the BIG day

Today was Augie's first day of preschool. Yes I know, back in the day it was referred to as 'Mother's Day Out', but I've been informed that this is an actual preschool program. Regardless of the title, for (hopefully) five hours a day, two days a week, our little guy will spend his days learning, playing, creating, snacking, and napping with a room full of other young toddlers.
  After an eventful open house where August climbed, fell, screamed, hit another kid, rushed the stage of a concert, and rode in a barrel train, I was rightly justified in being a bit apprehensive for the big day. It wasn't your typical separation anxiety that comes with preschool, but rather the 'please Lord don't let my son get kicked out of preschool' kind of fear.
  So we packed his lunch the night before, double-checked that we had everything on the list of requirements in his matching backpack, and charged the camera battery for the momentous morning ahead. After a meager breakfast of cereal and a partial banana, I wrestled August long enough to get him in my pre-arranged first day of school outfit. Naturally we planned a photo shoot at the front door. But of course by the time we made it out there, August was on to us. He wanted nothing to do with pausing for pictures, and was more than willing to walk himself to school if we didn't hurry up and load the car.
  Once I found an open spot in the parking lot and freed him from his seat, he swiftly pointed to the building to let me know that's where we needed to head. Once in the building we weaved ourselves through the nervous families until we made it to the room with the baby gate, at the end of the hall, where the screeching wails were resonating. I slowly lowered August down amongst the screamers where he subsequently took off towards every available toy he could find. I eventually figured out where to put all of his belongings, snapped a couple of pics, went over to unsuccessfully attempt to conjure a 'goodbye' from my busy little guy, and walked out the door. And snapped a few more pics.
  After a weirdly quiet, yet super productive morning I was more than ready to pick up my missing link. Apparently I was the least eager parent as there were only two stragglers remaining in the room. One happened to be comatose in the corner, and August was in the opposite end riding the rocking horse in silence with a glazed look over his eyes. Nope, he hadn't napped at all. Not that he didn't need it, he was beyond exhausted, but in typical August form he just couldn't shut it down.
  Besides not napping, he had a great report from his teachers. Sure he couldn't be bothered to sit down long enough to eat his lunch, but most importantly he didn't seem to have any hitting episodes and has been invited to return later in the week.
  Once home, I promptly placed him in his bed where he went down for two hours without a peep. I'm pretty sure he would have continued to sleep through the night had he not woken up in a ravenous state. So he finally at his lunch, insisted on watching Nemo on the ipad, and then went back to bed. I had planned on taking an 'after' first day of school picture, but I figured that we already had plenty of  sleeping baby in the crib shots.  The poor little guy has no idea what hit him today. All in all it was a great day, the only thing that would make it better is if he would nap at school like a normal toddler!

need to work on our bento system

catch me if you can!