Some Days are Better than Others

I showed this picture to Peyton today from earlier this morning.   "Who's this?" I ask.  "Me."  he responds.  "What are you doing?"   "Crying."   "Why are you crying?"  "Because I don't like school anymore!".  

Yep, that's pretty much our conversation every.single.Tuesday.and.Thursday!  And some days in between.   I am really hoping that his attitude towards school changes before next fall.  Because...um....he will be going everyday!  We just don't need to let him know that piece of information yet.  But it really, really, REALLY hurts my heart to see him upset. 

Some days he takes going to school better than other days. Some days there are tears and some days there not. But I have to admit, it is so much better with just dealing with the tears than it was a couple of months ago when I had to actually pry his little arms from around our deck's leg poley thing.  And when I had to chase him back and forth in the playroom to catch him to get him out the door as he kicked and screamed in protest.  AND those days when I did get him to school and he would hold his arms out to me or grab my neck and refused to let go until I made him.  THOSE were the bad days that left me in tears and actually tore my stomach up from the stress of it all.  But those days are over and we are just dealing with an hour of crying and my usually talks with him. 

 "It's just three hours Peyton and that's it.  That's not long at all."

"It's just three hours and that's it?" 

"Yes baby, three hours and I will be there to pick you up." 

"You promise?" 

"Yes, baby, I promise, I will pick you up in THREE HOURS."   Now repeat this conversation like 15 more times.

We have this tearful conversation over and over the whole hour before school, the walk to school, walking into school and as I say goodbye.  Ms. Deborah even caught on to it all because I heard her one day say to him as I was walking down the hall to leave:

"It's okay Peyton, how many hours before you go home?" 

"Three hours."  I hear Peyton respond.  

"Yes that's right, only three hours." 

So funny, but I will have that same conversation a thousand more times if it makes my little guy feel a little better about school before he bravely walks through the door.  And I hope he does feel better about school relatively soon because as I said, I HATE seeing him upset.