he
He insisted on the purple shoes and yellow sunnies. We decided to walk to day care (less than a km) without the pram (I guessed I mightn't enjoy coming home with an empty pram). He headed down the stairs and carried his backpack for a good 10 metres or so before handing it to me, the packhorse. He walked another 10 metres before asking to be carried! I spent half an hour there before heading off. He used the little toilets, washed his hands, chose a shelf for his bag, put his hat on, said 'hi' to his teachers, ignored the one child he already knows there, played with puzzles at the tables and trucks in the sand. When I left, he was completely absorbed in singing nursery rhymes and didn't respond when I kissed him and told him I was leaving. None of the anticipated moment-of-separation tears and trauma.
Later, the teachers reported that he remained happy and engaged all day - apart from sleep time (not a wink!). Their reflections in the 'Day Book' began like this: " We had a new friend start today. He had a great day with us and he had a big smile on his face the whole time."
He walked (almost) the whole way home.
me
After I said 'goodbye' to him in the morning, I grabbed a take-away chai for my walk home, wrote a HUGE 'to do' list and got started. Obviously the list was ridiculously ambitious thus I will probably be referring to the same list each Monday for the forseeable future.
