Tabby's Got a Brand New Bag

Tabitha got a new bag for her emergency medical supplies this week. It's snazzy, and she can wear it herself, so we know that she'll have it should the need arise. That's always a concern.

Of course, she's still fairly young so we continue to rely on others to take action, should push come to shove. We're here when she's home, but when she's at school that is another matter entirely.

And a touchy one, it turns out.

Both girls are now in summer school. Our school district runs a number of classes in the summer time that are geared toward enrichment and fun rather than catching up on all the things missed during the year, and this is the second summer we've had them enrolled. Among other things, they're taking a class called Young Authors, where they each will be writing a book. Eventually that book will be produced as a hard-bound copy. It's pretty cool.

The first day of school was Monday, and it did not go as planned.

Kim took the girls over to Mas Macho President Elementary, where the classes are offered this summer, and since this was the first time we had a chance to find out who her teachers were, she asked them if they were prepared to respond should Tabitha need them to.

Well.

The short version of the story is that Tabitha spent the morning with Kim at her office while I spent the morning on the phone with various members of the school district staff. The district's head medical officer then spent a chunk of his morning speaking individually with the teachers about just how far wrong their ideas of how to be helpful were, and then I spent even more time with them over the lunch hour discussing in clear terms the proper way to be helpful. I think hints were taken, ultimately. Certainly they seemed to appreciate the gravity of the situation, when all was said and done, and that is a good start.

Tabitha is now reaching the age where she is beginning to get embarrassed by all this, I think. She's a mature and responsible kid, and it bothers her that she has to be as careful as she does - that she can't just go and do, the way her friends can. She understands the reasons for it and she's very good about following them, but that doesn't make it any easier. And it's just going to get less easy as she gets older. She'll be a "tween" come next birthday.

So we try to make it as congenial as we can. She likes her new bag. We do too.