A week and a half into Tristan’s preschool experience, and I finally have the inclination to write about it.  Being sick can go stuff itself, by the way.

August 29th, four days after Tristan turned 3, was his first day of preschool.  Now, he doesn’t really have the language skills (I am guessing) for us to be able to tell him this kind of shit, or he’s like any other 3 year old and understands but is still scared.  Either way, it takes him a bit of time to get used to new things.  This was no exception.

I decided that I’d personally drop him off and pick him up for the first week – in my new Soccer Mom mobile, a Mazda 5 (thankfully, it is a very SMALL minivan/wagon thingie).  I figured that throwing him on a bus and saying, “Good luck!” before he knew what the hell was going on was not going to go over very well.  So I brought him to the school that is as physically far away as one can get while still being in the same district, and I learned where his classroom is, and I learned which doors he needs to enter and exit through.  The first couple of days were rough – he very obviously was distressed by the fact that mommy was leaving and he was not.  By the third day, he got the general routine down and separated with a few hugs.

He’s been showing off his love for letters and spelling (ah yes, a chip off the old female block.. bwahaha) in full force.  But his behavior last week outside of school was somewhat abysmal.  He started a brand new habit – hitting other children.  He also rekindled an older one – hitting me.  I spoke to his teacher(s) and they assured me that there’s not some unusual slugging going on amongst the kids in class.  Also, we all immediately got sick and that likely had a negative effect on his judgment aside from the “what the fuck is this routine and where is my old one?” factor.

This Tuesday (because Monday was a holiday) was his first bus trip.  He did not separate well, as this was a new introduction to the routine.  I was told that he entered the classroom in a decent enough mood.  By today, he looked a little bit dismayed to be put on the bus but there was no screaming.  He’s fairly obsessed with “The Wheels on the Bus” and likes being in moving vehicles so I assume he has at least a small amount of affinity for the bus by this point.

There are a few other kids in his class – not sure entirely how many, as the class is split into two sessions with half of the class arriving and leaving earlier.  There are 2 or 3 other high-functioning autistic kids for sure.  At least one of them has expressive language that seems better developed than Tristan’s, although I don’t think any of them obsesses over written language as he does.  And the ones we’ve met so far (the 2 or 3 – I am not sure because one of them has been out sick and we didn’t have the “so, what’s wrong with YOUR kid?” talk) are all girls.  He’s going to be quite experienced with the ladies.

And that is preschool in a nutshell.  Not much else of note, other than a) we got Tristan a new bed (it’s in the “upside down” position, not in the position shown in the image and b) we’re expecting a *gasp* sibling for Tristan in March.