...Not A Child's Play

The past few weeks have been crazy for me. I have been busy, not blogging, not crafting, not doing anything that I usually do. The biggest reason for this among many other things is, Coco has started going to a playschool. And that is quite an affair for the lazy woman who had her routine (or lack of it) sorted out. On top of that, this is a giant step forward in our lives and feels heavy, emotionally speaking. And my head feels heavy too, because of waking up 10 times and snoozing the alarm clock, before finally panicking and jumping out of the bed. My husband is out of town for a few weeks and without him, my so-called routine jumped out the window. So I somehow manage to wake up, get ready, wake Coco up and get him ready, and out we rush. Everyday, I try my best to make it to school in time, though I have not achieved that zenith of our school going days yet. Thankfully, the school is not so strict about the smallest children's batch timings. But it soon would be. Finally, my father has his laugh, because what he could not teach me (early to bed and early to rise!), my son seems to be teaching me, and how!

End of June saw my home flooded with multicolored books, bag, uniforms, tiffin boxes and water bottles, all of them covered with little happy cartoons. As I managed to keep calm in the flurry of instructions from the school, Coco was mostly happy about the chocolates and little toys that he received during those admission visits. 'Cover all his books in cellophane sheet, with cellotape,' 'Of course, how hard could it be?' I must say, very hard! Though I felt nostalgic in the beginning, I almost broke my back covering his books and developed an enmity to anything which required cellotapes. Do such small kids need books at all?

On his first day of school, Coco did not know what was happening and walked in happily, enticed by toys and rides and slides, even as other children were screaming and kicking with all their (tiny) might. This was the most dreaded moment and I was happy to think I was not going to experience it. Though it was still weird for me, seeing him take those tiny steps away from me. But Coco's crying and screaming started next day and worsened as the week progressed. Seeing little children cry like that is torturous enough, add to it my own kid, and I want to join him in not wanting to go to school. 

I am constantly crafting since his school started, and the school is constantly ahead, giving us new projects to work on. 'Of course, crafting, anytime. I love crafting. How hard could it be?' After all, I lovingly embroidered two napkins for his lunch-box, I am so crafty. So give me more... 

Whoa... so much in the first week? Where is my life going? I thought as I went through the above page of the diary. 'Making that fruit cut out is going to take my entire week. I will have to find an exciting and out of this world idea, then plan it and buy a lot of craft supplies to make an awesome fruit costume. After all, I am a crafter, everyone should know.' 

But thankfully, I have much experienced friends who are kindergarten teachers or moms of school kids. They brainwashed me and gave me the simplest of the ideas, 'Make a fruit shape on chart paper and paint it.' Okay, so here we go strawberry! A colourful and sort of designer fruit, which could be easily cut out and painted with red poster color. Throw in a crown of green leaves on satin ribbon and voila! Coco is now strawberry prince.

As far as the other part of the diary page is concerned, below is his Eid attire which was duly bought the same day from the local 'Paltan Bazar' amid heavy rain, and though we could not find a cap to go with it, the look is still quite Eid-like. That he was still not fully woken up and in no mood for a picture is another story.

My experienced friends used to tell me that once kids start going to school, I will have a lot of free time, and I dreamt of using that free time in pursuing my multiple hobbies. But this free time still evades me. Coco's school was for 1 hour daily for his first couple of weeks. It is gradually being increased by 15 minutes every week or so, to settle children. Making two trips within an hour, that too on a bad road seemed not a good idea. So, I decided to wait in the car, outside his school. After spending one morning there, hungry, thirsty and bored, I started carrying my own little 'lunch box', a bottle of water and something to do.

As I doodled away, sitting behind the wheel, I could also keep an eye on the neighborhood and felt like James Bond. The passers-by gave me suspicious looks too, that just added to the thrill. I happily scribbled and clicked pictures as I made progress. Then, somewhere between those rainbow stripes, I might have had a little snack. See? 

Even when I was working, the hour seemed to go by very slowly. Now, when the time has increased to a full two hour, I come back home and try to get the feel of the little 'free time' which goes away in a blur of activities. Though externally I seem to want more of 'me time', deep within, I look forward to go back and bring him home. When he jumps out of the classroom door and greets me with a smile, it seems like an achievement. Together we go to school and together we learn our own different lessons. 

While we are on the subject of crazy episodes with kids, FirstCry have come up with this really awesome TVC, which shows Big B himself, trying to figure out children's shopping. It has a cute child model, and Mr. Bachchan himself with oodles of charisma. At the end he drives the point home with the line 'Bachchon ki shopping bachchon ka khel nahin'. The ad has everything that a successful commercial should have and his presence makes it really unique as he is the hottest new grandpa around. Well played FirstCry.