Organized Chaos

Today was the big "Halloween Parade" at Ava's school - a marvelous time to see what your kid is really like when you're not around....

The morning began rather badly, with Ava freaking out the second I put her costume on, which, seeing as I put it on the wrong way, wasn't easy in itself. On the fly, we grabbed her little ballet slippers and a ballerina dress, with hopes that she'd follow form and want to wear her costume when she realized that she wasn't already wearing it. Wildly indecisive behavior or at least disagreement with whatever we say seems to be the norm at the moment. The wardrobe crisis was followed by the "let's go trick or treat now" crisis, followed by the "I don't want to go" crisis. Eventally, we made it to the school with about 4 outfits in hand.

When I went back to go and see the "parade", Ava was behaving very well, sitting in her place in the story circle and attentively listening to the story being told. Well, at least until she saw me, when she started crying because we were trying to keep her in the circle and quiet. I wondered how all the other kids were so calm when surrounded by their own parents.

Once she was allowed to break free, and crawl all over me, the crying stopped, and she suddenly wanted to have a conversation in the middle of story time. Again, I marvelled that all the other children were quiet, listening to the story, and not trying to get to their parents, or speaking with one another, etc. I figure all the other parents are drugging their kids.

Once it was time to check out the train, Ava managed to slip past me and about 95% of the kids and parents in front of her, so that she was already aboard the train before I managed to get out of the building. (This is only about 10 feet, so it's not like I had a long way to go.)

After the ride, she amused herself in the yard with leaves, sticks, and rolling around in the dirt. (She's a lady.) I did laugh at the obvious differences between the girls and the boys - girls throwing up leaves and twirling under them, boys throwing leaves at each other.

Finally, parade time rolled around, and guess who dashed right out in the front? I see a theme here. I can't imagine where she gets it from.