Gabriel: the boy who wanted vacation to end, and school to start

Both boys are happy with their school, with their class, with their teachers.

For Maxime, he was worried at first, because his friends are now in the other class, not his. They change things around every year.

But, he's happy anyway, and is happy to make new friends. He seems very content.

His big love is swimming. They moved him up to the next "class", so it goes up a notch, so to speak. A new coach, for the more mature swimmers. He will be going three times a week minimum, whereas last year it was twice a week. The swim training is at the swim center in Vire, not at school.

And Gabriel, before school started, was driving us crazy with:

"When is school going to start?"

Mama dug out a handy "how to learn time and dates" wooden calendar, and set up the pegs to show what today's date was (16 August), and then pointed to when it would be school (02 September).

Gabriel let it sink in, then looked away for a moment in concentration.

He then summarily pulled the August peg out, and stuck it into "September" instead. He stared happily at the calendar without moving. Then he smiled broadly.

Another thing he insisted upon back in August was to make up a specific calendar to show how many days were left until school started, so that he could cross out each molasses day as it passed.

Here is the completed calendar, with all the days gleefully crossed out:

And here is a closeup of the All-Important Day, the 2nd of September:

When the night before September Second arrived, he was so excited and pleased. We noted, however, that his handmade calendar had disappeared. It was no longer applied by magnet to the fridge, where it had hung with absolute reverence for a month and a half.

"Gabriel, where is your calendar?" Natalya a I asked simultaneously.

He walked over to the kitchen trashcan, lifted the lid, and there it was.