Daylight Savings TIme and Other Stories

Tiffany: "We need to change our clocks and watches for Daylight Savings."

Cody: (wearing his Lego watch) "I like this watch though. Can we get another one like this one?"

Tiffany: "We can just change the time on that one."

Cody: (smiling and looking relieved) "Ohhhh! I thought I had to get a new watch!"

*******

Cody comes into the girl's bedroom while I am getting Livy into her pajamas. I look up to see him standing there with his shirt off flexing his biceps with all his 45-pound-might. Then he says (in a serious tone), "Mom, according to my muscles I don't look strong, but I actually am."

*******

At Cody's school they have a color scale to help the kids stay on good behavior. At the beginning of each day all the children start on Blue and the goal is to stay there or, if they do something particularly extraordinary, they can move up to Pink or Purple. But, if the teacher catches you talking or acting out of line you move down to Green, then Yellow, and then Red (Red being the worst and involves notifying parents).

Well, Cody, who normally has no problems staying on Blue, has had a few days recently where he has changed to Green (for talking to friends when he's supposed to be quiet, etc). So Steve and I have been having little talks with Cody when he comes home from school about things he can do to avoid this and also encouraging him to keep trying even when he makes mistakes. He gets so sad when his color changes and he wants to be good. Every night he prays that he can do better and every morning I remind him to be a good boy and do his best as he hops on the school bus. 

On Tuesday this week I was sure that he had done better. He seemed happy when he got home, but when I asked about his color for the day he told me he got put on Green again. When I asked what happened he started acting really uncomfortable. He said he didn't want to tell us and no matter what I said he didn't spill the beans, so I dropped it. The only thing he said was that it happened in art class. All the time that he worked on his homework and we were going about our day I was wondering what on Earth he could have done. Automatically my thoughts assumed the worst, but I had to remind myself that his color had only changed to Green so it couldn't have been too horrifying. But, Cody was acting so strange that it was making me very curious.

An hour or two later Steve and Cody were outside and somehow Steve found out what had happened. Steve came inside for a minute to tell me that Cody had told him what he had done. Steve said he couldn't help but laugh, but that I might not like it. I was still puzzled, but relieved that it didn't seem serious and I was glad I hadn't made a big fuss about it.

At dinner Steve told Cody that he needed to tell me. Cody looked down at the table and mumbled, "I glued myself to a chair."

At first I thought I hadn't heard that right. But when I realized what he said I asked, "You glued yourself to a chair?"

Yes, I had heard right. Apparently, he was trying to be good and stay in his seat so he decided to help himself out. We talked about some better alternatives. And I have to say I've never been so happy to find out that my son glued himself to a chair. :) Of course, I didn't tell him that.