Joey's first day of preschool this year was wonderful!
It makes such a difference to be facing the known instead of the unknown.
There were about 20 seconds of eyes welling up with tears at the realization that school was back in session but they were quickly whisked away with Mommy snuggles. Mommy snuggles still have the magic to cure all his woes.
He was sooo excited to go back to school!
He was so happy to see his teachers!
I loved seeing him run up to them and hug them.
He couldn't wait to show them his alien lunch box and he was sure to tell everyone that he was now four. He had a birthday over the summer :o).
He was confident, I was confident.
I had none of the worry and sadness I felt last year.
It was just good :o)
These pictures are blurry but I love them because they capture his emotion as we left for school.
Little four year old happiness.
He is in the front room this year, which we debated last year. I wanted to keep him in the back room, with the three and four year olds who are starting, one more year. According to age and where his birthday falls he really should be in the back room one more year. He had classmates last year who turned five in December, while Joey was still three and wouldn't turn four until the following August. He was the youngest one and now will be the youngest in the front room which is where kindergarten takes place. My concern is age and maturity, though he is very smart and learns extremely quickly, he will still be younger this year starting in the front room than many of the children who are starting in the back room. That's crazy. Mrs. Comerford said she thinks he will want to be in the front room since that is where his friends are and we should see how he handles it since academically it is where he belongs. We will play it little by little and all keeps tabs on the situation. It was clear that the final judgment call lies with Joe and myself so it really is ideal and I'm feeling great about it.
While all of this is important and stuff I want to remember, what struck me most today was the conversation Joey and I had on the way into school. We talked in the morning, at home, about the fact that he knew many things this year that he didn't know last year -- rules, friends, where the bathroom was, etc. -- and that there were new, younger children who would be at school who didn't know these things. We talked about how he imagined they might be feeling and ways he could show them kindness, help them feel more comfortable, and be a good example. We talked about how they might make many mistakes because they were just learning and how this year he should make fewer mistakes because now he understands what is expected of him.
All of this led to him recounting a time last year at school when he got in trouble for something and was punished at home by being sent to his room. He remembered it so clearly, but ended his story by saying, "But you still loved me that day."
To which Joey paused and then, out of the blue, said,
in the most sincere way possible,
in a quiet little voice from the back of the car
"Wow, Mommy .... you sound like you have God all around you."
Isn't my message to Joey God's message to us?
How does a four year old, with little spikey blond hair and a love of superheroes, see such things?
How does he make the connection so quickly?
It is impossible to explain what it feels like to hear your young child say things like this to you when you know he is not just repeating things he has been told. This is something that came from Joey's heart, not something we say to him that he is repeating back to us.
It is incredibly convicting.
He makes me increase my faith.
At four years old, he increases my thirty year old understanding of and belief in God.
Joey talks about God a lot with me. The conversations are very natural and almost always initiated by him. He wants to know just how big is the bed that God rested in on the seventh day and if our dog, Jake, is in a cage up in Heaven and if he isn't just how is he waiting for us. He has a pure belief and is a deep thinker which sounds so silly to say since he just turned four but he wonders about so many things I don't have answers for. He has many questions about Heaven, but ironically few questions about God, seemingly unlike the rest of us. They will come, I know.
But for now, it's like he is still so young and untouched by the world that the truth of it all remains untainted within him. He doesn't have to ask about God because he understands it -- God is all good things. God is love.
And still Joey is Joey.
He is so bright and so analytical and inquisitive but he is silly and goofy and energetic.
And so as I, with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, praised his understanding of what God is, I mentioned many things. I could tell by the look on his face in the rearview mirror that this conversation was very important to him and he was listening to every word I said.
I tried to choose my words carefully.
And then I said, "God loves us all very much because God is our Father in Heaven."
I try to expose him to sayings he will hear that may be difficult to make sense of so he can muddle through them before saying something crazy to a stranger or teacher who says something to him that he doesn't understand.
Joey has heard this many times, but oh. my. goodness. the look on his face!
In the midst of this sweet sincere conversation between us, he looked so appalled and perplexed like what does that mean as he tried to make sense of what I said.
He caught me looking at him and quickly corrected the look on his face like he knew maybe it wasn't appropriate in that circumstance.
I waited for him to ask me a question as he clearly tried to wrap his mind around something that is difficult to grasp.
It was clear. He was really trying to figure this one out.
And then he did --
But Mommy, who IS my Father-in-LAW?!
And that was the end of the conversation. :o)
This is our Joey at four :o)
