She gets up in the morning, helps me get her dressed and then she lets us put in her eye drops. She's not quite where she should be in terms of developmental stages, but she's better. I think that if things keep going the way they're going she'll be ready for kindergarten when it's time for her to go.
My problem now is with Jack. He's displaying serious anxiety when he goes to school. He used to jump out of the car and run into the building. He wanted nothing to do with Judy once he got to school; he'd run in by himself. Now he won't do it. He cries.
I spoke to the teacher a couple of weeks ago, when we really started to worry about it. She said that she didn't see anything at school. He seemed happy enough. But then it started to come out that he throws himself on the floor and he cries when an adult corrects him. Most of the time he's fine, happy even, but...
Judy tried to figure it out and she forced him to tell her what was bothering him. He told her that there was this kid who was bothering him. So I got ready to go in there and beat up a 5 year old for bullying my boy, and asked Jack, "So what does ___________________ say to bother you?" Jack's reply was, "I don't like loud places and sometimes he's loud." So he wasn't being bullied.
On top of all of that, his work is coming home incomplete. He does the actual "academic" parts of his handouts, but the coloring is incomplete. He tells us that sometimes he has to stay inside at recess because he doesn't finish his work. The work is done correctly, and the coloring--what's done of it--is perfect. So I'm starting to wonder if he's got a perfectionist streak in him.
So Judy and I both bribed him. If he makes it into school without crying, he can play for five minutes on the playground at school. I told him that if he went 7 school days without crying, I would buy him some tickets to buy games off the Internet for his Explorer. That didn't work--both the short term and the long term didn't work.
So Friday John and I called the guidance councilor at the school. She got the same stories from him that we did. He doesn't like loud places and sometimes the place is loud. When she pulled him from class, though, he started to cry. She's going to keep an eye on him, but in the short term, she's going to introduce him to more of the adults in the school in the morning.
I don't know what the deal is with him. He tends to be a "pleaser." He wants to do well in school to please me, his dad, and his teacher. If he doesn't do his best, or if he makes a mistake, then he cries. If he is reprimanded for any reason--big or small--he cries.
I don't know if this has something to with the fact that Anna has started school and the drop off there is just odd. The teacher comes out to the car to get the kids, so someone comes to Judy's car and takes Anna out of her car seat and brings her into school.
I don't know if something has happened. Did he get yelled at by the cafeteria ladies during breakfast--if they're anything like the ones at my school that is not out of the realm of possibility? Is there someone who is bothering him and he just won't tell us?
I don't know what the story is. I really don't, but I'm so worried about him.
On a happier note, the birthday party was an absolute success. The Minions cake came out well and the party was fun. That night, John took Jack to see the Harlem Globetrotters and that was, quite possibly, the best thing that ever happened to Jack. He loved it. He didn't quite get that it was a big joke, though. When he was telling me about it, he said, "Mama, the team we were rooting for was really silly!" Funny. He's still talking about it. Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.
Hopefully we'll be able to top it next year.
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