Man the Barricades

I picked up the boys today after work. When I got there, the end of the center that they are usually in was empty. They had some flooding and the kids were all at the other end. The door was shut.

When I walked in I noticed that there were art tables pulled across the entries to two of the classrooms. The art tables were three feet tall and two feet wide with all kinds of stuff in them. They completely blocked the entrances.

The way the center is laid out, you walk in the door and the classrooms are all open. There are two right in front of you, with a wall coming almost all the way to the door. Each has another classroom beyond it, with a wall but no door.

Owyn was to the left, which was not blocked off by the barricades. I walked over to his room and was met by the center director and one of the two male teachers (who are both awesome). The two of them proceeded to fill me in on the day that my eldest had had.

It turns out that the barricades were in place to keep Rhys contained. He had been all over the center. He bit someone on the back of the neck. He ran amok. There was some sort of incident with scissors. They both were talking to me at the same time. Even when they noticed that the other was talking, they couldn't stop, there was so much to tell.

I got Owyn, who was pleased to see me. We went to the other side of the center to get Rhys. We got through the first barricade without challenge but we were stopped at the final wall by a three foot tall gate warden. He pulled the trash can across the small entrance, which had been left in place. He looked at me sternly and said "Rhys has NOT had a good day. He was bad." After passing on his message he allowed us to pass, eying me angrily, as clearly I had failed as a Daddy.

Rhys, of course, was in a great mood. He was happy to see me. They already had his coat on him. They never have the kids coats on them unless they are outside. Hmm. Rhys' teacher came over to talk. He looked frazzled. This dude deals with twenty screaming kids all day long every day and remains cheerful, and he looked frazzled.

We discussed some ideas for reigning in the Terror. I told him about 1-2-3 Magic, which has worked really well for us at home. We let the center borrow the book. Teacher said he had read most of it and would finish it this weekend. As we talked Rhys and Owyn were disassembling a kitchen and phone in a classroom which had been cleaned already.

This morning Tracy took Rhys in for his five year appointment. They had to sit in the waiting room for an hour. No exaggeration. Sit in our waiting room for an hour, what could go wrong? Rhys got five shots. FIVE shots. FIVE.

As much as all of that is made of pure suck, I sure hope that is why he was such a wretched little monster all day. It's good that it is Friday and the center staff has two days to go home, drink and think to themselves, "It couldn't have been that bad, nothing is that bad".