...and those are the weeks I don't feel like blogging. So here's a little rundown of the week and hopefully that will earn me some forgivness for posting late.
Monday-
The week didn't start out too, bad; two children gone (one out sick, the other just because she never comes Mondays). So I got to focus on K, who continued to wet his pants several times despite being sent to the bathroom nearly every half hour. And J, who still refuses to wait to touch materials AND insists on playing with them at the shelf...I think that's a pet peeve of mine actually, very frustrating. Add in a little bit of the usual Monday messes (finding out I forgot to order our food work groceries the week before and had no silverware for lunch) and it was an all right day. So I enjoyed a night of training of the dog and having movie night with my friends. Then Tuesday started.
Tuesday-
Everyone was back on Tuesday. S was back, still recovering a bit from his cold and spent the entire day whimpering, whining and on the verge of tears. Well, except for the time he spent avoiding the classroom and garnering sympathy from the staff in the hallway while he pretended to need to use the bathroom 6 times in 3 hours.... And whenever he was in the classroom he flat our refused to work on anything, even his favorite bead stringing and kept crying if I moved more than 3 feet from him. I did finally let him go lay on a cot for a while, only to see him spinning circles on it and throwing puzzle pieces...so that wasn't really helpful.
Oh, and to top this all of little I was also crying her head off. She misses mom, she was tired, she didn't want to do anything, she didn't want snack. So after about 10 minutes of letting her whimper and trying to find something for her to do I gave up. Yep, that's what I said: I gave up. I told her that when she was done crying I would love to spend some time with her but that I didn't want to be by her while she was crying.
So she kept screaming and hiccuping for nearly 40 minutes. I'd go over to her every now and then and repeat my offer but she usually just started screaming louder so I mainly let her be. Finally she calmed down enough that I let her stand by me and watch me do some work (trying to find something she might want to try) and I finally got her interested in dusting the classroom with C.
And then we had a fire drill. Not our first one of the year but still. So, S screeched and jump right up in to my arms and I calmly carried him out while praying little I wouldn't start up crying again because S is pretty big for a three year old and I wasn't sure I could carry both of them. Luckily she seems to go a bit more to the side of being silently shell-shocked by the fire alarm. Anyways we all made it outside and then of course they were distracted the rest of work time so it was a huge relief to go out to recess. Then I realized it wasn't even Wednesday.
And meanwhile K still had a giant grain spill that he had been cleaning up all morning. Literally, all morning....
Wednesday-
It felt like a repeat of Tuesday (sans the fire drill). S and I both crying most of the morning and not letting me get more than a few feet from them while all the other children are desperate for some new presentations. I actually had to put an end to S going out in to the hallway to use the bathroom because he would simply go out and sit in one of the chairs for 20 minutes...yeah not why we're at school buddy sorry. Of course when I broke the news to him that he was at school to be in the classroom that started a whole new wave of crying. So the morning felt like being in a loop. K even dumped out all the grain again, though at a different table (so you know, I would have different shelves to sweep under).
And so did nap time. J has been refusing to stay on his cot much less sleep for the past 3 weeks. He's gone from being my most consistent napper to the one who keeps me so busy that I can't even leave his side to hush another child or he'll be doing circles around the room. Even bribery with a favorite story book made no impact. Sigh.
And it kept hitting me that it was only Wednesday...
Thursday-
Not quite as much as a loop as Wednesday luckily. S was still constantly on the verge of tears and constantly asking if he could lay on his cot or go to the bathroom. I made it very clear that there would be no cot until nap time and myself and the hallway staff teamed up to make sure that he went directly to the bathroom and came back. No stops to sit and loll around in the waiting chair, no sidetracking to visit his brother, etc.
I was a little nervous about little I because the first thing I see in the morning is a note from her mother saying how she is leaving for a trip and this is the first time ever that I has been away from her; GASP! Ok, ok, I do get that it is a big deal but still...I is almost 3, that just boggles my mind!
And actually I was the happiest she had been all week. I pin that on the consistency of coming to school for a few days in a row. She talked about how her grandma was picking her up and momma was going on a girls trip. So I made sure to give her a presentation right away (before she could ramp up any tears) and between me and M (who's taken her under her wing) little I was pretty happy all day. Constantly asking "When it's the clean-up song we go outside? Momma's gonna pick me up?" but pretty good compared to her usual standard.
J still bounced all around on his cot all nap time and hardly anyone else slept so I had a group of 6 crowded in our little play space afterwards....and then I got home and realized that my exhaustion wasn't all from the kids: I was definitely getting a cold, no matter how hard I wanted to deny it. And I still hadn't swept up all the grain K had dumped out again earlier in the day.
Friday-
Friday was the day I needed after the rest of the week. 4 children were gone--4! It was so nice! Me and my stuffy nose and scratchy throat were so thankful to be able to talk quietly and move slowly all day. K was gone so the grain stayed in the cup (though another child had a pretty big water spill but at least that will eventually clean itself up!) I was gone and with only 6 other children S seemed to feel like he could finally spend enough time with me (and had finally quit asking to lay on his cot!)
I tried to get through as many presentations as possible to make up for being so busy the rest of the week so now those children have some new things to practice.
Then nap time rolled around. J was up to his usual antics but I knew I had to crack down on one of the other children who has also been getting some bad habits at nap and just told him that I couldn't sit with him today. J said ok, lay quiet for maybe 2 minutes then wandered over to sit with me. Every time he did I waited until he squirmed enough to be completely off my lap then sent him back to his cot. Finally he got quiet, his head hanging off the edge of his cot and fingers playing with the dirt on the floor.
Then we got up and I found out why he'd been so still...and laying on his stomach.
"J, the back of your pants look wet, do you need to change them?" Blank look. "Let's go change them."
I'm proud to say that I was smart enough to be prepared with gloves and all my supplies before helping him take of his pants but....let's just say I now feel like I am prepared for just about any other bodily function mess this year.
And that's how the week ended.
Is it vacation yet?
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