Carter's getting big!

So I was completely caught off guard last week when I discovered that aparently preschool registration season was in full swing. We intended to put Carter into preschool in the fall, for his last year before Kindergarden...but doing anything about this was FAR from my thoughts at the moment. I thought I had plenty of time to worry about finding a program for him, sometime in the next few months. Well I started noticing flyers and billboards giving notice that it was registration time. I called a couple of preschools to ask a few preliminary questions and they were already full for fall...yikes!! Suddenly I felt like I had about 2.3 seconds to figure out where he was going to preschool this fall, or he might not be able to go! I was able to arrange two tours/interviews and went armed with questions and fingers crossed. Carter and I went to the first one and loved what he saw! He immediately started asking me if I could drop him off there! I told him "no, hun, you can't start school until the fall." As we walked out to the parking lot from that first school's visit, Carter stopped, looked up at a tree and said "look Mom, the leaves are falling...it's fall!!" Smart cookie, eh?! We went to check out the second school (the one I ended up chosing) and he again so super excited at seeing all the kids and fun activities. The director took us around to look at the classrooms and we were supposed to just peek in the door and see what the students were doing. Well Carter walked right in and went and sat at a table full of kids and starting doing their actitivy like he totally belonged there!! I immediately told the director that I was sorry and started to walk in to grab him and she said "no, don't worry about it, let him stay for a few." So we chatted and Carter sat there for the longest time, visiting with the teacher and students and doing the counting activity with them. It was ADORABLE! I finally pried him away and we started to leave, paperwork for next fall in hand. Carter was tugging at me saying "Mom, please drop me off, I want to stay with my friends!!" and the director wispered "yanno, we just happened to have a student drop from our three year old class, it's two days a week, since he's obviously so ready for this environment, would you be interested in that spot to start him now instead of waiting for fall?" HAHA, so between Carter and the director, I got convinced to start our big boy in preschool! His first day was Monday and he was sooooo happy!

Here's a picture of us on the way, complete with new "big boy" hairdo!

Here he's posing, backpack on, in front of his preschool's playground before class.
And a pose at the classroom door...
This is one of the little things I already love about his school...the parents are greeted with a note like this each day when we pick our monkeys up.
And, to make a make the first day of school all the more special, it was also Valentine's Day...so here's a picture of Carter showing off all of his goodies and cards from his new friends!
So after two days, Carter absolutely loves going to school!! Of course the only bad thing about having school two days per week is that there are FIVE days he CAN'T go! "Moooooom?! Do I have school today??!!!!" :-)