And the Award Goes To...

Today I decided to leave Judah a little quicker when dropping him off at preschool. (The past few days I'd stay for 15-20 min.) It didn't go well at all.

After warning him that I would leave after 2 minutes and reading him a story, I promptly carried through with my words and moved toward the door. Judah was devastated--tears, screaming, clinging to me like a monkey clip-thingy, the works.

Instantly I regretted the decision to leave so quickly--obviously he wasn't ready for it. But there was no turning back now. I had to show Judah I say what I mean and I mean what I say. Besides, the preschool teacher was glaring at me and totally judging.

And so I left.

Poor Judah had giant tears streaming down his crumpled face, screaming like a torture victim. I felt bad, but honestly, not that bad. He was like this when he started daycare and he would probably be fine after 5-10 minutes. But still, it never feels good to see your kid completely fall apart because he needs you and you are LEAVING him.

This week of transitioning to a new school has been pretty tough on Judah. Always the picky eater, he never ate his lunches and had trouble going to the potty by himself. His teachers assumed he could do everything on his own but he needed help pulling his pants off (and didn't get the help in time resulting in several pee accidents).

On his second day the teacher reported that Judah cried a little during lunch. When asked why, he told her "I miss my mommy."

Another day when the spouse went to pick up Judah he was sitting off to the side on the benches, all by himself. The teachers explained that he didn't want to play with the other kids and just wanted to "wait for my mommy to pick me up."

Loner boy on the benches by himself.  At least he didn't wet his pants (again).

With all those images playing in my head, I drove home with a heavy heart and proceeded to put Noah down for a nap. Noah, going through some bad sleep issues of his own, proceeded to scream his ever-loving head off for 45 minutes while I "nap-trained" him, at which point I totally felt like I won the Mother of the Year Award.

Oh yeah, with all the ear-piercing screaming and crying today, I'd say it's in the bag.