meet the teacher...

...could have been a scene out of meet the parents as far as i'm concerned. at my last appointment, i got special permission from the doctor to be able to go up to the school today for "meet the teacher." i explained that as long as i wasn't putting the baby at risk, there was no way that i could send my other, bigger babies to school without knowing who their teachers were, being able to talk with them in person, finding out where their classrooms were, and making sure that they felt comfortable with the situation. yes...chad could have done this on his own, but there are just some things that a mom wants to be a part of. annnnnnddd...maybe a little of me wanted to make sure that the teachers understood "the situation" and that if the kids talk about their mom being at home on the couch, they didn't picture a woman in a moo moo, watching soaps and eating bon bons with her hair in those old fashioned, pink, foam curler things.

so...off we go.

now, it was no secret to us that there was one teacher that colton did not want to get. this is not a reflection on the teacher, mind you...but the common knowledge that this man was very outgoing and loud and had the kids get up and dance on occasion. for my little shy guy...this was not appealing. i made the choice to let it play out and told him that the chances of him getting in this particular class were slim and not to worry. but all summer long, whenever we would talk about this year...he would say, "i just hope i don't get "mr. so and so." on friday, chad took the kids up to the school to see the class lists. i was on the phone with colton when he walked up and made the discovery that sent him into a tailspin of worry for the next 2 days. he got mr. so and so. and to top that off...he did not know one kid in his class.

we had long conversations over the weekend about how sometimes the things that we are most afraid of end up being the things that are the most meaningful. that was then translated into...sometimes the teachers that we are most afraid of in the beginning, end up being our favorites. this seemed to put him in better spirits until this morning. he was so nervous that he had a stomach ache. i pulled him close as we walked from the parking lot into the building and said, "don't worry. you've got this in the bag." chase...who never meets a stranger...or someone he doesn't like, was not worried at all. he was super excited to meet his teacher...and his allotted time to do so came first. after hugging his new teacher, hugging his friends in his class, and attempting to get the snake out of the display case, we headed to the other side of the tracks...known as the upper elementary side of the school. however, colton's teacher, mr. so and so was walking down the hall. colton said, "there's mr. so and so. he overheard colton say his name and said very friendly and outgoing like, "hey colton! you're in my class this year." colton was so nervous that he didn't say a word. however, chase did. he ran up to mr. so and so and pointed at him and said...very loudly i might add, "yeah...only he really didn't want to get you for a teacher."

you know when things start going in slow motion...and you open your mouth but nothing comes out except for a little squeaky noise...and you realize that there is no way to salvage what just happened...and all you want to do is run? well...that about sums it up. mr. so and so handled it with great dignity, especially since there were a ton of other parents and kids standing around who heard this honest outburst from a concerned sibling. as he walked away, i thought, "welp...our work here is done. let's go." however, we still had to make it to colton's classroom for the "formal" meet the teacher, although i wanted to slink out the door...never to return...making up some excuse about why i needed to home school my oldest instead of send him into the classroom where the teacher knows exactly how he feels about him. meanwhile, chad had a conversation with chase about the need to pretend there was tape on his mouth the whole time we were in mr. so and so's classroom. i'll spare you the rest of the details, but chad and i managed to salvage the situation once we were in there and colton became ok after he found a box of legos in the classroom that all the kids were playing with while their parents were putting there best foot forward for the teacher. i figured i didn't need to do that...seeing as my chaser had already put his in his mouth.