{Independence}

I get bits and pieces of Ellie's days at school over long periods of time.  I can question, interrogate, annoy, and badger her and she will give me hardly anything newsworthy.  Perhaps my "annoy" and "badger" skills aren't very good.  We'll ask Brandon.  Ok, nevermind we won't.  Anyway...No matter how much I ask, most days she will not give me a play by play of her day.  In my family, we call this the "He Said/ She Said" of her day.

However, at random times in the course of life, Ellie will share the He Said/ She Said.  And you must know that I am a keen interrogator so I take these opportunities and run with them.  Sunday night, we had such an interaction.

NOW, I must preface this for my mom and my good friend, Laura who may or may not be reading this and who may or may not have a kid in Ellie's class.  DON'T PANIC.  The  story you are about to read freaked me out.  I am pretty sure I lost sleep over it.  But I have come to terms with it as a right of passage.  You will too.

So Sunday night I was putting Ellie to bed and she was relaying some more information to me about her visit to the school nurse on Thursday.  Thursday morning, Ellie woke up with in irritated eye.  She rubbed and rubbed her eye, I told her to stop, she didn't and I guess her teacher had to cover all bases and send her to the nurse.  The nurse determined it was "allergies" which turned out to be exactly right.  I'm glad we have a school nurse with a good head on her shoulders.

So Sunday night, Ellie is telling me more about the story and she mentions that there was a boy who came while she was in the nurses office and she heard someone say he had been throwing up.  I immediately went into "Well if you see someone throw up, you GET AWAY FROM THEM.  Did you sit by him???"  "No, I didn't sit by him.  But I heard them say he was throwing up."  "Well you just stay away from anyone who is throwing up, ok?"  She agreed.

She goes on to tell me that she was accompanied to the nurse's office by the teacher assistant in her classroom.  "Mrs. X took me to the school nurses office.  She had something to take to the office so she let me walk back to the classroom by myself."

THUD.  "Mama, are you ok?  WAKE UP MAMA!"  She administered smelling salts and I immediately launched into my interrogation. With the utmost calm, of course.

"She let you walk back by yourself?  Are you sure about that?  Tell me how that went."  
"Well, Mrs. X said 'I have some things to take to the office.  Do you know the way to the classroom?'  And I did so I said yes and she said 'ok, you can go by yourself.'"

I couldn't really help myself so I blurted out "IF SOMEONE EVER COMES UP TO YOU IN THE HALLWAY AND SAYS 'Little girl come the bathroom with me' YOU SCREAM FIRE AND RUN!"

Ellie looks at me with a puzzled look and says "WHY would I say fire?"

"Because that's the only thing that will get their attention!" I calmly replied.  It was all really really calm.

I went on to tell her how important it is to go exactly where she is supposed to go and not make any stops.  And to only talk to people she knows. She went on to tell me how cool school is and how she never got to go places by herself in preschool. Yeah, real cool.  Totally Totally cool.

I kissed my angel good night and told her to get some rest.  Then I went upstairs and began to ponder the information I had just been given.

I went over the conversation I was going to have with the teachers. Did they make an unfortunate mistake in judgement that would never happen again?  Was this standard procedure?  I'd suggest that I didn't feel kids were ready for this step until Middle School or perhaps not even until High School.  What happened to the Buddy System???

I decided Ellie must have relayed the story incorrectly.  Perhaps she had taken to telling tall tales.  Perhaps this was just another wonderful side effect form school.  A vivid imagination and the ability to cause her Mama to have a heart attack.

And then I decided I might as well go on and call the principal too.  And the school board.  I decided to launch a thorough investigation into school security complete with secret shoppers.  Then I decided none of that was worth the trouble and I might as well just home school her.

Then I woke up.  I remembered that Ellie wasn't the first kid to enter kindergarten there and won't be the last.  I remembered a few weeks ago when I sashayed into the school to bring her school supplies and I was chased down by the school secretary.   And called by name.  And told to sign in whenever I entered the school.  On the second day of school.  By someone I don't remember meeting.

BUT GAH this is hard.  I have gone from knowing her exact whereabouts every second of her life since the day she was born to THIS loosy goosy letting babies walk by themselves to their classrooms place.  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they don't make them clean their plates at lunch either.  You know I bet they don't even care if they EAT lunch on ice cream Friday.  What a wild place!!!!


Ellie asked if I would drop her off at the mall to meet her friends on Friday night.  I haven't completely decided yet.