This Monday morning has been a bit bumpy for us. It started off with a baby who woke up too early (though, thankfully, he went back to sleep). Followed by lots of bumps and bangs by the same little boy, who climbs everywhere and gets into everything. Drool, throw up, boogers and little pieces of silly putty everywhere (hopefully none in the belly). Mornings are always a blur–between feeding and changing the baby, making breakfast for the other boys, throwing in a load of laundry, packing Brayden’s lunch and emptying the dishwasher, the bus is here before I know it, and I haven’t had anything to eat yet.

Today, I had to send a teary eyed child onto the bus. He was sad all morning, moping around. He wanted to stay home and keep playing with his legos. The funny thing is that he barely played with legos all weekend–in fact, he’s barely been playing with them at all. He asks for lego sets all the time, and he wants some for his birthday. We’ve been telling him that we aren’t going to get him any new legos if he does start playing with the ones he already has. I don’t have any ideas! I can’t come up with anything. So, this morning, after wandering around nearly for two days not knowing what to do with himself, he finally started playing with the legos–and then, of course, it’s time for school. So, he hung his head while putting on his shoes. And then silly me decided it was a good time to ask if he’s been staying on “green” at school lately. He told me that he got on yellow a few times–he used to come home and tell me right away. Now, I suppose I’m going to have to start asking daily. Two of the incidents were from lunch. . . he “smashed’ someone’s styrofoam tray (because sometimes he thinks he’s funny when he does stuff like that), and he laughed at someone else when they spilled their yogurt. Apparently lunch ladies talk to teachers about these “incidents”, because they carry over into the classroom where he was put on yellow. The final thing was what made Brayden cry about three minutes before the bus came. He told me that he (along with one other student) were put on yellow for looking at the chicks that had just hatched in their classroom. Their teacher was doing some testing with kids, and he said many kids were going up and looking at the chicks. And then he did with another friend, and they were the only ones “seen”, so the two of them were put on yellow for not being in their seats. He didn’t understand why none of the other students were put on yellow for it–so I explained to him that sometimes he needs to ask for clarification from his teacher. Poor kid. I just don’t understand why just me and him were put on yellow.  We weren’t even making any noise! And a bunch of other kids did it too. This isn’t the first time where he hasn’t understood why he’s been put on yellow, but I really do need to emphasize that he needs to try to ask for an explanation if he doesn’t understand.

We wiped the tears and I sadly sent him off on the bus before getting a chance to really finish the conversation. I hope I remember to talk to him again when he comes home.

Some mornings just make me wonder if I’m doing things right.