100 Days of School

Friday I went to a special thing that they had at the elementary to celebrate the 100^th day of school. Jay and I tag-teamed the day – he went from 9-10 during his planning period and I went from 10 until after lunch. That seemed to satisfy Cade and it worked good with our work schedules. Jay called me when he was leaving and said it was not very exciting. When he was there the kids were doing a measuring activity. They were measuring things 100 cm and then writing it down. Jay said he almost fell asleep.

I got there in time to watch them do another activity and then we went to lunch. I learned a few things while I was there. I now know why Cade is starving everyday after school. He has never caught on that at school he doesn't have all day to eat. He talks a lot and eats little. He managed to eat 4 carrot sticks and about ½ of his pizza. That's why he grazes all night long. I got a kick out of listening to Cade and his friend Neilson. Neilson is pretty funny and he made some comments that made me laugh on the inside. There were some boys across from us who were obnoxious….so annoying! Neilson said "Crystal, do you see what we have to put up with every day". I had to agree – they were acting so immature. Then Neilson said I don't want to mention any names but some people end up in the principal's office every day and then he did a head nod towards those two boys. Then Cade leaned over and whispered that they are like that every day. I finally had enough and I told the two of them to knock it off. Yeah, they probably thought I was a mean parent. Then the boy sitting on the other side of me kept playing with his food. Cade leaned over again and whispered that this boy played in his food every day too. It was so funny to witness the 3^rd grade lunch room schematics! One thing though that Cade and Neilson said to me I didn't fully catch on to until later. I asked them if they had had fun so far that day and they said they had. They also said that they measured Jay's belly in the activity Jay was at. That somewhat went over my head and I didn't dwell on it.

That night Jay and I went out by ourselves, which is an extremely rare occurrence. We never do anything alone. We were going to go out and eat and then to a movie. By the time we were done at the restaurant it was almost 9. We decided we were too old and tired to stay in town for a 10 pm movie. So we went home. Jay said we tried to play like the cool kids and stay out late, but we just couldn't do it. Anyway, I told Jay that I heard the kids had measured his belly that morning. So then I heard the full story and realized I should've paid more attention to the lunch room talk…

One thing to know about Jay is that his resting face looks like a crabby old man. You know the face that you have when you are sitting there thinking about nothing – not that you are happy or sad or mad, just sitting there? Well Jay's face always looks like whatever he is doing or wherever he is at is the last thing in the world he wants to be doing. It took me years to get used to that face. Even now if my mood is right I'll look at him and say if you'd rather be somewhere else just go! That usually snaps him out of his trance and then he's confused because he has no idea what just occurred because after all he was just sitting there. We've talked about this before, especially before meeting someone new. I'm always reminding him to not get that face because someone who doesn't know him would think he hates them.

So back to Friday. Remember how I said Jay almost fell asleep? Well, he was sitting in a chair and he was so sleepy. He also admits that he had the grumpy old man look on his face. So he's about to doze off when the activity leader calls on Cade. They wanted Cade to name something that is 100 cm. Cade could've said anything – a ball, a desk, anything he could've laid his eyes on in the classroom. But of course this is Cade we are talking about. Instead he says "my dad's belly". I'm sure that snapped Jay out of his coma like state, but I know he would've had his "I hate the world" look when everyone turned to look at him and his 100 cm belly. He let them measure his belly. I asked him if it was 100 cm. Jay said he didn't know - the kids said it was but he didn't pay any attention. And this is just another reason why Jay is such a great dad. Not many can say they let 3^rd graders measure their belly's for a school activity.