Are you sure they will let her in school someday?

Is it too early for a drink? Let's see.....my learning experience of the day is JUST how persistant AND crazy AND dramatic Sylvie can be. She has not been sleeping well, has been having lots of nightmares, and the past few nights I have been back at that "getting a toddler to bed can wreak havoc on your emotional sanity" stage and it's draining. She can sleep in our bed well once in awhile, but the past 2 nights she's kicking, tossing, turning and generally making it really difficult to sleep. So she woke up cranky....again. And then was fighting with Logan all morning over toys.

So let's make today's agenda "Sign Logan up for Kindergarten from 9-11 am today only." and tell the kids. Let's say they scream, cry, fuss and whine about everything having to do with getting them ready to get out the door. And then let's add in the extra stress of my basement flooding late last night so me staying up late moving everything all around....again. Oh, and let's have me walking through that water in my socks finding appropriate proofs of residency for this morning. And filling out 15 pages of forms on my child.

So, we get there and it's soooo windy and cold both kids are miserable just walking to the school from our parking spot. Logan is upset, he's not keen on this whole " new school" idea. Sylvie's upset because today is something about Logan, and not her. Get inside, wait in line to check in at the desk, get to a multi-purpose room and oh look, they gave us goldfish and coloring pages, how sweet!

But wait, there is one red ball and lots of kids chasing it, we can do that too right? Mom says no, stay by me for a bit. Knows it's going to be an issue that there is only 1 ball. At least for Sylvie. Which it is. Insert 10 minutes of two kids whining about wanting wanting wanting wanting to play. Fine, go play, but don't come crying to me when you have to share the ball, promise? We promise.

"WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! I CAN"T PLAY WITH THE BALL!!!!" Did you hear that over in Pennsylvania today, Joe? Because it sure was loud and Logan said it hurt his ears. Okay, now repeat that screaming and continue it for the next 45 minutes while you try to fill out 15 pages of forms (that are just different enough from the ones offered online that you need to re-copy it all in there and a few questions are worded differently, so make sure you are actually reading them or your child might get sucked into services he doesn't need). Insert well-meaning moms, other kids, a sweet brother, and staff trying to make her happy. Insert more screaming, more drama, and a big ol' headache for us all. Take time with the screaming child in a corner and watch her flail all around like a chicken with her head cut off wanting to go home NOW. Remind her to please be quiet so she doesn't set off the fire alarms or send ranting teachers into the room to yell, and hope for the best. Logan's preschool teacher has a child who she was signing up for kindergarten, and even she looked horrified at Sylvie's behavior, and she deals with these kids all day long!

Now in my real life, if we were at a store, we would have just left. If we were at home, she would have made the discipline rounds of a time out, a longer time out, toys in time out, time out in her room as a last resort. But the problem with following through with any of these right now is that she screams like a banshee through any and all of the above options, so this was not going to solve our noise level issue.

Sigh. Get paperwork done, pull myself together, try not to look like the worst mom on the planet and get in line to turn it all in. Where she stands next to me, crying and crying and finally stops. And then starts up again. And then stops. And then starts up again.

Let's just hope the school lets her in when it's her turn, but I'm thinking they may have her name and photo somewhere on the wall with a "Do not let her enter" sign next to it!!!! Let us hope the rest of this day is BETTER!!!! And perhaps she will fall asleep on the way home from dropping Logan off at preschool. Maybe I'll take the loooong way home. It'll be like a vacation!