
You see my baby, the last birdie in the nest, the little tornado that our lives revolve around has started his first day in primary school. No more "pre-school" days for him, this is the real deal. We can no longer travel spontaneously and keep him home with us whenever we choose. Everything changes for us and for him with this exciting new chapter in our lives called KG-1. It is what I have been looking forward to all summer. Right? When talking to friends and they would ask when school started for him I would answer with an exaggerated "not soon enough" as his over abundance of energy would run me ragged more times that not. This little guy wakes us up every morning as soon as the sun comes up...literally. "It's sun time wake up, wake up!" What's wrong with that you say? The sun rises at around 5:48 a.m. here, and I could usually use at least an hour more of shut eye. I couldn't wait for school to start for the most selfish reasons and I was told that the school he will be attending was wonderful and that they would keep him so busy that he will be ready for bed at a decent hour and that he would most likely start waking a little later. Yes! The first day of school couldn't come fast enough as far as I was concerned. Let's face it. A four year old can drive a momma bananas! So summer flew by. Friends went on vacations and have returned, some friends have left for good. Vincent visited for two weeks and helped out so much in keeping Bruce happy and entertained. We had fun lunches with the OSP group and we nurtured some fun new friendships.There has been a turnover on the home front, we have fired and hired new domestic staff. We endured John traveling to Iraq, I perfected my salsa recipes, in short we survived our first "monsoon summer" in Bangalore and it did go by super fast! And the day of all days that we have been waiting for, and looking forward to finally arrived. Bruce's first day of school at TISB! Bonus is it's a holiday here and John got to go with us to the bus pick up and see our little guy off. Bruce was so excited for today that he could not wait inside for our driver to get here. So instead he went outside and sat patiently on the steps.
Project "get Bruce to the bus stop on time" went as planned. We got to the stop, were not surprised that we were the first ones there and after about 10 minutes of thinking that there wouldn't be alot of kids at this particular bus stop we realized we were on the wrong side of the club house! We rushed on over to the correct side and chatted with the other parents and our excitement grew as we saw how happy and eager all the children seemed to be while waiting for the buses. I'm smiling as I am recapping this because it was a fun experience and though Bruce was a little on the shy side he had a smile on his face the whole time. Finally the yellow buses appear around the bend of the club house and there is a collective sigh amongst the parents. We waited for the first to buses to lead and finally our bus arrived and we headed for it with Bruce. As he started to board the steps, we could tell he became a little nervous and turned back almost like he decided it wasn't a good idea after all but then something changed his mind and he quickly turned back towards the steps and entered and made his way to a seat. I took a quick pic and got off the bus and waited alongside John for the bus to depart. All of a sudden my excitement and eagerness to see him off changed. Got a lump in my throat and wondered if we should have driven him today instead. I realized then that I was no longer thinking of all the fun John and I were going to have today, no longer thinking about all the things I would have time for now that Bruce is off to school. All of a sudden my thoughts turned stupid. Will he remember to take his backpack when he gets to school? Will he know to get off the bus with the other kids? What if he falls asleep and they don't realize it and he's left in the school bus all day? As these thoughts were going through my head, we were looking at Bruce thru the bus window and we saw a girl around ten years old sit with him. We were right outside his window and could tell that she had asked him his name, then his age. Smiling at him and engaging him in conversation. I was so grateful to her for being so sweet to him and relaxed a little. Just a little.
Now all I have been doing since the moment we waved goodbye to him is look at the clock and check the time. What time is it? Is it time to pick him up yet?