Rupert has now taken his latest, and so far scariest, step towards being a big boy.
Yesterday, he had his first taster session at Nursery. Now, it may have only been an hour and yes, we were both in the same room with him but still, it was massive.
To us, Rupert is still very much a baby. Not just a baby, but a tiny one at that. He’s still on the 9th percentile for growth for Christ’s sake.
So we went into the nursery (I won’t name it right now) and after we signed in and got the usual pleasantries out of the way we were led to the baby room, soon to be Ru’s daytime home for three days a week.
We were greeted with lots of confused faces (the children) and friendly ones (the staff) as were led to sit on the floor – the baby room doesn’t have chairs and Rupert was encouraged to play with some of the other children at a table.
I saw one of them hand him a shape (which he immediately put in his mouth) and they all looked excitedly at the new arrival.
And we were all happy. Fast forward thirty seconds and I heard a baby crying, our baby, I can tell that cry anywhere, even in a room of other children.
He was being held by one of the ladies as tears streamed down his face. Apparently, Mummy and Daddy being slightly out of eyeshot for less than a minute was too much for our little man.
So he was handed to me so I could give him a cuddle and some fatherly reassurance, which of course I was dying to do anyway.
I know they say that kids get embarrassed by their parents but that’s going to be me. I’ll be picking him up for one last kiss and a cuddle as he’s squirming to get away from me to play with his friends.
Anyway, after wiping away his tears I put him back down so he could go off and explore, always keeping us in his eye line of course. I mean all great explorers do that, right? When Columbus discovered America he made sure his parents were watching him, surely?
So he set off and went and played (about two metres away from us) before he sidled up to the lady we were chatting with who said: “I think he may have done a poo.”
Of course he had, Rupert can’t go anywhere important without doing either a massive or smelly poo. Induction at Nursery? Check. Mummy taking him to Sensory and about to step out the door? Check. First set of jabs? Check – actually this one was so bad that he got it on his car seat, ruined the outfit he had on and the nurse actually had to help us clear the poonami away.
So I took him to change him, where I was pleasantly surprised at the carefully organised nappies, wipes and creams before taking him back outside for the last part of his hour-long adventure.
When the hour was finally up we breathed a sigh of relief. I just hope I’m not the one crying when he actually starts for real.
