Tuesday 29 January 2013

First day of kindy

Wow!  It's finally here!!!  My Little Big Fella started kindergarten this morning (the year before starting school) and he woke up SO excited!!!  We've been counting down to this day for about a month, and talking up how much fun he'll have and all of that.

Last week we had a "meet and greet" at the kindy to meet his teachers and classmates.  It was a fun hour and he was so enthusiastic afterwards!  (He decided to wear his Superman suit - he's on a major superhero thing at the moment)



Over the past couple of days I've labelled all of his kindy clothes, lunch box, "school" bag and so on.  And last night I made his lunch and packed it into his new lunchbox (that was a jigsaw puzzle if ever I've tried one!).

This morning I got up a little earlier than normal.  I wanted to make sure everything was ready and that it wasn't a stressful morning.

At 6:07 I heard someone moving about.  Then there was the telltale thumping run down the hallway and my Little Big Fella was in the kitchen asking if today was kindy day.  He was so excited he wanted to put on his backpack and go right then and there :-D


So we eventually got him in his new kindy clothes and took some photos for you all :-D


And then, all of a sudden, it was time to go!

Because of the weather around here lately, the Big Fella was home from work today (you know, it's kind of hard to drive a train when the track has been washed away!) so we all got to go together.

It was slightly organised chaos at the kindy, with kids and parents everywhere, trying to work out what they were supposed to be doing and signing kids in, and finding the lunch fridge and saying goodbyes.  The Little Big Fella headed straight for the sandpit and was quite happy, thank you very much!


But then all the kids had to go inside and sit down on the mat.  I took him inside and sat him down but he suddenly went all "shy".  I can understand though - he's never had to sit down on a mat before in his life, he didn't know anyone there, and Mummy was about to leave.  I quickly took him outside to give Daddy a hug and kiss goodbye, gave him a hug and kiss, popped him back on the mat and told him I'd stand at the door for a minute and then we'd go.

This was obviously my mistake.

He was fine until, after about a minute, I smiled, waved and blew him a kiss. Suddenly the lower lip trembled and his hands went over his eyes and he was crying.  He ran out and hugged me and I tried to tell him it would be okay.

Thankfully at that point one of the teachers came over and asked him if he'd like to help her get the paints ready for everyone.  And that was it!  He was off and so were we!

I've been waiting for kindy to start for months.  I love my son very much, but I've been hanging out for some time alone.

So imagine my surprise when I got about half way through the day and realised that I'd been feeling grief!  I nearly fell over the mop I'd been using to keep myself occupied!!!

Today is the first in a long series of letting go moments, and the realisation that one day my Little Big Fella won't need me was a tad overwhelming.  I guess especially so because I wasn't expecting to have any maudlin-style thoughts either.

Anyway, the day was filled with attempting to food shop in a half-empty store (more on that in another post), house cleaning, lunch and rejoicing in the return of the internet to our house.

Then, all of a sudden, it was time to go and pick the Little Big Fella up again!

When we got there he ran up and told me he'd had a good day, and I got to collect his first (of many, I'm guessing) kindy painting.  He even asked when he gets to go back to kindy, so it was obviously a good day.

It was quite hot today so we decided to go for a swim at the pool before coming home.  We had such a fun time playing together in the water and it was SO nice to be cool after such a hot day!

There was lots of laughter too, because the Little Big Fella was racing the Big Fella from me to the steps of the pool.  Regardless of what happened, the Little Big Fella declared, "I win!".  He even directed the Big Fella to swim toward me from the steps, before launching off me to the steps and claiming to win the race!

We ended up having an early dinner because we were all quite hungry.  The Little Big Fella had a shower and was in bed before it was even dark.  But he wasn't really tired yet.

Just then we got a phone call from one of his friends' mums, asking if we'd like to go to the park and have a play.

So we did!

We ended up having a play for almost two hours.  The sun was down and the lights were on and the boys still wanted to keep playing!  They're really good mates, and seem to have a similar approach to playtime :-)

When we got back home, the Big Fella informed us that his parents had been on Skype and desperately wanted to talk to the Little Big Fella about his first day of kindy.  So we quickly contacted them and had a chat before packing him off to bed.

I read him a couple of books and as he was laying down to sleep he told me a bit more about his day.  Apparently he'd read a book about dinosaurs and had been "teached" during rest time because he didn't have a sleep.

I feel so satisfied tonight.  My little boy is growing into an interesting, fun person and I'm awfully proud of him.

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