Ch-Ch-Changes

Change can be tough on little people. Never has that been so apparent as in the last week.

Captain, as you may know, started preschool one day a week last fall. After the holidays, we upped that to 2 days a week.

I was ecstatic...2 mornings a week to not have to break up arguments, stop the throwing of Legos and the like at each other...2 mornings a week in which I could blast through many things like running around to clean bedrooms and bathrooms with only one little person following at my heels...

Well, last week, we were up early, Captain was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, moving at a normal pace rather than that of molasses (as so often happens when we have a specific time we have to be somewhere). We pulled up to the Church, unbuckled car seats, unloaded backpacks and children onto the parking lot, and walked into the building. All was well with our world until he realized that he was actually going to school. He was suddenly horrified and, very unlike himself, started crying that he didn't want to go, and that he needed me.

While there was the crazy-mom part of me that was pleased with this response (the boy practically ran into the room the first day of school after all!), I realized that this was NOT good.

I did my best to hug him, reassure him that I would back in just a short while, and that I loved him, and then gently but firmly push his little bum through the door! OY!!!

I assumed, after Thursday's all normal reaction, that we'd be fine today.

Not so much...we hadn't even made it into the door of the building when he started crying and dragging his heels.

Now, under doctor's orders, I am trying my darnedest to not lift the kids or things weighing more than about 30 pounds. That stinks, in case you haven't been there, done that...

So there I am, with a stuffy-nosed 2-year-old girl whimpering because she doesn't get to go to school yet, a 3 1/2-year-old boy sobbing and refusing to walk inside a building because he has to go to school, visibly pregnant...and there are full-grown adult men walking into the building for a meeting that starts at 9:30 walking around me, ignoring the fact that I am in need of assistance...finally, one of the other parents coming out just scooped up Captain Chaos, and said "Hey there Captain! Did you know that your friend Teegan is already in there waiting for you?". She held the door for me as I guided DG through the door, and we walked to class together.

He was a bit clingy as I was signing him in, but he was fine before we walked down the hall back to the car.

I thanked my friend profusely and she, very angrily, blasted the men that had been there and not offered any assistance whatsoever.

It was tragic and amusing all at the same time.

I was sort of shocked that no one had asked if they could help me, yet sort of understood at the same time...how many of these men had been in situations like this when their own children were small, that they would know what I needed help with...were they afraid that I'd be insulted or offended, or that I'd scream assault?

Needless to say, it was a bit eye-opening that Captain is still quite resistant to change, and that I need to start shaking things up a bit more at home, so that he knows that different is ok and while it might be a bit scary, it is ok to go through it...sometimes the things that are on the other side of change are more fun than where we currently are.