Back to School To Prove To Daddy I'm Not a Fool

The Erie County Fair in Buffalo means that it's the end of summer, shortly.

We have a busy weekend coming up. Our friends, Steve and Amanda, are finally tieing the knot after 11 years of being together. And they had graciously asked if Danny would be their ring bearer for the ceremony. We have his tuxedo, his purple tie and his purple chucks. His mohawk has been trimmed and ready to be stood up, and sprayed purple. We have the rehearsal and dinner on Friday, the big day on Saturday and the picnic hosted by the bride and groom on Sunday. Pictures to follow, of course.

The main reason for this blog post, as indicated by the title, is Danny is going to school. We have settled on the Pre-K 3 program at Catholic Academy of West Buffalo. He will be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8am to 11am.

It was an easy decison, but bittersweet of course. Danny is starting a new chapter in his life, and of course I'm emotional about it. He is not excited, but I think it's because he doesn't know what to be excited about. I'm definitely excited for him. And I'm excited that Liam will be getting some one on one time.

It's going to be tough, for me, getting up and out of the house by 7:30am to get him to school on time, but at least it's only 2 days a week. It'll be tougher, next year, when he'll be going 5 days a week.

The other thing that will be tough is I'm not so sure how Danny is going to manage going to school. I have a feeling I will be staying, at least the first day, or he's going to have a fit. He needs this because his socialization with adults other than family, and children other than Liam, is supremely limited. (One reason I chose Pre-K 3 over regular Pre-K.)

Which brings me to my 3rd worry. Danny is so suprememly socially underdeveloped. I am seriously hoping this will change, especially since he won't have someone to hide behind. We recently went to a family party, and there were lots of little children, all around. I found Danny, playing in the corner, by himself. I had to encourage him to play with the other children. Thankfully there was a little girl, who also struck me as very shy, and took Danny under her wing and tried to play with him, even though he was oblivious to her.

When I enrolled him in Pre-K 3, I was told I had the option of skipping Pre-K 3 and just going right to regular Pre-K. He is super smart. Knows all his colors and the alphabet and on a good day will count to forty for you. But the lack of socialization and the fact that his birthday is so late in the year (December), I decided to keep him back. So he will be the oldest (or one of the oldest) children in his class.

We only have a few more weeks to enjoy his freedom, but enjoy them, we will.