Back to School.

Avinash went back to school (again) today for his second year of pre-school.  He is in the "three's" and will start pre-K next year.  He has been so excited about his new class.

We had a few days of excitement leading up to the first day.  Sunday was a play date.  It was rained out and we relocated to Chocolate Bar and ice cream.  Oh, the stickiness that ensued.  Avinash tried to carry cups of water for all his friends, so sweet.   Then they all played ring around the rosie in the middle of the store.  Love it.

Monday was meet the teacher, followed by an ice cream social.  Even though Ryan was out of town, it was nice that my Dad could come and see Avi's school with him.   Avinash was so proud to show him everything and eat ice cream together.

I think everyone just about died when Nandini sat herself down at one of the tables, grabbed a pencil and started writing.

She spends so much of the day napping that school doesn't seem to make sense for her, but man, does she look all grown up here.

Of course, they all loved the ice cream.  And, I was the awkward mom tearing up about her baby in the middle of all this.  It's not like we didn't do this all last year or anything.

We both cried the next morning because Nana was leaving.  He had just enough time to snap a few pictures with Avinash before we headed out at least. 

 (And, some little monkey turned the ISO on my camera up to 3200 so everything looks a bit fuzzy.  Sigh, I did my best to clean it up.)

 He requested a picture will all of his Mickey Mouse dolls.  The Disney store had a sale on plush toys and I couldn't help myself.  Let's just call it a first day of school surprise present, shall we?

Once we got to school he was ready to go.  I was lucky to get a few shots of him out front.

After taking Nana to the airport, Nandini and I came to pick up Avinash. I dressed her in blue to match. Her dress is now a shirt and the pants are capris, heehee.

His teachers reported that he had a great first day.  It was wonderful to hear them say things like, "You raised a wonderful son, he is divine, we love him already." I almost cried again but held it together somehow. Because I'm a mom and I'm allowed to, I'm going to record what they said even though it sounds so braggy.  I really don't think I can take credit for how wonderful he is, but just thank god for him (and her).

I didn't get much out of him in terms of what he did today.  He briefly told me, I went in the sandbox and we thanked god, I mean we thanked my school, for giving us animal crackers.  I guess they are really animal cookies! He later spelled out POP on his Vtech, I asked if he learned that word at school.  NO! I didn't learn it, I just remember it from school.  Okay, okay, sheesh.  (By the way, the Vtech is so much worse than my old spell and say toy.)

He has grappled with the fact that his old teacher and some of his old friends are no longer in school with him.  He reminds me all the time of the friends who are just next to his class, as a way to reassure himself.  He came up with a very grand plan today to get his old teacher to switch to three's.  


When we got home, they played together for an entire hour. Mostly 'Nandini monster hide and seek'.  He hid under the couch cushions while she walked around the couch in circles and 'surprised' him each time she came around.  He would scream and she would giggle in delight. At the end, he declared, I'm not scared of Nandini anymore.

Avi's first day last year.  He hasn't changed much at all, just as cute as ever.