Another Parent Tea
Usually, when Lucas is dropped off in the morning, he jumps into the thick of things right away. Very often Ian takes him to school. Today was a Parent Tea day, though, so I took him and stayed with him in his classroom for about a half hour. All the other parents were there, too.
Lucas proudly displayed two projects he’s been working on lately: a small, decorated gourd shaker that he confidently pulled out of a basket of 23 other gourd shakers. Sure enough, his name was written on it! He also showed me his Indian crown that he sewed from felt and beads. It has two lovely feathers in it, too—blue and red. I asked him if he made it himself and he proudly said yes, he even sewed on the beads. It was cool!
For circle time, we got to hear a few of the Indian/Thanksgiving songs (very cute!) that they’ve been learning. At first, Lucas participated with gusto, but as the circle of children danced hand-in-hand and he moved farther away from me to a position across the room, I saw him become somber and stop singing and doing the hand motions. When the teachers dismissed the parents for the day, he came to me in tears and said, “I want to stay with you!” We don’t often see displays of separation anxiety from him anymore, which is due partly to his age and partly to the exciting and fun nature of the activities he does without us. Somehow, my being with him in his classroom for a short time was enough to throw him off his normally self-assured and independent nature.
He was tearful when I passed him to his teacher and said goodbye, assuring him that I would be back at 12:30 to pick him up today. I had been kind of dreading this afternoon because he will be home and I have lots of work to do. It’s difficult to get any work done with him at home. But now, I feel happy that we’ll be able to spend the rest of the day together. My independent little guy still needs me sometimes.
