Peapod begins Playschool

So finally my baby has taken her first baby steps towards the outside world. Or maybe I can get all poetic and say she has flown the nest.

Every Diwali holidays, our church hosts the VBS(Vacation Bible School) for a week for kids. Its all of 3-31/2 hours with almost 2 hours of singing sessions with actions and an hour of story telling classes. Last year I took a week's leave to coincide with the VBS so that I could take both the kids, the peapod and jellybean to it. They enjoyed it and learnt almost all the songs with actions. On the final day they had a rally around the church shouting slogans. The other older kids just loved and fuzzed around these babies of mine. By the end of day 1, I had offers from boys & girls who wanted to trade little brothers for little sisters. Some also plead with me to let them take the kids home. The 2 enjoyed all the attention but were mostly irritated with the constant picking up and kissing.It was a very nice experience. Ever since I did known, they were both ready for the larger thing called playschool.

She had been wanting to go to some place when mumma and Dada were going to office and she realized that would be school. For 2 weeks I had been listening to her pleas of wanting to go to school every time I dressed up for work. Nursery wouldn't start untill June and I thought she could do with some playing with kids her age so I enrolled her for playschool for the next 3 months. I and the peapod went to her school, got admission, then went shopping for her clothes, which eventually got her all excited. The first day, the day after republic day, she began school. I drove her to school in her new clothes and a small bag with a tiffin and water bottle. She walked in with me holding my hand and she smoothly left mine and held her teacher's fingers and walked off to her class. I forgot about clicking a snap when she was walking in. I stood there not sure what to do next. In 5 mins, the teachers told me I could leave since she did not seem to have a problem. She wasn't crying blue murder nor was she asking for mumma. I walked out reluctantly. I stood outside with a broken heart. I wasn't sure what exactly was bothering me, was it this small step towards independence or was it that she did not cry or cling. I was getting all worked up emotionally. After talking to the shower gang, I felt better. She had grown into this confident little girl, who was ready to explore the world. That thought pleased me. She was waiting for me with smiles when I went back to pick her up in the noon. She told me about her day in bits and pieces over the rest of the day. It was endearing to hear her speak in her babyish malayalam.

The very next day, when I tried to leave her she started crying. But as soon as I was out of the gate she was fine. And this continues till today. The other big thing is also the return arrangement that we have worked out. She comes back in a maruti van. My baby commutes in a vehicle that belongs to a stranger and is dropped right at our gate for mom to pick her up.As my previous post says, she came home with a medal on Thursday to make an already touchy mom to go over the roof.
At 34 months, she can communicate very well in malayalam and can understand English. Walking into a school should have been the next natural thing. Inspite of it all, seeing my baby walk into school was a VERY BIG DEAL. I always knew she would take to it very easily. I always knew it was going to break my heart seeing her walk away from me to a new world. Knowing it and feeling it, very very different.