Queenie Mama for President

Tyler and I were just talking, and he said that if he could vote, he would vote for whoever was losing (my baby is so sensitive). I said that no matter what, he should always vote for the person who will do the best job for the country. Halle swung around in surprise, and said 'mommy, you're the best one for the job', like Tyler and I were stupid for not having figure that out. Who wants to be my running mate? Sorry, Gabe, but Abe Lincoln, watch out. Halle just nominated her momma.

Election Day

I went, got there around 7:30/7:40 and there was a small line but I didn't wait very long before a booth opened up. I spent a good amount of time reading up on local propositions, and I was really proud that I felt like I made informed votes on all of those. My boss was in line for a really long time though, but she lives in a white, upper middle class/upper class area... average age 40, average household income probably 3/4x mine. I was busy busy busy yesterday edumacating myself on all my local propositions. There were a couple that were really hot items 'round here... a lot of finger pointing and drama about what the end results of these props would really be and two that had one side accusing the opposite side of misleading the public. And of course the other ones no one knew anything about cuz all anyone talked about were props 200 & 400. So I did a little bit of researchin', and when I stopped on my way to work to get my little 'I VOTED TODAY' sticker.

Halloween

I wish 'Halloween' would be moved and simply celebrated the last Saturday of October. I'm sure my children are just gems in school today after last night. We went to Enchanted Island Amusement Park like we usually do. We did that for a little over an hour then headed home in hopes of t/t'ing for a little while. I think next year we need to t/t first, then go to Encanto. The party is from 5PM until 9PM, and I noticed that after 6PM, the loooong line for ride bracelets disappeared. By the time we got home around 7:30PM, about half the porch lights were out, so we only went to about six houses before the 'unofficial' end of t/t'ing at 8PM. The kids had a great time; we talked in advance about leaving the park and Tyler did AWESOME; when I said it was time to go, he said 'OK'. Halle pouted for about a second. Daija had mixed feelings about the event. She looked very serious during all the rides she went on, but pitched a fit every time I took her off a ride. She just didn't get that she was going to get on a different one in minute. I was laughing at myself, shoving her into her stroller as she kicked and screamed, then digging frantically for a piece of candy to placate her until the next ride. What a model of parenting skill. But she just LOVED t/t'ing. She was sooo cute; she was not shy at all about walking up to doors and holding out her candy bag. Of course Tyler and Halle would get to the door first, and then after she got her candy she would race after them as fast as her tiny little legs would carry her. Her costume was hooded, and bulky, so her balance was a little off and she didn't have much peripheral vision. She would be running along and at the corner where the sidewalks would meet the driveway, every single time she stepped off the pavement into the grass with one foot, and went tumbling. She never made a whimper though... tolerated me picking her up, then shoved me off so she could retrieve her bag, and she was running again, just as fast as her little legs would go. I tried to teach the kids how to sing 'Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat'. I have clearly spent too much time lecturing them about manners. Tyler was pretty tentative singing it, and Halle got mad at him every time he said it. He'd sing it, and she's say 'Ty-LER' through gritted teeth. I never did get Daija to say trick or treat, but she did say 'day-doo' (thank you) at the last house.

I just printed off a bunch of info about all these different propositions for the election tomorrow... man, this requires way too much brain power.

Magic Fog & Sky Spit

This morning there was this thick, heavy fog, which Halle has never seen before. It was so thick that I could only see about two houses ahead of me while driving this morning. She asked where it came from; I told her it was magic here for Halloween. Her eyes got sooo big. Which reminds me of when it rained last week; Daija doesn't really remember the last time it rained. We were outside and some drops fell on her face, and she kept saying 'eeeewwww' and wiping her face; I think she thought she was getting spit on :)

yikes...

I only have until Friday or Saturday to do my benefits changes. I just sat down and estimated, what my contacts and Halle & Tyler's Rx's and well visits for all of us are going to cost me next year, taking into consideration the increases in my copays and that Tyler's pediatrician thinks his vision is about 20/30 and he's probably going to need glasses soon, how much money I need to put in my medical TFSA. (sigh) $800.

Hell, again...

I had to talk to Halle's teacher yesterday and give her a heads up that one of Halle's friends from class told her that if Halle went trick or treating, she would 'go down to the devil'. Well, I wasn't thrilled by it because Halle gets upset any time she and Hasani have a disagreement, but I know it wasn't said out of malice. I know the little girl very well and she is a sweet little soul. She always runs up and hugs me whenever she sees me and on Monday told me that she wishes I was her mother. I've met her parents, and they are also lovely people. They obviously don't celebrate Halloween, and I'm sure that they've had to try to explain to their little girl why she doesn't get to dress up or go Trick or Treat, and their reasoning is probably that they believe it is Satanic or otherwise sinful in nature, that God wouldn't like it, etc. She's just repeating what her parents believe, but she's still at an age where everything is either black or white - good or bad - right or wrong. I only brought it up to her teacher because Halle may choose to disclose her version of what we discussed if the subject comes up again at school. I wanted her teacher to be aware of what was going on in case Hasani's parents call with any concerns that Halle told Hasani something that is contradictory to their religious beliefs.

Huffing

So I took a plunge from one of the skyscraper high diving boards of parenting today and talked to Tyler (and Halle) about huffing. I've been dreading having to do this for so long... you just never want to have to be the one to tell your kids about the bad stuff. But if he doesn't hear about it from me first... I don't want to think about where and how he'll learn it. He'll be in Jr. High next year. He knows that drugs are bad, and says all the time that he won't do them... he understands that there are legal and illegal drugs, etc. But huffing is something he might not understand is a 'drug.' I've been getting these newsletters from www.theantidrug.com (that's me, btw, in case y'all haven't heard the PSA's), and today there was a link to a newspaper article about a couple boys in Michigan that died (Second Bay City teen dies after 'huffing' accident). I took it home and had him read it, and we talked about what it means to get high... he thought it meant get taller. Can you just imagine, my little baby who is always complaining about being short and wanting to grow, being offered a way to 'get tall?' He'd sign right up. So I explained that sometimes people use drugs to get high, and it's kinda like people using alcohol to get drunk. And I told him how I hope it never happens, but that some time someone might ask him to get high by breathing some fumes, or smoking something, or taking a pill, or sniffing something into his nose, or injecting something in his arm with a needle. I told him how sometimes kids think that it's not dangerous to breathe in fumes from paint or gas because you can buy it at the store, but that it's still really dangerous... it makes you do stupid things like light cigarettes by gas and cause fires, and the chemicals can hurt your body so bad that you can be sitting at home and just fall over dead, even if you're only 14 years old, or 12 years old, or 10, or 8. I told him that getting high can make you hurt people, and steal from people, even people you love like your family. I told him how if a woman is pregnant and does drugs it can hurt her baby so bad the baby can die, or be born with something wrong with it's body, or with brain damage that would make it hard for the baby to learn in school. He wanted to know how I learned so much about drugs, so I told him my introduction to the concept (Elvis) and then he looked at me like I was stupid and commented, 'you know I'm going to think about this tonight when I'm trying to go to sleep' and I told him I wished I never had to ever tell him anything scary or bad, but that I have to make sure he understands how dangerous huffing is. But he's sleeping sweetly now, so hopefully 'Pirates Past Noon' was what he was thinking of after I turned out the light

Halle Update

Halle's still writing her morning message every day... and last week she got 100%'s on both her spelling and math tests. I guess only one of the other 2 kids in her class got 100 on the math. My baby girl is smart :)

In other news...

I've started calling Daija 'Houdini'... I swear she can get into and out of anything. I had to put the extra tall baby gate up at my bathroom entry to keep her out of my makeup. The only thing two baby restraints she can't get out of are her carseat and her feeding chair. She can get into the fridge. If the deadbolt isn't on, she can get out of the house and into the garage. My garage door is weighted... it won't stand open by itself, it's heavy so it will swing shut. HALLE has trouble opening it. But Daija followed me out into the garage two or three times over the weekend. I had to put a flip lock on the pantry to keep her out of it.

Tyler and Halle both brought home perfect attendance awards Friday, and Tyler also brought home an honorable mention award... not bad for a kid who was failing second grade a year ago. I need to remember to call Halle's teacher (someone remind me) to find out if she's doing her morning message every day. I keep forgetting to take that stamp to her teacher.

MAJOR Announcement!!!

Those of you who are mothers will understand... the rest of you will think I'm insane. But I'm OK with that... It's nothing I haven't known for a long time...

Daija came to me tonight, grabbing her backside and saying 'boo boo' (translation: I got #2 in my diaper). I said OK, let's go get it cleaned up and went to the laundry room, where our changing station is. She walked right past me, and started down the hall. When I went to grab her to take her in to the changing pad, she took off running. Went straight to the toilet and tried lifting the lid (which, for a change, was down like it's supposed to be). I asked her, Do you want to sit on the potty? And she replied 'Poh-yee'. So I grabbed the little toilet training insert and got her on there... and sure enough, she finished the last of her 'boo boo' IN THE TOILET!!!

Life is good

SUMBITCH

No other way to describe it. I ask Tyler about his day over dinner, and he tells me something about the school being shut down because there was a crazy person with a gun. I'm thinking, naaaah. I check their backpacks... and in each one is a lovely notice from the principal to inform parents that the school was on lockdown from 7:20 until 8:35 while the police were investigating a shooting at 28th & Chipman, which I believe is less than a mile away.

Halle Update

Well, so far so good. Ro and I had a good long talk with Halle of the good cop, bad cop variety. I did the, 'we want you to learn' and he did the 'you'll deal with me if I hear any more reports like this'. I picked up some stickers and told her that I'd put one in her box on the calendar for every day that she wrote her morning message. I'm going to drop off a little hand stamp with her teacher, so that when Halle turns in her morning message, she can stamp her hand, then I know to give her a sticker. I told Mrs. B.A.G. that I was going to focus on improving just that one area for now, in hopes that getting her off on the right foot first thing in the morning will carry over into the rest of the day, and that once Halle is doing her morning message regularly, I'll focus on another problem area. Apparently Halle came into class both yesterday and today and got out her paper and pencil and got to work, so teacher says it seems to be working so far. Let's hope she keeps it up!

The birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees...

Tyler actually got in trouble last Thursday at PAC because he and another boy were talking about sex and privates. I talked to Tyler and he said that Rashaad said that Tyler had a pretend girlfriend and he was pretending to have sex with her. I was giggling when I asked Tyler if he knew what sex was, and he burst out, exasperated, 'No, I don't, and that's why I never pretend to do it!' Anyway, at that point I could totally see how Tyler would have felt compelled to yell back 'no I'm not having sex' etc. I've always had the approach that if they're old enough to ask, they're old enough to know... and while Tyler knows how babies grow and how they get out, and all the 'correct' names for body parts, he's never asked how babies start or exactly what sex is. But I think we need to have that talk. I love his naivete, but I don't want it to cause him to be a target for being coaxed to do or say inappropriate things (like yelling 'I'm a gaylord')...

oooh, aaaah

... I lost my bra, I left it in my boyfriends car.

Gawd, I love other people's children.

Edited Version:

Oooh, aaaah, I lost my car, I left it at the shopping mall

3rd presidential debate

I didn't see any of the other debates but I did catch about half of this one. I was really bothered by Bush deflecting the question on minimum wage and going off on a tangent about NCLB for a couple reasons. While I believe that better education leads to better wages, I don't think NCLB is going to do that, and frankly, there are educated people out there who are having trouble staying employed so I really was disappointed by his insinuation that the problems in our economy are because of a failure in the education system. There are a lot of educated people who are unemployed and under employed, and the issues in our public education system are not to blame for that. I also wish he would have rebutted some of Kerry's remarks with something more substatial than stating Kerry didn't know what he was talking about. I'd have liked to have heard a detailed, concise, and solid reason or reasons WHY he thought Kerry was wrong.

Tyler & Halle's Conferences

Parent teacher conferences were about two weeks ago - had Tyler's first and he's doing really well. No behavioral problems, his focus/attention is good. He's not consistent with getting his homework turned in though - but that's almost to be expected with him. Other than that, his handwriting is now what she considers grade level, and she confided that his handwriting is not the worst in the class by any means. BUT, it is still laborious for him, which is one of two problems contributing to the improvements he needs to make in language arts. Because it takes him so long to write, he often loses his thought before he's done with the physical activity of writing. He does anything and everything he can to cut whatever he is writing about short - very few details, frequently fragmented sentences. She feels his analytical/logical nature also is a hindrance and she wants him to work on being silly/funny/creative in writing, and that it's OK to write about a character in a way that you wouldn't talk about a real person (like maybe make the character ugly, or crazy, or stupid, etc). So that's going to be our focus for him with his tutors. Oh, and his reading fluency doesn't match his comprehension and apparently Tyler interests lie in/he is choosing books that are beyond his fluency so I need to help him work on that.

Pleased as punch, I head over for Halle's conference. I got over to see Mrs. A.G., and I didn't think it was going to go well when she started off by saying 'Halle, Halle, Halle'. I commented as such, and she told me she is not very happy with my daughter right now. She said she thinks she is a very sweet girl, but she is not happy with her. Apparently, Halle does *nothing*. She comes into class with a smile on her face, but then goes to her seat and sits there, and usually does nothing while the rest of the class writes the morning message "Good Morning. Today is (month, day)." I swear to all that is I almost fell out of my seat when she told me this story.... the other day B.A.G. told her she couldn't have treat or free time or whatever was going on that day until she did the Wednesday morning message - which Halle did. But the on Thursday, thinking it had worked well the day before and she gave Halle the same instruction, Halle came to her two minutes later and said 'I'm done!' She had taken the paper she used Wednesday and erased Wednesday and 29, and wrote Thursday and 30 in their place. I was so glad Halle was not there; I couldn't have held it in. B.A.G. told me she thought it was pretty funny too, but would never tell Halle that. She figures if Halle was smart enough to do that, Halle is plenty smart enough to be writing the message every day like she's supposed too. B.A.G. tells me that she looks at Halle, and Halle looks at her, and she looks at Halle, and Halle looks at her. She says she gets the impression Halle thinks it's her job to sit there and look pretty; she will look over and Halle will be straightening her skirt, or adjusting her socks, etc. She gets a 100% on almost every spelling test, and got an 85% on the last reading test. Academically Halle is one of her best students, but she isn't doing anything to demonstrate that. She has moved her seat several times, no results. She has tried time outs, but that seems to suit Halle just fine (I can agree, Halle used to put herself in time out all the time). She's at a loss, I'm going to try and figure out a way to give her some incentive that will be easy for B.A.G. and I both to follow through on. She and I also talked about kinder standards and how lax the other kinders in the school and district seem to be. I told her how I was totally overwhelmed at the first of the year by her pace but had to say I am so impressed because obviously it isn't overwhelming the kids and they are clearly rising to the challenge, Halle included. She complimented my list of questions and asked where I got them, so that made me feel like a good mom :)

Pro-life? Look at the fruitsby Dr. Glen Harold Stassen

I am a Christian ethicist, and trained in statistical analysis. I am consistently pro-life. My son David is one witness. For my family, "pro-life" is personal. My wife caught rubella in the eighth week of her pregnancy. We decided not to terminate, to love and raise our baby. David is legally blind and severely handicapped; he also is a blessing to us and to the world.
I look at the fruits of political policies more than words. I analyzed the data on abortion during the George W. Bush presidency. There is no single source for this information - federal reports go only to 2000, and many states do not report - but I found enough data to identify trends. My findings are counterintuitive and disturbing.
Abortion was decreasing. When President Bush took office, the nation's abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4% decline during the 1990s. This was an average decrease of 1.7% per year, mostly during the latter part of the decade. (This data comes from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute's studies).
Enter George W. Bush in 2001. One would expect the abortion rate to continue its consistent course downward, if not plunge. Instead, the opposite happened.
I found three states that have posted multi-year statistics through 2003, and abortion rates have risen in all three: Kentucky's increased by 3.2% from 2000 to 2003. Michigan's increased by 11.3% from 2000 to 2003. Pennsylvania's increased by 1.9% from 1999 to 2002. I found 13 additional states that reported statistics for 2001 and 2002. Eight states saw an increase in abortion rates (14.6% average increase), and five saw a decrease (4.3% average decrease).
Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.
How could this be? I see three contributing factors:
First, two thirds of women who abort say they cannot afford a child (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Web site). In the past three years, unemployment rates increased half again. Not since Hoover had there been a net loss of jobs during a presidency until the current administration. Average real incomes decreased, and for seven years the minimum wage has not been raised to match inflation. With less income, many prospective mothers fear another mouth to feed.
Second, half of all women who abort say they do not have a reliable mate (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life). Men who are jobless usually do not marry. Only three of the 16 states had more marriages in 2002 than in 2001, and in those states abortion rates decreased. In the 16 states overall, there were 16,392 fewer marriages than the year before, and 7,869 more abortions. As male unemployment increases, marriages fall and abortion rises.
Third, women worry about health care for themselves and their children. Since 5.2 million more people have no health insurance now than before this presidency - with women of childbearing age overrepresented in those 5.2 million - abortion increases.
The U.S. Catholic Bishops warned of this likely outcome if support for families with children was cut back. My wife and I know - as does my son David - that doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical insurance, special schooling, and parental employment are crucial for a special child. David attended the Kentucky School for the Blind, as well as several schools for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. He was mainstreamed in public schools as well. We have two other sons and five grandchildren, and we know that every mother, father, and child needs public and family support.
What does this tell us? Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, health insurance, jobs, child care, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need policies that provide jobs and health insurance and support for prospective mothers.
Glen Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, and the co-author of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, Christianity Today's Book of the Year in theology or ethics.

Monday, back to work...

Well, I feel like I worked all weekend. My weekend was pretty good - productive. Got a lot of work done in the yard yesterday, and a lot of house cleaning... and I rearranged by bedroom. I think I have a little more space this way, even though I had to give up a little 'Fung Shui' to do it. There are only two walls I can put my bed on, and it just so happens that the one that makes sense for the bed, faces the door. But not directly, so I consoled myself with that. The wall that my bed was on is really better suited for an office nook. Anyway, it seems to look better this way, and I can actually feel my ceiling fan now... and I can see my TV from the bathroom (on those rare occasions I remember to check the weather channel!) Got the kids' Halloween pictures done, and I am now counting down to our appointment for family holiday portraits on 10/30. I have 4 more pounds to go by then... I've decided that breaking this weight loss down into five pound increments works a little better! So I'm focusing on getting down to 135 by the end of this month - that probably where I need to be to fit comfortably into most if not all my winter clothes. I probably already told you about my wardrobe crisis; I'm trying really hard to buckle down. I had gotten down to 138 and then shot back up to 144. I went back to phase 1 last week and did pretty well despite the obstacle of a couple oatmeal raison cookies... I took off four pounds. I'm down to 139 now and I'm so excited that 130 is actually on the horizon! Then I'm going to give myself until the PAI Christmas Party to lost another five. I had wanted to get to somewhere between 125-130, so I'm going to see after I get to 130 how that looks/feels before I decide to stay there. Of course, these are very lofty goals considering the holidays approaching. But I made up a 4/5 week meal plan last week and I think that's really going to help. I wrote down specific days for eating out, which are about half as often as we have been. I think I may just rotate the same plan instead of making a new one every month. Five weeks is a pretty long time to go between having the same meal twice...

Five year old girls: Built to cause terror...

Thus goes my Friday afternoon:

3:15PM My cell phone rings. Tyler indicates to me that Halle is not at PAC (Phx Activity City, after school program at MLK).

School is dismissed at 12:30PM on Fridays.

I ask to speak with Miss Nikki, who tells me that Tyler asked to call, and that she had not seen Halle all afternoon, and had thought I had picked her up early or something.

I call the office, and inform the dumb *** secretary (seriously, I think she's an idiot) that Halle is not in PAC. She seems to think *I* should know where Halle is, and informs me that the teachers are all in a meeting. I inform her that I left Halle in the school's custody this morning, therefore I expect her teacher to be able to tell me where my daughter went when school was dismissed, and I need to speak with her NOW. She goes to get her, and B.A.G. tells me that after school, Halle and another student who go to PAC were walking to the cafeteria after school. I inform her that Halle never arrived there, and she indicates that they will do an all call and search the campus. I try to call Salvation Army; their rec center is where ASU's Service Learning Program that Halle and Tyler attend on Tu/Th is, but their line is busy.

3:25PM With most of my coworkers huddled in my cube, I call 9-1-1. I am praying she's at salvation army, but if she's not, someone has a three hour head start with my baby girl and I figure Phoenix PD can check all possible places I think she might be in the time it would take me to get to my car.

3:28PM I hang up with 9-1-1, try Salvation Army again and get through; the old guy who volunteers at the front desk puts me on hold.

3:29PM I get call waiting from the school, click over to Nikki who tells me Mrs. Poole (the attendance clerk; she has a clue and I really like her) got in touch with Salvation Army and Halle went on a field trip with the ASU tutors.

3:30PM Having been disconnected from Salvation Army, I call back and Mr. Volunteer puts me on hold, and gets Miss Janet (preschool director at the Salvation Army) who tells me that she saw Halle with someone from the ASU 'Garden Club' (comprising of the tutors from the SLP). I inform her that I have never heard of the Garden Club, and would love to know why the HELL anyone would take my five year old daughter on a field trip without my knowledge or consent. She says she will go and search the community center for Halle, and I ask her to please do so, so that I can call off the swat team.

3:35PM I am on the phone with ASU's switchboard trying to find out who the Hell is in charge of the Garden Club and where they took my damn child; Miss Janet calls back and tells me that she found Halle in the rec center Library. Apparently Halle got there, realized she was not supposed to be there, and being unsure what to do, just went to the Library with the 'Library Lady', and never mentioned to anyone that SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE.

3:38PM I call back to 9-1-1, who informs me that the police have been at MLK for 11 minutes. I explained that I was en route from work, but had just gotten a call and that Halle was at Salvation Army. Ms. 9-1-1 says she'll have the officer meet me there.

I have to give major props to Phx PD - by the time I had tracked Halle down by phone, they had already been to the school and had knocked on all my neighbors' doors... they also beat me to salvation army. I don't think Halle was scared (in her mind, she was in a safe place) at all until I got there and she saw how upset I was and that I had called 9-1-1.

First day of school

We managed to get up and out of the house yesterday! On time, running smoothly. Ro went with us to school; I could tell he was a little 'alarmed' by the school. It's about 50 years old; the school Tyler went to was only 2/3 years old and from what I heard, they went way over budget. It's also about 50/50 Black/Hispanic, with only a handful of white kids and I could tell he was going to the stupid place about that too. He started asking me about private schools which I'm against at this point; there are none in this area I'd be willing to send the kids too, and I can't drive across town for the two/three programs I'd be willing to try. We had a heart to heart
about the quality of the teachers vs. the size of the budget and I think he really came around to see my point of view. I pointed out how well Tyler has done there at the 'gangsta' school and how much trouble he was having at the 'country club' school... and said that if when the kids get older they aren't getting what they need there I'll be happy to revisit it but I really feel like it's important for them to be where they are for now.

Tyler had a great day... all the kids from last year are still in his class, except one of the James' who is still at the school but apparently not in the gifted program anymore. This James was the James who wasn't a particularly good influence, so I can't say I'm unhappy that they won't be
in such close quarters. There are two new boys, and three or four new girls. Mrs. H said he was a little talkative, but that was to be expected.

The kindergarten teachers at MLK don't have teacher's aides (!!!) so I wound up doing that all day yesterday. The kids are just priceless... and a couple of the girls have really high aspirations for kinder. During 'circle time', Mrs. A/G was asking the kids what they wanted to learn. Most kids said read, write my name, one kid wanted to learn to do a cartwheel. But Hasani wants to learn to be a mother, either Kayla or Krishelle wants to learn to be a doctor, and Halle announced that she already knows how to read, so she wants to learn how to baby-sit babies. I really like Hasani, she told me while giving me a hug that I have a really small stomach. Made it a point to introduce myself to her mother ;)

Halle's day had ups and downs... she started off with a bang... happily waved goodbye the first time I went to check on Tyler. Things started to go downhill at the potty/water break. There are 15 girls and 4 boys. There are four stalls in the kinder bathroom. Needless to say, there was a wait for the girls room. It was very hot. Halle is not about being uncomfortable. So 30 minutes or so later, when the teacher needed to turn in attendance and coupled that with a tour of the school so all the kids would know where the nurse and office was, Halle decided it was too hot for a walk so she would just stay in the classroom with me while I made writing packets. I wound up going on the tour of the school. Then, when they started an activity, Halle decided to join me at the work table, and got teary when I sent her back to her seat. When I left to grab something to drink & check on Tyler, she cried. this is when I returned and she wasn't working. I asked her what was wrong, she said she didn't' know what to do. So I'm going over directions, and Mrs. A-G informs me that she knows what to do, because she had turned around to tell someone else what to do. She eventually finished her assignment, and did great at lunch. Cried when I left her room to have lunch with Tyler... when I came back, still not really working. Finally Halle starts working, and almost completes the sheet before Art. She went happily to art without me, and I finished homework folders and chatted a little with her teacher. She did a little better with the activity they did afterwards, but was still more concerned with correcting the mistake the child next to her was about to make than she was with completing her own work. She went to PAC (Phoenix activity city after school program held in he gym), and wanted to stay. So I left for an hour; apparently while I was gone, Miss L. Jones (gifted 2nd grade) went
into the gym, and Halle asked her to stay 'I want an adult to watch me'... apparently Halle wasn't satisfied with the three adult staff members of the program. After we got home, I checked her backpack and her homework was missing. When I questioned her about it, she responded 'I didn't want it.' I asked, 'Where is it?' and she replied 'I put it in the trash at school.' I have explained that the homework was not an optional activity. Last night I told her what a great kindergartener she was, and then went on to explain that I would not be able to stay with her Tuesday because I had to work. She indicated she did not want to go back to school, and that she would rather stay with Crystal. She started to cry, but calmed down when I started naming some of the kids who would really miss her. First thing this morning she did not want to go to school, but by the time she was dressed she seemed fine... I took her to school and waited until she had gotten breakfast and that's all I know. I'm really curious to see how day two went. I have about another hour till school gets out and I'm just dying to know.