!

We survived Kindergarten Round-Up!  I am thrilled with the way it went last night and so very proud of Milo! 

You see, he can be kind of hesitant in unfamiliar situations.  Like the first week of preschool when he cried every time I dropped him off?  Yeah, like that.  In fact, when we talked about how the night was going to go (all together in the gym, then kids got with teachers, then kids come back from teachers) he flat out told me that he "didn't want to leave me and would be shy if he had to."

I patiently told him that he was going to be fine, that his friend L. was going to be there and she would love to sit by him, that all they would do is go play for a bit and have a snack, etc.  And he was still balking.

On our drive into town, he sat alert and silent in his car seat, his hands tightly clasped in his lap.  He looked very, very nervous.  He said he was nervous.  This made me nervous, though I tried not to show it.

We came in practically at the same time as L. and her family, so we sat near them in the gym.  Milo and L. chatted a bit until the principal came in with an introduction.  After introducing all of the kindergarten teachers, he dismissed the kids.

This was it,  I was fully prepared to have to nudge my little buddy into going, to pry his clinging fingers from my hand and hand him over to the teacher, apologizing profusely and reconsidering our decision to send him to Kindergarten even though he'll be young in his class.  I turned to him and...

He was gone.  He was skipping happily to the outstretched hand of the first teacher in line.  He called over his shoulder to his friend, "C.mon, L.!  Let's go to Kindergarten!"  She followed and he left the room at the head of the line, smiling from ear to ear.

I looked at Scott and saw some of the same amazement reflected.  Did he just go away willingly?  Happily?  Eagerly?  And first in line?

After the presentation by the principal (who thought he was doing stand-up comedy), school secretary, and school counselor, the kids returned.  Milo came back beaming with a paper sack full of stuff from the evening.  "Mom, dad, we talked about bugs!  See, I made bug shapes and colored them.  This one is a spider, see all of his legs?  Then I put stickers on this page..."  He went on and on and on.  While he was explaining this, the teacher whom he followed approached us and told us how excited she was to have Milo in Kindergarten next year.

Scott teasingly said, "Wow -- you must have talked a lot about Star Wars to get him to talk so much!"

She smiled and shook her head, "No!  He was eager to participate and excited to learn.  He answered all of our questions cheerfully and was just charming!"  I think my jaw bruised my knees when it fell into my lap.  Mr. "I'm going to be shy" was confident and charming?  Yay, Milo!

As we left, he told us, "I thought I was going to be scared, but it was fun!  I like Kindergarten!"