School begins

We came back from India completely refreshed and desperately missing Rian's grandparents. There was a look in his eye (my interpretation of course) that said I want more people to play with. The timing was right, and we started Rian's school on 3 Jan, 3 days short of his two-and-a-half year bday. He's going for 3 hrs in the morning, from 8:45am to 11:45am. Drop-off is at 8:30am.

The first day, kids were shuttled away from us without a chance to say Goodbye, so there were no tears, just surprise and wonder about this new place called "school" which Rian always wanted to go to. Part of this build up of anticipation about school was his fascination with school buses. Everywhere Rian saw a yellow school bus, even in India, he'd scream out "You see big big yellow school bus". He was under the impression that going to school means getting a wonderful ride in the yellow bus WITH MOMMY AND DADDY or atleast WITH CELY. Although Amit prepared Rian for school with the facts that mommy and daddy will not be there, Rian had no clue what to expect. I have no idea how his first day was, except I know he had cried. He was very happy to be back home and started a new slogan of "Rian does not want to go to school. School is bad".

Day 2, 3, and 4 were the worst times. Rian cried at home from the moment he woke up, with the knowledge that he will be shuttled off to school soon, and wouldn't stop crying till we reached school. The teachers had to tear him away from me and he'd be sobbing as they carried him in. Teachers told me he settled down quickly once inside though, so that was a relief. Lots of positive encouragement from Amit, good friendly teachers, and sending reminders of school work home (his painting and crayon work), and having a bribe for him waiting after school (his toy cars from India, given out one a day) did the trick slowly for Rian. Thursday was the worst with Rian throwing up everything he had eaten, just before we loaded him into the car. All clothes had to be changed, and DADDY'S clothes also had to be changed. Friday improved things though, and Rian actually said "Good morning" to the teacher.

First few days, Rian refused to talk about what happens in school. Now a few of our questions get answered by the kid who's turning into a joker:

Q. What did you drink in school?
A. School juice
Q. What did you eat in school?
A. School meena
Q. Was school meena big?
A. Small
Q. Did you eat "school meena" with your hands or with a fork?
A. With a fork

Who knows what is true :-) but we enjoy asking him about his "school meena" all the same. Into the second week now, I'm trying to balance my morning schedule. The weekend seems to have left me with a half an hr lag, and we've been reaching at 9am instead of 8:30am now. Hope practice makes perfect. Rian's also started a bit of defiant behavior wrt food and water in the morning. Hope he eats his "home meena" properly. Let's see how that goes now. Wish us luck!