Reuben: The preschooler

Ah my darling Reuben, today you started pre-school.

"Mama, that's not all we did", you interjected.

Today I saw:

"You dying your hair just before we left for school at 730am

New friends all singing songs and teaching me the days of the week on the calendar at school

And then we drove to the library whilst the older kids rode the Big Blue Bus all the way to the fancy Santa Monica library with lots of glass and really near the beach and when I'm a little bit bigger I'm going to ride the bus to the library too because the teachers take us here one day every single month

And I had a really lovely first day at school and I think I'll be happy there and even the teacher knew my name

And a lovely lady sang songs to me and all my new schoolfriends in the library and I sang and signed away and couldn't stop laughing

And we sat and read lots of lovely books with the teachers

And Callum did a puzzle board of wild animals (Callum's not going to be in my class though is he Mama, he's just here to help me get settled in?)

And Mama you sat with me whilst I read the whole ABC book through and said all the letters, saying them as well as signing them like I used to do when I was a baby and I said the words that matched the letters in the ABC book

And then when the school trip was over we drove to PF Changs and had a special Chinese lunch but Callum was asleep so you ate his lunch and it was a shame because we didn't hear him say "yum yum" so I said the "yum yum" for him instead

And then we walked to the Santa Monica Bluffs and we played by the cliff tops and you took some photos of us

And then we walked to the Santa Monica Pier and it was very hot and bright and sunny and Callum kept running away and laughing at us and I was laughing too because he's so funny that Callum

And then on the pier we watched lots of people doing funny things and Mama you wanted to listen to a man playing guitar at the end of the pier and it was very pretty because there were these lovely sparkly lights all over the ocean water even though you've always told me not to mix water with lights

And I walked up to the man and gave him a dollar but the wind made it blow all away and I had to chase it so that I could put the dollar in his hat because he needed dollars in his hat

And when we walked back along the pier we saw one of my new friends from school (isn't that funny? Do you think he followed us all the way?) and Evan's mum used your camera to take some photos of us all together, but of course Callum wouldn't keep still and wanted icecream which he kept signing and when he thought we didn't understand what he was signing (which of course we did because he's a good signer because I taught him to sign and I don't know how I learnt to sign, oh well, maybe I was just born signing as a baby)

And Evan's Mama said she thought you were brave being out all by yourself with me and Callum and I thought well yes of course my Mama is brave

And then we saw 4 lovely coloured parrots sitting on a man's bike with the wind blowing through their hair, I mean feathers. And I think the parrot liked looking in my glasses because she thought they were a mirror and she's a pretty bird and likes to look at herself being pretty in the mirror

Anyway, and we walked and chatted with Evan's Mama and said bye bye to them and then!!!!

We saw the famous carousel on the pier and we all went on together and were the only ones on there and Mama you were smiling more than I think I've ever seen you smile as we were going round and round, you standing in between Callum and me whilst we were on our horsies and we stayed on forever and ever and ever

And then Callum got his icecream with cookies and cream and even I had a little lick even though I don't like food

And then we crossed the road and went to the new open air mall and it so funny Mama because at the top there were lots of fancy chairs and beds with swishy wishy curtains and I couldn't understand why grown ups would want to go to bed during the daytime but maybe it's because they had a glass of wine and you always get sleepy when you have a glass of wine don't you Mama.

And it was very pretty there and we were high up and the walls were all made of glass so that we could see the electric lights again in the ocean, all sparkly

And then you and Callum ate again from all the lovely new places in the bright new shiny mall

And we got home at 7pm even though we left this morning at 730am for school

And then I saw that nursie Jenn texted to say she'd be here at midnight so only a few hours to go of our 4 days just the 3 of us and you said this morning that it means you're gonna have some help again because you're a little bit tired

And then you poured us a lovely bubbly bath and wanted to read us a story, but".....zzzzzzzzz