Original post date: October 30, 2012
A couple of weeks ago we made our annual pilgrimage to the Texas State Fair. It's just our luck that the beloved Big Tex burned down the day before we were there. I think the publicity from that may have contributed to the enormous crowds this year. Also, only in Texas would it be 90 degrees outside in the middle of October. The trip wasn't a total bust though. We still managed to eat a few crazy things. My splurge was a fried bacon cinnamon roll. Tiffany opted for a fried red velvet cupcake. We also ate other healthy things such as nachos and corn dogs. Our friends Matt and Lisa joined us at the fair, and their daughter was a perfect companion for Ethan on some of the rides. Afterwards we went back to their house, drank some wine, and solved all of the world's problems. Sunday we had a few errands to run in the big city before heading back home.
Monday was back to business as usual. When I picked up Ethan from school, I was informed that he had been to the office earlier in the day for throwing a crayon at his teacher. To my knowledge, this is the first real discipline problem he has had at school. The teacher wasn't really sure what set him off, and the best I could get from Ethan was that they weren't his crayons and they were in his way. We talked about just moving the crayons, or politely handing them to his teacher. He seemed to understand, and we all chalked this up as an isolated incident. The next day when I dropped him off at school, one of the girls in his class immediately ran over to him and informed us that we shouldn't throw crayons at the teacher. There in the moment I did have to reiterate that she was right, but the teacher came over and broke up the conversation. She said it was best not to dwell on it. I agree, though it will still be on the internet forever in the form of this blog. That afternoon when I went to pick him up, I was informed that he had been in the office for a second day in a row. The worst part about this whole thing is that I feel like I'm in the principal's office when the teacher is talking to me. I asked what he did, and was told that during naptime he wouldn't keep his legs on his own mat, and was putting them up in the air and then kicking the child next to him. He spent naptime in the office. Now I have the problem child.
The good news in all this, is that it does kind of seem to be an isolated thing. The rest of the week he was on his best behavior. His teacher has told me that during lessons he is completely attentive. Maybe he didn't feel good, or he was exhausted from the long weekend. He seems happy everyday when he tells us that he didn't go to the office. Let's keep our fingers crossed. I know every kid is going to have some issues from time to time. I can't say for sure, but the first time I remember going to the office was in middle school. I was in the library when I should have been in the lunchroom. I wasn't being bothering anyone, and I'm not really sure what the problem was. When I was a junior in high school, I did get busted for leaving campus during lunch. When I was in high school, we had an hour for lunch. I don't understand why they felt the need to force the nasty school food on us. Often we went to friends houses and ate sandwiches. Sometimes we went to Taco Bell. I left for lunch probably three times a week for the entirety of my sophomore and junior years. We got caught in the last six weeks of school. It was totally worth it. The punishment was that me and three of my best friends had to go to the school for two hours on a Saturday. We weren't allowed to talk to each other, but we were allowed to read our own magazines and books. Two hours of my time was a small price to pay. If they had told us up front that the punishment was two hours on a Saturday, I still would have made the same deal.
