drat

we had a great morning this morning. irene made breakfast for me and rhys, then i made breakfast for her. she was dressed and ready to go and there was no moaning, no groaning about the things she needed to do. she played very nicely with rhys and was very complimentary of his drawings (often she'll look at his stuff and say THAT'S not how you draw an xyz...). we got to school before the first bell rang, she had put her backpack in line, it was all quite good. the bell rang and she ran and was the first person to the line.
well. the kids put their backpacks on the line and apparently that's where they get to stand. irene has always put her backpack down, but never really cared where it was and always picked it up and went to the end of the line if that's when she got TO the line. the boys that were in the front of the line told her she was cutting in line and she had to go to the back of the line. "you can't stand there, see? my backpack is right here! you can't cut in line, you have to go BACK!"

i was just going to help mediate the situation when she decided to move to the back of the line. she'd gone two steps and her little face crumpled in a puddle of tears that she was trying to hold back. i very nicely told the little boys in the front of the line that irene hadn't understood that because backpacks were there, even though no kids were there, the backpacks were holding the places. they were quite nice and said "oh" b/c they really didn't get that irene didn't know. how could she possibly not KNOW those rules? well, b/c she has a sense of fairness and didn't see any person in the line.

i gave her huge hugs and gentle words and sent her into the class. i hope she bounced back okay. it's no fun to see your child so sad and not be able to stay with her and fix it.