Lagging behind...

Okay, so it's been a while. Unfortunately, it's been so long I can't remember half the stuff that's gone on, so I'll do my best..

Going to the Norman Regional Hospital party at Andy Alligators had plenty of fun moments in it. The first was getting there: as we were driving closer to the shuttle location (the health plex), Emily started asking questions:

"Where are we going?"

"To Andy Alligators, but we have to park in the parking lot here and get a ride on a bus over there."

"Is there a doctor there?"

"No, that's just where we are parking."

"To go to the doctor? Do I need a shot?" Her voice became more and more worried..

"Emily, we're just parking there. We're not going into the doctor."

"For a shot?"

And on, and on, and on. We finally managed to convince her what was going on, and then there was the uncertainty of the bus. She enjoyed that after we got moving though. Once at Andy Alligators, the best part was the huge balloon slide that looked like a tiger. She wanted to go down the slide, but as soon as we got closer, she started edging away, telling me she didn't want to go. I knew she liked those slides, so I basically ignored her and kept walking towards it. I could tell things were getting worse as she started crying, but I was having none of it, and kept dragging her over there. Finally, as we got to the ladder, she begged me to go with her, so I did. As we got on, she turned to Leslie and said, "it's okay mommy, it's just a pretend tiger," and kept repeating that to herself as we crawled up his neck. Made perfect sense then, as I looked at his huge teeth twice the size as me as we walked up. From that point on she wanted to do it by herself, and slid down over, and over, and over.

We did lots of other rides, including the ferris wheel, which she loved as well.

The only other fun of the week was last Friday night. As we were eating at Teds, Leslie noticed that Emily didn't have a stamp on her hand. When she asked her about it, Emily answered, "I didn't get a stamp because I was running in the room."

I was shocked. But not for the reason any sane rational human being would be. I was shocked (wait for it) because I couldn't believe Emily had it in her head that she didn't get a stamp for that reason. If you don't get me yet, I won't give it away, keep reading.

"What does that mean, Emily?" I asked. She told me the story again. Still, I knew she was wrong, and was pretty disturbed that she was telling me this. So I asked some other questions.. Questions like, "did anybody else get a stamp?"

"Yes."

Surely not. If you haven't figured it out, here it is: I KNEW Emily didn't do anything wrong, so there was some big misunderstanding somewhere in this story. "No," I replied, "Emily, if you didn't get a stamp, nobody else did either, right? Did the teacher just forget?"

"No."

At this point Leslie went back to eating. She knew this would take a while.

"So, Emily. You didn't get a stamp because you were running?"

"Yes."

I looked at Leslie. "Do you have her phone number?"

At this point, oh, if only I could describe the look I received across the table. She looked at me briefly, and I could tell she was trying her best to choose her words carefully... Finally, she spoke.

"No, and we will not be calling her." She returned to eating.

Now, I know that I'm a little overboard when it comes to being dad. I know I've been banned from calling OU child development as well as McKinley by Leslie because I'm so overboard. Did that stop me during this conversation? Do I even need to ask that question?

"How do we know that's the right story?"

To be honest here, it felt a little weird even asking that. Again, didn't stop me.

"Really?"

I paused. Common sense dictated a pretty clear understanding of the situation. Of course, I disregarded it.

"Well, when teachers at Alcott give demerits, they have to contact parents for this very reason. How do we know this is what happened? Maybe she just forgot?" Yeah, I was reaching, even for me at that point.

"Well..." She slowed down her speech which was I'm sure for hopes that I would actually comprehend the logic escaping her mouth. "Emily has told us about three times now the story. I think we should believe her. Emily, you can't watch any TV or movies tonight."

"Okay," she replied.

Okay? That's it?

"Let's call her."

Oops, game is about to start. I'll finish later :)