September

I'm sitting outside Yon's nursery door while Yon is inside playing, thinking about firsts. It is the first time I'm doing something like this. It is a well known thing in our tiny family - daddy takes to school, mummy takes from school. I can't leave the kids anywhere alone. I cry every time. Hidai doesn't mind, so he is in charge of it. But this time around, here I am, outside the door. Not crying.
Maybe it's a second child thing, maybe it's because Yon is so happy going to nursery it's no problem leaving him there, maybe it's the fact that the nursery made me so angry with their insane two weeks settling in period.
Of course right after I finished that paragraph there was some crying from inside the nursery that sounded exactly like Yon crying out "Daddy, daddy" so I take everything back - I spent the next hour sitting on the edge of the sofa, texting frantically with Hidai and trying to figure out what is going on inside and if my baby needs me...
My baby did not, in fact, need me.

my baby

He had a great time, made friends, played with animals (even did some sharing), drank his milk and went to the toilet by himself. He has adjusted to nursery life brilliantly. So brilliantly that even they are breaking the rules for us and letting me leave the nursery tomorrow for 2 hours.
Thank god, because I don't think I could survive there for another day. Honestly I have a new-found admiration to nursery teachers. I don't know how they can stand all this crying all day. And all the kids. And all the parents.
None of my babies needs me any more it seems (and no. It most definitely does not means that it's time for a new one). Ron is enjoying life at school. He has been at school for 2 full weeks now, and everything seems fine with him. We are a nervous wreck. Seriously, yesterday he had a less then perfect day, which of course meant that by the time I picked him up he was fine, and that Hidai & I debated the whole evening if we should pull him immediately from the school, before deciding it might (just might, mind you) be an overreaction on our side.
So after 2 weeks, I feel I can start answering the question - So how is school?

Ron on the way to school

Well, it depends on who you ask - Ron or us :)
For Ron (less important obviously) it's been brilliant. Out of 20 kids in his class, he has already befriended 13 (thank god he inherited Hidai's friendly genes), started pondering the new girlfriend question, been invited to a tentative sleepover, and of course secured his status as the smartest in the class (he got a sticker on his second day because he impressed the teacher so much on his 2 first days :). So cute). I know it's not appropriate to brag, even (or especially) about the kids, but seriously I am so proud of him. It's not only that he doesn't mind that he is the only Jew or Israeli or redhead in the whole school, it's that he is proud of who he is, where he comes from and everything that goes with it. For example, they might be planning on opening an Arsenal football after school club in the school, but it will be for older kids (years 4-6) and the headteacher said she'll try to get him in if he wants, so I asked him if he will mind being the youngest. He doesn't care. Why would you even think he would?
So yes, he is fine. And I know that for a fact because first of all on Friday he wasn't feeling 100% so I gave him the opportunity to stay at home with me and Yon, and he pondered it, but decided he preferred to go to school (a bit insulting for me and Yon, but still), and second of all because I asked the teacher and he said that it's going fine, and I asked the headteacher and she said it's going fine, and I asked the deputy head and she said it's going fine, so you know, I think it's going fine :).

That's Ron teacher. He is 26. Yes.

Playing in the playground

For Ron that is. For us (the more important part of the equation obviously), it's hell. I am sitting here in front of the computer at 14:58. It is Ron's first day at the after school club, so he will finish school at 16:45. I am terrified. I admit I was considering going down there at 15:30 (end of the regular school day) just to see that everything is fine. That he isn't looking for me. That they treat him nicely. That he likes the club. Of course I cried on the first day. I made Hidai come home from work at 15:30 so I won't have to pick him up alone since I was so petrified from the possibility that he hated the school (he had a magnificent day thank you). I thought about calling him today also.What? 16:45 is almost like 18:45 isn't it? But I am still here, waiting until 16:15 and then I can run to the school to see my baby :). So yes, it's hell. Every single day is hard for us, everything is new, everything is done a little bit different than in Gibraltar, and there is no-one to ask because none of the parents talks to us (except one mum who explained the way of the school - no one will talk to you. They are not nice in this school. I don't know what is wrong with these people. They are all closed in their tiny ethnic groups and no one will talk with someone outside the group. Her words, not mine.), and we feel like outsiders. We still haven't seen evidence that the school will do as they promised and advance Ron with his math, or his football... So I made them chocolate cupcakes, because if you make the teachers and kids chocolate cupcakes it's bound to help. Right?
Right. I made around 35 of them, they were gone within minutes I'm guessing, I got kids the next morning coming over to say thank you (sooooooooo cute), and teachers saying thank you and telling me about cat-fights to get to the last ones :), also it gave Ron a bit of an opening to talk about Jewish New Year, and so we learnt that the Year 2 teacher has a Jewish friend (not boyfriend. Just friend) and she celebrated Rosh Hashana once, and the head-teacher is Jewish (which we knew) so she and other teachers said happy new year.
Life is weird. Yesterday I watched a show, and the daughter went to college and the dad said something along the lines of, there were times I couldn't wait for her to go already, but now that she's actually gone...
I hated August. I had a rough time with the 24/7 of the last three month. September couldn't have come fast enough. But now that it's actually here and they are off having fun at school...

School boys

September - Daughtry