This week Jack has been having a little trouble going to school, sort of hitting a bit of a low after realizing that this is life for the next five months. And in his defense, he's also had a return of the ear infections that occasionally plague him. He had to stay home from school on Monday and Tuesday, so he got used to mornings with a parent and even cartoons on TV (cartoons are cartoons, even if they are in Castellano).
On Wednesday when I took him to school I left him sobbing in his teacher's arms, happy that preschool teachers here are the same at home: they all know that in such cases hustling parents out the door is far better than prolonging goodbyes (she and I had a funny moment when I thought she was telling me to give Jack a kiss, when if fact she was turning her own cheek for the hello/goodbye kiss everyone exchanges - a few head bumps were the only casualty of my latest misunderstanding).
Well, not all preschool teachers are alike...
When Erin came home with Jack that afternoon she first told me that Flopi (seriously, that is Jack's teacher's name) reassured her that Jack didn't cry long after I left, and that she also calmed him by giving him a piece of candy.
We were both cracking up and kinda horrified. Aside from the sorta shaky dietary issues (and I won't even get into the fact that Jack is supposed to avoid high fructose corn syrup and other "foods" because they are apparently interfering with his immune system, which we'd like to be kicking in in high gear, especially right now) I don't think Jack is very different from any other preschooler - he figures things out pretty quickly. Even his father would soon realize that just a few tears in the morning lead to a piece of candy! It just seems so obvious to me and Erin, but I don't see every student bawling his or her eyes out every morning, so what do I know?
Then again, today is the last day before Winter Break so there are class parties for both Quinn and Jack. Flopi informed Erin that Jack is one of the kids responsible for bringing drinks to today's bash: two big bottles of soda! I have no idea what else the little guys will be sucking down. Cotton candy? Pop Rocks? Those huge straws filled with a few tablespoons of dyed sugar? A slow drip of Karo's Syrup each kid can mainline? Needless to say, I can't wait for the boys' return from school today - I'm sure they'll be calmly in bed by 7:30 pm. With visions of sugar plum fairies skanking through their technicolor dreams.
We love the school otherwise, btw!
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