Rainy days

Duke city residents never talk about the weather, because it rarely offers anything in the way of conversation. But it's been a lovely few days, as it has rained for a full 48 hours.

Surely, pigs are flying somewhere. It rarely rains - mostly it's more like spit from the sky - and the past few years have been drought years, serious ones, making me worried for the future of our chosen home. And then this year's monsoon happened, with 5 minute deluges of rain that soaked everything nearly every afternoon for weeks late this summer. And now two days of rain, literally REAL rain.

The kids are loving it, finding tiny bits of water and proclaiming that it's time to "splash in MUDDY PUDDLES!!" and jumping up and down in their adorable wellies and not fighting for a full five or even ten minutes. Heaven. Absolute heaven.

Other than the rain, we're just settling into our twice-weekly preschool routine, with Reni still crying a lot at drop-off but telling me that "I like school!" and "I sorry I cry. Miss Stacy hold you. Miss Stacy sing spider song. I like that song."He also says, "I miss you mama!" when I pick him up after school. I tell him that I miss him too, and that it's ok to cry, but that he should focus more on having fun and playing with his friends. "Circle time," he says, and "I clean up toys!" He still gives me updates on Miss Stacy changing his diaper, too.

Apparently, he has quite the affinity for Miss Stacy. She cuddles him as I shrink away from the classroom during each drop-off, his cries tugging at my maternal heart strings, and today they had to reprimand him because whenever another child tried to get near her, he would slap them away.

Last year, Anika absolutely ADORED Miss Laura (the main classroom teacher for the Brown Bears) and was 'meh' on Miss Stacy. But boy oh boy does Reni have a new BFF!

Speaking of Anika, she's been rather Scrooge-like with the divulsion of school news. I catch little tidbits here and there, like the fact that Nova now wears big girl underwear but still wears pull-ups at night, 'Like me, mama!' or that she has a teacher named Miss Laura this year, too. Her teachers seem happy with her so far, and she runs into the classroom with no problems, just like last year, but oh how I'd love to be a fly on that wall for a few hours.