Mommy, the light is green

Henry was very excited this morning, because today is Splash Day at school. Since we were gone for July, it is the first and only one he gets to participate in this summer. The first words I heard from him this morning was "Mommy, you need to get me dressed for Splash Day today!"

Last night, he fell asleep at the meeting. He wasn't happy when I woke him to go home and several tears were shed. Usually, he gets a second wind, but last night, all he could think about was getting home and getting in his bed. So after I got him changed into his jammies, he crawled into bed, gathered all of his stuffed animals together, laid his head down on them and fell instantly asleep. For any of you that know Henry, he has a habit of taking his special things and using them for a pillow. I wish I had pictures of all of the things over the years that I have found under his head while he is sleeping. And when he takes my hand and puts it under his head, it truly warms my heart.

This morning at breakfast, he complained to me that the kids at school said mean things to him. Upon further investigation, it turns out that the kids at school don't think he's "special". We had the same conversation yesterday, which ended with the declaration "I won't give up, I AM special". I think what this stems from is the fact that there is a girl in Henry's class that has special needs. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but Henry comes home regularly with stories of the outburts and actions of this little girl. I struggle with how to explain this to him...I don't want to say that there is something "wrong" with her, or that she is "sick". I do want him to recognize that she is different and that she isn't "bad", but that she does the absolute best that she can with what she has. I am thinking that somewhere down the line, someone has explained her as "special" and that's why the kids don't think Henry is special, only this little girl is "special". I had a chat with his teacher about it this morning. The way she explained it to the kids is that all children are different and unique, and all children learn at different paces. She told them that sometimes it takes this little girl a little longer to learn something. Overall, I think that was a good way to position it. I don't like that this poor girl got singled out, but I also don't see any way around it as I think the rest of the kids needed some kind of explanation. I'm open to any ideas anyone has on this topic.

On the way to school this morning, I was stopped at a light waiting for the green arrow. I was messing with something else (maybe looking in the mirror). As soon as the light changed, I hear Henry call out from the backseat "Mom, the light is green". He further explained that he needed to help me out so that the cars behind us didn't honk and I didn't get in trouble again. Hmm, did that happen before?