jude goes to preschool

Preschool has been an unequivocal success for Jude! He absolutely loves it, and the teachers continue to tell me that he obeys well and gets along with the other kiddos great. Jude was very excited about this choo-choo back pack! When I told him I wanted to take a photo of him on his first day of school, he immediately turned around so that I could get a picture of his back pack:

But what I wanted of course, was a photo of those sweet cheeks:

This is Jude's nap mat. I had some anxiety about his nap mat. I wanted to make sure it was big enough because he moves a lot during his sleep. I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to be super thin compared to the other kids', and that Jude would be comfortable on it. I wanted to get one with a little built in pillow because it made me sad to think of him not taking a nap with a pillow, and I wanted to custom make the cover myself because, well...it's my way of showing Jude that I love him even when he's away from me.

We bought the nap mat from a local Christian Education store (which is one of my favorite stores I've found here. The place has tons of great learning tools. It almost made me want to homeschool. Almost.). We bought the thickest one because again I was concerned about him being comfortable, and then I picked up this fabric from Ikea. I deliberated for no less than twenty minutes about which fabric to get. My favorites were dubbed "too girly" by Shawn, but I wasn't a huge fan of their childish prints. Don't worry, I bought all of the "girly" prints I love to use for Serwa Chic nursing covers.

Then I set to work making the cover. It only took me a couple of hours and was actually fun. I sewed on ribbons onto the cover with D rings so the mat can be easily carried. When I pick up Jude from school I'm trying to carry Cohen (in his carseat), the nap mat, a blanket, Jude's back pack, and Jude. I can slide Jude's blanket into the nap mat and hook it onto my finger making it more manageable.

And naturally, after all that worrying, his nap mat is heeeuge compared to the other kids'. It actually doesn't even fit in his little cubby. The teachers put his back pack and papers in the cubby and have to set his nap mat in front of the cubbies. No matter, it's pretty sweet looking. Perhaps that's just an excuse for me to make him a new one in the fall!

Jude hanging out the morning before preschool. My favorite memory of Jude getting ready for preschool is when he runs around the house with his backpack bouncing away on his back. I thought you might enjoy that memory, too:

Untitled from J Maurer on Vimeo.