Little gosling stopped at every tree on our way, circling them, looking for spiderwebs and enthusiastically pointing them out to us, “mummy, there’s a spider web”! We observed red and black beetles bustling up and down the tree, various mosses growing on the trunks, fungi growing amongst the roots of the trees. We managed to distract his attention away from the trees with a big flock of geese that had left behind lots of feathers and wildly colored blue and green dragonflies playing chase above the well kept water basins in the park. 

He happily sped on his balance bike, faster and faster, asking us to run alongside him and laughing whole-heartedly all along. He was so busy, that he didn’t even want to stop to eat the delicious hamburger fresh from the grill which he had found so irresistible other times. Everything caught his attention. The planes flying above, taking off from the nearby airport made him look up and start singing “Avion cu motor,/ ia-ma si pe mine-n zbor,/ nu te iau, ca esti mic,/ si te cheama….”. He still remembers the ground sprinkled with molehills..  

One of the episodes little gosling recollects the most is the first time we gathered chestnuts. We took home maaaany chestnuts on that occasion. We were approaching the exit to the park, we were almost at the tram station and I was almost sorry we had not found any chestnuts on our way, when we spotted some in a tree above us. I was showing little gosling, when my husband quickly grabbed a branch and started swinging. A rain of chestnuts fell upon us! The little one started running around excitedly, gathering each and every fallen chestnut :))), amazed at how daddy had made them fall. We took all of them home and played at ordering them by size and at building shapes with them: triangle, square, circle, rectangle, diamond. Since then, the chestnuts in the park that we cross on our way to school have started falling. Every morning we look for the newly fallen ones and little gosling kicks them around running; towards the exit to the park he throws or kicks a chestnut rolling down into the lake. Every once in a while, he comes home with some chestnuts in his pocket :). 

My intention with the leaves was to press them and then play with them together, maybe draw them, playing associations and identify the tree they belonged to, start working on a herbarium..  I managed to press some of them, but most are drying along on colorful trays around the living room. I did draw them, however, and that, I discovered, was a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing activity for myself. Quite a learning experience, also, as I was never very knowledgeable about trees, however much I enjoyed spending time outdoors. 

Nevertheless, we keep gathering leaves, from all the parks we visit… As autumn progresses, we find more colours, orange, the occasional red… The other day, he got excited with a beautiful yellow American walnut tree, playing with its leaves and fruits. He loves kicking or touching the leaves, throwing them into the water… And I enjoy watching him explore and play in and with nature.

The post Our First Autumn Treasure Chest appeared first on Mommy Goose Chronicles.

Back to that first morning. Closing the door to our apartment behind us and getting into the elevator morning, I felt as nervous as when I went for exams or job interviews. I had been preparing little gosling to the idea of going back to school for almost a week, since we had been informed the nursery would open again. Every day talking about the school and seeing (some of) the kids again and the activities at school: singing, dancing, going down the slide, drawing, playing..  All was going ok until the moment we stopped in front of the nursery door to say goodbye to daddy; only one parent was allowed inside. And then, the suffering began… ohh such a heartbreaking crying.  

He clung to his daddy’s arms crying, showing him to go towards the park and the playground. I took him in my arms and got inside… no way he wanted to go up the stairs, but accepted to go down to the room where we used to leave the pram and his winter shoes and clothes. I managed to distract his attention and we spent around 10 minutes looking at the photos of the baby class; the photos of kids in his class had been removed to be renewed, but next to each of the names there were animal stickers. Little gosling’s one is an elephant. We went through all babies’ names and animals a couple of times. Finally, he agreed to go up and watch the photos of the rooms and from the kids’ activities posted on the staircase’s walls.. We recalled the carnival party and some of the drawing classes; there were photos of him, as well. 

We progressed slowly. I encouraged him to go inside his class and ask the teachers if they had any books. “Circle of life” from The Lion King was playing inside (one of the three videos he gets to see occasionally is the opening of The Lion King). He agreed to knock on the door and in we went. We sat down together, took off his shoes, and off he went. He started looking around, with his doudou in his arms. He once turned suddenly and came back to me. I assured him I would not leave without saying goodbye. I gave him a few more minutes. He explored the place calmly. It looked promising. So, I decided it was a good moment to slip out. I told him I was going away, but would come back to get him in the afternoon, after his nap, and we would go to the playground and play in the sandpit. He waved goodbye. He approached and gave me a kiss, when I asked for one. And I left. 

By the time I was outside, he was crying incosolately and had come to the window. I waved goodbye and sent kisses and played peek-a-boo, but did not seem to make him feel better. I left. It was like the first time at school all over again; the third first time in ten months :(. It’s heartbreaking, leaving him so upset. It makes me doubt each time whether I am doing the right thing; I could keep him at home for some weeks, months longer. But,  I know he likes it at school; it will help him learn French; and the longer he stays at home, the harder it will become the moment I will also have to go back to work. 

When I picked him up in the afternoon, he had been playing outside, on the school’s playground. He told me he had liked it at school (“bebe likes school”). I was relieved; he had had a good day. We said goodbye to the school and when I asked him whether we’d come back the next day he said “yes”. We went towards the playground, as promised. He told me about his day: he had played with the other little girl also going to school (for now, it’s just the two of them), he had eaten “st(r)awbellies” and cake (anything from galettes to biscuits, from corn cakes and real cake qualifies as cake to him). Halfway to the sandpit, little gosling says to me: “bebe sad.. mommy left… mommy came back afte(r)noon pick up bebe”, as if observing I had kept my word. “Bebe and mommy happy” he continued. Ok, it would take a while again, but this looked promising. 

Yesterday morning, on the second day of school, he got dressed, ate his breakfast and then climbed back into my bed, under the covers and said “bebe stay home; bebe no go school, no”. Awww… I tried to convince him, reminding him that he learns songs there that mommy does not know and he can teach me, that he needs to teach me if I am to sing them to him. His face lightened up. So, he put on his shoes and daddy talked to him about saying hello to the pigeons in the park on our way to school. On the way, I kept telling him to ask the teacher for whatever he wanted to do: sing, dance, draw, play outside, read, build.. He nodded… When we stopped in front of the school, the same thing happened… Except that he kept crying, I was unable to calm him down at all. This time, he didn’t want to go in, knock on the door, take his shoes off, or stand on his two feet, only in my arms. I tried for ten minutes to calm him down, but did not succeed. I left. He came again at the window, face red, crying… offff…. 

I felt angry with this virus and the lockdown for interrupting his routine for so long. I wondered how this resumption of school in alternate weeks would work, whether he would suffer longer, whether he’d take longer to get used to school again. 

When I picked him up in the afternoon, he was cheerful. Again, coming in from the playground. He was even wearing his sandals!!! Which he had obstinately refused to put on since the warm weather came back. He showed me what he had been cooking at the toy kitchen. He had found a “red boiler”, just like the one he has at home and uses for making “soup” and “tea”. He pointed to the books he had read, one with an “efetul” (elephant), one with the “ouuuf” (wolf) and another one with eggs (a search and find for Easter eggs). He told me he had painted and built a “turn” (tower) with his colleague. Once again, he told me he had enjoyed himself (“bebe liked school”). 

I asked him where he wanted to go. He pointed to the “other playground”, the one with the (rocking) car. There we went. He happily ran after pigeons, first shoo-ing them, then chasing them to offer “food” he had picked up from the ground. He climbed on all of the rocking cars and animals on the playground. “Bebe wants all”, he said; to be read: at the same time, so he was busily yelling at the kids climbing on the other rocking things. He made new friends. He was his normal, busy, cheerful self. 

He convincingly said we would go to school again today. But….. this morning, he did the crying at home, asking me to let him “stay at home (with) mommy and daddy”. Try explaining to him that this was an extraordinary and temporary situation, that it will all change shortly… In the end, he asked to read one book, after which we would go to school. When I closed the book, he stood up from our reading nook and quietly went to pick up his shoes. He was almost a bit cheerful when he realised he got to wear his rain jacket (he loves it!) and was calm all the way to school. He just refused to go in on his own; he wanted “up” in my arms, no knocking on the door, but silently nodded to change his shoes and finally get down from my arms and go inside the class. But only after I mentioned all the time we would spend together at home, before he’ll have to go back to school again after tomorrow: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday… “Many days”, he said. He went to join his colleague, quickly looked at me when I slipped out and…. that was it. 

We’ll take it one day at a time.. It is so disheartening seeing him so distressed…

The post Post-lockdown: Back to School appeared first on Mommy Goose Chronicles.

Little gosling ran excitedly inside, up on the slide… he had forgotten how to come down on it. He came down once, almost lying down on his back and with such a speed his bump touched the ground with a noise and hopped once more. He was scared to go down a second time. 

He ran instead to the sandpit. It was only the second time he was coming across one. The very first time, it was very late last autumn. There was only one toddler, his age more or less, in the pit. He had excitedly grabbed some of the sand toys, to the kid’s desperation, but we quickly distracted him towards the slide. This time, I was trying to get him home for his nap. I promised we’d pick up his newly acquired sand toys and we’d come back that same afternoon. 

So we did. We went back that afternoon with a bucket and sand toys, an excavator and a dump truck. Mostly kids played within their own bubbles. After a while,, a younger baby set his eyes on little gosling’s toys. He was visiting and did not have his toys with him. He crawled next to us and first went for the bucket; little gosling started crying and asking for the bucket back, grabbing it from the baby’s hands. 

We managed to get to a compromise: put the bucket in the middle, between them and give the baby one of the toys so that they could both put sand in the bucket. We explained the baby was just very curious and wanted to be his friend; recalled to him how good it felt when other kids had shared their toys with him; how kind it is to let a (younger) baby play with his toys; reassured him that the baby was just playing with his toys for a short while and that us and the baby’s parents will make sure that all his toys would go home with us. 

Ok… But when baby took the bucket and emptied it of sand, little gosling started crying again; “put it down! put it down!” Next was the baby curiously reaching for all his toys one by one. We tried to have him share, talking soothingly to him and all the time one of us having our arms around him and it all went quite well until the baby reached for his excavator… Anything, BUT the “efekelu”… We offered the baby the dump truck instead. They played for a while, until the baby and his parents left, but little gosling was stressed throughout that the baby would take his toys home (“no take my toys, no”). All our soothing and reassuring did not succeed in completely dispelling that fear. 

Over the following days, we went through more of the same, as we returned to the sandpit and babies and kids of different ages came to play with little gosling. He’s happy to share, as long as the shovel, the bucket, the fish toy and the excavator are safe in his hands (or mine :P; he sometimes gives them to me for safekeeping). He’s generally happy to play with mommy or daddy, whoever is there, without necessarily paying attention to the other kids. We fill the bucket with sand and then he pours it over the black penguins, standing up or lying down on the sandpit, as if they are taking a shower. Ooor, we hide one of his sand toys, usually the clam, in the bucket, cover it up with sand and then play at finding it, eventually ending up in flipping over and emptying the bucket among little gosling’s giggles and squeals.

He does scout around for toys when he does not have his own with him. He played with another kid’s bucket, shovel and excavator one time, whilst the kid was on the slide. When he saw the kid’s mom was gathering the toys and getting ready to leave (whilst leaving the toys he was using for the very last moment), he took them one by one over to them. 

Communicating with him about using other kid’s toys and returning them has been straightforward so far. Helping him learn the virtues and benefits of sharing is work in progress :).

The post First Play in the Sandpit appeared first on Mommy Goose Chronicles.