Elena had her last day at St. Lukes last Tuesday. I was definitely a little sad when I picked her up. Lhee, one of her two main teachers there, was so sweet. She gave her lots of hugs and kisses as we were ready to depart. Of course, Elena just wondered why the heck she was being smothered, almost as if I could hear her thinking, “Dude, what’s gotten into you?? Can’t you see my mom’s here…I’ll see you tomorrow!” She has so enjoyed it there and become attached to her teachers that I knew if she had any idea she wouldn’t be back, she’d be pretty sad, too.

Getting our shoes on before we leave for the first day at St. Andrews.

It was all good though once Wednesday morning came and I was reminded how excited Ian has been to have Elena starting at “his” school (um, for like one more week). Arms were flapping as he promised us that he was going to look out for her and help show her the ropes at St. Andrews. Of course, everyone was more than welcoming and excited to have her as the four of us came in that morning. As usual these days, Ian ran into his room barely saying goodbye – as if we were embarrassing him already. (Does this really start at age 5?)

Ready to roll!

Jeff and I continued on down the hall to Elena’s new room. At first she was pretty psyched, settling right into some toy she found on the floor. Once we had kind of reviewed the basics, it was time to depart. You could see this disturbed look suddenly wash across her face when we said goodbye and she realized we were actually about to leave her “alone” there. Oh, wait for it, wait for it…yep, sure enough….

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

(Insert visual here of small toddler desperately grasping and clinging to whatever body part of ours she could get a hold of.)

Now it was as if I could hear her thinking, “Oh my God, what are you thinking??? They are going to kill me here!! Don’t you know it’s one big toddler conspiracy???” But being the sympathetic parents that we are, after one extra hug and kiss we were outta there. Already late for work, you know. Of course, by the time I picked her up that day she was running around like the happiest little kid on the planet. Not to mention that she had taken more than a two-hour nap on her floor mat, which I was kind of shocked about given that it was the first time she had ever slept outside of some sort of enclosure such as a crib, pack n’ play, that one night she spent in prison after being arrested for too much milk consumption, etc. 

The drop offs on Thursday, Friday and today have been similarly dramatic with her begging Jeff or myself not to go but again, all is apparently forgiven by the end of the day. She did seem a little off (that’s nice for incredibly whiney and ranging from mildly to majorly annoying) at home at the end of the week and over the weekend, which we figure is very likely related to the big change – though tonight she was in much better spirits.

With Transition #1 mostly behind us, now we are gearing up for the bigger transition that comes for Ian next week. His last day at St. Andrews is this Wednesday, followed by a visit and from his Nana who is coming in from Atlanta to help watch he and Elena (while St. Andrews is closed for a few days) before he hits the books for real next Wednesday. Luckily, we got a letter from the principal at Raleigh Park today with some details about the first day of school – so I was able to put his direct line and email in my phone. I figure I’ll limit what I like to call my “check in texts” to a few times a day. After all, I definitely don’t want to be one of those moms.

Ian assured us he'd show Elena the ropes on her first day at St. Andrews.