On My Mind

There are a number of things that are consuming my thoughts as of late.

First, I can't stop thinking about Britton starting first grade. I hardly even thought much at all about him starting kindergarten because we had so many other things going on that it just kind of snuck up on us. Today I registered him for school and it starts in less than 2 weeks. I keep wondering if he is nervous, if he is ready, how he's going to do, if he'll make friends, if he'll be good for his teacher, and all the other things a mom can think up to worry about. Even though he went to school last year, it was so different in China, so it feels like he is just barely starting--that I'm just barely sending him out into the world on his own. And I really don't know if I've prepared him well enough. I'm not so worried about academics as behavior. He has never been super good with people telling him what to do. So, it will be interesting to see. He seems to be struggling a bit at home lately and I wonder if he's anxious or nervous about school. He's been having major breakdowns and tantrums over what seems to me to be minor things. His reactions to things are what make me worried about him. Maybe it's just a phase. Or maybe he is stressed about all the changes in his life. Maybe he just needs more attention or love. Probably it's a mixture of all of it. I'm sure more attention and love can't hurt no matter what the underlying problem is. I just hope I can give him what he needs. Sometimes it seems that I do things that are so wrong for his personality.
And maybe I'm worrying over nothing. He'll probably adjust to school just fine. He hasn't expressed any concerns at all about it. In fact, he's only shown excitement. So, I should probably stop worrying or I might put fears into him that aren't already there.
On a funny side note, the other day I was reading something about fears so I asked Britton if there was anything that he was afraid of. He thought for a minute and then said yes. So, I asked him what it was and he said talking trees. I just about laughed out loud. I totally wasn't expecting that one. But, then he said he knew that there weren't really talking trees so he wasn't really afraid of them, but maybe he would be afraid of wolves and foxes. It was really cute.

Okay I ended up writing way more about Britton than I intended, so maybe that's about the only thing consuming my thoughts lately. So, we'll leave it at that.