Last Friday, Joel was given his activity book for the first time to bring home. Though I couldn’t spend much time with him on Friday evening and most of Saturday, we finally got around to opening it on Sun morning just after mass.
The first part of the book deals with colors. Joel had done the color red (an apple, a bus and a post office box) at school as was told during the Parent Teacher meeting. This week he had to do the color blue (fish, ball and cup). Fish was already done at school. We did the ball and cup together. It’s not easy to keep Joel away from crayons. He had fun and I know I’ve got a lot of hand holding coming up. :)
After that, we left together for Brian’s daughter – Alma’s – first birthday party around 12 noon. Joel wore his dad’s gift – a white T and blue shorts with a matching blue sleeveless jacket. At the party he loved getting his birthday cap and eating cake. He didn’t like going up on stage with the other kids to greet the birthday girl as she cut her first birthday cake. Me going along with him wasn’t much of a incentive either.
Once back in our seats, he was content to show me the balloons and lean on me and ask me questions than do anything else. It got a little annoying since I just wanted to sit peacefully and not do much besides get lost in a few thoughts. Samith (Santhosh and Smitha’s son) who is Joel’s classmate this year was a blessing. Samith’s pretty open to Joel. Somehow Joel didn’t want to play much with Samith. I think I’ve got to get Joel involved with kids in a park. God help me when Baby 2 is out. I think I’m going to have a tough time on hands since Joel thinks I’m his exclusively and for his entertainment. I now wish I had my mom’s wisdom.
By the time it was lunch Abu came too. Joel decided what he wanted to eat and I fed him as much as he wanted to eat. Drat the guest who came and sat behind us with his icecream when I was feeding Joel. Joel lost all interest in food after seeing that. Needless to say he had to have his slab of icecream even though he was coughing.
Meal over. We wanted to leave. But not without a return gift and Joel getting a white balloon.
Once back home, I didn’t have the energy to keep my eye lids open. Mom and I slept. Joel refused to get out of his party clothes and slept with us.
In the evening we tried doing a revise of the alphabet he had learned till date. No time for the rhymes. But we did fall sleep last night singing a few school songs.
