Homeward Bound

When I picked Jake up from school yesterday I could tell he was barely hanging on, and sure enough, the minute the van door closed he lost it. He has a new favorite book, and he'd left it in the classroom and the classroom locks when the kids leave for the day and his teacher wouldn't let him back in and he'd never see his book again and the world was going to end and I'm mean. Despite my efforts to calm him down, he wouldn't, so I sent him to his room. I sympathize with the kid, really I do, but the whimpering and contorting and mewling can drive you frickin' nuts. (See? Sympathy.)

He came down awhile later, I fixed him a snack, he seemed calm. I went to get Sam at the bus. Now here is where I may lose you because, yes, I let Jake stay at home while I get Sam at the bus stop. The bus stop that is 7 blocks away.

Sam and I came back. He started homework, I sat at the dining table with him and worked. Things were quiet, peaceful. Too quiet, too peaceful.

Turns out while I was getting Sam, Jake decided he would walk back to school to get his book. In the rain. With no shoes. He got about 6 blocks before a friend of Sam's saw him and walked him to the principal's office.

So I'm sitting at home, working, chatting with Sam, when the phone rings, and it's the secretary at school. "I have Jake in the office." What? I drove up to get him, and there he sat, with the principal (yay!), the assistant principal (yay!), the secretary, his teacher ... and the aforementioned book.

He was weepy and repentant but really, for the love of Pete. I guess he learned his lesson.

I surely learned mine.