Go Ahead and Try, It's Not Going to Kill You

Today was Hobbes' first day of Chinese preschool. He is a little young to be starting, but the other option was to start him in January, right after the baby comes. We figured he only needed one major life change at once. To say I was worried about how he would do is an understatement. When I try to leave him in the nursery at church, he always cries pitifully, and though he stops crying, he starts up again as soon as he sees me. From what I know, that means he is just waiting until he feels safe to cry.

Our nursery is a very safe and friendly place, full of kids that he sees on a regular basis outside of Sunday mornings. The same woman works in there every Sunday, and the other volunteers and teens who help in there are people he loves outside of nursery. School, on the other hand, is full of people he doesn't know speaking another language. The only thing it has going for it is that Calvin is there. Last Spring, I tried to leave him there a couple of times while I was at a parents' committee meeting. Even with me in the building and Calvin right there to play with him, he came crying to me.

Needless to say, I was prepared for a scene when I dropped the boys off...and maybe a phone call later saying I needed to come calm a crying boy. I was so worried, in fact, the my husband had assured me we could pull Hobbes out if it wasn't working (a substantial financial loss). Imagine my surprise when I dropped him off this morning, said good-bye, and barely got an acknowledgment when I left. Not a single tear.

And when I picked him up this afternoon? He came running to me saying, "I didn't even die, Mommy! Not at all!" Well, I wasn't to worried about that...It sounds much more dramatic until you know what he was actually saying.

And me? I was able to enjoy a child-free morning catching up on some reading and work at a coffee shop and getting stuff done around the house. I don't think this situation is going to be too bad for my health, either.