Back to the drawing board

****Afterschool Update Below******

Well, Reese's story about boys stealing Bunny on the playground tugged at everyone heartstrings just like any good FICTITIOUS story should! So, I was launching into my "let's leave Bunny in the cubby and watch out for bullies" chat with her teacher and Reese looked her square in the eye, cut to the chase and said, "The boys took Bunny away from me." Her teacher looked confused and told me she never saw anything happen on the playground that would upset R, and she had been watching her especially since she had been so sad the past two weeks. She also told me Bunny had not even been going out on the playground with her. At this point in the chat, R knew she had been exposed, so she said, again, "I don't want to go out on the playground!" Ms. Tori said, "But you can swing--remember how much fun you had swinging?" Reese said, "Can Bunny come swing?" She said of course he could, and R looked pleased as punch. Then R immediately became absorbed in the craft project, sat down at the table and turned to me and said, "Bye Mommy!" Tori and I looked at each other, shocked, and R and I blew kisses as I quickly walked out the door. She also willingly walked into the school (first time I didn't have to carry her) and told me she wanted to go to the classroom. So, maybe Bunny's absence was the problem, not some made up tale of mean kids.
We'll see how the pick up goes.
I am off to enjoy these lovely fall temps and try to have some solo QT on the hike and bike trail.
And no more Donnie Darko images, I did get some complaints.....

UPDATE:
I had a lovely walk around the H&B, feeling so happy about the weather and how easily the transition went this a.m. at school, I was practically skipping along singing "la, la, la, la, la"--I must have looked really funny all half-skipping with a goofy grin on my face. I was mulling over how as parents of young children, we are so inextricably tied to what happens in their life. For example, I was simply elated that R had been so content at school, and had been feeling so much sadness and pain about these make-believe bullies. Meanwhile, people were probably jogging and walking by, thinking, "What's with HER? Fruit loop-y, that one..." (I know because I regularly think this about multiple people on the trail--best people watching in town, I am telling you--way better than ABIA)
Well, that balloon of happy face deflated really quickly when I picked R up and she was inconsolably wailing yet again. In all fairness, there seemed to be some sort of nap revolt going on and many of the other kids were angrily crying. But her teacher tore herself away from the pint-size revolution at hand and chatted with me for a few minutes. She told me that playground time went better, Bunny went out with her, she even seemed to have fun....(me, in my head: "Where's this going?")....then she delicately and tactfully mentioned that Reese "just doesn't seem to deal with it well when she doesn't get her way," explaining how she, um, sort of demanded a lot of things and also wanted Ms. Tori to only hold her, crying when she put her down. Also, she told me R did not eat much of her lunch as a result of an OCD freak out because I forgot to put in her princess napkins today (okay, she did ask me to put them in her lunchbox and I completely forgot about it; go, Mommy!). Again, very sweetly stated, as only a woman with the patience of a saint or preschool teacher could say it. But the message is clear: she's acting like a brat. So, we need to work on this one. We also talked about how this isn't unusual from an only child with a stay at home parent--she's just used to be the center of my universe and when she finds out there are (gasp!) other planets in that universe, it isn't pretty. Big sigh.
Also, when we were at Target afterward, Reese starts announcing (right as we pull into the packed check out lines--girl's got a knack for timing), "We don't say OMIGAWD. We don't say OMIGAWD, right Mommy? Mommy?" I desperately tried to figure out how I could act like I didn't know her, but since she was strapped into the cart I was pushing and we have an uncanny familial resemblance (due to DNA and all), all I could do was "shhhhhhhhh" and change the subject. So, I am also wondering if she was running around the Baptist preschool loudly spouting "OMG" after "OMG". Series of big sighs.
Someday this will be easier, yes?