It was library day! Yippee!!

So it was go-to-the-library-because-of trunk-or-treat-day on Wednesday. 
We were in our usual cafeteria space at first, although we didn't have the usual program set up.

The kids had to have their snack, and the only places in the school where people are allowed to eat are the cafeteria and the teacher's break room. 
Because of our licensing requirements, we're not allowed to take food outside. Sanitation. 
I get it, but a little bit of picnic snacking doesn't seem like such a big deal to me and I know the kids would love it. 

Why does all kid food have to be confined to the cafeteria? 
Well.

The summer of 2024, there were several construction projects near the school as well as a couple in the building. We had a major rodent problem and even now we're unable to leave our snacks out in uncovered boxes. Everything is sealed in clear plastic bins with snap lids.

Our then-custodian said they'd trapped 'literally hundreds' of hungry little mice and... Bonus! Rats!!

It's the reason the extra classes (not sure when those start up again but they are not my favorite thing, half a moment while I add this to the running list of stuff I need to ask our school secretary) had to eat in half the cafeteria and disrupt my program twice a week for 45 minutes each time last year.

My manager was there to help support on Wednesday since we were in a different location and there aren't strong enough adjectives to describe how hectic that can be.

And.
Parked against the back wall of the cafeteria, there was a stack of clear tubs, containing items we haven't brought out of our storage closet this school year (two full bins of dollhouse furniture, a bin of marble run stuff, the bin full of red not-Solo cups, smaller bin of pony beads and one of art supplies, wheels are our friends, people.) was causing a lot of interest and all the kids had questions. They asked them simultaneously for the most part, I told them we'd sit down and have a meeting in a bit and I'd explain it all at once instead of telling the same story 24 times.

So they went back to asking questions.

"When are we getting that out?"
"What is that stuff? Can we play with it?"
"Why do you have those toys? Are they for us?"
"Why don't we have our regular stuff out?"
"How come there are no rugs?"
"Why is everything different?"

In the middle of all that, some of the kids were decorating our pumpkin for the season. The pumpkin was wearing a purple wig, they turned the stem into some kind of horn with aluminum foil and made eyelashes from black construction paper. It looked like hell, but unlike most of the other sites, it was designed and implemented by the kids. Since we don't have the numbers to get everyone to vote for our project, it doesn't matter anyway. And I'm using this opportunity once again to say how much I resent the whole 'here's a pumpkin and here's your deadline' thing. Ugh.

But hey, it's over for another damn year.

Andre was in fine form. He's unable to keep his hands off other children. No amount of suggestion, redirection, straight up prohibition changes his behavior in any appreciable way.

So they were all zipping around, the noise level was up, Andre had been repeatedly asked to keep his hands in his own space and we were (finally!!) lining up to go outside. And in a miracle of biblical proportions, Andre's dad came to pick his boys up before we went out. I look forward to that moment daily.

The stress of having Andre there for a little over an hour feels like a whole day, really. He can't be unwatched for one moment. We have to be ready to physically intervene when he's grabbing another kid by the arm or yelling at someone for, hm, basically nothing.

I still don't think he's malicious. But he has no sense of physical boundaries and doesn't understand social cues. When he is reminded that, "We don't do that here," he is happy to bellow, "I DON'T CARE!!" 

He enjoys that.
A week ago, he yelled that phrase into my left ear so loud that it was still ringing halfway through Saturday.

::sigh::

We had a meeting with his parents week before last and discussed some ideas of things we might be able to do for him to succeed in the program.

I don't think the things we discussed are going to change anything, not his behavior, not his attitude, not the volume level, not the grabbing. 

I don't feel I'm able to do anything to help him calm down and be a part of the group.

Hey, look at that! I've once again completely sailed away from the point.

So we spent the rest of the afternoon in the library on Wednesday. 
We made little spiders, pony bead lizards/snakes, the kids built rooms out of cups, they colored. They read books from the tops of the book cases. 

After the last kid left (of course it was nearly six) we went back to the cafeteria and put all our carts away. 

And there was no school on Thursday or Friday, but William and I did a bunch of purging and cleaning in our little storage room. It went well once we got to it.

We showed up and the custodian had to polish the floors.
So we sat in the back room and chatted until 11. We clocked out at 2:38 and it took me an hour and 15 minutes to make the 37 minute drive home.

Friday, still no school. I took actual paid time off for the day, which means I got paid when I dropped off two full boxes of stuff I no longer use at Goodwill. We actually took out THREE boxes, but William wanted some of the games I had contributed to the program. We weren't using them, so whatever.

We did the grocery shopping on Friday instead of Saturday.
My pee clock went off at 2 AM and I couldn't get back to sleep until almost six. 

So my brain is the problem, I guess.

Today is laundry. Clean this and that.
I'm watching Young Sheldon on Netflix. It's been out awhile, as has Big Bang Theory. I picked up a couple seasons of that one at Goodwill and ended up buying the whole series.

I have ended up with a large collection of DVDs. 
I guess I have to watch them to justify those purchases, huh?

I'm glad for a couple days off.