It's onwards & upwards for Alex......!!!

The holidays are officially over!!!

Summer , if we can call it that (Personally I think July and August should now be labelled the official Irish Monsoon season!) is drawing to a close..... and to be honest I am not too sorry... I think we are all looking for a bit of routine.... will I be eating my words in a few weeks time when the crazy busy schedule of school pick-ups, drop- offs and after-school activities are in full flow..??..

Anyway for now, we need a change.. and who knows maybe the autumn term will bring us some of the nuch-needed sunshine we have not seen or only intermittently glimpsed since last June.... I have to say every year the prophecies are optimistic .... and every year they are wrong..... I vow to get a sun holiday at least once in the next twelve months...

But back to today.... My small boy, my baby has just been dropped at the naíonra... and this time next year he will be starting school......

Here he is saying Goodbye to his sister....who being a teenager was finding it hard to rouse herself to wish him luck.....

What am I doing?.....what have I forgotten?

The one thing I really hope he does not forget today and it is at the forefront of my mind and that is ... to go to the toilet... After a l....o....n....g..... summer of 'going nowhere fast' in the potty-training scene and contemplating how he would just not be able to start we had a bit of a breakthrough about two weeks ago and turned the corner and things began to look a little more optimistic..... How this came about I dare not write down but it must be one of the more unorthodox methods which just may have done the trick...... some of you already know.:)... suffice it to say that no cruelty was involved... and a situation was quickly turned into a teaching moment....
Have alerted his three teachers that he is just very recently potty-trained .... thankfully they have reassured me that he is not the only little guy coming in at the same stage......and we have taken every precaution.... so here's hoping that he will continue as he has been recently and that I am not speaking prematurely......

It was SOoooo hard to get up and out to day so just as well that Alex got to have two days done before we all have to return to our various schools next Monday..... and because we ended up rushing, dressing, breakfast, packing lunch, calling Dad at work and hurriedly grabbing a few photos we arrived a little after 9 and all the other little ones seemed to be happily engaged in various activites.... ~We had spent a half an hour there yesterday and Alex had a good time so was very happy to go in again this morning and was too busy looking around him to engage with his teacher or to really say goodbye.......
I'm a big boy now!!!!

This is it..... the last time I will have a preschooler.....and I am excited for him and for the fun year he has ahead.!!!!..and to be honest... am I allowed to say it.. I am also happy to have brought this special little guy to this stage:). Everyone is saying lately OMG, Alex has got so big... He has changed so much... is a real little boy now... etc....
His second 'big' sister had no difficulty at all getting up to wish him luck.. indeed she pleaded to come with us... and of course we brought her...

This is fun!

Have a great day Alex....

..this is my favourite picture of today..

And before I know it it will be time to go get him at twelve so I must run, get Darrelle to town, buy her new shoes for school, pick up her new uniform which has just been altered and get the last of her books....

Life is never dull..... and then I can start thinking of my own school and making plans!!!!!!...