Notes from School

Jonathan has a special relationship with the Director of his school, Mr. George. He always makes sure to greet him in the mornings with a smile and a "Hello!" and checks up on Mr. George if he misses a day. I know Mr. George gets a big kick out of Jonathan, and has mentioned him in hs Friday emails to the school.

A few weeks ago, Jonathan wanted to bring in a book for Share Day. He is very strict about the rules that Ms. Lori sets out, and thirty seconds before walking out the door, he had a meltdown that there was no bookmark in his book. Since there are twenty kids in his class, if you bring a book for Share Day, you have to pick one special page and mark it with a bookmark. I grabbed a colorful piece of junk mail and cut a strip off the bottom - voila! Instant bookmark.

When he got home that afternoon, he had apparently upgraded. Instead of my makeshift work, he now had a bookmark laser printed with "Jonathan" and some stars on heavy cardstock. I asked him where he got this and he told me Mr. George had made it for him because he lost his other bookmark.

I had to call the school today to confirm Alex's enrollment and got Mr. George on the line. He told me that Jonathan had sought him out today to tell him again how much he liked the bookmark. Apparently Jonathan had been really upset when his initial one slipped out of his book (again, Ms. Lori's rules are absolute) and Mr. George was happy to print one up for him. It's just like Jonathan to bring it up again, apropos of nothing, weeks later. He's got a memory like an elephant.

Mr. George called back a few minutes later to confirm the enrollment, and said he had another Jonathan story from this morning. He had been pleasantly surprised by the gift of a computer for the primary classroom, and told Jonathan the good news: "Jonathan, there's going to be a computer in your class!" Jonathan took this in stride and apparently told Mr. George, "Oh, good. My mommy sometimes uses different words." This took Mr. George at a bit of a loss, but he decided to ask Jonathan what words these were. (At this point on the phone, I am holding my breath that Jonathan did not report something inappropriate that I may have let slip.)

Jonathan said "Words like. . . dialysis." Mr. George had no idea what to make of this, so he told Jonathan to have a good day. I was laughing with relief as I provided the translation. We tell Jonathan all the time that Daddy fixes computers at work, and Mommy fixes people with dialysis. So there you go. He had to make sure that Mommy's work was mentioned too. Mr. George and I agreed that this made - at least - a little more sense.