The Parting

9 times out of 10 when we drop AB off at school she is the picture of perfect pupil-ness. Ahem.

Anyway, today was very hard. She slept badly, and didn't have a good morning. Asked to take her "baby" to school with her (she now calls her care bears "babies"), to which the stock response was, "of course not." She broke down in a fit over that expected triviality. We knew we were in for a hard day.

When we got there she didn't want to get out of the car. She didn't want to go to school. Ever the picture of perfect parent patience, I said, "I don't care," and grabbed her out of her seat. She walked to her classroom and tried every trick she knew to delay the process. We had the usual discussion over the laminated Van Gogh on the wall... "AB, it's Fourteen Sunflowers in a Vase, remember? Can you say, 'Vincent Van Gogh'?" She said, "I don't know what Vincent Van Gogh is." Short explanation. She hemmed and hawed. Dragged her feet as only a beautiful, genius, entitled 2-year-old can finagle.

When we got to her room she lingered in the doorway. Such manners! I plopped her down in the midst of the action and walked over to get her artwork/daily sheet. She followed and tugged on my jeans, shyly. AB is not shy. This is not going to be fun, I thought. I mentally ran through our list of tactics that Usually Distract Her From Us Leaving. Tried several. None worked. I took her over to the open part of the room and knelt down to speak to her.

"AB, give me a hug, Mommy has to go to work."
"O-tay, Mommy."
"Are you going to be good for Miss Isabel? And Miss Katey?"
"Maybe..." Shifting eyes. Delay tactic. Impish smile.
"Will you give me your sweater?"
"No."
...three minute discussion of why we couldn't leave her unlabeled sweater there... she finally agreed to take it off... HERSELF!
"I love you, have a good day, I have to go." Kiss. Hastily walking toward the door. Do not show weakness! They prey on weakness!
She is following with the biggest hound dog eyes I've ever seen.
"Bye AB! I love you!"
She starts out the door with me. Miss Isabel, ever the professional, corrals her and we start the Wave Through The Window Routine.

Her face fell as I walked away. She crumpled into tears. My heart shattered into a thousand tiny pieces and trailed me all the way to the car. She loves school. It's lack of sleep. Just one of those days. Sigh.

Now go research some great Van Gogh paintings...