"Why not?" I asked cautiously.
"I want to stay home."
"And do what?"
"Play with toys."
H'm. Two weeks of Christmas vacation. Perhaps we're out of the habit of school.
"There's toys at school," I reminded her.
She pointed out there are more at home.
I doubted that, but I let the point alone. After awhile I said that we needed to go to the school, so she could tell her teacher she was not doing school today.
"Use the telephone," she told me suspiciously.
I put my hand on her forehead. "I use the telephone to say you can't go to school when you're sick, when we can't go out of the house. You're not sick."
Monkey1 bought it. She put on daytime clothes, and I packed everything she'd need for school in my bag... snack, homework folder, shoes. She wore her bunny boots. I hoped that at school she'd change her mind, or somehow her teacher would change her mind. Her preschool teacher has a magical quality of assuring and assuming her rule will be followed.
Once at school, after a few minutes of Monkey1 being stuck to my leg while I simply stood in her classroom -- meanwhile, Monkey2 made herself at home with the toys -- Monkey1 noticed new decorations in the classroom, discovered that she had a job as "door holder" for the day, and got too hot for her jacket. The rhythm came back: put the jacket in the cubby, put the homework folder in the basket, put the snack box in another basket... and I offered her her shoes, so she put the bunny boots in the cubby and put on her shoes. And she gave me a kiss.
And I grabbed Monkey2 and ran! As I strapped Monkey2 back into her carseat, she wailed about her sister's change of mind, until we got to the grocery store, where she discovered the advantage to having the cab of the car cart all to herself. She could beep both horns at once, continuously, and use both steering wheels, and all without the elder sibling's instructions or outcries.
We're back to the routine.
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