I Don’t Want to Go to School!

My daughter was more difficult to get to sleep tonight than usual. She often talks and plays with the toys she wants to sleep with, but usually goes to sleep within about thirty minutes. Tonight, it took her one and a half hours to go to sleep. You see, she wanted to talk about school.

It started off with her asking if we will go to school with her. She was hoping we’d stay in the class with her. However, I explained to her that we can take her to school and pick her up, but we can’t stay in the school with her. She’ll be with the teacher and her new friends. But she started to cry and told us she didn’t want to be with the teacher. She didn’t want to be with friends. She didn’t want to play with the toys at school.  She wanted to play with me and my wife and her toys.

It’s still a month until school starts, and she’s usually happy about going to school. However, she occasionally says she doesn’t want to go to school. But hopefully, she’ll enjoy going to school. She’ll probably cry, and she said she’d cry, but that’s pretty common. I’ve taught kids around the same age who cried.

One more month. Better make the best of that month with her.

Crying and Reading

Last night, I went to the airport to pick up my sister and friends. I’d taken the child seat out of the back of the SUV, and my daughter noticed. I told her that I have to go pick up her Auntie and that I’ll come back with her. It was actually quite late in the evening, so she had to go to bed soon. But she would have none of it. She wanted to go with me. She held on to me and cried.

After I finally got outside, I realised that I forgot the drink I was going to take. It would be a couple hours until we were back home. I went in quietly, and I heard her crying upstairs. I went back out and my wife and daughter were at the window above the garage to say goodbye. She was still crying.

This morning, my wife went to her English classes and I got up. My daughter was still in bed.  Not so long after, I heard a loud cry from the bedroom. She was scared, she told me. We weren’t there. And after that, she was very clingy. She wanted to sit with me, follow me around, and constantly be with me.

I was helping get dinner cooked, so I went down to the kitchen to work on it while I waited for my wife to come home. I tried reading, but my daughter came down soon after and sat with me. No reading. Reading is very difficult around here. When should I read? It’s difficult to find the time to be alone. Well, I’ll figure it out.

The Kindergarten Follow-Up

We went, we played, we cried. Well, my daughter cried.

So, everything went well at my daughter’s school at first. She tried playing with a lot of toys. Amazing how she just picks something up and starts playing with it. About halfway in, the kids went to the library where the kindergarten teachers did story time. The parents went back to the kindergarten classroom to listen to the Principal talk. Nothing new, but some parents asked questions. That’s when it happened.

The kindergarten teacher brought our daughter to us. She was crying. Why? Because we were gone. She had no idea that we’d left her there without us. Well, the meeting was over anyway, and it was time to leave. But she didn’t want to go. She cried again, saying she wanted to keep playing. I explained to her that everyone is going home, so we can’t stay. She was angry.

Hopefully, when school starts, she won’t be crying when it’s time to go home.

It’s the End of the World!

My daughter is three years old. This is what it’s like to have a three year old child.

Me: Time for bed.

Her: No, I don’t want to.

End of the world.

And then she’s thirsty.

Her: Juice!

Me: We don’t have any.

Her: Juice!

Me: There’s no juice.

Her: Juice!

Me: There. Is. No. Juice.

End of the world.

And then she’s not hungry anymore.

Her (holding a bowl of banana): I don’t want it.

Me: Are you sure?

Her: Sure.

Me: You want me to eat it?

Her: Daddy eat.

Me: Okay.

I eat it while she watches.

Five minutes later…

Her: Daddy ate my banana!

End of the world.

And that happens every day. The world has ended more than one thousand times, I think.

The Attack of the Canker Sore

I was about to go to bed nearly an hour ago when my daughter started crying. That’s unusual, because she normally sleeps through the night. I went to find out what the problem was, and it took about fifteen minutes of trying to get her to settle down for her to finally tell us she’s hungry. She wanted yoghurt. So, I got her some yoghurt and she had a little water. She was hungry. Now she’s asleep again.

What does this have to do with a canker sore? Well, at dinner time, she wasn’t very hungry. She kept saying something hurt in her mouth, so I checked. She had a canker sore. I think it’s her first ever, and I understand how it can make it difficult to eat done things. You see, she had ketchup. It’s acidic, so it bothered her. She didn’t eat much, but had two containers of yoghurt and nothing else. She didn’t want anything else. It wasn’t very much.

So fast forward to an hour ago, and she was hungry again. All because a canker sore wouldn’t let her eat much earlier. At least she fell asleep again. Time for me to, too.