And then it all went downhill...

Abby was doing fantastic at school. She was excited to go and barely even gave a second glance when I left each day. I felt great knowing she was taking to school like a fish to water. Almost two weeks of straight happy Abby at pre-school and I was feeling like it was all smooth sailing from here.

Then last Friday happened. Let me start by saying I have zero clue what transpired to cause the shifting of gears in her brain. I'm still trying to work out the puzzle in my mind. I went to open the van door to let her out and I open it to see tears pouring down her face amidst croaky sobs of barely audible words. "Please don't leave me here! I don't want to go to school anymore!" I figured it had just been an off week with all the craziness going around at home and with the nasty cold we all caught. I had to leave her with her teacher during a stream of a gallon of tears and begging to not leave her. I stood up tall and walked out to my van without looking back in hopes of the storm blowing over quickly after I left. Turns out that her teacher had to hold her for 15 minutes before the waterworks stopped. I became a little concerned at this point.

Today was normal. Abby was happy as a lark and didn't say a single word about not going to school today. She grabbed her backpack and put her Hello Kitty shoes on with a smile and we headed off to school for what was looking to be a fresh start to the week. Then I opened the van door to two large brown cow eyes filled with unspilled tears and a quivering bottom lip that had somehow grown to three times it's natural size. "Please mommy. I don't want to go to school with these people." She walked into the class and the floodgates opened yet again. I had to finally leave her after "just one more hug" in the care of her teacher. As I climbed those stairs to leave, I peeked back to see my baby girl, arms stretched desperately to me over her teachers shoulder, screaming, "No! Just one more  hug! Just one more hug!!" I smiled and waved and told her I'd be back soon, but in my head I felt as though it would take all my power not to run back down those stairs and take her home with me. These are the moments when being a mom can be so hard. You want to comfort them when they are afraid or hurt, but you also know what is truly best for them and that sometimes letting them cry is the best thing you can do. I'm going to have a nice talk with her today and try to figure out what happened, but for now I'm just trying not to let it get me down too much. It's hard to see your baby cry and even harder when you just don't know why it's happening. I pray that Wednesday will be a smidgen better...for both of us.