My little trooper...

When I woke up this morning, about 10 minutes before my alarm, I realized that Miss M's bedroom light was on and I went into the living room to find her fully dressed with her shoes on reading a book on the couch.  I guess she had only been up for about 10 minutes - but her independence kind of astounds me.

I was able to be flexible with my work hours this morning because it was Meet the Teacher night and I had been working extra long hours earlier (and because my principal is understanding and a mother!).  My trooper prepared her cereal breakfast as I got ready for the day and I showed her two pictures I had printed off for her.  One was of me with my little "Christmas" clue as how to remember my name and the other was of my dear friend, and former co-teacher, Patty and Miss M, who was going to be caring for her this evening, that I took yesterday when we went to her school to meet her.  Miss M is a bright young lady, that is clear, but the past 24 hours have been crazy and her world flipped upside down again.  I didn't want her to feel alone or left behind at daycare.  She cut out the pictures and taped on the captions I had typed out on the back of each picture and promptly put one in each of her pockets. 

We eventually headed out to daycare.   I knew Miss M was a little nervous about daycare, because she was talking a mile-a-minute.  :-)  We talked about some ways to approach some girls (she doesn't like boys - "they are mean") to make new friends.  I dropped her off in her classroom and had a protective moment of looking back and wishing I didn't have to leave her today - but knew she is covered by the Lord.

Before heading into work, I made a doctor appointment, dental appointment, called CPS to arrange child care for after school starting next week, finished up the school registration, set up a CFT (Child Family Team Meeting) and talked with Miss M's caseworker for the first time in detail about her and the reason why she was moved yesterday.  Work was insanely busy - but the busyness kept my head in the game.  I hadn't told Miss M, but I was going to try to sneak over and steal her away for a bit around mid-afternoon to just touch base with her.  As the afternoon got started, I didn't see how I was ever going to get away.  Then, there wasn't a choice.  We decided, as an admin team, to dress in our Spirit Wear (school t-shirts) for Meet the Teacher and I had worn a nice dress in to school.  So I took full advantage of the dress change, but instead of going home, I ran over to Dillards, bought an ugly, but cheap pair of khaki's, and then got to Miss M's daycare around 3:30.

She came up to me and gave me a hug, but then said "Aw...I didn't even get to go swimming." She knew that Patty was going to be picking her up and that they were going to swim together and play with her dogs and she thought seeing me meant that was cancelled.  She was pleased as could be when I instead surprised her by sneaking away to a self-serve frozen yogurt place down the road for about 30 minutes.  The daycare workers said she did great all day and didn't have any interaction problems.  (Woo hoo!  Praise!)  She willing went back to daycare with the promise that Patty would be there within the next hour or so.

Meet the Teacher started off, like always, fast and furious and I finally got to check my phone about 6:00 and I found this picture on my phone from Patty.  (Miss M's face is blocked out for safety purposes.  Be rest assured, the smile on that face was huge!)

This is how life should be for every child, every where. Carefree, stress free, free.

I called Patty when I was leaving school to let her "mentally" prepare Miss M that her play date was coming to a close.  I could hear her groaning in the background.  I started to mentally prepare for a possible "battle" but when I got there - she was great.  Happy, content, talkative, and tired!  (Bonus!)

On the way home, she was playing my iPod touch (another blog for another day) and she popped up with the question "Are we going to play roses and thorns before bed tonight."  This made my heart melt because I could feel her little brain listing off all kinds of "roses" from her day.  After getting home, we started our new nightly routine of shower, picture book, bible story, a game of roses and thorns, prayers, and sleep. 

Here was Miss M's tonight: 
"My thorns...well, I don't have any.  My roses - I have lots.  Having ice cream with you, swimming with Patty, making cookies, feeding Patty's fish and turtles, I mean frogs, having ice cream, playing with the dogs, and God.  Well, God - because He's always there. Oh, well - I kind of do have a little thorn.  It was a little hard when I had to leave Patty's without going for a second swim like we planned.  But it was just a little tiny thorn, kind of like when you poke your finger - it went away fast and then I realized I was tired and wanted to go home."

I love this little girl.