Mother's Day Out- Part 2

The first thing Faith told me when she came out of her classroom on the 1st day of school was, "Mommy, I not shy!"  :-)  She had such a fun time with her sweet friends and loved learning about God, playing outside, doing a craft, and eating a snack! 

Madeline was at school when we arrived. Faith was so excited! 

Faith really loves her friend Madeline! The two of them have been friends before either one of them was even walking! :-)

Emmie was the next to arrive to MDO.  Emmie, Madeline and Faith:  Faith calls both of these sweet girls her "special friends"! 

This last week while we were driving to school, Faith told me a story from Mother's Day Out.

Faith said, "Mommy, a little girl in my class chose Emmie to be the line-leader.  Then Emmie chose Madeline to be line-leader."

Immediately, I thought I knew where the story was going and I felt sad for Faith.

But my little girl never ceases to amaze me, Faith went on to say enthusiastically, "Mommy, I HAPPY for them. They're my friends. I so happy they both got to be line-leaders!" :-)

Instead of feeling sad for herself that she wasn't chosen to be line-leader, she was happy for her friends that they were chosen.  When she told me this story, I cried some wonderful, happy tears.

Faith then added as an after-thought, "I hope someday I'll get to be a line-leader too, like my friends."

I responded, "I hope so too!  But Faith, I am so proud of you. You are such a sweet FRIEND to be happy for your friends when something good happens to them. I want to be your friend. Can I be your friend?"  Faith smiled really big and giggled too.  

Faith was so happy Brad made it to Mother's Day Out, so he could say good-bye too! 

Faith immediately went to play with the toy kitchen with her friends.

Faith with her teapot happily saying good-bye to her mommy! 

The three mommies, Anna, me, and Naomi.

Andrew and Brad were the sole dads in attendance for the first day of MDO! They're both really great dads and I like both of them a lot!

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I know if you have have gotten this far into the post, you are a devoted reader, so you are going to be rewarded with an embarrassing story from me. It is ALSO a super sweet example of Faith's unconditional love and acceptance.

It was a busy morning trying to get Brad out of the house with his lunch, Jillian with her lunch, snack bag, and backpack, and Faith with her MDO lunch & show-n-tell.  Also, to add to my defense, it was only the second time that Faith had eaten lunch at MDO, so I was not completely in the routine of adding another person to the morning mix! And perhaps even a bigger factor was the girl's birthday party was coming up only four days later and my to-do list was out of control...I was a frazzled mommy!  

With all that being said, I am trusting you will not think poorly of me and will focus only on how sweet my little Faith is even in her mommy's blunders.  

With no further ado, here it goes:   

While driving home from MDO, with my eye on Faith in the rear-view mirror, I asked Faith, "How was your day at school?"

She responded, with her little nose all squinched up, "Mommy, I ate bread for lunch today."                                                                                                                            

 "Oh!  Was it good?", I responded really enthusiastically.  (I thought it was little strange she referred to her sandwich as being bread but thought that might be what her friends called it.)       

She quickly said, "There NO jelly, mommy. I took a bite of bread and NO jelly.  Then, I opened up the bread and there NO jelly."  

That's when I realized, I did not make a sandwich for my child! I put two slices of bread in Faith's lunch with nothing between them!  

I felt HOR-RI-BLE!!! It was a bad, bad feeling. My daughter ate two slices of bread (and apple, goldfish, and a dessert) for her main source of sustenance for her noon meal because that's what I packed for her! But despite my distress, I tried to act calm, so as to not alarm her. 

In a compassionate but non-dramatic voice, I said, "Honey, I am so sorry that happened."

Faith was completely at ease and said, "Oh, it's alright. I told my teachers my mom had a lot to do. She's a busy mom."  

I quickly reassured her next time that I would put jelly in her sandwich, she nodded her head and said, "Alright. That would be good." :-)

From now on, I will be checking my daughter's sandwich to make sure I put something between her two slices of bread! But I love Faith's optimism and willingness to think the best of me in this not-so-great situation. She is a super sweet girl. 

UPDATE: I also talked to both of Faith's teachers and they were really nice about it. One of them told me she has that sort of thing happen to her ALL the time. :-)

Also, despite Jillian's protests (she likes it freshly made in the morning), I have begun to make lunches the night before!