Monday in Michigan (even though it's Tuesday) - Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!

by Tracey G. 

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day - and let me tell there's a lot of teachers in my life I appreciate! I wish I could tell them all - but there are only a few I still have contact with and then there's my partner Kris - she's a teacher I greatly appreciate!! :-)

I can't believe that Harry's school year has just about 5 weeks left. It's flown by. It's been quite the experience as  well!! What started out fairly smooth really took a left turn, lol. We started with one teacher, Mr. K, who then left in December to pursue his dream of more of a management position, a Principal in a neighboring school district. We had a couple weeks of flux, with no one in the spot, then we got Ms. B. What a blessing she is and she certainly filled Mr. K's shoes quite well which was no small "feet", lol. (Yes, I know it's "feat", but "feet" and shoes was just too good to pass up, lol). I was very impressed when I got to meet her around parent-teacher conference time. We scheduled the meeting for the week after the conferences so there was no rush to get through it etc, and it was great. I left there so happy that she had taken the spot and that she was the one looking after and teaching Harry the rest of his first year of school!

And she's proven to be even more of a blessing with all the issues we've been having with Harry's anxiety and the health issues wrapped up in that whole mess as well. She's been so wonderful and kind and has gone far above and beyond the call of duty for us! Any of her students are fortunate to have her!

Her and I and the Elementary Success worker, Mr. D., got together for a meeting of the minds to come up with at plan to help him past this bump in the road - the separation anxiety with the added topping of fear of being sick at school. We ended up coming up with a plan that altered Harry's drop off routine, since him clinging to me and crying and calling for mama as he was being pulled off of me with the help of the teachers in the morning, was NOT a good thing, lol. Poor kid - hard on him and on me! So, we set up a temporary routine in hopes of short circuiting that reaction etc. We were meeting her every morning at the door by her classroom, which was a wonderful idea - that way any issues were easier to take care of not in the fray of students coming into school, etc. The first couple days were hard, I think the first day it took the 3 of us (Myself, Ms. B and Mr. D) to get him out of the car. Yep, out of the car. We chased him around the car! LOL INSIDE the car! It was actually quite humorous now to look back on it. Then we had to practically carry him to the door - the whole time he's crying and kicking me, lol. It's amazing I made it to the door without bruises! I told Ms. B. that the next day I'd have to walk backwards so I could get the other leg just as beat up, lol.

After that, every day got a little bit better and little bit better. Today, was the first day back to going into the front doors on his own. To help combat the getting sick at school anxiety, he now eats at home, and we go later. He used to like get there nice and early  to eat the breakfast at school (lots of fun and yummy choices!), but with all the tummy issues, and the getting sick at school anxiety, the eating at home helps so that all he has to do is go in, hang out in the cafeteria with his friends and wait for Ms. B to come down and collect all of them for class, and if he's having tummy issues he's got a little more time at home to work the kinks out. :-D I'm so happy today went well and I hope that it's the trend now - at least part of his issues helped out, if not eradicated at least lessened a bit. I know he still misses me while he's at school, he makes that clear to me and tells me every day. But I know eventually that's going to become a thing of the past as time goes on. Which means he's growing up, and it makes me a little sad at the bittersweet quality to it :-)

Anyway, throughout it all Ms. B has been so accessible, we text, email and call. She really keeps me in the loop as to how his day is going as she'll shoot me a short text letting me know, and it's really nice to be able to give her a head's up on days Harry's either not feeling so well, or having an "emotional" day, lol. :-) Communication has been the biggest thing through this all and I can't thank her enough for making that possible!!

So today if you know a teacher  - even if he/she wasn't one of yours or your child's - thank them for what they do. Their jobs aren't always easy that's for sure and really don't get thanked enough! I think they are all very underappreciated! I now am going to go and thank my favorite teacher, Mrs. M - I had her for 1st, 2nd and then 6th grades and I'm still friends with her today. I think I'm going to write on her FB page just how much she's meant to me through the years! And then I'm going to thank my wonderful friend and co-author here, on her FB page too!! :-D

Oh! I also want to remind everyone about our Gift Basket Giveaway! Kris's daughter, kindly agreed to put together a gift basket for us. The fun part is Kris left it completely up to her - only guidelines were to stay within the Pixels, Plates and LOLs theme as it were.  I think this is such a fun thing - I am so curious to see what she comes up with and I know I'll be bummed I can't win it myself, lol. To enter you just leave a comment on this or any post. And you can up your chances by leaving more comments! We'll choose the winner on Mother's Day, and once we have the mailing information locked down - out it will go! :-D Good luck!