February Recap

This has been a rough winter in terms of the school year. We had various snowfalls and many many days of school being closed. It was off and on and hard to get in a groove. At first, it was lovely and cozy and I enjoyed each moment.

Until....we had to go back to school and Eddie had to get BACK into the routine. It really threw him. He would cry at the door to his classroom saying, "I want to go with you!" "I don't want you to leave me!" Any of those heart wrenching things that just make you want to cry yourself. It was not a fun way to start my day. Some days were fine, but others were not and that made it bad too. I never knew what kind of mood any of us were going to be in by the time I left the school. Mind you, I have Ben in tow running around the hallways while I'm trying to pry Eddie off me. Luckily, the teacher is great. I sort of give her "the eye" and she comes over and does a gentle "pull" of Eddie and I bolt out the door all the while feeling like dirt.

I had tried everything to get the crying to stop:

* when you get home you can watch a show (a rarity in this house)

* when you get home you can have a cookie (a rarity for the kids, a constant for me, shhhh)

* if you make it through the week, you can have a playdate

* if you make it through the week, we can watch a movie on Friday

etc, etc, etc.

Nothing worked consistently. So, after crying off and on throughout January, I told Eddie point blank, "I don't know what to do about your crying. I think we should try to earn something really big, but you will have to work really really hard at it and it is going to take a while." I figured if the little cookies, shows, movies weren't working, I needed to up my ante.

After being at the Science Center for Ben's birthday, Eddie noticed a penguin igloo "purse", which I hence refer to as a penguin purse because I just think that sounds adorable. We found our object. THIS is what he wanted to earn. (He is obsessed with penguins lately so of course, this was the ticket). But $14?? Yes, Meg, the $14 will be worth it. He marched off to school just fine during the month of February. He would come home and put a sticker on his calendar.

I couldn't believe my luck.

And then, February 28th came. The last day of the month. The mood is not good. He has been waking at 5 a.m. for days now and pestering his little brother more than normal. I am holding my breath. Sure enough, the tears came and the teacher had to do the pry off and I walked out feeling like dirt.

I never told Eddie this, but of course he is going to get his penguin purse for making such an incredible effort this month. This is the longest he has been without tears going off to school. I emailed the teacher to check in when I got home and she said he was fine, but that he was really really worried that he blew it this morning since he knew it was the last day of the month. Tonight, because I am so proud of him for how far he has come, he will get reassurance that the penguin will be here tomorrow. (that's when the Science Center is open again) And hey, maybe I can have him do a no crying makeup day of March 1st and buy myself one more tear free day. I'll take anything.