Gearing up for Cubbies

I have to tell you all what happened last Wednesday. It was Valentine's Day and we didn't have any big out-of-the-ordinary plans. Then, Katie shows up at the door looking adorable, as always, with a flower for me, a balloon for Grant, juice for her class party and a bag of valentines for her classmates. After dropping her off at school, I figured I had better get my act together as a mom and go get some valentines for Grant's friends. Yeah, you can buy valentines for a buck, but I figured that Grant would love "Cars" valentines and candy. I wanted to be the popular mom whose kid brings fun goodies for his friends. Yeah, it was a total mommy-ego thing. So, I bought "Cars" valentines and candy for $6.50. Keep in mind that I wasn't planning to buy anything, so this was a pretty penny to spend on something that is just going to be eaten and tossed.

Since we had the valentines, we had to go to Dallas Indoor Park to get rid of them. I always say that I am not going to go to the DIP holiday parties because they are so chaotic, but I always end up going anyway. I had enough time to rush home, write, "Love Grant" on the bags of candy, and rush back out to Indoor Park. The party was actually not too crazy, plus I got to see some friends, so it was a good thing that we went. Grant handed out some of his candy and ate a lot more.

That night, while dinner (frozen pizza) was in the oven, I pulled out the "Cars" valentines. I put them all together (temporary tatoo goes into the little slots, heart sticker holds them closed) and wrote to "my friend", love "Grant" on 35 valentines. We put them in a special bag with his leftover candy from DIP and I gave him instructions to make sure he hands them out to his friends at Cubbies. No problem, mom.

At 8:00pm, I picked Grant up from Awana. As I walked into the Cubbies room, the leader walked up to me with a frazzled look on her face and said, "This guy. Oh!! He was crazy tonight. Just ran wild." Short phrases. Frantic gasps for air. Yikes!! She walked away and I walked over to his table to talk to his table leader (who happens to be a friend) and asked if he was really bad. "Well, all of the kids were pretty crazy tonight, but yeah, he just wanted to run around all night." Oh boy.

Oh, and the valentines were not handed out. He brought home one valentine from another kid, but the rest of the valentines in his bag were from Grant.

We went home to "deal" with the problem. The tough part is that I take his misbehavior so personally. Like it is a reflection on me! You know that when you see a kid who is acting like a freak you think, "Well, their parents are not doing their job!" Yes, I promise we are doing our job and doing our best. Sometimes the kid is just plain obnoxious regardless of what the parents do. The first time Grant didn't say his verse at Cubbies I was so upset. I started getting mad at him and had to bite my tongue. I was seriously on the verge of tears asking him why he didn't just say it for his teacher. He KNEW it, so why didn't he cooperate. I have since gotten over it. Don't worry. (Let's blame that little episode on hormones, okay?) Well, this time, I thought about the expense of the valentines that he didn't hand out, the time I put into preparing the valentines, and the look on the leader's face when she expressed her frustration with my child's behavior . . . which was probably my fault since I let him eat all of that sugar at Indoor Park. Argh!!

So, Cubbies is on Wednesday. We have been talking about his behavior at Cubbies for days and reminding him that he must obey his teacher. We are debating about whether one of us should stay and help out (if that is an option for us) so we can monitor Grant's behavior. I'll let you know how it goes!