Fun Alex Story

So this last week of school has been a whirl of emotions for Alex (and me). We've had my sister and brother-in-law here since last Thursday, which has been a blast! Last Friday we took Alex out of school an hour early so we could go do some fun stuff. And then we had that nice long weekend. It was hard for Alex to go back to school on Tuesday, but he did. Then Wednesday was Field Day for the kids. Chad, Beth and I all volunteered for the morning to help with the activities. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting. After the activities were over, Alex came over and sat with us and starting begging for me to bring him home. I told him no, that he needed to stay for the rest of the day. I went with my Mom and Beth to a party store for some supplies and on the way home got a call from the school. Alex was on the phone, sounding ok, but telling me that he fell and scraped his knee really bad. He said it was pretty bloody. In my mind I was thinking... ok, if the office let him call me, it has to be pretty bad. So I told him I would be there soon. I got to the school and went to the office. Alex was no where in sight. I looked in the "sick room" to see if he was there... nope. So I asked the office secretary if she knew where he was. She didn't even know who I was referring to. She didn't know he had even been in the office. So she called down to his classroom and had him sent to the office. I watched him walk down the hall, smiling and laughing as a friend walked by. Then he got to me and his attitude TOTALLY changed. He got to the point of tears as we talked about his knee. It was a nice scrape, but nothing horrible or life changing. I hugged him and told him it looked like he would be ok to stay for the rest of the day. That did not go over well. He broke down and said it hurt so bad and he just didn't think he could handle it. I told him I knew that it stung, but that a scraped knee was not a very good reason to come home. Then, as he's sobbing he says, "But Mom, I still have two whole hours of school left! Why can't I just come home early like I did on Friday?" Oh, my sneaky little boy. I had to giggle a little because I can recall several instances where I did this very same thing. We talked for a while about school and I was able to get some Neosporin from the office to help the sting go away. I walked him back to class and hugged him. And amazingly, he was just fine the rest of the day. I felt bad for his teacher. I can only imagine how exhausted all the kids were from the activities early... and with it being the end of the school year.

Alex has gone back and forth about school ending. In the past weeks, he has been thrilled at the idea of summer vacation. That changed a bit yesterday. We picked him up from school as year book signing was ending. We went from there over to Boondocks for the evening. On our way over there, he was silent in the back, looking through his yearbook. When we got to Boondocks, he made is way over to me. He grabbed my hand and whispered something to me. I didn't understand, so I knelt down. He looked pretty upset. Trying to be brave but choking back tears he said, "Mom, I really don't want school to end. I am going to miss my friends so much and I really just love school." I told everyone else to go ahead so that Alex and I could talk for a minute. He shared his concern about not seeing his friends. And some of that was because of our recent talk about moving. Alex is so excited at the thought of moving out, but he really does not want to leave his school. He loves his school, neighborhood and his friends so much. And honestly, this has been my biggest fear as his parent. I remember how hard it was when we moved here and I don't want my kids to have the same struggles. I know the younger they are, the easier it is. But there was no way I could tell him 'Don't worry, you'll forget all about these friends in a few years.' I told Alex that even if we do move this summer, that we will make sure that we are able to keep him at Adelaide for 2nd grade, but I couldn't promise anything beyond that. That made him feel much better. We were able to continue on and have a wonderful evening.

I am so proud of Alex and all of his accomplishments. We ended our evening last night with another game of Texas Hold'em, since Beth and Chad are leaving today. With a little help from me and his Uncle Chad losing a few rounds on purpose, Alex won the big prize... a tub of licorice. It totally made his night and the smile on the kids face was priceless. As I was tucking him into bed, he was just beaming. I told him how proud I was of him (and not just for winning). And I really am. Ryan and I laid in bed last night and talked for a good hour about how incredibly lucky and blessed we are. I was hoping to get Alex's test scores back before the end of the year, but his teacher said that probably wouldn't happen. But we were surprised to find out with AR reading that Alex is checking out and reading 4th grade level books. Some are almost to a 5th grade reading level. I could go on, but I won't. I just love my Alex so much. And whether he is or not, I am thrilled to have him home for the summer! I can't wait for all the fun things we have planned to start!