Dear Sweet Pea,
This new month started with you saying "Hello Mummy", "Hello Daddy" loud and clear! As a true blue little Aussie, you had your first taste of Vegemite and took 4 big mouthful of it!
Close to 2 weeks after you turned a year and a half, you picked up your own spoon and started feeding yourself at dinner on 20 April. Like a celebrity fenced in by the paparazzi, cameras started flashing and videos were being recorded etching into history that glorious moment. Daddy and Mummy were extremely proud of your achievement since you have just started a new school barely a week ago. You also developed the habit of feeding your Daddy nibbles and looking so proud whenever he took a bite off your fingers.
This month, you learnt to identify body parts like foot and leg. You loved to pat us on our bums whenever we asked for it! You enjoyed running around the front porch with Diffy and were also offering more hugs to her. We brought you to the splash zone around East Coast Park for the very first time and you were mesmerized by all the water features that we had to constantly pull you back lest your slip over.
We scoured the entire neighbourhood for a suitable school ever since we moved in 2 months ago. I was determined to change your current routine of waking up late morning and sleeping near midnight. To be honest, the constant carrying you up and down the hallway, rocking and patting you late into the night in the dark nursery gave me anxiety. I feared the arrival of night, and this perpetual battle of coaxing you to bed was draining both of your parents dry.
We shortlisted a day care and decided to attend it on 1 April with Mummy keeping you company throughout the whole half day session. You subsequently fell sick the following week and was only well enough to head back to school the following week.
On the morning of 12 April, I woke you up and changed you into the first school uniform of your life. You whined as you rubbed your eyes, clearly dismayed at being woken up from your deep slumber. However within 15 minutes, you sprung to life, ran up and down the living room and hugged the dog, clearly oblivious to the impending shock serving right up in 3,2,1.
I packed your dainty pillow, little pink blanket and your favourite black and white doggie soft toy to help you adjust to a new afternoon nap time. I was perhaps more anxious than you that morning. There were many thoughts running through my mind primarily doubting if you would be able to stay there for the full day on your own.
We strolled down the street together with the sun rays longing to burst through the horizon. It almost felt like you were an adult, heading to work at the crack of dawn! Needless to say, you hung on to me for your dear life when we reached the school. Much to my surprise, it did not take you long to calm down as you were carried over to the breakfast table.
Over the next few days, we would experience episodes of separation anxiety during drop off and outburst of ecstasy during pick up! It was usually harder for you to let us go if both Mummy and Daddy were there to drop you off at school.
Since we were only able to pick you up after 6, when we arrived, you were usually sobbing or whimpering. The teachers informed us that you started to get excited when you see other parents picking up your classmates at around 5pm. Each time the door bell rang, you thought it would be us, and each time it wasn't. I truly felt sorry for you as guilt continued to feast on my heart every night.
As both Mummy and Daddy continued to strive towards balancing work and family (you!), we secretly hope we have made the right decision to send you to this school. We wish nothing more than you thriving and enjoying the process of learning.
On a side note, you have recently picked up the nursery rhyme "Rain, Rain go away" and would sing the first sentence rain or shine! Perhaps next month, we could progress more than just "Rain, Rain go away", so the rain could come again another day!
Also! An "uncle" came over to change our street bins and you saw him in action one Saturday morning. From then on, the refuse collector was referred to as "uncle bin" by you.
Love, Mummy & Daddy
