Thursday 15 September 2016

The Return of the Diva

You know when a day goes wrong I’m epic proportions? Well that was today. Bella went back to school after 8 weeks off and boy oh boy did she let me know her feelings about it. 
After being deceptively compliant putting on her uniform, having breakfast and doing teeth and hair, we were ready at 7.30am. We had no idea what time to expect the car, or what car to expect, or who her guide was. Let’s just say that preparation could have been better.

wp-image-1891225309jpg.jpgNone of that really mattered, I got more and more stressed as I frantically watched out of the window…for the next hour! 8.30? Well that was unexpected and I’m pretty sure that after an hour Bella had forgotten all about school.
When the car arrived the guide didn’t know how to fit her harness and we couldn’t figure it out either so I gave up and went to get Bella. Or so I thought, what I actually felt like I was doing was trying to bath a cat (have you ever tried that?)…a three and half foot cat wearing the most robust boys shoes that Clarks sell. Bella doesn’t often melt down and gets aggressive even less. Her meltdowns normally involves her sobbing like her heart is broken. This was feral, raw, don’t even try and get me in that bloody car type emotion. After a good few kicks including one particularly skillful karate-style kick to my throat (yeah that one stung) I managed to drag her out onto the street. 5 minutes later and she was still dragging her brand new uniform across the concrete and I was at a loss. At this point her guide tells me that she can’t take her without the harness. What the hell are you still doing here then?? I told them to go and that we’d make our own way. By this time is was 8.55, Logan was going to be late, Bella might make it for lunch time and I was a nervous wreck.
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Sad girl
Bella instantly calmed down as she got into nanny’s car so I’m not sure what it was that actually spooked her. she went into her new school with relative ease which considering its a brand new building to her is amazing. After numerous discussions with staff it was decided that if there were problems getting her into her transport that afternoon that a teacher would bring her home.
4pm comes and lo and behold home she comes in a staff members car happy as anything singing to both staff all the way home. How this slip of a six year old is defeating everyone (including me) is a mystery but then if you’ve ever tried to keep hold of a slippery fish with your bare hands you’ll get the idea.
Day two comes and starts in exactly the same way. Her entire bus is late due to a 20 minute meltdown and once again we have to drive her in. Again she is happy in school so the problem is simply about leaving the house, breaking the routine of the last 8 weeks.
The day ends better…they get her in (they being four staff) to the car and she travels home well. That is until they decide to bring her home first and get there before myself and logan so have to take her on to the next drop off. At this point she manages to twist and swim her way out of her harness and the long and short of it is that her teacher was called to come and collect her…even though I was 5 minutes from her!
It’s fair to say that night I was stressed, I didn’t sleep well and the thought of the same again was taking its toll on me. The next morning we moved Nanny’s car out of her sight trying to cut down on the problems.
THANKFULLY after only a very minor scuffle at the car door I got her in and as soon as she sat down she automatically put her arms in her straps and started singing. I had to go inside and just sit down for a while as my body was pumped ready for the fight that didn’t happen. After texting family the news of our success…I ended up being late with Logan by one minute. You can’t have it all can you?
If there is one thing that Bella will always do it’s surprise me!

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