Officially Obsolete

I've already posted about my personal anxiety about Brody starting preschool, and to be perfectly honest, I've been just as scared for him.

To date, the longest Brody and I have ever been apart is 3 hours. Sad but true. So it comes as no surprise that I've been questioning how he's going to get along without me. How will he pull up his pants after using the potty? How will he open his yogurt container? Will his teacher use a calm voice with him since he is petrified of being yelled at? Will he follow directions? Can he walk in line??!! Will he remember that the spatula in the kitchen set is not a light saber and should not be used as a weapon??!!!??!!

We've been talking about how school is going to be and how I'm not allowed to come in and how he's going to have to do it "all by self." He assured me that he got it and he was going to be a big boy and not cry, but I wasn't entirely buying it.

This morning he was awake before I went in to get him up and happily got dressed and chatted away about going to school and playing on the playground. He told be he couldn't wait to eat lunch with all his "buddies" and he was excited to play with the kitchen set again. Even though he was clearly happy about heading to school, I still wasn't truly believing that there wasn't going to be a meltdown in our future.

By the time we pulled into the parking lot, I had mentally prepared myself for the worst.

Me: "Hey guys, I'm going to park the car and walk you both in."

Brody: "No walking in."

Me: "Brody, you have school today, we need to walk in."

Brody: "I don't want to walk in."

Great.

So I decided just to drop Molly off in the regular drop off line and then park and drag Brody kicking and screaming into the building.

I opened the door and Molly climbed out.

And so did Brody.

I was floored. And then it dawned on me. It wasn't that he didn't want to walk into school, he just didn't want to walk in with me!

I called to them as they walked away, "Wait for me at the door, I need to park the car!!!"

I parked quickly and raced to the building only to find that they were gone. Nowhere to be found. Then I spotted Molly all the way up the hall... without Brody. I called, "Where's your brother??!!"

"Oh," she said, "I dropped him off!"

I raced to Brody's classroom where his teacher was waiting by the door. She confirmed that Molly had indeed dropped him off and that he was happily in the room already playing.

In that moment I was completely torn... bust into the room to scoop him and give him a big hug goodbye or simply turn around and walk away.

I stood outside the door where he couldn't see me and poked my camera around the corner in order to take one last shot, confirming that he was indeed happily ensconced within. And without another word, I turned around and left my baby. No wave. No hug. No tears.

At pickup, I found him sitting happily talking with Molly and her friends.

This face says it all about how his first ever day of school went.

He is already talking about going back again tomorrow and I think he's going to be a little miffed when he finds out that he only gets to go twice a week. Hopefully each morning in our future will be just this easy and I will be able to continue my journey into complete obscurity.