What Would Super Mom Do?

MeiMei was sad to see Dad leave for work today, and was a little subdued all day. JieJie was totally cranked up. She did not want to go to school and said that once she got there,"I thought about you and huggles and home and Dad and Sister and all that." On her first day back at school, yesterday, she burst in the door all excited to say she had counted to 100, but today was different.

She tried everything to slow down the process, including eating two whole lunches and writing all over herself with a red body crayon. (Why did I give her the eye pencil sharpener to use on her fat colored pencils?) It seems she did not want to go for a few reasons, among them the fact that a teacher had mistaken her for a 3-year-old. Another was that as the only student who attended afternoons only, she always arrived at naptime and entered a dark classroom.

We got to school a few minutes late, hoping naptime would be over. Once again, the petite JieJie was mistaken by the woman at the door for a member of a younger class. (And MeiMei was told she was a handsome little boy). From what I could deduce, JieJie had actually attended the younger kids' class for at least one day and possibly more, and the teacher I had met and chatted with in the first week of school was the teacher of the younger kids. That explains why JieJie brought home two different lists of school supplies.

JieJie had been in the new school only a week before we left for China and she wasn't too sure about the place. I was starting to understand why, and tried to make her feel better. At the same time, I tried to engage her teacher while jogging MeiMei on my hip. The teacher backed away with JieJie, saying as she went back top her charges, "It would be so much easier if she was a morning student.'' (We had chose the private pre-K because it offered the option of afternoons only, perfect for a mom who works nights and wants to spend mornings with her kids.) JieJie, pulled along by the hand, disappeared into the classroom.

MeiMei and I went left for the grocery. That's when I realized my t-shirt was on inside out.

We went anyway. I wanted MeiMei to get her official initiation at the store that gives kids a free cookie and balloon. The floral counter was oddly bereft of balloons, however. A sign said that there would be no free balloons until further notice because of the "global shortage of helium." I must be even more out of touch than I thought.