Crooked O!

Here I am on my laptop again, what a convenient way of doing business :) Or just typing to say hello. After a weekend of making the change in attitude towards how to handle this with Jack, I (we) feel so much more at peace with this whole school thing. I was able to have lunch with him today at school to witness first hand why he’s been crying every time he has lunch. Ya know what? I can’t blame him.

I’m just not sure you can expect a 5 year old to “deal with” special needs kids sitting directly across the table. That may sound insensitive and that’s not at all my intent, but these boys (there are 2 who are loud, slam their lunches down, make fun of kids around them) are well, intimidating… even to me. I got to Jack’s school right at 11:55am and signed in at the office. Walked to where the hallway T’s off and see a line of kids walking by. I noticed Jarred who is a boy Jack went to preschool with, walking in the line so I knew that was Jack’s class. I looked to the left, no Jack, I look to the right – there he is 3rd in line. I walked behind his class line of kids for about a minute before he turned around and noticed me. His face beamed – I mean a smile I haven’t seen on him in weeks. He looked back at where his class line was headed, but then turned around again and smiled as if to confirm I was actually there. His teacher noticed me and said “Jack, your mom is here!” She then came back and chatted for a minute, telling me he’d asked all morning if she would call me, “can you call her to make sure she knows what time lunch is? Can you call to make sure she’ll be here?” SO cute. I went up to the front of the line and held Jack’s little hand as we walked into the lunchroom. We followed the directions and “scooched” down the row so all the kids could fit. Then they bring in the group of special needs kids and Jack is instantly nervous. He set his lunchbox up on its end as if to block the kids out, and at first I set it down and said it was alright, no need to do that. But Jack was much more comfortable with it up, so I let him leave it. He was keying in so much on what those 2 boys in particular were doing. Lemme mention the other kids sitting across the table were nice, smiling, non-boisterous kids. No issue there… It’s just the “orange shirt and blue shirt” kids. Like I say, they intimidated me. I guess it’s not important what they were doing, because they truly can’t help it, but from Jack’s perspective? He’s not used to that and quite frankly, I don’t think you can expect a 5 year old to just sit and be fine with it. We have a meeting tomorrow nite at the school with his teacher, nothing we asked for, just a “get to know the parents gig” and so I’m glad we’ll have a chance to talk more to his teacher about this. Sitting in that lunchroom I was stuck between being there as a kid myself and being an overprotective mom wanting to bring Jack home with me.

Not making excuses for him, cause he should not be pushing anybody around – but I’m beginning to wonder if these little episodes aren’t related to the stress he’s feeling. Let’s face it, school isn’t easy! It’s a whole new world to adjust to, people you don’t know, having to be on your best behavior, new place, new potty, new rules. Kids are tough and resilient, but it’s hard. Erk and I have decided that naps will be happening on the days Jack isn’t at school (to which Jack also agreed!) , in addition to our already early bedtimes. Maybe if he can catch up on sleep as well as get in the game as far as this routine, we’ll be all good…

You are probably wondering why the title of this is Crooked O? Well, we got our new window clings (although that’s not the technical name for them!) for our vehicles for the digital scrapbooking website and after it taking 20 minutes to get that thing lined up and on the back window of our truck, today when I went out to leave for Methodist Moms (M2), I saw my “o” from the .com was sticking on top of the www. Part! So I peeled it off ever so gingerly and stuck it best I could back between the c and m. It looks crooked! So that’ll be me, advertising my bizz with a crooked o. Ohh well, maybe that’ll draw extra attention  Or maybe it really doesn’t look all that crooked, I just think it does? Let’s hope that’s the case.
Well, Erk is grilling supper for both of us and I’m gonna relax. Been a crazy day and somewhat emotional roller coaster one at that. Good night!