March « 2009 « American Family

M’s Hard Day

I knew when I saw the email from M’s teacher that it probably wasn’t good news.

Today, when M was in her other classroom for reading, her kindergarten teacher forgot she wasn’t there and took the class out of the room for scheduled library time. When M returned to her classroom, everyone was gone. She knew they had library next, so she went and looked in the library, but they weren’t there either. Apparently, the teacher took the class to the cafeteria to drop off their coats first before they moved on to the library.

When the class wasn’t in the library or her classroom, M got very scared. She went back to her classroom and hid between a table and the class mailboxes and started crying. By that time, her kindergarten teacher noticed M was missing and went to look for her in the classroom. When she found M, M was a sobbing mess. She was crying so hard, tears and snot were dripping onto the floor.

Seriously, my heart broke a little hearing that story.

When I asked M later why she hid and what she was thinking, she said “I just kept thinking ‘Why would such a nice teacher leave me here all alone? Why would she do that to me?’ ”

The teacher felt terrible. She apologized, gave M some hugs and talked to M about what to do if that ever happened again. We talked about it some more at home too.

When I talked to the teacher about it after school, she mentioned how surprised she was by M’s reaction, even though she knew it was the same reaction that any kindergartner would probably have had. I knew exactly what she meant. M is so verbal and composed so much of the time, it is hard to remember that she is still just a kindergartner and barely six years old.

Luckily, M is pretty resilient. By the time I got there after school, she had moved on from her scary moment. She talked and joked about it (and the crying) like it was no big deal. She is one tough cookie, my baby girl.

Food Challenge: Day 6

Breakfast: Coffee for me. I don’t know what the other hooligans ate.

Lunch: L and I ate my very favorite lunch: tuna helper with rice vinegar and sriracha. Mr. A took leftovers to work and I don’t know what he packed for M’s lunch.

Snacks: Apples. Diet soda.

Dinner: Fried rice & applesauce. Mr. A is still at work, but I am assuming he either had take out or won’t eat until he gets home.

Note: I also used some of my potatoes to make dinner for my sister’s family because they have a new baby in the house.

Food Challenge: Day 5

I spent the day doing various long-delayed home repairs. I painted the Living Room ceiling and started painting our little fence, among other things.

Breakfast: M spent the night at my parents and ate there. L and Mr. A ate oatmeal. Shockingly enough, I had coffee. Again.

Lunch: Mr. A made us all macaroni with beef tomato sauce and cooked spinach. M was not a fan.

Snacks: L ate goldfish crackers. Both girls ate tootsie roll pops that M’s chinese school teacher gave her. I don’t know if the girls had snacks when they visited Mr. A’s sister’s house. I drank diet soda, as did Mr. A.

Dinner: Mr. A, L and I ate homemade Pockmarked Mrs. Chen’s tofu (mapo tofu, picture below in serving bowl w/o rice), bean sprouts and rice. It was too spicy for M, so she ate rice and egg with peas.

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Dessert: Usually, we don’t eat dessert, but we had mango that was perfectly ripe, so I made mango sticky rice. Everyone ate it enthusiastically.

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Food Challenge: Days 3 & 4

We had a busy day doing house repairs, so not much time tonight for navel gazing.

Day 3

Breakfast – Me – coffee & left over mashed potatoes. M & L - PB&J. Mr. A ate the girls’ leftovers

Lunch – Me – Vegetable beef curry soup. L – Rejected soup in favor of crackers. M – school lunch. Mr. A – leftover pork & rice.

Dinner – Homemade pizza with onions & turkey pepperoni. (Don’t ask me how they make turkey pepperoni. I do not want to know.) Also, Mr. A ate more left over pork.

Snacks – Because we are rationing basic snacks (fruit, raisins, crackers), I made a 1/2 batch of oatmeal cookies with a very few raisins thrown in. Also, apples, banana and a few raisins. I drank a diet soda and a glass of wine too.

Day 4

Breakfast – Girls each ate steamed buns. Mr. A ate their leftovers. I drank coffee. I broke into my caffeinated stash because L had a rough night last night.

Lunch – Soup for all (from above) which neither girl particularly liked.

Dinner – M went out to dinner with my parents, the lucky duck. Hamburgers, spinach salad, homemade french fries. I didn’t eat my salad because I discovered a huge number of bug eggs under the salad dressing on one leaf and it almost made me throw up. (Actually, they are making me gag a little now just remembering it.) Mr. A admitted he didn’t wash the spinach. BLECH. Perfectly good spinach went into the trash. Or at least I think that is where it went, Mr. A may have eaten it. Food hygiene is not a big deal for him.

Snacks – (which took the place of lunch because the girls only picked at their lunches) Ants on a log which is what we call bananas w/ peanut butter, raisins and chocolate chips. Mr. A earned a dirty look for handing out the precious few chocolate chips at this early date. I am going to have another glass of wine tonight too.

M’s Hard Day

Food Challenge: Day 5

Food Challenge: Days 3 & 4

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