Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Dylan's first day without Brandon

This morning Russ & I decided that Dylan should be dropped off at preschool alone, meaning that I wasn't going to bring Owen or Brandon along for the ride. As soon as Dylan and I drive away from the house, Deets tells me that Brandon is his best friend. My eyes welled up, and I hadn't even left my own street!!! Dylan wants to go over the speed bumps on the way to school. We call it the "bumpety bump" way. So we're going over the bumpety bumps and D says he wants to say all the bumpety bumps. I tell him that's fine. He usually has to take turns with Brandon. I think he realizes that something just isn't quite right with the morning. We get to school and D asks over and over and over where Brandon is. I keep telling him that Brandon is going to his new school, that Brandon stayed home, that Brandon is at home getting ready for school. I swear he kept asking the question thinking he was eventually going to hear the answer he was hoping for. Once he's walking up to the door he breaks down crying saying, "I need Brandon." He's crying in preschool and won't stop. I'm barely holding it together, and I just about lost it when a teacher gave me a hug. I just wanted to grab Deets in my arms and cry with him. Instead, I forced him to go through our regular morning routine. We put his lunchbox and backpack away. Then we got out a mat and picked a "job." Today it was stacking wooden beads on a stick. When it was time for me to leave, I told Deets to meet me at the goodbye window for hugs and kisses. We said our goodbye tear free, and Dylan didn't even wait around for me to get in the car. He was off and running back to the toys. Thank goodness!

It was an extra special treat to have the whole family come to pick him up at the end of the day. Dylan was excited to have Mommy and Daddy watch him ride one of the bikes. Owen was excited to play on the little slides. And Brandon had fun playing with all his old friends that he had to leave behind.

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