Bailing Out

It seems like Cody had a little bit of a tough day at preschool today. Here are some snippets of our conversation.


Me: Who did you play with today?
CJP: Well, mostly I hanged out with Bailey.
Me: Hung.
CJP: Mostly I hung out with Bailey.
Me: What did you two talk about?
CJP: Actually, mostly I just followed her around. And Bailey was kind of rough on me at line time (when they sit in a circle to do activities).
Me: What happened?
CJP: Well, I accidentally got into her personal space a little bit. Actually a lot.
Me: What did she do?
CJP: She moved very far away from me.
Me: What did you do then?
CJP: I moved closer to her.


Poor Bailey. Anyone want to take odds on when the teacher will call?


And speaking of personal space, Jonathan witnessed a run-in with another kid, named Ike (clearly the name of a bad penny), in which Ike grabbed Cody's arm and started making Cody smack himself in the head with his own hand. (Yes, Ike is still alive, and clearly, he has a mean-spirited older sibling at home.) Later, he recounted another incident that must have happened earlier, in which Ike (who is smaller, the bastard) was beating up on him and Ms. Leavesley came and "was so stern to him and made him leave me alone and go sit over there with her; wasn't that so kind?" So the game plan for tomorrow, if Ike pulls that crap again, is for him to sternly--and loudly--defend himself. When brainstorming ideas, Cody came up with: "Ike, you MAY NOT be unacceptable to me! I will be SO stern to you if you try to hurt me!" What can I say; it was a rough draft.


The unfortunate side dish is that he apparently was horribly rude and aggressive toward Cordelia after this incident. (Now, correlation is not causation, but poor Birdie. It is hard to love your brother so much and be constantly rebuffed. He is the apple of her eye; she is fiercely devoted and more often than not, he is heartbreakingly dismissive of her. It's painful to watch her unrequited love play out sometimes. She's pretty resilient and cheerful about it, but still, we feel for her.) I happen to know that lunch was cut short and he went to bed early. Not knowing that I knew (does he never learn?) he confided in me,


CJP: I did not have the best lunch. Then, this afternoon, Bidi had a tantrum. She had such a huge tantrum! I had to be so stern with her because of that rude, aggressive behavior. Me: Oh dear. What was bothering her?
CJP: Well...actually...um...the tag of her shirt. That was bothering her. And then, she got hit in the head by a bucket wheel excavator!