One giant step for a small man.

Jack is excited about going back to school. He loved school nursery last year and misses spending each day with his friends. We've met his teacher. We've got his uniform, yesterday afternoon through no fault of our own... We've got everything taken care of and ready to go.

As the first day of school approached it became more and more part of Jack's daily conversation. It seemed that everyone he spoke to wanted to talk to him about school. While at the bank, where Nanny works, yesterday one of the tellers recognized him and asked about the big day. Jack proudly stated that he was in the big kids class this year and they don't have to wear a tie.

He has started to get nervous about it the last few days, he's been quite agitated and had a few complaints about weird feelings in his tummy. His class is made up mostly of children that he already knows but it's still a whole new world for him. Knowing that there are only a few 'new' kids in his class, he's been charged with meeting, and making feel welcome, at least one new person today.


So here we go, this morning I dressed him up in his new school uniform, tie and all, and walked him up. The first thing we did was bump into Grace, a friend from last year, this put him at ease I think. We walked past the nursery entrance on the way in, Jack stopped for a moment and had a look. I hope we have the same playground. And I hope we learn about eyeballs. I don't know why the word eyeballs needs to be whispered.

We walked into the school and hung up his coat and book bag his hook then off he wandered without hesitation into the classroom while all the other kids waited in the hall or outside to be guided in by their parents.

Bye Jack, I called to him.
Bye. He gave me a little wave but didn't look back...
I'm Jack he said to the teachers aids when they approached him and then he disappeared around the corner.

I was the first of the parents to leave the school by a long shot. I'm not the type that stands around until they close the doors, just in case. But I am both happy and sad to watch my little boy take this step in growing up, so I had no plans to stick around and rub it in.

It's been a long summer but it's been easier than I expected. Jack and I have had little trouble finding things with which to keep ourselves occupied and he's been very well behaved generally. I'm glad I was able to spend the summer with him.

It's still three weeks until I'm back at University, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the time.

Mine might be just shoes, but at least they're tied.

Jack was climbing the ropes at the park as he often does. A slightly older child had taken to showing up all of Jacks stunts. Each time Jack displayed a trick he'd come up with the boy in camouflage combats would emulate it, sometimes adding his own addition to it, and finish it with 'easy'. As Jack navigated the ropes the boy plagued him with criticism. Apparently there is a faster, more fun and all around better way to do everything that Jack was doing. This isn't the first critic that he's come across and he's got a good tactic in dealing with them. He just plays along, acting interested in and impressed by their antics, sometimes he'll have a go at one of the additions and will often say, wow that was easy. Eventually they get bored and leave him be. 

As they climbed and dropped and jumped and hung Jack noticed minor safety issue that he though was worth mentioning. 

Hey boy, your shoe is untied. 

They're not shoes, they're trainers. The boy sharply replied. 

Jack wasn't phased by the boy's attitude even a little, he was just trying to help the boy avoid an accident. He just smiled politely and said in a 'matter of fact tone'.

Well they're still untied.

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