First Day of Gan!

Yes, folks, the new school year has officially begun. Here in Israel we have a staggered first week of school. Now, I understand the reason is to try to get the kids acclimated, but, honestly, it's a HUGE pain in the neck.
Here's our schedule for this week:
- Monday: 9-10 a.m. with the parent the whole time
- Tuesday: 8-10 a.m. - parent leaves after kid is "ok"
- Wednesday: 8-11 a.m. - same as above
- Thursday: full day (8-4) - FINALLY

I know this may not seem so bad to some of you out there but I am actually just beginning a new job this week so having Tani home for basically the whole day doesn't really work so well. Basically, I have been working in the evenings as I'm being trained and starting Thursday I'll work my normal hours from 9 - 3:30.
To backtrack a little - I got a job! I am working as an Office Manager/Personal Assistant at Kosherica (the big kosher cruise company). They just relocated their headquarters from Miami to Israel this past May because the couple who own the couple moved with their family to Israel. And, conveniently, the offices are in Ramat Bet Shemesh, about a 7 minute drive from our house - yay!
I actually got the job the day before I had Amichai - I went to interview with my very large belly and I basically got the job. The owners of the company were basically on one of their cruises all summer and they just got back at the end of August so I started going in the evenings for training.
I'm really enjoying the work and I'm definitely looking forward to being on a regular schedule. The only stressful part is that until after the chagim, I'm going to have Amichai with me in the office. I just felt like he was too little to have him with a babysitter just yet. Thank G-d, he's a really good baby so I'm hoping that it won't be too difficult. We shall see.

Back to Tani and gan. So today was the first day of him being there for a little while without me. He said goodbye really nicely but by the time I was about 10 feet out the door, the crying began. I stood by the door hoping he would stop any minute, but after about 3 minutes I gave up and left feeling, of course, like a terrible mother. I had told the ganenet that, if it was necessary, he has a blankie in his tik (bag) that he can use as a security item. So that's what he had when I picked him up. Hopefully, after a month or so, he won't need it anymore. We also decided to send one of his small stuffed animals (the infamous monkey) instead of his blankie because the blankies tend to get dragged on the floor and get disgusting.

The other thing about his gan is that it's an all hebrew gan. We are really happy about this because he is definitely at the age where he's ready to learn. But it's also hard because the ganenet basically speaks no english so for the first little while, she'll be simply nodding and smiling whenever he says anything to her. There are several other kids in the gan who speak english so he'll have people to play with. As my mother said, this is definitely harder for me than it is for Tani. I know, I know, it'll be over quickly and before I know it, he'll be translating the letters that come from our insurance company and telling us how much we owe for our car payments this month.

So, I'm basically just wanted to fast forward about a month to when things are all settled and in a nice routine. And, in a month - Momz and Dadz come for Sukkot!! Yay! Let the countdown begin!