Now, as the social worker puts it, “we sit tight and wait.” He said he will be in touch as soon as he hears anything from DCF. I’ll be posting here when we do get updates.

Jaden started school again today. He goes three days each week to the local elementary school for a pre-K class, then the rest of the week he’s at his pre-school in the next town. It ends up being a lot of driving for me. The school district won’t bus him to the next town, so after his morning with pre-K I have to drive him to his pre-school for the remainder of the day.

Last year he refused to get on the morning bus — we figured out after a month or so of me driving him into pre-K that he was afraid of the bus driver, an elderly man who happens to be a curmudgeon, in my opinion. I should have known when the transportation folks told me that “all of the younger kids love the bus driver” that they were setting me up for failure. Either that or having a good laugh at the other end of the line.

The point is that last year I had to drive him to and from pre-K, then drop him off at pre-school, then go to work. This year at least I just have to put him on the bus, then wait for the bus and drive him to pre-school, then go to work. It’s a little less driving intensive for me.

I could put him in a different pre-school in the afternoon (one that the school district will actually drive him to) but our options are limited, and he’s so comfortable with this pre-school after being there for two years already. I’d hate to have to move him. The less change we have in Jaden’s world, the better it is for all of us.

Here’s a picture of Jaden getting ready for his first day back at pre-K. When I took this picture I learned that my phone has a flash — who knew? — that’s why the reflective strip on Jaden’s jacket is glowing. By the way, he’s grinning from ear-to-ear because he thought it was cute that he was wearing his sneakers on his hands instead of his feet.

Do you love the long hair, or hate it?

On Monday he is supposed to start his five days per week schedule at school, but who knows whether or not he’ll be well enough to attend yet. I certainly hope so. It has been very difficult to get any work done while he’s home, and since he’s been home so much, well – need I say more?

Of course I have my usual guilt over sending him. But then I tell myself we do send him to a “school” and not just a run-of-the-mill daycare, and he is getting a lot out of it. They teach him a lot – they’ve even started to try to potty train him (good luck with that! hahaha). I know it’s good that he has contact on a regular basis with other kids his age – since right now at home it’s just us, or my parents, or Neville’s parents, and Jaden just doesn’t have the patience yet to talk about the weather, or American Idol, or the latest sports results. A friend of mine once said to me that she thinks sending her daughter to daycare makes her a better mother. So that means now that Jaden will be going to school for 5 days instead of 3, I should be 66.67% better as a mom, right? It’s nice to think that way.

The trip to get the coat was about 45 minutes from work, but on the way I had to pass the exit for Jaden’s daycare. I couldn’t pick him up yet because I couldn’t drag him to my second appointment that afternoon, and Neville wouldn’t be home from work for another few hours.

If you have ever felt homesick, you will have a good idea of how I felt as I drove past the exit for daycare. It was the oddest feeling in the world to me at that particular moment. I couldn’t understand how I was that sick about leaving Jaden in daycare for what would amount to another 90 minutes, maybe. He likes daycare now. He’s happy when I drop him off, and he’s happy when I pick him up. Of course he wants me to stay with him, but he has a great time all day anyway. I can see the excitement and pleasure in his face when I sneak a peek into the room he is in before I actually open the door and give away that I am there to pick him up. So I shouldn’t be getting sick over leaving him for another hour or so, right?

It just struck me as amazing, and it saddened me in the same way being homesick would sadden me. In a good way. Because the way I see it, I can’t be homesick unless I am missing someone I love, and using roundabout logic that means homesickness is a good thing– even though it feels like crap when you’re in the thick of it.