Toot's Blog: September 2008

We had Parent Orientation a few days before Gavin’s first day of school. We weren’t really sure what to expect. The teacher, Ms. B, asked all of the parents to go around and tell everyone who they and their child were and what brings us joy in life. So everyone was going around telling everyone story after story about their child. Hans and I decided I would speak for both of us. I told everyone our names and of course our child’s name. I told his teacher that I was very nervous for her because I think Gavin is quite a handful and then told everyone our biggest joy was when Gavin was sleeping. Luckily everyone laughed except for us.

So as Gavin’s teacher, Ms. B was going through details of the class and what we should expect, Hans and I came up with our predictions for Gavin’s first day of school. We predicted that we would try and drop Gavin off at school on time, but figured I would be late as I have a permanent case of Non-punctualititis. I would then attempt to leave him there as he would scream and cry and hold on to me like Velcro. We were told to quickly drop them off and leave right away even if they cry. I figured I would try to perform a slick escape but would end up doing something dumb like close a kid in the door or something.

We predicted that after I had gone Gavin would then scream, howl and demand to watch his Scay Guy movie and drink hot cocoa (two things the school frowns upon, TV and junk food). The teacher of course wouldn’t understand him and if she tried to get close to him to hear what he was saying she would probably be told to “GO TO WORK Ms. B”unless he figures out her first name, in which case of course he would call her that instead. We were worried that he might try and tackle the other children, as this is one of his favorite past-times, talk about Scooby Doo (Oh god forbid pleeeeassee don’t do that), talk about Halloween, and say Jesus Fu---- Christ and so on. In the end Gavin’s teacher and the rest of the school would know that we swear, do not practice screen-free living, eat crap and pretty much, well, have a good old time. They would also know why we were nervous for the teacher and enjoy our naptime.

Well here is how it really went down. Poor kid didn’t want to get up and kept exclaiming “MOMMY, it is dark out, MOMMY it is dark out, NO SCHOOL.” After several attempts to get him dressed I finally gave up and got myself ready, which surprisingly inspired him to do the same. We actually were ready on time.

Our friends Genie and Christian picked us up and Gavin seemed to be very excited - after all, he got to bring slippers to school and wear his new rain gear. As we approached the playground where we were supposed to drop him off, we noticed an abundance of loud cries coming from the area but ignored them or at least tried. Gavin was surprisingly still a peach. His face was so sweet and he was so good. I kissed him on the cheek gave him a hug and made for my slick escape, but as I turned to leave the area I realized I was stuck and couldn’t figure out the damn gate. Suddenly Christian started to cry and run after Genie, his mommy who was attempting to make a slick escape as well, and that is when Gavin started the howl and ran after me. Oh it was sad. It was really sad. But somehow I made my way out and ran to the bush where all the moms hide and spy. I couldn't handle much of it and trying to get a space in the minuscule bush was a task, so Genie and I decided to go to the parents’ welcome coffee to pick up some of our friends, go to breakfast and get our minds off of thing. We were there for four (4) hours talking and discussing how bad we all felt and how excited we were to run back to get our babies.

We went back to get our kiddos and it was amazing. My little guy came out of his room in his cute slippers all happy and smiley and told me he liked school. Yeah!! What a great day it turned out to be. And on the way home before he and Christian promptly passed out Gavin proceeded to tell Genie and me how the highlight of his day was tackling Christian!