I felt a lump in my throat as Arvind and I drove back lost in silence, both of us engrossed in our own world of thoughts . Last Thursday was Atul's last day at his school. The day was filled with all the fun things that he associated with school – Play ball, Show and Tell, pizza for lunch, and his friend A had come too. We handed over the treats we had bought for the kids and the staff, took some class pictures and extended our heartfelt gratitude to the teachers for making him feel at “home”, and for their contribution in molding his personality this past year. The teachers had made a beautiful scrap book for Atul as goodbye gift. It had pictures of Atul with silly faces, playing with his favorite toys, and being pally with A. Knowing Atul's liking (rather obsession) for stickers, they had included a couple of sheets of stickers for him. It was very touching. A treasure that he will cherish in the years to come.

As I pulled into our driveway on Thursday evening, I asked, “Atul are you sad that you will not be going to BH any more?”, to which he said, “I am sad because my teachers and friends will miss me”. I think he was going through mixed emotions that day. Losing the familiarity of his old school and friends made him feel insecure, but by the same token the novelty of the new school, and new toys excited him. I assured him that if he wanted, we could visit his old school to say hi to his teachers and even have play dates with old friends in the weekends.

The day also made me realize how much I counted on his teachers to be there for him - to give an extra nudge during lunch time, to teach him to stand up for himself, to comfort him when he is hurt, and to encourage him to share and care. Some days I have worried that he was missing out on the one to one interaction, but the guilty consciousness almost always vanished the second I entered his classroom in the evening for picking him up, when he would refuse to leave, and would plead for staying for “last 7 minutes”. I consider that as a yardstick to gauge how happy he was spending majority of his day away from parents, at school.

With the shift in schools, Atul will officially exit the day care environment. Bestest of best wishes to my little one. I know you will shine, wherever you are. 

Atul's first year at day care was a nightmare. He was sick all the time, and I am not exaggerating when I say that we visited the doctor's office every other week.  He detested the doctor's place and would cling on to me the second we parked our car. You can read about how handful he used to be here. Well, that was two years back and at that time I remember the doctor telling that this would change when he turns three and that he would be the nicest patient ever. I took her words with a grain of salt then. Yesterday, we had to take him to the doctor, as he developed temperature. Nothing major, but serious enough to get him checked up. So when the doctor came in,  the little patient took charge and complained , "I am not feeling well today. I am sick". The doctor started chatting with him, explaining step by step what she was doing and why she was doing what she was doing. He was apprehensive but somehow I could tell that he had developed some trust in her and was slowly getting comfortable with the drill. She then told him that he is sick but not terribly sick and that he was not going to get any shots. I could almost sense Atul saying, "Phew!". Gradually, the conversation moved on to things like school and eating vegetables. When he knew the visit was coming to an end, he asked matter-of-fact, "can I have a lollipop now?", to which the doctor joyfully obliged.  It was as though Atul had found a new best friend!

The move to the new house is just a couple of weeks away. As always, I am having mixed emotions about it. Since my dad was in a transferable job, my roots are not grounded in one place. So after living in the same neighborhood for close to six years, I am looking forward to the change and all the fun things that we could do at the new place. I am excited about inviting family and friends to our new home. I am tad nervous about fitting the additional mundane activities into our already cramped routine. How will we make time to clean that extra bathroom or maintain our lawn? Last but not the least, I am intimidated about the financial commitments that the new house will bring. Forgoing liquidity to build some equity is something that we will have to get used to and it will take some practice to strike a balance.