a little stormy

Last Friday night, after a pretty low-key day, Luke and I were watching TV when Lamar came home from work. Luke was very tired but determined he was not. After Lamar ate his reheated supper, he got out the big bag of popcorn. Lamar discovered the big bags of popcorn at Publix a few months ago. Luke devoured the popcorn the first time we offered it to him, so I started packing it for his school snack each day. I usually put something else with it, like a few pretzels. He's never made a single comment about his snack. When Luke saw the popcorn bag he got really upset. He grabbed the bag from Lamar's hands and poured ALL the popcorn on his little table. Then he took hand fulls of the popcorn to the trash can saying, "I want this to be gone." So of course I want to punish him for this outrageous behavior. It made me furious. But it was so odd that I had to understand his motivation. Luke was able to calm himself enough to talk about it. After many questions I ascertained he does not like having popcorn for his snack. It makes him mad that every day popcorn is in his snack bag. So he thought he'd get rid of the popcorn. I walked him through a better way to discuss this with me and we agreed no more popcorn in the snack bag. And then he cleaned up the mess. Meltdowns like these are rare these days. But it still knocked the wind out of my sails for a bit. On Saturday we made our way to the movies, Luke's fifth cinematic experience: My expectations for Hop were low. I expected cheesy slap-stick. And there was plenty of cheese, but the movie was really cute and I laughed a lot. Joe Cool poses with the movie poster, our little movie tradition. Too bad about the glare. Right before the movie Luke and I managed to spill diet coke all over him. In our defense, I was trying to save him from a spill and the cup collapsed in my hand. We ran to the restroom. I had spare pants for him in my bag (doesn't everyone?) and he put on the sweatshirt we brought in case it was chilly. And we made it back to our seats before the movie started. Our rock star moment of the day. On Monday the weather forecast was a little scary. I stayed close to home, knowing I might need to make a dash to school. Then I got an email from Mrs. W that she was leaving school with her sick child. I knew Luke was with a sub and a storm was approaching. I planned to arrive just as they returned from specials and take him or at least ride out the storm with him at school. But the storm moved more quickly than anyone expected. I was on the exercise bike and heard tornado sirens. So I went against all safety protocol and threw Lamar's big rain slicker over my exercise clothes and jumped in the van. In my .5 mile drive to school, the wind was gusting and the rain was pouring. I sat in the van in parking lot, wondering if it was safe to run in. The wind was rocking the van and I figured I wasn't exactly safe there. I thought about driving right up to the door and just parking in the fire lane and running in. But what if there was an emergency and a fire truck needed to come. So I just jumped out and ran in. I didn't even have on my bright orange rain boots that I wear every single time it rains. Just my Nikes that were instantly saturated. The secretary saw me coming, opened the door and said, "He's right here in the nurse's office." Apparently the special ed teachers thought it would be good idea to bring some of the kids that might be especially nervous to the office. But Luke didn't want to gather with the others in the assistant principal's office. Luke's kind of a special ed snob. So he was hanging with his bff Ms. Wendie in the nurse's office. He was so glad to see me, saying "Wow Mom! How did you get here?" And I was so glad he was so well taken care of. LOVE our school. We waited out the storm together, me soaking wet, looking through an old yearbook. He loved finding students and teachers he knows. I can only imagine how excited he'll be when he gets his first yearbook in a few weeks. We survived the stormy week and are feeling much sunnier today.