Field day!

The girls had field day today, I stayed for most of the day, minus the 1/2 I ran errands early in the day. I'm TIRED! I spent most of the time running back and forth trying to catch as many of the girls respective events as possible. It was fun though, I had a chance to visit with some other mom's, which I struggle to do, because I'm from a VERY different' "place" than most of them are, and that fact is easily revealed with a short conversation. I'm not a small talk person, I suck at it and I am annoyed by it, so I am sometimes hard to take. I'm very blunt also, so when I have a difference of thought or opinion, or if someone is making an assumption about me, I tend to speak up. Like the mom who said "won't it be nice for you to work here once you graduate, you wouldn't have to race to pick up the girls"....I very carefully tried to say that "no, I wouldn't be working here".....but she thought it was such a great idea, "oh but the girls would have so much fun seeing you each day and why not at least apply, it can't hurt, and with your gift in the classroom, I can hardly see them saying no!"......
So where do you go from there....small talk the "oh good suggestion" angle?
.....openly say my beliefs and lifestyle differ vastly from the religious tenets this school follows or just change the subject.....each option would be *fine*, but in that moment I struggle to decide how to present myself, how to insert myself, what will the repercussions for the girls be with either response? Obsess much? YEP!

Leisha had a melt down at one point, near the end. The issue was that I had to run out a buy Jaala a hat, she didn't have one that fit her and I had totally forgotten, Lei couldn't find me, and was upset, crying and hiccupping, one of the parent helpers was trying to comfort Lei. Lei was trying really hard to be ok, and I was proud of her. When I finally got back to her, she was not interested in any more field day.

This is the "thing". When she is contained and knows what to expect she's all good. When the containment no longer exists she needs someone else to be that containment, if that person isn't there, or if she was expecting someone to be there and they aren't, she melts down.

She is perfectly good when I drop her off at class, she goes happily. She'll even let me drop her off at the sidewalk and walk in on her own. When pick up time comes, if I'm not in her line of vision when she walks out of the classroom door, she loses it. It's "out there" things aren't as predictable, she doesn't have the safety and comfort of the routine and the class rules that EVERY ONE follows. Now it's every man for himself, it's unstructured and unforeseen. Same with field day, out in a field, unknown place, unknown schedual and routine and activities, no containment!
I don't know to what extent I should be working on this with her or if that's just who she is, and her confidence will grow with experiance.

Jaala had a great day, running around, no one telling her to sit still! The girl has no concept of group competition. During all of her races, I laughed my head off, she bursts away from the start line, then finds someone she knows to and starts running with them, every once in I while I'd holler "c'mon jaala, move those feet!" and she'd pour on speed for a min, until she caught up with someone else she knew.......OY! In the sprints she did much better, she was only running with one other person, and I stood at the finish line telling her to get there first. So she did. HAHAHAHA! I love HER!

She has a buddy in grade 6, with the same name as her auntie, and they were on the same team, which delighted Jaala, big girl attention all to herself! She brought out the chatter box which was a pleasure to watch! I was so impressed with Jaala's buddy too, she is so sweet and loving with Jaala.

So I have a wicked assed headache and I'm skipping class. Night!

PS I got 92% on my latest paper.....apparently I write WAY too many run on sentences and lost several marks as a result. ugh.