Back to School is Cool

I left my heart in two pieces and two places on September 2nd.

 We’ll start with the boy.

Deciding to send Bode to preschool was not one that came easy for me. He’s only 2 1/2 and preschool here in the Middle East is much like all other school, it’s intense and long, 3-5 days a week for 5 hours a day. But seeing how the poor child had literally NO social contact last year in Saudi with anyone other than mom and Iqbal and when he did get the chance to play with a kid his age or within 3 years of his age he would jump in with both feet, I figured he was ready. And would dig it. And it turns out I was right. On both counts. He walked right in that first day and didn’t look back, is obsessed with his lunch box and asks, “Ere my skoo mama?” on the two days a week we drop T off and he doesn’t go. When I asked the teacher last week how he was doing she responded, “He’s doing great! He just hasn’t figured out that whatever I am doing is more fun than what he is doing.” I laughed all the way home thinking, “That has to be the kindest, most clever way to tell me he doesn’t listen to a word I say.” Cracks me up, he probably is in there telling her, “Nooo way!” all day long, his favorite current phrase.

Tessa’s transition to Victory Heights Primary has been like a dream come true. I was all sorts of anxious after her year last year. It was so rough, for Tess and mom. But what a blessing. She is happy, she hops in the car and tells me about her day unsolicited, she thinks her uniform is the bees knees, and there are no tears, no ‘I don’t to go’s in the morning. What a sense of relief and joy I have felt Wade and I felt the last few weeks. Confirmation that prayers are answered and the move to Dubai (again, not an easy one) appears thus far, to be the right one. The feed back from her teachers is good, and I’ve already been told that, “Jaden wants to marry me.”  Who wouldn’t?

In other news, Bode gets told from his dad now and again to, “man up”. Mostly when he’s crying unnecessarily, mostly in jest. Tonight, while playing Lego’s Bode told his dad to, “Man up dad” like 12 times and I was in the other rooming laughing my head off. Kids are so dang funny.