A Disasterpiece

Yeah, so...um...today was the first day of art camp. And well, uh...it did not go well.

At all.

We showed up a few minutes before class started, we met a little girl named Grace and Easton played chase with another little girl named Annika. Good times. The class opened up and we headed inside. I sat Easton next to his new friends and I filled out a piece of paper with contact and emergency info and such. Easton complained that he wanted to "do something else" because he was done coloring his name tag already. I went to tell him bye and then he started to cry. I tried engaging him in other activities. Not working. Finally I took him over and introduced him to his teacher...she told me it was okay to leave and she took Easton.

You might be thinking, "Oh, I'm sure a lot of kids have trouble the first day." No. No, they didn't...just Easton. So much for raising a well-adjusted and secure child.

I could hear him carrying on inside the classroom and sort of see through the window that the teacher was having to carrying him around and such. Our friend Wee Laddie showed up and I told him that Easton was crying and could he go talk to him. Bless his heart, Wee Laddie marched right on in there, very brave. Didn't help Easton calm down at all, though. I hung out a little longer and apparently the teacher gave up (I don't blame her) and she came and dumped E in my arms saying, "Yeah, he just doesn't seem too into it" and she went back in the classroom.

Uhhhhh...now what?

Dalton and I were due down in Kindermusik, Easton wasn't about to go back in alone. So, I brought E down to Kindermusik with us. We got into the classroom and I asked Easton to sit quietly against the wall if he didn't want to be in his own class. But he started crying again and we had to leave before Kindermusik even started.

I decided I'd go see what my options were as far as refunds go. They had a lady come talk to me and she said I could stay with Easton in his Art Start class. So, that's what we opted to do. I took them back upstairs and gave Dalton to Wee Laddie's grandma who sweetly agreed to watch him even though it was so not her problem. Easton and I sat near Wee Laddie in the circle...we totally missed the super cool art project mosaic they'd done. But whatever. We were there and we were trying. I told Easton, "I'll be right back, I'm just going to give Dalton his paci." I got there and Dalton burst into tears at the sight of me so I had to take him back into Easton's classroom with us. Easton was somewhat willing to do what everyone else was doing, as long as he kept looking at me and he'd remember to put on his best pout. He told me he couldn't move his arms like a monkey because he was "still too sad."

As soon as his class ended we booked it back downstairs to do 15 minutes of Dalton's Kindermusik. The classroom has a glass wall where I could see Easton sitting in the lobby. We talked about how he's sit there and climb on the chairs and I'd wave at him while Dalton and I did music. But Easton only cried at the window. The Kindermusik teacher said I could bring E in but I was afraid he'd keep crying like before. But this time I just put him on the mat with me and D and he sat there mostly quietly.

What a mess.

My mom has volunteered to go with us next week and do music with Dalton and I think Jason is going to come another time. I'm not sure if Easton will adjust to solo class or not, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Preschool might be more of a nightmare than I realized. I'm so glad they do the "phase in" for preschool, but goodness! Today was rough...and when I think about how much money we're paying it annoys me even more.

I thought we'd prepared him so well, we'd talked about it. He acted excited about it. We stopped to play on Squiggles before class and you'd never have thought he was nervous about what was coming up:


Dalton either:


Or even just outside the classroom he was having fun and we continued to talk about what was gonna happen as he did the splits:


After Dalton was done with music Easton and Wee Laddie ran all around playing Diego and Alicia and having a grand ol' time. I kept wondering if Easton would have had such a hard time if Wee Laddie was there when we first went in the class. But probably not, I guess Easton is not as independent as I like to think he is. He does fine with Gramoo and Lauren, obviously. I guess this is a good first step towards some more independence. Let's hope it is, anyway.