Having returned to the world of work I have missed picking Dani up from school. This past week – let’s just say, being in between jobs right now – I have been able to.

When the door flies open at 5pm the first kids to emerge are the youngest. One school year below Dani. Now; my boy is one of the youngest in his school year so there was always the chance he was going to look one of the youngest and smallest in his class/year. In fact, he is neither, but he still seems so small to me.

Best way to gauge their growth…

The thing that caught me by surprise this week was just how small and young the first-year children are. Some of the poor things look like babies in uniforms.

It is easy to think that Dani is hardly growing until you see how he must have looked only a year ago. The best way to see how they grow is comparing them to the following school year not just their own classmates.

Still making me proud…

I was told that he had stopped saying goodbye to all the teachers and assistants when they feed the kids down the steps in a relay pattern to the safety of the waiting parents/grandparents. Fortunately, that was a one-off (maybe a two-off – if there is such a thing).

I am glad to report that he still makes a determined point of bidding them all goodbye and he is still the only one to do it. It makes me smile and immensely proud. In fact, he even made a point of telling the last assistant at the bottom of the steps that I was his papi (dad). As if  he thought they may have forgotten me.

He even made a point of making me look at one of his classmates while he told him ‘es mi padre’ (this is my dad). It seems that Dani misses me picking him up from school as much if not more than I do.