My boy...

My little dude seems so much bigger now that he's three.  Maybe it's because he's in preschool now.  Maybe it's because the words are coming faster and clearer.  It could be his sudden burst of imaginative play, or the fact that his shoes are already outgrown, or that he's a little more independent every day.  Maybe it's really just my awareness of how time is moving so fast, and that my best efforts to slow things down don't seem to be working.  But my boy had his birthday, and his first day of school, and I had to take pictures to make sure I can remember how small he used to be, once upon a time...

The birthday party!  My boy loves balloons, and pizza, and carrot sticks.  He also loves Murray Wiggle, as evidenced by his shirt.

Me, showing off Bannon's gift to Jeffrey.  I wondered briefly if this shirt (which says, "Arrrgh!  Hands off me booty") would come in my size, then thought better of it.

My sweet little man, ready for his first day of school.  It felt so strange and wrong to put him in a room full of strangers and expect him to just get on with it.  I thought, having taught preschool for many years, that I'd be okay with it, but I was finally on the other side, approaching it as a parent instead of a teacher.  We both cried (I at least managed to pull away from the school before I did), and then Bannon and I went to lunch, where I drowned my sorrows in fish and chips and iced tea.

Looking much happier on his way to his second day of school, wearing the headband he had made the day before in class.  He calls it his hat, is quite proud of it, and still wears it around almost a full week after he made it.  That's got to be some kind of record for a preschool craft!  

Tomorrow will mark his fifth day of school, and every day seems a bit easier-just some whimpering (but no tears) at drop off today, and he clearly loves riding the bus home.  He seems to have picked up some new songs and dances at school, which he loves to do at home.  He's starting to learn the names of his classmates.  He's so big.  And I'm so proud.