Handling Life

I've got a gem of a story from today that illustrates just how much Jillian is growing up and maturing. We've seen so many positive changes in her since school began, and she is very happy and doing great in school. As a side story, I had her conference last week and Mrs Dyer said she is excited to learn, is moving up quickly on her reading level, is very ready for all day school, and is a great friend. She apparently has taken on the role of helping another boy at her table who needs a little help most of the time. This is great for Jillian because she is the kind of kid who really needs a 'job'. The teacher told me that it has blossomed into this beautiful friendship, and is so great to watch. Anyway, back to today. Matt was home this morning and offered to take Jillian to school. This would be his first time doing this, and Jillian gave him the proper instructions for drop off. She also decided last minute that she wanted to take her lunch to school because last time "Zesty Italian Pasta" was served at school, it just wasn't what she expected. Later Matt told me that drop off took a long time because Jillian got out of the car without her lunch. So, he was worried she'd be freaking out, so he hurried to pull out of the line, parked, and went in to find her and give her the lunch. Whew. Crisis averted. So I asked her about this when I picked her up from school, and I got a bit of a surprise when she answered. She said she realized she had forgotten the lunch when she was walking into school, but then “I knew Daddy couldn’t get out of line so I didn’t have a choice. I had to go in. I wasn’t mad at him, I was mad at myself. You know, sometimes you just get mad at yourself for some things." I asked her what she was going to do about lunch since she didn’t think she had one. “I was just going to tell Mrs Dyer and she would figure it out. But then, I didn’t have to, because Daddy came INSIDE my school and brought me my lunch. It was a great surprise!" And it was a great surprise to me to learn that she handled this calmly and had already made her plan to get back on track for the day. So proud of her for not flipping out!