Alonzo's Fist Day at School

It's official. Alonzo is now a school boy! Unlike when he started daycare at playhouse last year, I didn't feel apprehensive at all about him getting anxious being left in school. 

 

Of course, we had to do the 1st day of school photo-op tradition!

  

 Here's my little preschooler -- smiling and excited -- just before entering his new classroom. 

Speaking of traditions here's another one that I intend to follow through. Thanks to Pinterest for giving me the idea of asking Alonzo's playhouse nurturers to write messages for him on a favorite story book. After each school level I will be asking his teachers to do the same thing.

All of these (books, messages, first day of school photos) will be compiled and presented to him on his college graduation day. It's a looooong way from that but I really love this idea! 

Reading all those messages made me miss Alonzo's playhouse days. He joined playhouse at age 1 year and 4 months. We began with the one-day per week, parent-child program until last year when he started the 3-day, half-day, day care program.  Alonzo has come a long way and it's time to move on. 

Frugal Finds at Merriam and Webster

Thank God it's June! I never thought that I'd actually hope for June to come. Normally I'd wish for summer to last forever and really hope that the month of June (er... back-to-school dread) never to come. Needless to say, we had a busy month of May.   

Anyway, I had a "blast from the past" moment when I stepped in Merriam and Webster Bookstore along Morayta Avenue a few days ago. Flashbacks of my college days at the U-belt area came to me as the sight and scent old books, intermediate pad paper as well as whiffs of dust greeted me on the first floor of the building. 

Holy time warp! I haven't seen watercolor like this (not even in National Bookstore -- or maybe I wasn't just looking) since grade school.

The old lady standing beside me probably thought I was crazy for almost knocking over a basket of rolled wrapping paper as I rushed towards the far end of the 2nd floor. Lo and behold -- shelves and shelves of Stryrofoam letters! I got a little carried away, and yes, even a little tachcardic. I have been planning on creating an alphabet wall since the day I bought ceramic letters from Uniwide. These styro letters come in either upper or lower case sets, script or print. The price essentially depends on its size, between P4.00 to P19.00.   

I also found more books to add to my children's dentist book collection. Alonzo favors the "Maisy, Charley and the Wobbly Tooth" over "Titus's Troublesome Tooth". He didn't particularly like how Titus' tooth fell off when he hit his head on a gate. While the former book gave me a chance to introduce to him the concept of how a baby tooth will eventually fall off and be replaced by a big tooth when he gets older. Understandably, he was excited about the concept of the tooth fairy. "Mama, the tooth fairy is a santa who is a dentist", he told me after explaining the story to him. 

I've been back to the bookstore two times after my first visit and got 2 more books for Alonzo. Too bad, they don't re-stock that often. I should remind myself to lengthen the time between visits.