Twice On The First Day? Really???

Today was a long, long day.  Most importantly it was Jack’s first day of first grade.  He wasn’t “excited” per say, but he wasn’t complaining either, so I consider that a victory.  He was very excited about his Darth Vader lunch box and his Spiderman pencil pouch.  Here are some pictures from this morning:

About an hour after I got him on the bus (in which I made about 10 frantic work calls for that pesky full time job of mine), I had a conference with Nathan’s new teacher- he doesn’t start until Thursday. Nate’s school is about 15 minutes away; the early intervention program doesn’t have a classroom in our home school.   We met for about an hour and it went really well.  He has a new teacher this year, which wasn’t the plan, but it is what it is, and she seems great!  I am excited to get back into the routine and feel much better about this change after our meeting..

After that I ran home, made about 10 more frantic work calls and then the NIH research coordinator called.  We did a 45 minute phone interview in which she asked for all the basics about Nate, and thus far we are good to go.  I have another phone interview next week, then a parent interview at NIH and then the dreaded developmental screening.  I swear to God I am tempted to wear earmuffs and a blindfold this time.  Enough.  But it’s a means to an end, and we’ll do what we have to do. 

At this point it was about 2pm, and I figured I had a good two hours before Jack got home to get some more work done.  And then the phone rang, and, it was Jack’s school.  Any special needs parent will tell you just what kind of effect seeing that number on the caller id can have.  And on the first day??  Sure enough, it was the special educator. However the question was not what I was expecting.  She said “Mrs.. Fury, Jack is insistent that he is supposed to take a different bus this afternoon than he took this morning, so I just wanted to check with you.”  I had just taken a sip of coffee and swear to God I snorted so hard it almost came out my nose.  Before she even went into details, I told her “his bus is number 13, not 223, no matter how many times he tells you otherwise.”  She started laughing, because of course this is exactly what he was insisting,

Jack and I had been debating this for days.  You see, last year, he was on bus 223.  And he loved saying that number, and he loved Mr. Roger, the driver.  When I checked his bus schedule the other day, I discovered that this year he is on bus 13.  The driver this morning introduced himself as “Bob”.  Jack was NOT happy about this.  However I am 100% sure he was totally aware of the change because his reaction had been so strong and we had spent a significant amount of time discussing it.  When the special educator told me what he said I had no doubt that he was simply trying to change his reality.  If he said he still took 223 enough times, then it would be true.  To his credit, he must have been very convincing, because about 5 minutes after the special educator called, the school secretary called with the same question.  By this time I was practically rolling on the floor.  My 6 year old outsmarted the adults!  At least twice!  They physically watched him get off of bus 13 this morning, he even has an aide who walks him from the bus to class and  somehow his insistence made them doubt themselves.  While I didn’t enjoy having my heart jump into my throat- TWICE, it is a great reminder, I have one clever kid!!!!

I am hoping for a little smoother go of it tomorrow.  I have another conference for Nathan, and Jack has his special needs swim lesson after dinner.  It will be busy, but God willing, the teachers will soon be wise to Mr. Jack and his trickery J.