"I'll try to be brave"

Goodness me, where does the time go? A whole week since my last post, what a slacker!

Not really a slacker, I do have an excuse; I have had the mother of all back aches, off work, no bike, no nothing - not sitting at a PC included. But enough of my own trials and tribulations, you don't come here to read about me right?

It's been a busy week in the life of my wonderful children.

Annabel appears to be holding court in the baby room at nursery. Holding court to the extent that the manager (Nadia) at her nursery says that she will be "moving up" to the next stage of her development, the Little Learners room, just along the corridor.

Annabel's key workers are horrified at this; "she's not ready, she's too little, she needs her nap still" etc etc. They are opposed to this move to the point that one of the workers started crying yesterday with M!! They had some valid points; she does still need a nap and her midday bottle feed.

"Nonsense", Nadia says. "She can have her feed and her nap still but she IS ready to move".

I have to say I agree with her entirely. Missy loves her key worker, the other staff and children in her room but she looks a little .......... bored at times. When I peer through the room at her, she is wandering from place to place, toy to toy, person to person. I think she is ready for new challenges; plus the fact that the majority of her original friendship circle have already moved. Yesterday, we were walking along the corridor and she pressed her face up against the glass door of Little Learners and within 5 seconds, four of her pals had gathered on the other side of the door. She found this highly amusing.

Next month is when she moves. Watch this space.

To Joseph now and what a little trooper he is. He has taken the new school completely in his stride; it's the breakfast club that was causing me to worry a little. I can see how all the changes he went through were stressful for him; this manifested itself in him being clingy and upset when I came to leave the club; not any more though.

On Monday, I tried a different approach. We stopped outside the club, we faced each other on the pavement and I explained why he came to breakfast club (so I could pick him up early after school) and that he wasn't to be upset anymore when I left. Besides this, I also went back to preparing him a small bag of fruit like we used to in the nursery.

The result?

He sits down at a table inside and when I bend down to give him a kiss, he whispers, "I'm not going to cry". My heart squeezes slightly but I turn and leave and, as I look back to close the door behind me, he is proudly holding up a box of raisins for one of the staff to see, my presence forgotten.

Yesterday, we get to the door and he says to me, "I'll try to be brave". I want to hug him again but that would send the wrong signal at this crucial point. "Good lad", I say, choosing instead to ruffle his hair the way Dad's do, and I leave happy.

Today, the same. No mention of being brave or trying not to cry - he sits, opens his bag of fruit and smiles at his friend opposite the table from him. There is a slight moment where he looks back at me and grimaces slightly but it passes. I stand there and wave (the ultimate test) and he waves back smiling. Again I leave happy and relieved. I'm not counting my chickens but we may have cracked it.

Actually, I shouldn't take the credit - JOSEPH has cracked it. He's the one who is experiencing all this change; he's the one who has decided to roll up his sleeves and get on with it; it's him who's cracked it, not me.

I clearly remember being terrified of a certain teacher at primary school (my parents will vouch for this) and I was a screaming wreck most mornings, hanging on to lamposts, school gates, railings, strangers legs, anything to keep my Dad from dragging me to her class.

Joseph has made the transition pretty much hiccup-free and that, in my view anyhow, is admirable in a 4 year old.

Brave as a lion that boy.

This is why I don't understand this "caring mum's stay at home" argument. I am sure Joseph has moved from nursery to school more smoothly as a result of him being away from home from the age of 6 months old? Wouldn't the wrench of going to school have been greater if this past month had been his first taste of life away from home? I'm sure it would have.

Plus the fact that his week is now 5 hours shorter overall than when he was at nursery AND we get to spend 3 whole afternoons together.

As Del' Boy would say, "everyone's a winner Rodney".

Well done Poops.