Thankful Tuesday: Preschool Bravery and Gut-Laughing

Yesterday was August’s first day at his new preschool. He was scared. And it is an afternoon program so he spent the morning mentally and emotionally terrified and I spent the morning trying to do everything in my power to take his mind off the severe anxiety. (I think he inherited his worried nature from his mother. No comment.)

When I left he was in tears. Then I went to drop off paperwork in the preschool’s office and I ended up crying in the arms of the sweet administrator (who I’m thinking I should invite to see a movie with me or something). She was very kind. I cried because she said, “August has been through a lot in the past few weeks.”

Then she said, “You have too…”

Oh, great. Now I’m going to snot all over your shirt even though all I wanted was drop off his Medical Release Form.

However, I picked up him up from school just as the rain had passed by and the sun was shining. And there he was on the playground playing and smiling. And we walked back to the car, August jumping in puddles and Brooksie whining to get out of his position in the carrier on my back. I said, “Can you believe it! God made you brave!”

August said, “Yeah!” And we thanked God right there walking down the sidewalk, for courage and big steps and new friends.

He picked pancakes for his First Day of School Dinner. That’s probably a bullet point on my Thankful List because they were made by the Mister and were absolutely delicious.

Also,

• Gut-laughing with my husband last night over ridiculous things. And our new rule that one night a week we can’t have our computers on our laps.
• Homemade pizza with old friends and five little boys Sunday night
• Being able to put the names of friends down on my son’s San Francisco emergency contacts form.
• The joke I made up in the car when August was freaking out about school, where we thought of all the crazy things his brother would say (from his 20 word vocabulary) if he were August’s preschool teacher. You had to be there. August laughed so hard he teared up. It was the greatest.
• Antibiotics
• Trader Joe’s dark chocolate (organic, purple wrapper, 73%)
• The encouragement I felt from your comments yesterday. Thanks friends.
• How much better I feel when I pick up the house
• Moonrise Kingdom being a fantastic movie/watching it with my husband on a Monday night
• The flowers in the vase in the living room that Chris brought me when I had that Sad Day last week
• The miracle of my early bedtime and early rising. I think I’m finally becoming a grown up.

What about you? What are you thankful for?