29-09-17 One Month of School

Friday 29th September 2017

There goes the first month of the scholastic year! Success and happiness for parents, teachers and the keenest student ever, Kingsley. He wakes up before the alarm and has done so every morning since starting preschool. Our routine is strong and tight: milk and banana at home while playing trains or trucks. Then he gets put on the loo for No. 2 (invariably favourable outcome) while playing online puzzles. Clothed and groomed then out the door at 8:20am. We take out the garbage and while waiting for the school bus he is fed a big pink juicy apple. One minute before the bus arrives Kingsley waters a plant, then bounds aboard at precisely 8:30am.

As is custom in Greece, all little ones eat a meatless lunch at school on Fridays. Its always lentil soup with feta and bread followed by seasonal fruit. Every single Friday, and it caters to those who fast. By Miss Xrisoūla’s records I can see that today Kingsley ate all his lunch and all of his breakfast and afternoon tea. I can’t quite fathom it as at home he gets fed. Still. By hand. But I don’t care; the evidence is in that he can feed himself in a social setting and I figure there’s no way he’ll be going to college still wanting me to hand feed him.

By 3:30pm we’re having adventures. His current obsession is finding gates open and discovering landscaped gardens. Today we stumbled upon a family of 6 cats who purred and rubbed their lifted tails on my legs attempting the same with Kingsley but the chap isn’t quite certain of their motives. In fact one kitty jumped on its hind quarters and nicked Kingsley’s arm with its paw. Shocked Kingsley asked me ‘Mummà, why did it do that?’ Of course I answered in truth-that the cat wants attention and you’re just not giving her any mind! Still didn’t convince him to pet the cats. But all this diversion with cats and gates and secret gardens provided plenty of opportunities for me to feed him two bananas, an apple, grapes, a bottle of milk, a sesame kouloūri fresh from the Foūrno plus one of mum’s buttery koulourākia.

The child is excused from burping.