let the vacation begin.

I think that a lot of parents dread dropping their kids off at childcare. The meltdowns. The tears. The peeling your child off your leg. I feel for those parents - I really, really do. It's not like I've never had to leave Kale in tears, only to burst into tears myself the second I got in the car. Luckily, we've moved past that and Kale LOVES his school and so dropping him off in the morning is one of my favourite parts of the day.

Yesterday I tweeted with joy after dropping Kale off at school - "LET THE VACATION BEGIN!!" Woot woot - three whole hours of ME TIME!! I was ecstatic. I could clean my car out, do the laundry (don't tell Kale I did it without him), clean out my sock drawer - whatever. I could lay on my ass and read all about the Kardashian's if I wanted to (and I did). And when @WeeMasonMom from omgababy.com replied to my tweet and told me she loved me because I was the only one she knew with the balls to say they're excited their kids are in school while they're at home, I was all like "yeah, I got balls." And then I thought, "mom fail?" Possibly. Whatever - LET THE VACATION BEGIN!

Ok, so back to my love of dropping Kale off at school. Let me describe a typical drop off and then tell me it's not awesome.

I get Kale in the car around 8am. The second he is strapped in he demands that I take his hat and boots off. No problem - it's unseasonably warm and who wants to deal with a toddler freakout that early anyway. Once in the driver's seat, I gauge Kale's satisfaction in the seat. If he's cool watching things out the window, I turn up the CBC and get my Matt Galloway fix. If Kale turns on the crank, it's Sharon, Lois & Bram. At red lights we wave to each other through our mirrors and Kale tells me stories.

Once we get to school, Kale starts shouting "COOL! COOL! ISLA! ISLA!" (translation: school! school! Isla! Isla! - his friend). I carry him in to the school even though the school owner told me we should let him walk. Ehh - we all know what I think of her. Once inside, Kale rushes to get his boots, hat and coat off and puts them away in his little bin. He then tries to convince me to take my coat off and I decline. He gives up on me, takes my hand and runs on the spot in excitement. We walk into the gym and say hello to his teacher and the other students that are there. He shyly curls up to my leg and takes it all in.....

Then one of three things happens:

1) He turns and gives me a kiss and says "buh-bye" and takes his teachers hand and walks her over to the toys.

2) He jumps on a riding toy and takes off, yelling "buh-bye" over his shoulder.

Or, like he did this morning:

3) Gives me a kiss, walks me to the door, says "door! out! buh-bye" and pushes me out.

And how can I not be happy with that? He loves it there soooo much and is just so thrilled to be there, with his friends and his teacher and all the stuff he loves doing.

And that's why I can tweet "LET THE VACATION BEGIN" with absolutely no guilt. 

And I can't write two posts in a row with no pictures, so: