Ashton's Good Day

Many of you have been following the Ashton school saga. And I am happy to report that she had a GREAT day at school today. I watched in the window for the first hour and a half this morning because I wanted to see who or what was causing her aggressive behavior. She does not get reports about that type of behavior anywhere but school. I knew there had to be a reason for it and I know her personality. She's not a bully by nature. So I observed her doing finger painting. She was very neat and delicate about it. Then she played with the other kids very nicely, even sharing toys and purposefully taking toys out of the bin and carrying them over to other children in different parts of the room. And if you've ever had a 2 yr old, you know sharing is NOT characteristic of that age, but she was doing it beautifully. She was talking up a storm (half gibberish/half English) to anyone that would listen. She was being a mommy to every baby doll in the room. She was the primary cleaner upper when it was time to clean up. She went to town on that! And she was wherever the "party" was. Because she's my social one. If the party was in the play house, she was right in the middle of it serving plastic food to all the "party guests". There was one boy in the class that was OUT OF CONTROL aggressive. He was hitting, stealing toys, pretending to stab everyone with a plastic knife, etc. He stole toys from Ashton several times and some times she just walked away and some times she yelled at him, but never did she hit or pull hair or use any physical aggression. But he was the cause of every "issue" in the class today. After watching for an hour and a half, I saw all I needed to see. I saw a totally well adjusted two year old who was very sweet and social, who totally got along well with everyone in the room. And I saw a two year old boy who was the real bully of the class causing all the problems. She seemed to be enjoying herself and was happy to be there. And that's all I needed to know!

Lexi, on the other hand, has been in trouble lately for not following directions. And today her teacher pulled me aside and said, "PLEASE teach her how to use scissors." And then she proceeded to show me the other children's cutting projects compared to Lexi's. I admit, that's not something we've ever worked on. Mainly because I just thought, oh well, she'll learn that at school right? Apparently she's supposed to already be a master cutter. We don't even OWN a pair of child scissors. So I guess that's my next project! UGH. This whole school thing is just the beginning. I feel so defeated as a mom when I pick them up from school because it's always something negative. I just want to hear some good comments every now and then.