Jamie's First School Party

Spending the day at school with Jamie was great. He was so proud to have me there. I know I should relish every moment of that because one day he will be embarrassed for Mom to show up at school. You will have to excuse me for the overabundance of pictures. I can't help myself. It's his first party at school and my first time spending the day with him at school. Whittling down which pictures to post was difficult enough.

I must admit that I was surprised there were no other parents there. No other parents sent any goodies (except the Valentine's cards the teacher asked the parents to send). If I hadn't brought goody bags and cupcakes, they really wouldn't have had a Valentine's Party. Sadly, his teacher was absent. Her little girl was sick. It seems that there were a lot of sick kids. Everywhere I went around the building I heard chatter of kids being sent home and kids being absent with illness. There were three children missing from Jamie's classroom and several coughing, which made me wonder how many of them were sick and just didn't have a tell tale fever.

Jamie was so excited to be able to go to school today. He was beaming as I got him dressed. He started begging to leave the house 45 minutes before we could possibly leave. I saved his new Ladies Man shirt just for the day. All the teachers said that it was the perfect shirt for him since he tends to gravitate toward female friends.

As we walked down the hallway at school, there was a snowman display in the hallway. I immediately spotted Jamie's. If you remember my post about his first homework assignment, this is the snowman he created from items he brought from home.

Outside the classroom door was another artistic masterpiece. This is a picture he made of Mommy, Daddy, and Jamie. I just wonder why he put hair on Daddy!!

When the children first arrive at school they are free to play whatever they would like. Jamie went to the writing center and drew "five", which is a tracing of his hand. The little brunette in the pink shirt standing behind his is the object of his first crush. All he's talked about the last few days is Kelly. When we put the treat bags together, he made hers special, taking great care to pick out the items that he thought Kelly would like best. "Kelly will love the pink hearts!"

The teachers called the children up one at a time to put Valentine's cards in each child's bag. Jamie had Cars cards with pencils. After all the bags were filled, the teachers stapled them shut and put them into their book bags to take home. Jamie hasn't even opened his bag yet. He was cranky when we got home. I'll get to that at the end.

The day got going with a little song. After the song was over the kids got to share their plans for the weekend with the class. When Jamie didn't know any weekend plans, the teacher suggested he hit me up for a trip to McDonald's. After the discussion was over the kids went to their tables for breakfast. They had biscuits and gravy with apple juice and milk.

Jamie really likes story time. While waiting for all the kids to be seated he read a Barney book on his own. Once all the kids gathered around the teacher, he moved in, excited to be read a story.

After story time the kids lined up and got their precious Trikes time. Apparently this activity is a hot commodity at the preschool due to the number of classrooms vs. the amount of time during the day. The teacher told me that Jamie really loves Trike time. It's one of his favorite activities. It was clear that he enjoyed it very much.

While the kids were riding trikes, one of the teachers set up the party. When we came in the tables were set. A grandparent had donated ice cream for the entire school, so the kids did get cake and ice cream.

Jamie loved his cupcake, but didn't eat much ice cream. He didn't eat well at any time this day. he refused lunch. I don't know if he's still feeling a bit under the weather of if he's just going through one of those spells. All the kids loved the cupcakes and the whole class thanked me for bring them.

At recess, Jamie started out by playing with Kelly. I pushed them both on the swings. Once the other children saw that they had a pusher, I ended up with a swing set full of kids to push. It was really nice.

After we had been outside for a little while, McKalah's class came out as well. Jamie's eyes always sparkle when he sees her. He smiled so big and yelled out, "Kalah!!" She spotted me and yelled out, "Aunt Laura!! What are you doing here?!" She ran to me and gave me a big hug, then she hugged Jamie and they played in the sand together. His teacher says he is always so happy to see McKalah. It's almost as if he hadn't seen her in years each time.

When we went inside the kids had another group time and sang. Their nap mats were prepared. After the singing was finished, each child went to their mats to sleep. The teacher says Jamie never sleeps. The only time he has ever taken his nap is the day he had the fever. I laid down with him for a few minutes and "softed" his back. I gave him his Eeyore. He went to sleep. I asked the teacher if they ever gave him his Eeyore at nap time and they said no. I told him he might do better if they did. He doesn't usually sleep without him. They said he is always good at nap time and stays quiet on his mat. After giving him some time to see if he will sleep, they usually give him letters and numbers to play with while he waits for nap to be over.

I got to pat and rub a few other kids backs, too. They are so sweet. There wasn't a whole lot of napping going on, though. I think only three of the children actually got any Z's.

When they awoke Jamie from nap, he was cranky. He cried. He kept going back to his mat and saying he was sleeping. He had a complete meltdown. He didn't even want a cookie with the other kids. The teacher recommended I go ahead and take him home so I could beat the buses. The buses block the parking lot for twenty to thirty minutes. The way the parking lot is made, once the buses arrive, if you are parked there you can not get out. I'm not sure if they really were concerned about my ability to exit or if they wanted to get my hysterical child on out of there. I know I wanted to get him out of there. I asked if he had meltdowns like this when I wasn't there and they said that he didn't.

Jamie fussed all the way home. He cried once we got home. He cried until I crawled into the bed with him and we both napped. I needed one as badly as he did since I didn't sleep any last night.

When Matthew got home the waterworks started again. He was so hysterical that we never could figure out what he wanted. On top of that I had to give him his medicine, which he hates. He screamed and cried that he didn't want it. He cringed as he slowly drank it. I thought he would never finish it. I tried to explain he should just gulp it down so it would be over with fast. He didn't listen.

Eventually he settled himself on the chaise with a blanket and Eeyore to watched television. We dared not mess with him for fear he would have another melt down. Matthew went to get something for dinner. Jamie put in his request that Daddy get him a Happy Meal. Daddy did.

After dinner Jamie played games on the computer and then he put himself to bed. When I came in to check on him he was sound asleep. I was going to watch a movie with my husband, but when I got back up front, he had gone to bed, too. I watched a little television alone and then crawled into bed with Jamie.