Settling in

After Baby E completed the three-day inskolning process at preschool, he had a week and a half of shorter hours to ease him in. However, it didn’t really turn out like that. Monday went fine – he spent the day at preschool from 9am to 2.30pm. Tuesday he woke with a fever, so we kept him home, and it continued on Wednesday and that night. On Thursday he woke without a fever but still not quite happy, so we kept him home again. He went back on Friday and had a great day.

This week, he was in on Monday and all was well. Tuesday was a half day of work for Husband and I ahead of Wednesday’s public holiday (1 May). I got home, got changed and got the call. Yep, fever again, please could I come and collect him early. The next day, Husband had the day off but I had to work, so he was home with the boys and all was fine. On Thursday both boys started early at preschool – the new schedule to fit in with our working hours: dropped off early, collected early. Little O was in his element as this meant being outside for an extra hour and a half. Baby E was not quite so sure – he really does not like to get his hands dirty and a few grains of sand leads to screams of terror and disgust – and he started to be upset when he saw other children being dropped off by parents. The staff were not worried though and he had a great day overall.

Yesterday it was the same apparently, with Baby E becoming upset when he saw other parents leaving their children. But again it was a great day overall. And we knew that he would find it a little harder than Little O ever did – he’s a more sensitive soul than his brother and he has had a much more disjointed settling-in period.

But once he has settled in fully, I might have to come to collect the boys 15 minutes after I have been doing. It took me 25 minutes yesterday to get Little O to stop making sand pancakes and it was only with the help of one of the staff that he would relinquish control of the spade and agree to come home…