Here Comes The Bus...

Here comes the bus........ ( please hum it as in "Here Comes The Bride...." ) he...he...he...

I have never been so happy to see a glimpse of a rectangular piece of machinery called the bus, hoorayyyy....

After finally drifting into a fitful sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I woke up to a splitting headache. Boy, I sure had a bad night :D

Needless to say, I was at the school by 3 o'clock after cooking his favourite vegetable soup with "fucuk" and "soohoon". Why.... my dear son would surely be hungry and tired. Afterall, they only had cheese & mushroom pasta for dinner and it was served at such an early hour of 5.30 pm !!!! (typical dutch dinner time is between 5.30 to 6.00 pm). Then, they had nothing else, no midnight snack was allowed !!! And I bet they would have only cheese sandwich for lunch, he never really like cheese sandwich except cheese tosti !!! I bet he would be hungry..... ( now I know why some mothers who have children in boarding schools, are guilty of stuffing their children with table-laden food he...he...he...)

The driver making it's final maneuver..... I can see his class teacher....

There he was in orange cap......

Smiling as he steps out of the bus, happy to see me, of course :D

After hugs and kisses, to my query of "Did you have fun?", he replied "Yes, except there is a little problem", then he drifted away to get his baggage. I wonder what "the problem" was. "Wetting his bed??", came accross my mind. But he had never done so in a looong time....

I talked to his teacher while he was queing for the baggage. She said he woke up in the middle of the night and came looking for her when he couldn't go back to sleep again. They had a little chat, then he went back to sleep. Aaargh... I had expected that :D

As it happens, he had not slept a wink when he went to see her !!!! Ha...ha...ha...

In fact, the "little problem" was he couldn't sleep !!!! Arek (his friend), who was listening to our conversation, said "Are you kidding ??? You were the first to fall asleep !!!!

Now, I'm confused !!!! After a little clarification, here is the story....

There were six boys sharing the room, three of them had already fell asleep, so that left Ilham, Arek and Alvaro who couldn't sleep. It seemed like a looongg night (none of them had a watch). Finally, Ilham decided to look for the teacher. She came to their room, and chatted a little, told him to create a name beginning with A, B and so on. It's ok if he didn't get to Z, because that means he was already asleep. It seemed to work, he was the first to be asleep among the still-awaken boys !!! I wonder what time Arek and Alvaro finally slept :D

He had a wonderful time at the museum and later, they had a 3 course dinner - vegetable soup (he had two of them !!) as starter, cheese and mushroom pasta for the main course and chocolate mousse with white chocolate sauce as dessert. After dinner they had a game of basketball, then shower followed by diary writing and bed time story. Lights out at 8.30 pm (still day-light !!! maghrib is 9.15 pm !!!). The next day, he was the first to wake up. They had breakfast of toast and cheese and herbs, it's yummy he said, but he would rather have toast and egg !!! For snack, he had a banana, sultana biscuit and orange juice. For lunch, he had peanut butter sandwich !!! (surprising! since they do not allow kids to bring peanut butter sandwich to school !!!) That's the only choice for the vegetarian, the others had ham sandwich of course. He had a wonderful time too at the zoo.

When we got home, he said "Ohhh.... I miss my house too"

Hugging the house :D

Since he seemed to be doing well, I told him that he could go and have a sleepover at Shafiq's house, to which he replied vehemently "NO !!!!"

Miss You Soooo Much

I miss him. Time has never been so slow, I keep checking the time.... What?? Only 15 minutes?? I thought it was ages already.....

I wonder what he is doing now, it's bedtime according to the schedule. Perhaps he is now lying on the bunk bed, clutching the teddy bear (which he started hugging to bed when he knew he would be going to the overnight trip) and perhaps smelling my "smelly" nightshirt, which he wanted to bring so that he would not miss me :D He wanted to bring another hugging pillow as well but it did not fit into the bag, so it had to be left behind.

With Arek, Billy and James at the museum..

I had been wondering how he would sneak the teddy bear under his blanket without his friends knowing. He is a big boy now and doesn't want his friends to know that he still hugs the bear :D Told him to leave it at home. But as it happens, he had nothing to worry, when we reached the school this morning, two of his male friends were having and waving their soft toys. I was so relieved and he was so happy to see that.

He has never been away from both of us at the same time. He had never had a sleepover before, I am very worried and I know that he is worried too. Last night he said he didn't want to go to sleep, he said "if you sleep time will go very fast, then it's morning already....". And earlier, he said that he was worried because I would be left alone without him and his father. That was sweet of him, but I know that he was more worried for the fact that he would be away from us !!! He was very anxious when I sent him this morning. I knew, because he kept repeating "Goodbye mama, have a nice day and good luck in whatever you're doing", saying the same phrase a few times !!!

I am not the only anxious parent, I could tell. All the parents were waving their children and following the bus as it left the compound. And the children, they were waving like mad inside...

The teachers have been understanding, promising to update the parentnet with pictures of the children. They kept their promises so far, posting 4 pictures on the parentnet. He is in 3 of them.

Still, I worry and miss him so much. Is he missing me now ??? I hope not, I want him to sleep really well and have the experience of a lifetime. Ohhhh... time has never been so slow. Ya Allah, please take care of my child and protect him from all the misfortunes, amiin.