And the cycle spins

I haven't felt like writing recently. There has been a lot of stress in my life the last couple of weeks, most of it related to a huge financial snafu that totally wasn't my fault. Without going into the entire story, suffice it to say Discover SUCKS and their customer service line couldn't be less interested in helping when the huge whopping mistake is undeniably THEIR FAULT! *deep cleansing breath*

Anyway, on Friday, as I was helping my kiddos do a really fun measuring worksheet that involves running madly around the classroom and measuring various objects with your hands or feet - what? I have to teach nonstandard measurement, I might was well make it fun! - one of the speech pathologists slipped quietly into my room. She walked over and whispered in my ear "Guess who is up in the office RIGHT NOW?" I thought for a second, then a bubble of glee spread through me as I breathed "Toddler Girl?" with great hope. The speech path nodded and grinned and I burst into a spontaneous ear to ear smile of utter delight. I know, I complained about her when she was here before, but I have worried and thought about her every day that she was gone and honestly, I am tickled pink to have her back. It was nearly lunchtime, so I hustled my class through tidying up and getting hands washed, in the hopes I would be able to catch Toddler Girl in the office while Toddler Mom was still filling out paperwork and give her a welcome back hug. No luck, I missed them by minutes. But the secretary assured me that Toddler Girl will be rejoining my class on Monday!

I tracked down Mrs. SPED to let her know that Toddler Girl was back, and unfortunately she wasn't nearly as thrilled by that news as I was. Her response was an eye roll, a huge sigh, and "GREAT!" in a sarcastic tone. She cheered up a bit when we discovered that the other school had indeed succeeded in getting Toddler Mom to sign the SPED paperwork, so Toddler Girl is ready to start SPED after winter break. Yes, I agreed to keep her in the regular classroom for this last week before winter break - we aren't doing anything THAT academic that she will be too much of a pain in the neck and the kids will be so thrilled to see her that I don't want to take her away from them immediately. I told the class right before we left on Friday that Toddler Girl would be back on Monday and the overwhelming reaction was joy, which was heart warming to say the least. I worked so hard to get them to love and accept her for who she was and what she could do and the fact that they greeted the news of her return with clapping and yells of happiness made me feel like I had succeeded.

So my little classroom family will be complete again. This has been an unusually stable year - Toddler Girl is the only one who has moved out and she is back, we've only had 1 other student move in (Southern Belle) and she has been with us long enough that she no longer feels like "the new girl". I love stable years, they really let the class build tight bonds of friendship and give me a chance to utterly fall in love with my kids!