Although the weather has been just gorgeous since we arrived in late January. I have no doubt that we will have our fair share of rain for the next six , okay maybe nine months. With that in mind, I ordered my first pair of Wellies and a cool matching rain jacket.

Note: I wanted to get this jacket in green, but green is a different school house color than my kids’ (& my husband’s – the kids inherited their dad’s house color at his alma mater). So no green, but the blue is the school color so I was ‘allowed’ to get it.

*I wrote this post on February 17th, but thought I had erased it before posting it. Just found it…

A couple of days ago, something strange happened as I dropped Nuno off at school. Just like most days, after I pulled up to the curb, the prefects opened the car door and Nuno wrangled his backpack on before jumping out of the car. Just as he got his backpack on and was about to get out of the car I told him I loved him. In that instant my darling boy looked at me and then at the prefects as if to say, “Who she talkin’ to? I don’t know this lady.” And out he jumped unto the curb without looking back at me or replying that he loved me.

Now, “I love you” is something I tell the people I love. If they are the last words that I utter to somone, then there is some peace in my world. I asked Nuno once if he knew I loved him and his response was, “Of course, you’ve told me like a thousand million times!!!”

Well, it’s good that he knows I love him, but this Portuguese mother was not about to stop telling her son she loved him, so we struck up a compromise. I asked Nuno to come up with a coded phrase that will mean I love you when we say it to each other. My darling little boy came up with “Ni hao” to which I replied, “We’re going to say hello in Japanese as our I love you?!?!” Looking at me as if I was an absolute moron, he says, “It’s Chinese mom!”

So day one went well. But it’s just wasn’t enough. So yesterday I asked if I could tell him a million times before we arrived at the drop-off point. Fortunately he agreed. And like music to my ears, his response was, “I love you too mom.”

I just could not resist sharing the pictures I took picture day. Although he was looking happy in the pictures he was not at all pleased with the buttoned collar. I love the look, but I too am thrilled that I do not have to iron that shirt every day.

Every morning I drop off Nuno at the curb in front of his building. He is very pleased to do this on his own, but the school has set up a system where prefects await the younger boys and help them out of the car. If ever I confuse school drop-off with leaving him at a country club it is the mornings. The prefects are so polite. They open the door for the younger boys, help them get their backpacks on and then wish the parents a good day. It is really so lovely!

And here is a picture of him in his class. I love his teacher and love what she has done with this room. Nuno is a lucky boy to have such a great start to school.