Wow

Well, we had an absolutely awesome morning -- even though Aide T's sub didn't show or call in.

The kids' "This Day in History" section of their journal was, of course, about the September 11th attacks: "On September 11, 2001, airplanes crashed into New York's World Trade Center. It was a sad day."

New Girl asked Aide S. about what had happened -- she was intrigued by the picture I'd included and, I think, the gravity in Aide S's usually-cheerful voice when she helped her read the sentence. I reminded Aide S. that New Girl (she is in sixth grade now) would have been in her first couple of weeks of first grade when it happened.

She was...her response was very interesting. She's a very caring girl -- reminds me of Former Girl A. a lot actually -- and she looked at the picture for a moment, then back at Aide S. "People were in there?" she asked, pointing at the picture of the World Trade Center.

"Yes, there were," Aide S. said.

"They all died?" New Girl said -- Aide S. had not said anything of the sort, but she figured it out herself. She looked at the picture again. "Ooooh," she said.

Meanwhile, we were able to get our work done much earlier than has been the case; in time, in fact, for us to follow the New Computer Rules -- this group is a bunch of bickering old married couples and I'd had enough of the arguing over whose turn it was. So I made numbers 1 through 8 and stuck them up by their names in reverse order; that way, whoever's left over from it being their turn to be "person of the day" (we don't call it that, but that's essentially what it is) will get first dibs at the computer.

Anyhow, I guess Boy R. was a pill in science class, but that's to be expected. It was a dad weekend, and as good as Aide S. is becoming, squirrely post-dad R. is just too much for her.

So we read Charlie and even made it through 5 pages of News-2-You -- even while we were being very particular about the rules. Boy A. even managed to sit next to his classmates without hitting them or anything.

Then, at lunch, I did a dumb thing.

I said what a good day we were having.

Oops.

Within 10 minutes of recess being over, we'd descended into the 7th layer of hell.

Aw well.

Incidentally -- I have been asking...begging...the OTs for a sensory diet for M since more or less her first day of fourth grade. At first, I got the boilerplate "sensory suggestions" paper they give everybody in lieu of a real sensory diet. Then, I got a "well, I'll need some data -- I'll tell you what to look for." Then I got ignored.

Today, as they were leaving, the OT looked at me and said, "By the way, we need to design a sensory diet for M."

On the one hand: woohoo! On the other: DUH!

School Days Since a Child was Lost: 2