Hyrum Moving On part 2: The Adventure Ahead

Tomorrow is a big day for our little guy.
"Therefore it's a big day for us," says Joy. [As always, Joy is in quote marks since Derrill does the typing.]

Tomorrow we all start school. Caroline Elementary preschool.
"And we are a little nervous."

This was not what we had planned three years ago. Hy was going to stay and be home-schooled by his mommy who has a degree in elementary education. It sounded so nice.

But that's not what Hy needs.
"Since he was 18 months, we've been pretty convinced that preschool would be in Hyrum's future."
He's a very bright kid, as you've no doubt heard us regale you often. He counted to 104 with me the other day. He reads half a dozen words at least. He doodles letters and today started practicing how to properly write them. One of his toys asked him to do an addition problem, and he solved it. He has even begun trying to imitate my theatrical dialects (since I started doing Mario and Luigi).
"He gets slightly unintelligible when he tries."

He doesn't need school for the academics. He needs the sociability. Caroline looks like it's going to be a great hit. We visited the school around the end of October and Hy fell in love. He was excited to be there and play with their toys. The kids were nice and friendly and welcoming. The teacher comes extremely highly recommended. When we left, he cried that he wanted to go back.

"We've taken him to the playground a few times at the school, and he's really enjoyed it."
"When I went in with him to pick up a packet of materials from the teacher, he just cried and cried because he watned to play with the toys in the classroom, and I said no you can do that later, but it was really hard to get him out of the classroom."


In preparing him for the big day, he has expressed only one concern: who would feed him? He'll have breakfast and lunch there - and if they can get him to eat anything, all power to them! He doesn't usually eat for babysitters, so it may take some getting used to.
He got a Spiderman backpack and Toy Story thermoses for Christmas, which he was excited to drink out of at once - even empty!
Actually, tonight we did get his first 'I dunno' moment. Mommy offered to play a three-in-a-row game with him on the computer after school [Thanks, Pop!]. He then said, "I don't want to go to school. I want to stay home and play with Mommy." I managed to convince him that working at school was a prerequisite to Mommy being willing to play.

Otherwise he is very happy to be going, excited, talking to people about it. We'll both be dropping him off tomorrow morning early, then going to feed some friends' chickens while they enjoy vacation; Joy will drop me off at school and return to check on him briefly.

"It's just feeling more real. Part of me doesn't know how to feel. I'm still kind of confused about whether I should want him to go or not. I feel like it's right, so he's going to go. I guess it would help if I wanted him to. I could just let myself feel happy about it and not sad... I want him to have all the good experiences there, but I want to avoid all the bad ones."

"I don't get to choose that."

"I couldn't do it if I didn't think it was the right thing to do. I still doubt myself sometimes. But Derrill tries to encourage me. He's a nice husband. I don't want anything more than to be a Good Mommy."

We've both cried at various points. "I used to cry every time I thought about it until we went and saw the Caroline school and had a really strong feeling that he would be loved there and it would be okay and saw how much he loved being there in the classroom. But I haven't cried like that - y'know, frequently - but I did cry when I got my father's blessing and when I read about tender mercies in Mosiah 28:7 today." Yeah, that scripture was perfect. "It was the first one I read today - just reading my scriptures like normal.

It would be really easy to sit back and count all the things that could be a problem for him. I try really hard not to.
"Good job."
Like... just kidding.
"Bad list."
We got pictures of the children in the class and had Hyrum review their pictures and names several times. "He doesn't know all their names yet, but I haven't pestered him about it every day, y'know." At least they won't be strangers. "I never did the matching game I wanted to."

"We haven't necessarily done everything we wanted to to help him transition. And preparation time is at an end and the time for going to school is here. Yay for school."

"We know our son is ready even if we're not. I'm still not ready, but I'm thankful he'll get the opportunity."
The opportunity to go to infinity.... and beyond! "With someone other than Buzz and Mario" who will not be accompanying him. He's already been warned of that. "He said that a few times today - 'Mario no go to school.' No, he will not."

"He grew up so much at Pop and Boo's." That he did, though that's another post. "I just have the feeling that he's going to come home from school some days and I'll say, 'Where did this kid come from?'" Given how much of his growth has been in bursts and spurts, that's a very real prediction.