Holy moly, Sam is actually social

We went to my  mother's house last night.  For no real reason, I wanted to show off the new van, and thought I'd nag Mandi into cutting my hair (because I was ready to take the scissors to it myself, and I knew she'd hate that) and Samilicious Boy was ... just freaking awesome.

Sam has been somewhat challenging for me at times, because he's always been so incredibly introverted.  He just flat out didn't like people.  He didn't like talking to them, didn't like associating with them.  He liked to be at home, with me, or with Marc, and that was it.  We'd go to someone's house and eventually (usually after an hour or so), he'd relax a little and start playing, but more often than not, he'd refuse to talk to adults.

But last night - it was like he was a different kid.  No, it was like he was the kid he is at home when it's just us.  Very talkative and sweet and funny.  It was such a lovely feeling, it was like he was finally breaking out of his shell and everyone else got to see this great, awesome little boy.  I was so happy.

School is going so much better.  I had a long talk with the principal, and we've changed a couple of things.  Number one - I don't drop off anymore.  Or rather, I still totally drop off, but the principal comes and gets him out of the car and Jessie walks him into school.  The principal is out there every morning anyway, and we time it so we get there just before the bell rings so she's available to help get him away from the car.  And major, major kudos to Miss Jessica - because she holds his hand and walks him to his class each morning.  I LOVE this.  It really, really makes me so happy to see her being so responsible and caring, and to see how much he loves and trusts her.  We also instituted a "token" system - where he gets a token for going in without crying, a token for sitting with the group and listening, etc.

It's odd, because other than the drop off, he's perfect.  He's well behaved, his teacher told me the other day that he was just such a sweet, sweet boy.  He's interacting and participating and playing with the other kids - he just freaking hates leaving me.