What Happened Next

With Em:

She *loved* the new (much too gorgeous, much too blonde, much too young) teacher, who basically kept the kids in stitches the entire day. (Em's favorite part was when she took them on a tour of the school--there are a bunch of new kids--all while pretending to be a tour guide.) She and C got along just fine, and even chose seats next to each other. She's going to have a good year.

With N:

He seemed to have had a reasonably good day. When we came to pick him up, he was in line with the rest of the kids, had his backpack and lunchbox in hand, smiled at us. He hadn't used the potty at school the whole day and han't eaten much of his lunch, but otherwise seemed to have handled it all really well.

On the way home, I was peppering him with questions and he seemed to be getting annoyed, so I finally said, "Can I just ask you one more question?"

"You need to ask me lots more questions," he replied. "I did a lot of things today."

Hee.

This morning was just as heart-wrenching as yesterday, but Mrs. W clearly has his number; when she saw him standing in line, crying, she took his hand and told him very clearly that she wasn't letting go and that she was going to help him into class. (She also took the hand of a teary little girl next to him, so he wasn't alone in his lack of second-day adjustment.) When we picked him up, Mrs. W told us he had had an even better day than his first; she later expanded on that when she called me at home to see if I can come in tomorrow morning to volunteer in the classroom.

"Yesterday, when I would ask the kids to do something, he told me several times that he didn't want to," she said. "But today, the only time he said that was on the way into the classroom, when I told each kid that they had to repeat the Number One poem I'd taught them the first day before they could go in. He just refused to do it, so I said it with him, and he was fine. After that, he never once told me he didn't want to do anything. So that's an improvement! Oh, and he agreed to sit in his place on the rug today, so that's good, too."

So, there you go. Tomorrow I'll be in the classroom in the morning, so we'll see how things go when I have to leave, and whether he'll be able to listen to his teacher when I'm right there. I've got my fingers crossed.

(Did I mention that Mrs. W can't be getting paid enough? Well, it bears repeating. Over and over and over.)