I found myself smiling quite a few times today. I am not talking about that everyday kind of smile you have when you unexpectedly run into an old and dear friend, or perhaps the one you have when you see your son running towards you with his arms wide open anticipating a loving embrace. No, although those are great smiles to have, the smiles I am referring to today are the ones that come from deep within you when you suddenly realise that you are satisfied with things as they are.

So, when I realised that Rowan, having fetched his back pack half an hour ahead of time, was eager to go to school today, I felt pure contentment at the fact that our little guy has really come a long way in just two weeks.

When I walked outside and experienced the beautiful sunny morning, I felt content.

And then, this evening, hiking through the woods, there it was again. The setting was beautiful and the company could not have been better. I watched Rowan looking around curiously, stopping to get a closer look at anything and everything. There were sticks, and flowers and rocks... but the thing that touched me most was when he stopped and looked up at the canopy above and said: "Wow!" The fact that he already has such an appreciation of nature is something that I am in awe of and that makes me very very happy indeed.

This past week there has been a lot of writing on this blog and very few photographs, so for today all I will say is that we had a nice early morning boat ride. Here are some photos of our little guy having fun in the sun.

Opa!

For those of you who are not familiar with the word, opa: it is an exclamation of joy used by the Greeks at various celebrations. We attended a huge Greek festival in our area this evening where the music, dance, good food and jubilant atmosphere was the perfect way for us to celebrate a tremendously successful and satisfying week.

Rowan reached many milestones over this last week and we are very proud of him. Not only did he bravely take on the challenge of going to school for the first time, he actually reached the point where he enjoyed it and wanted to go back. School has been really good for him. He has become very confident in just the last two weeks. He used to shy away from kids at the playground, but this week I witnessed a very confident little boy standing his ground as a few older kids tried to push their way through where he was standing. He also copied some of what they were doing and inspired another little girl to do what he was doing.

He also learnt how to jump. Yes, jump. He has been trying to jump for a while now and finally all the hard work seems to have paid off. He even says jump with a smile as he lifts both his feet off the ground.

Then we had some success at potty training too. Rowan actually asked (gestured) to use the potty. He did great!

Lately he has also been able to keep himself busy and best of all, he has learnt to tidy up when he is done playing.

So after an especially challenging yet rewarding week and a long day of watching and helping Dad complete our deck/stairs we felt we had reason to celebrate and decided to go to the Greek festival. We enjoyed the music and traditional dance. Rowan could not contain his excitement and ended up dancing too. His new dance is very cute. He jumps to the beat of the music and claps his hands when it stops. It was lovely to watch. The food was great and the atmosphere was something I have never experienced elsewhere. Fantastic! Opa!

"Oh ye of little faith"

"Oh ye of little faith." Somehow that phrase always seems to apply to me, and it seems especially apt today.

If you had asked me on Tuesday, if I thought Rowan would be loving school by Friday, I would have said: "There is NO way!" But, as usual, things worked out just perfectly. Let me explain.

When Rowan's teacher walked up to our car this morning, our little man, without a peep, picked up his school bag, took the teacher by the hand and said: "Bye!" waving quite casually as he walked off. Fantastic!

Then when I fetched him, he calmly collected his work and placed it in his bag and the bag on his back. We came home and had a very busy and interesting (because of some severe potty training mishaps - three of them) afternoon. After a while of playing about the house, he picked up his back pack and asked that I help him to put it on his back. So I took a chance and asked: "Are you ready to go back to school?" His eyes widened and I could see that he was considering this idea before he said: "Yeah! Car!" pointing to the door. I was flabbergasted, and quickly had to explain how we can't go to school now, but that we will be going back on Monday.

So once again, if only I had a little bit of faith, this week could have been a lot less stressful. I am working on it.

Relief

This morning as we pulled up to the school, Rowan was very calm. While we were waiting in line, he looked around and pointed at all sorts of things. When the teacher walked up to fetch him, he did begin to cry, but soon stopped.

When he walked into the classroom he seemed relaxed and got busy with some work. He seemed happy the entire hour that he was there and his teachers were very pleased with the progress he has made. I was relieved too.

Because I had to fetch him after only an hour, I got to meet him in the classroom. I opened the door, walked in and talked to his teachers without him even noticing. And then he looked up from where he was busy cutting some paper and when he saw me he screamed out "Yay! Nonny (Mommy)!" He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he started crying again. Perhaps he wasn't sure if I was going to leave again. After he calmed down we had to remind him that he still had to tidy up his work station. I have never seen this kid put anything away as fast as he did this morning.

So, all in all, we are happy with the progress. Rowan is really going to like school once he gets used to it. Of that I am sure.

As you know, we decided to give Rowan another chance at attending school today. This time I was there most of the time and was really able to get a handle on the situation so here goes.

Once he entered the class room he seemed to settle down quite quickly. Today was a lot easier for him than yesterday although he did still cry quite a bit. I noticed that he only really cried between activities and because he is not used to the idea of doing things by himself, he doesn't start any new activities on his own and thus he keeps his teachers on their toes.

One thing that I was surprised about was to see how well he did at circle time. When they told them to go to the mat he promptly went over and sat down exactly where he was supposed to. He stayed there for the duration of the lesson. The reason I was surprised by this is that Rowan has up until now, not felt comfortable in such formal group settings. This was very encouraging.

I was able to speak to the principal of the school about how we feel about Rowan's rate of adjustment and our concern that he might not be ready for school just yet. She suggested that we bring him in tomorrow and Friday for an hour each time, to see if the continuity will help him settle a little easier. So that's what we will do.

The nicest part of this day for Rowan and I was when he finally got to walk out of the school building. As he stepped out I pulled up with the car and stopped right in front of him. When he saw me, his crying immediately turned to a very very loud and excited "Yay!!!" as he waved his arm so high and so vigorously that it made all the other parents in the line behind me smile and say: "Aw, poor little guy." What a day!

This morning, when Rowan realised it was a school day for him, he got very upset. He didn't want to get in the car with Richard and tried to force Richard to leave by saying: "Bye!" to him a few times, hoping that Richard will just go to work as usual and Rowan would get to stay home. Unfortunately we just had to give school another try and off they went.

As they got to a t-junction close to the school Rowan kept pointing in the direction opposite to the school saying: "There. There." meaning that Richard should turn left instead of right. It breaks your heart, doesn't it?

When Rowan met one of the teachers at the door he waved a tearful "Bye!" to his Dad and disappeared through the doorway.

I decided to stop by the school even earlier today and watched my boy battle his way through the last hour or so. It wasn't easy watching him out there all by himself, crying hopelessly every five minutes or so. So now, having seen how he suffers and how his suffering is not really being alleviated by the teachers, I am, we are, beginning to have serious doubts about whether this is in fact the right time for Rowan to be doing this. We have decided to give it one more try and then we will make our very important decision.