Staying in the Moment

The Director of Education called at eight o'clock this morning to cancel  Hope's Annual Review this morning. All of her classmates did have their Annual Review today, so the class has a substitute. Hope managed to land on the bottom of the behavior ladder. I knew homework with Hope would be a wash tonight and it was. MK and I were cleaning up the  kitchen when the girl's bus pulled in.


Unexpectedly, GB came off the bus in tears.She had extra homework tonight because she had counseling today and missed part of math. This doesn't usually phase GB, but today it did. She cried for almost an hour. I let her try to soothe herself. She couldn't. I cuddled and rocked her and even sang to her and she finally was able to regulate and do her homework. During this period of time, Hope said she needed to use the bathroom and I let her use the downstairs bathroom by herself UNSUPERVISED.


She wasn't out of sight long enough for my internal alarm bells to go off, but I was focused on GB. After GB was regulated and her homework was done, I went to finish the kitchen. The downstairs bathroom is right off the kitchen. Hope had sprayed non-toxic cleaner all over the kitchen. She took the spices MK had out to use for dinner and added them to the animal's water. I honestly do not know what else she got into, because when questioned, Hope denied getting into anything. She started her "poor me" game and I felt the anger rising inside me. I acknowledged that anger. I put her to bed. It was six o'clock.


The Dad undid the damage in the kitchen, and thankfully did not share the details with me. Tomorrow is Therapy Tuesday. Sigh.