Old routines and new starts here in the Fox household.

It’s September parents – which means you survived another summer holidays! Yay you!

This one has actually been a revealation. There are things that I tend to do every week that I just haven’t found the time for this summer. I haven’t been to the park or the local gymnastic club once. And that’s great. Because we did get into the routine of going to the library for reading books and then The Works for a weekly craft project. I’ve loved that. I hope it sticks.

We’ve had lazy mornings and movie nights and soft play and swimming. We’ve continually reminded each other that the summer holidays have “lots of other days” so I haven’t stressed when behaviour (theirs or mine!) shows we’ve run out of time. The weather hasn’t been good enough for paddling pools and ice creams but we’ve made flapjack and played with playdough, played Uno, done puzzles.

Immy completed a 100 piece puzzle, so Kev challenged her to a 500 piece one of a family photo and now we’re all in on it. I took Immy to see Matilda in an outdoor am-dram production, she did a week’s intensive swimming and done so well, even swimming underwater. I have roped in their Nanny’s offers of sleepovers and days out. I have learnt not to feel guilty about wanting/needing time to do my own thing. I not only survived, I thrived. Because I did enough.

And now they’re back. Sort of. Squidge skipped in today, her best friend by her side – we had to call her back for a goodbye! Gabster (or Gabrielle the Princess as she now refers to herself, nothing to do with me!) doesn’t start properly til Monday but will have a taster day, uniform and all tomorrow afternoon.

I will be blubbing. She’s only just turned 3 and will be in her oversized uniform and shiny new shoes and cheeky grin. She will be so excited to be at her Mimmy’s school, hers now too and I will blub. Because my tiny baby, my last baby is tiny no more. She is ready.

Teachers will see her and know immediately by her cheeky grin that she belongs to Squidge and yet they have their differences too. For one thing, Squidge never went to school nursery, only day nursery. She didn’t put a school uniform on til she was nearly 5. And so, for my little lockdown babe, this whole thing feels like it has come round too quick.

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Today, we dropped Immy to school and I took Gabby back to a playgroup across town on her trike. She’s learning to pedal and has a ball playing with the toys and dancing and singing. I am so glad to be back in routiine. The oddest adjustment was having to take her in her new uniform. I raced her home to get her lunch and then Kev & I took her to nursery for the first time in the afternoon.

Immy was playing on the playground in her lunch hour and ran to the fence to give her little sister a huge hug on her first day. Gabby was thrilled and didn’t feel any need to say goodbye to Kev or I. She raced straight in to play with the toys.M

My little lockdown baby, so full of confidence and curiousity. That is a wonderful thing. I get time to myself again, to build good habits again like walking. Her beautiful smiling face is a great excuse to get in touch with everyone I care for, which is lovely, because it shows me who I want to be in touch with.

One of my best friends now lives in Sydney and life inevitably gets in the way. But withn minutes she was fawning over my beautiful growing girl with me and I remembered how much I missed being able to sit across the table from her and put the world to rights. So I am committed to doing this, because I can make it happen.

Of course I can, my three year-old can race into a new environment grinning without a backward glance. She is more confident than I am, but this little lockdown babe must have learnt some things from her insular mum during her little life, because I know how much of myself I have given to raising this precious girl. I am so, so proud of her. Look what I made.

She is so ready to take on the world. I just hope I am too. New chapters all around.