The Walk to School

Oh, lordy, sometimes Blogger (and my temperamental laptop that seems to want to write and edit my posts on its own) just. drive. me. craaaaazy.  Twice today.  Twice, I've clicked "enter" to start a new paragraph, and the post published frustratingly prematurely.  Like, this post wasn't supposed to go up until Thursday morning, but made a little bare-bones sneak preview at 9:50pm on Wednesday night.  And hitting Publish sets off a chain of events that are impossible to revert.  But that being said, I guess it's better to accidentally publish a post than to accidently delete it...which also may or may not have happened recently... 

But for all of those pesky little setbacks to my day (or night), despite the hectic starts to the days that may or may not involve a defiant, stubborn, cranky little girl sitting on the floor in her room at 6:30am, with a death grip on her book as I try to convince her she needs to get her clothes on and get her backside downstairs for breakfast, NOW! so-we-won't-be-late, there is always the exhilaration that I get the absolute privilege of feeling every morning when walking Samantha to school.  It truly is the highlight of my day.  Once the clothes are on, once the backside is firmly seated in her chair, once the food is eaten hair is done teeth are brushed face is washed toilet used shoes, coat and backpack put on, once we set foot outside the door...the tables turn, and the fresh, cool air colors her nose and cheeks, and the brilliant sunshine lights up her face.

After a quick game of Duck-Duck-Goose to get her moving and giggling, she slips her cool little fingers into my pocket, enveloped by my own hand.

The banter begins, conversation easy between the two of us, and we walk and talk about her day and who she's going to see, what she's going to do.  This is always a good time to reinforce our expectations of her for the day.  (Remember, Samantha, listen to your teachers...)  Expectations are so important, buy-in is crucial... 

She knows.

                          

I feel like the luckiest mommy in the world to get to talk to her teachers, to watch her take off her backpack and coat, turn her folder in, get her morning work and settle into her day.  That little glimpse, that sneak peek into her other life, that life without Mommy and Daddy, tastes so sweet.

ESY (summer school) meeting tomorrow morning - not quite sure what we want yet, what kind of model to pursue, but we know everyone has Sammi's best interests in mind, and we'll come up with something...wish us luck!