the roller coaster

I am now a basket case.  The mom's who were worried have children that are doing fine in Kindergarten.  I, on the other hand, have had a child in tears 2 our of 3 days.

 Day 1 she cried, I believe, just because she was overly tired.  She just kept saying that she didn't want to go back to school because she was going to miss me.  We got through that one pretty easily.

Day 2, will now go down in infamy as the day of the cup.  A came home with her water bottle empty.  I immediately praised her because it is a constant battle in my house to get her to drink.  As soon as I  mentioned the cup, she immediately started to cry.  The crying escalated into full out sobs in about 2.45 seconds.  "I never can go back.  My teacher hates me.  My teacher yelled at me."  Of course at this point, I'm utterly confused.  How did we go from Good Job to sobs?  Well, that is the roller coaster that I now call my daughter.  After hugging, more tears leading Mommy having tears, and deep breathing, I finally got somewhat of the story.  Apparently, the stopper fell out of the said water cup causing it to dump when laid on it's side.  A., thought I packed something in her lunch box to suck on and immediately put the stopper in her mouth.  So, the teacher came over to help her in the rather loud lunch room and could not get the damned cup to stop pouring out.  Then came a "don't bring the cup back."  I, obviously do not know the tone of the "suggestion" but A. took it as an all out volcano eruption and her hopes of pleasing her teacher just exploded with the volcano.

OK where to go from here. I"m obviously not going to run out to buy a new cup since 1. there is no water bottle selling stores in our tiny little town and 2. because the water bottle works fine when the stopper is not in A.'s mouth.  After much coaxing, we decided that we would practice with the cup at dinner and at breakfast the next day.  Then, A. should be able to work the damned cup without issue.  Finally, instead of riding the bus, I would take A. to school to explain the the teacher why we did not run to the nearest store 30 miles away to buy a new cup.  The practice went off without a hitch because really, how much practice does one need to use a cup.  Then, I built up my courage to dissuade my fears of this lady looking at me like I'm nuts because we were all worked up over a stupid pink cup; I mean who wants to be known as the crazy cup mom.  The teacher acknowledged the fears for about .5 seconds, tried the cup to make sure it didn't pour all over the table, and then went to talk to other people dropping off their kids  She did exactly what she should have done. A. went on and sat with other kids and I left.  Then I got into the car and sobbed.  Why, I'm not sure.  Maybe because everyone's emotions are running on high. Maybe because I wanted her to hug my kid and tell her that she didn't hate her, that she loved her. Maybe because I would rather have her at home avoiding this entire situation.  I don't know.  Here's to making day 3 and 4 of week one good days!!