Transition Trials

We had a pretty good weekend. I have pictures to share from our fossil hunting experience but I haven't uploaded them yet and at the moment, I want to share about our "transition trials." Just when Jay-R is comfortable with his routine of daycare/preschool M-W-F and Grandma's T-Th, his life is about to change. He starts kindergarten on Tuesday. In our town, our kindergarten is all day, every day. After kindergarten, he will take a bus to daycare until we are off work. He'll have homework, soccer practices starting, new faces to get used to, and new routines. He hasn't really talked about it much, and I wasn't sure what he was really thinking about everything. Friday night, he cried at bedtime for a long time. Finally, we let him sleep on a blanket on our bedroom floor. (Our bed is not big enough for a sleep kicking youngster). Today, we've had a couple of meltdown moments similar to those we experienced shortly after returning home from the Philippines although not as intense. He cried, wouldn't look at me, and then after about 5 minutes, flung himself around my neck and hugged me tight saying, "Mommy!" Earlier, he had taken the large Filipino flag a young volunteer at my work made and hid it in the corner of his room. When I asked him why he was hiding it, he said, "I don't want it." I know it's normal for him to want to fit in. I know he's uncertain about what to expect at kindergarten. Later, after the crying issue, he spotted a picture on our nightstand of the three of us on a chairlift in Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we are going over Labor Day weekend. He was really interested. He is intrigued by mountains. We looked at a photo album with him of our vacation to Tennessee in 2006 to show him some of the things he would see. The last page of the scrapbook is a picture of our van pulling the camper that our friends took as they followed us down the road. He pointed to it and said, "I'm in there." We told him "No, you were still at White Cross." And then later tonight, he talked about being a baby at White Cross and how they took care of him. This little boy has been through so many changes in his life. I'm sure the uncertainty of what to expect at kindergarten is causing some anxiety. We keep sharing about it and reassuring him. Ashleigh showed him a picture of his kindergarten teacher and he thought that was cool. So, this could be a rough week for us, but we'll get through it. Ashleigh starts middle school and is a little nervous about this, too. So, like I said, this could be a rough week for all of us but we'll get through! Oh, and I promise I will post those fossil hunting pictures later this week.