I don’t know where the time has gone but my baby boy started school softly last week. Three half sessions followed by five half sessions and next week, gulp, he is going to go all day… I’m not very keen on the idea but hey, despite my wanting to keep him tiny he is growing up and I have to let him.
This time last year he was off to the nursery attached to Florence’s school in London and I remember looking at him then, in his tiny red uniform and thinking we had ages… A whole year… But a whole year isn’t really ages is it!
And now he’s a school boy…
He still cuddles me all night long rarely seeping in his own bed past midnight. He creeps in and wraps his tiny body around mine which sometimes drives me crazy and other times, like now when I feel like I’m losing him to being a big boy, makes me happy. Although he looks much younger than he is (I’m not sure if it’s the baby curls which also cause lots of people to assume he is in fact a girl, or his baby face) but he is articulate and as bright as a button. ‘I’m not little and I’m not big, I’m a medium boy’ he tells me. He also tells me over and over ‘I love you Mamma, you like it when I call you Mamma don’t you?’ and I say ;’Yes. I like it when you call me Mamma and I love it when you give me your love…’
He is so loving like this at times and even though he wipes away my kisses he is rarely separated from me when we are together. Just a hand, a foot, a finger… Something is usually touching me and I know he adores me. I’m one lucky Mummy indeed. All of this and yet still he can drive me bonkers! He can be super naughty on occasions and knows exactly how to push my buttons as well as exactly how to get away with everything! Is that being the baby? I don’t know… He may not be a baby anymore really but he’s always MY baby, no matter how big, litle or medium he is.
And with Jimmy starting reception it made me think about the day Florence did two years ago.How is this a whole TWO years ago? She’s now in year two, my beautiful, lovely girl!
She is amazing this girl of mine. So kind, so caring, so bright, so hard working… She asks me to read with her ALL the time and begs me to set her extra home learning work. Her old school did loads and the new one is much more relaxed but she is used to working very hard and misses that. I’m not sure where she came from because neither her Daddy or I are like this but I think perhaps the genes may have skipped a generation and she gets it from my Mum and Dad.
She rarely gets moody, has lots of friends, is learning to allow mean girls (and there’s always one isn’t there) to just wash over her and is loving her new school. Its taken a while to adjust and she still misses London but she is happy and we make the effort to see all her old friends whenever we can. She can be a bossy boots at times and she can be a tiny bit of a show off when she wants but it all comes from a good place; I know she never, ever wants to upset people and only wants to please. What astounds me about her is that she’s always prepared to give people second, third and fourth chances. If someone has upset her she has the ability to let it go and this makes her far more grown up than me… I never give in and I’m glad that she has something in her nature which allows her to do it. As is Jimmy I would imagine because he terrorises her and by rights she shouldn’t want to be anywhere near him but she does…
I watch her and feel so proud so often. She’s determined, hard working, clever and beautiful both inside and out… She is, what we say in the world of performance, a tripple (thousand) threat. I love her more than I could ever articulate and tell her always that she changed my life and made my life – she’s an absolute beaut! Again, all I can say is that I’m the luckiest mummy in the world.
I know that she’s going to absolutely ROCK year two!
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