The Tapler Ohana: Big Boy School

It's Official....Dean is no longer a baby! He started preschool on Monday at the Children's Garden in Kihei. And he LOVED it!! He'll be attending 2 days/week (Monday & Wednesday) for now. I'd like him to go 3 days/week, but it's expensive so 2 days will work!

We got up early and got Dean dressed in some "Play Clothes" (because they spend A LOT of time outside at this school - even aside from the standard playtime, some of the curriculum stuff like art, etc is done outside), loaded up his new Backpack - which Dean keeps calling a "Rescue Pack" - thanks to Diego - his current favorite cartoon character (thank goodness it's no longer whiny Caillou!!) and matching lunch box and headed to Big Boy School. Dean was excited because this is the school where his BFF Charlie attends (even though Charlie will be a "Turtle" this year and Dean is only a "Roly Poly" AND they'll be going on different days) and Dean seems to think that if Charlie goes there, that means Charlie's big brother Sam (Dean's idol) will be there. Anyway, we got to school and Dean met his teacher, Miss Lauren. He turned his head away for about 2 seconds, then decided the place looked like fun and jumped right in!! We went into his classroom and I showed him where his cubby was - he was pretty excited about having his own basket with his name on it (He's REALLY into having his name on EVERYTHING these days and every time he sees his name, he has to spell it and say it - "D-E-A-N, Dean"). We put his stuff & his lunchbox in his cubby, put the morning and afternoon snacks (we have to provide all food for the day) in their proper place, and showed him where his water bottle would be. He took his slippers off, stuffed them in the cubby, said "bye Mom" and ran outside to play. He never even looked back at me!!!

I picked him up at the end of the day and the teacher said he did great - he cried a little at naptime (we were worried about that because Dean still uses a binky at night and at naptime at home), but not for very long and did fall asleep and slept for almost 2 hours. He peed in the potty twice and the little message board at the end of the day said "Dean enjoyed riding the tricycle around the track". When I went to pick him up, he wouldn't even look at me. As soon as he saw me, he ran and hid and said "No Mommy, Dean playing. Dean school. Go back over there" (he says "go back over there" when he wants me to go away). I literally had to carry him out of there kicking and screaming.

But then we went and got an ice cream to celebrate his first day of school and all was good! He's looking forward to going back tomorrow!! Here are a few pics (he really wasn't very cooperative with picture taking)...

All ready to go...