About a month ago, I received a note home from my Nicholas' teacher. I would post exactly what it said, but I filed it somewhere so safe in our house that it may never be found again. That's what happens to most important documentation in our world. Anyway, it basically said:
Dear Mrs. Hoffman,
Nicholas seemed to have difficulty concentrating today, so I am sending his work home for him to complete. By the way, he was eating crayons, so I thought I would also bring this to your attention, since I have never noticed him doing this before.
Sincerely,
Very Kind and Patient But May Become Exaspertated in the Near Future Teacher
My first reaction was, to thank God that this was only the first time he had done this particular strange behavior. I asked Nick why he was eating crayons in school but he didn't know. Maybe the colors blue and green looked especially tasty that day. I offered to pack him some crayons for a snack the next day, but he declined and explained that he had spit the crayons out after he chewed them up, so he had not really eaten them. That led to an entire other discussion of how people do not spit like llamas and please do not spit in school, or anywhere else for that matter. We mutually agreed that there would be no more eating crayons or spitting like a llama at school. The next note was about chewing on his sleeves and on pencils.
It actually turned out that Nick has severe allergies. We started giving him medication this week and he stopped chewing on weird things. I have no explanation of how the two are connected, but I am relieved that at least the next note home from school will at least have a different theme.
Anyway, for some reason I can't explain, this story has stuck in my head and made me laugh. It has also somehow inspired me to actually start the new blog I have been intending to begin for the past year and a half.
Wishing a non-crayon eating day to you and yours,
Anne
