The White One

Whenever they are getting ready to move a child up to the next class at the boys’ school, they send home a letter about 2-3 weeks beforehand that discusses the transition plan, and tells you who the teachers are in the new class. A couple of weeks ago we got the letter telling us that Zachary will be moving into the pre-K class. The teachers in this class are Ms. Amanda G. and Ms. Amanda H. Now that’s not going to be confusing at all – 2 Amandas?? I know who the 2 Amandas are, but didn’t know which one was G & which one was H. I decided we needed to come up with a way to distinguish the two, besides the obvious – one is black & one is white. It just didn’t seem appropriate to teach Zachary that it’s OK to identify them by their color. So yesterday when I was picking them up I was standing on the playground with one of the Amandas – the white one, to be specific. I told her that I didn’t think I’d actually met her (although I’d seen her plenty of times) and asked if she was one of the Amandas. She said yes, and then I asked her “Which one are you?” I was going for something like “Amanda G” or something along those lines. Her response? “Um…the white one…” Yeah, no duh – I can see that! Thankfully one of Zachary’s current teachers was also standing there, and she clarified that she thought I meant what’s her last name. Turns out, she is Amanda H. Not that it matters, because we still somehow need to inform Zachary that she is Amanda H. and the other one is Amanda G. Maybe we will go with her other description – brown hair (Amanda H.) & spiky hair (Amanda G.). This is going to be confusing. I thought we’d be done with this – right now one of his teachers is Ms. Stephanie, but there is also a Ms. Stephanie who works in the office (again, one is black & one is white). But that was easy – if he’d talk about Ms. Stephanie we’d ask him if he meant Ms. Stephanie the teacher or Ms. Stephanie in the office.

When I had first gotten there yesterday, Liam’s class was on the playground. I got out there and didn’t see Liam. One of the teachers spotted him by the fence talking to Zachary (there is a wrought iron fence separating the little kids playground from the big kids playground). I went over there, and Zachary saw me too. He ran full speed for the gate connecting the 2 playgrounds. Only, the gate doesn’t open all the way, and I think he must have pushed it full force, but then the gate snapped back and he kept running - right into the gate. By the time he made it over to me he was screaming and he had a nice little bump on his forehead. I told him we’d get some ice when we got home. Only, then it got bigger & bigger before our eyes – like in a cartoon. So Liam’s teacher (“Lolly”) called for Amanda (“the white one”) to go get him some ice. He still has a bump this morning, but I think he’ll be OK. They just both look like they’ve been through a battle lately, between Zachary’s head bump and his cut lip from the other day, and Liam’s bandaged hand and a little scratch on his nose (that we have NO idea where it came from).