He got it from his mama

It's funny to see what traits and characteristics your children get from each parent. For example, Gabriel's face could have been stolen from one of my baby pictures. There is no mistaking him as my child. Alas, he has also picked up my nail-biting, finger chewing ways and inability to sit still for long periods at a time. Yet he has Adrian's height, humor and propensity for making one stinky fart. And Jonas, that boy is all Adrian, down to the nose. I'm interested to see on which end of the personality spectrum he lands.

Today we have officially we made it through week one of preschool and it was anything but easy. In fact, it was quite the doozy for both of us. If there was one quality of Adrian's that I had hoped would be reproduced in Gabriel, it would be his ability to adjust to any situation. He is never at a loss for words and makes friends so easily. I swear he could make friends on a deserted island (although who knows if that friend would take form as a displaced volleyball or maybe a fallen coconut).

I, on the other hand, suffer from anxiety. Not so much that I need to medicate myself (although that might make it easier for me to ease into situations), but enough to where I feel very uncomfortable and will look for an excuse to a) leave early from a given situation, b) not go, c) text (or fake text) through given situation to appear as though I have so many better things to do. Which is why I've RSVP'd at least 6 times to events with the local mom's groups and have found 6 different reasons not to attend.

I digress. It has been very apparent through this experience that Gabriel suffers from a combination of my anxiety/nervousness and a serious case of the mama's boy syndrome. On his first day, he cried the. entire. time. There's nothing that makes you feel lower as a parent than when you show up after four hours, expecting to find your baby playing cheerfully on the playground when in fact he is standing next to the teacher holding her hand and wearing his backpack that contains his blankey while sobbing uncontrollably. They say he cried for me all day.

It literally took all of my effort not to demand a refund, stuff him in the car, and take him home, never to return to that place because he is too young/not ready/I'm not ready and can't handle change. But you know what? Although he had a hard time today getting there, he went. And then when I picked him up, he was fine. According to the teacher, it was a 75% better day than yesterday.

He'll be fine. It might be uncomfortable and hard and scary and nerve-wracking and I may or may not keep myself extremely busy so as not to think about it, but then one day, it won't be. And it will all be worth it because I think we'll both learn a thing or two.