Last night before going to bed I added in a little prayer that if needed I would know to check on T. The air quality here has been worse than horrible to and it finally seemed to be catching up to his lungs. In the night I woke up once and didn't feel the urgency to rush downstairs. Then I woke up again and thought I had better.
I went down to his room and found him wrapped up in his blanket like it was a mummy sleeping bag on the hard floor of his room. He has two bunks in his room and this kid choses to sleep on the floor most of the time. Add to that the fact that his room is a wreck. I think the poor kid got his organizational skills from me. Someday I am certain he'll be cursing me.
Anyway, I unrolled him so I could watch his neck as he breathed and he seemed to be breathing just fine. (Maybe there is something to sleeping on an uncomfortable hard floor.) But I couldn't just go back upstairs. He was so quiet and still and that is a rarity for this kid. He rarely holds still. And it gave me a chance to reflect on the day.
Today was parent teacher conference. I went to D's first. I was told like always that he works very hard at school and hates to get things wrong. This is right up his alley. He also had an assignment from his centers that was a very detailed skeleton picture (the outline was a body and the bones were all inside). I guess he's really into skeletons. The subject was to write about your favorite sport. That's kind of how D is. If he gets a bee in his bonnet about something he just seems to have to do it his way. When I got home he asked if I had seen his skeleton. It didn't seem to matter that he hadn't done what the assignment was. I didn't harp on him and told him it was a really nice picture and story, but I wondered when it was going to start talking about his favorite sport. He was thrilled with what I told him about my meeting with his teacher and I wasn't going to rain on his parade.
Then I went to T's. T's report cards are almost always the same academically as well. Everything is top notched except handwriting usually and the obeys the rules/stays on task. Once again. Same ol' same ol'... His afternoon teacher teacher said that I had once said, "You'll know when T is bored." The time has come. I guess T is a bit of a class clown and loves to have every one's attention. The problem is (other than the obvious fact that it's rude to act out) his work isn't always done. She mentioned that she asked him why he was acting out and he told her he was bored. She questioned it a bit as he wasn't always finished. I told her that, although I am not condoning his actions, it is possible to be bored and not have one's work done just because it's too easy and well, he pretty much knew all of what he has done in math before school even started. I said to not worry, I think she is doing a good job but it's hard to not be bored when you either have known a skill for a year already or you understand it in a minute instead of a week. However, we all have to learn to stay on task for something that isn't always super engaging. It happens in every one's job and is pretty much a life skill. They agreed and are planning on getting some math games from the older grades so he can move ahead and have some fun. Then one of his sweet teachers gets a little teary (like eyes going wet and red) and tells me that she wants us to know that they really love T. She reiterated to me how he is so kind to everyone, especially a little girl who is picked on by just about everyone. She said she can't believe how mean kids can be in second grade and that T just isn't mean. It makes me a little teary as I type because that's my boy. He's lucky he has that quality as it makes me forgive his shenanigans in class a bit.
M's parent teacher conference went as expected. Her teacher said she was fabulous. I worried about one test item in math on a standardized test. I have to admit, if it isn't a 100 percent for her I make this little mental note that we need to work on things. Her teacher said not to stress about it as they haven't actually learned the material yet this year. Her goal for the quarter was to turn in her reading calendar for the semester on time. She couldn't come up with anything else. Maybe the goal should be trying to figure out a really good goal. Then her teacher makes me laugh by telling me M told her she did have a secret surprise goal for her teacher. It turns out she is making her a book.
(Blogging interrupted for a little middle of the night snuggling with C.)
S struggled all day today. She can't get out of her funk. I had to pick her up from preschool early so I could make it back to the school on time. She wasn't happy because she was going to miss snack time at school and flipped from her preschool personality to her for mom one. Her favorite preschool teacher saw it and her eyes got huge. People just don't believe that she has it in her. Then S went outside and threw her backpack on the ground and started a little fit. It's bummer she didn't want to take care of her backpack. I'll have to take care of it for a few days. I just wish I could say what triggered the last week because just maybe we could undo things. I'm hoping in the future that maybe writing down the boring details of life here might help me to figure out the puzzle of her mind.
And C today... she was a three year old. I went to Old Navy because rumor has it that today starts an extra 50% off their clearance. Old Navy price adjusts. So I went in and bought my 30 items today in hopes of taking my receipt back. I had S in my cart because she was being snippy with me and C was kind of wandering around. She got a little to wild playing with my friend's little girl and the two started zooming. Immediately my friend goes after them. C had grabbed a bunch of women's underwear and was leaving a trail on the ground as she ran. Needless to say, my friend grabbed her by a ponytail and made her put them back.
(C just took one last kiss and went back to bed.)
So I am thinking that just maybe it wasn't T's breathing that made me want to get up. I hadn't done my habit. I needed a little time for reflection and I just hadn't gotten around to it yesterday. I'll admit, I spent more time than needed just watching T breath. He's so dang sweet when he is still and even the disaster that he calls his room couldn't distract me from remembering his teachers teary eyes as she talked about him today. I really always thought we would get a few tears out of his teachers. I just always thought it would be for a different reason.
Even though so many days feel like failures I think we must be doing something right. I'm glad I could watch T sleep and remember that.
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