School Mum?

Today was Ben and Maddies first official day as Kindy-kids! From the second they woke up this morning, Ben was asking "School? ....School, Mummy, school?" .. I kept telling him that yes, after lunch would be school. By the time 9.30am had arrived he wanted lunch .... no doubt that in his mind if he could just make lunch hurry up, then school would follow. By 10am he must have asked at least 400 times if it was time for school and by 11am I wanted to gag him. Don't get me wrong here ....it was wonderful to see him so excited, but the average person can only here the S word so many times in a morning before it starts to wear a bit thin. I was trying really hard to stay pleasant and up-beat, but it was taking some major effort. I explained every way that I could think of that we couldn't leave until the clock said 12.15, and it was getting me no-where. I gave them an early lunch and we headed out to the backyard to look for distractions. After 10 mins of watching birds, squealing at the huge ugly slugs and picking tomatoes and peppers, he was done. "School Mummy, School?".

*deep breath .... big smile*.....Soon, honey, soon!

We came back inside to get cleaned up so we could leave ... I figured he'd want to change his shirt. Ben is a fanatic about his appearance ...we're talking lotion, gel, body wash, ..the works.

I just realised I need to detour here for a second in order to get to what happened next....

He's very particular about his clothing, and for the last 2 months he's been telling me that he needs a dinosaur t-shirt in order to start school. I've kept putting it off and putting it off, thinking that it might just go away. Well, yesterday he was getting really anxious that school was tomorrow, and we still didnt have a dinosaur t-shirt. I'd been keeping my eye out for one without any luck, but figured we'd hit the stores just to keep him happy. The last thing I wanted today was a meltdown all because the coveted dinosaur t-shirt was missing. We lucked out and found one. I don't love it ...its got this super-ugly dinosaur on the front baring his teeth and looking really mean. Ben was just happy that it had a dinosaur, so that worked for me. $12 later we left the store, with the angry dinosaur t-shirt safely tucked in a bag in Bens hand. We spent ages finding that t-shirt, and I was seriously thinking for a while there that we were going to have to head to the mall (the mall for me being most peoples equivalent of having sharp objects driven into their skull with a blunt object). He was happy, I was happy.

Ok, back to today...

I figured he'd want to get changed into this most sought-after, much talked about t-shirt, and he didnt' want to wear it!!!!! I asked why not .... he said the dinosaur was yucky.

Yeah, well its a dinosaur pal, and you ARE wearing it. And you're going to love wearing it. Something in my tone of voice must have gotten thru, because he didn't argue. He even found a positive .... Its BLUE ... Mums favourite colour. Yup, sure is! He put it on, and off we went.

We arrived at the school and both him and Maddie were good as gold. We were earlier than some of the other kids and the teacher had them drawing pictures of whatever they wanted while they waited on the rest of the class. Ben chose to draw Mummy and Daddy. Maddie had made quite an impression on a little girl at orientation, Chloe, who had jumped seats to sit beside Maddie the second we arrived. Chloe opted to draw Maddie, and told the teacher Maddie was her best friend. Maddie was quick to reciprocate and drew Chloe ...and told the teacher Chloe was her best friend. (ever since Maddie was 2 years old shes wanted to go to school to make friends ...it seems shes not wasting any time!). Figuring now was a good time to go, I told first Maddie, and then Ben, that it was time....

Maddie was fine with that but Ben wanted me to stay. (this coming from the kid who asked me 600-plus times so far today if it was time for school!) I gave it another 5 minutes and then told him that I really did have to go ...We'd talked about this, right down to the bus ride home and he'd been fine. I reassured him that he would be happy and safe with teacher, and that I would be there waiting when he got home..

His response to that .... "BYE MUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We survived the first day! He came home exhausted but happy. Maddie said her favourite part of the whole day was the bus ride. Ben agreed. He's keen to go again tomorrow, but only if he can ride the bus home .....which is definitely a good thing.

I dont think I'm really going to get a feel for what its like to have no kids at home until next week. Tomorrow I work right after they go to kindy, and then of course its the weekend. I know that Saturday will be a struggle with Ben as more than likely he's going to wonder why there's no school. I think next week will be awesome... a full week of school and an opportunity to get into a routine thats been sorely lacking since school got out in June. All of the kids are struggling with going to bed early now that summer is over, but I figure by next week they'll all be tired enough that it wont matter.

Today was a good day.