Our snuggle bunny

"I didn't have a good day at school today. Can we have lots and lots of snuggles at home?"

So said Sophie on the drive home after daycare today. The poor thing sounded miserable and I asked her why she didn't have a good day (even though I had already gotten most of the story from her teacher at pick-up).

Incident #1: "I had an accident. I fell off the swing when it didn't stop."

One of Sophie's favorite things at school is a round net swing that she loves to lie on. Apparently, she decided she was all done with it and launched herself off before her friend who was pushing stopped.

Incident #2: "I bumped my head on something."

The thing about Sophie is that she doesn't really walk or run. She scampers. That's her default mode of getting from one place to the next. And she's also sort of easily distracted. Which means en route from one place to the next, it is not unusual for her to knock into something because she got sidetracked by something else in her line of vision. And apparently, that's what happened today with a certain concrete pillar.

Incident #3: "I was afraid to go potty and I cried and cried and cried."

This happens occasionally when Sophie only wants to go potty at home. It's not related to cleanliness (because this has happened even when we're at nice, clean bathrooms) but more about familiarity and comfort, I suspect. And today was one of those days, when she just refused to go potty even though she needed to. Holding your pee for 6 hours couldn't have been comfortable but apparently, every time her teacher asked if she needed to go potty, she would just whine and cry.

According to her teacher, she also didn't take a good nap (probably related to #3) and was sort of fussy and out of sorts for most of the afternoon.

Incident #4: "I got a bloody nose."

Sophie's pretty much recovered from whatever bug was ailing her over the weekend but there was still some residual runny nose this morning. So it seems Sophie was probably blowing it too hard or poking around in it with her finger so much so that it started to bleed.

So really, it was such an (im)perfect storm of a whole host of unfortunate things happening all in the same day...

"I wanted Mama and Dada."

Fundamentally, I think this was the issue, that after having spent four straight days at home with us because she was sick, it was just a little tough going back to the routine of school. She missed the snuggles and hugs and our constant attention, which I guess is really kind of wonderful if you think about it :) Like my friend Adelene commented, at least she could verbalize how sad she was feeling and knows what she needs to be soothed and comforted.

Which we gave her plenty off this evening- there was a lolly for finally going potty after almost 8 hours, videos with Jude while I got dinner ready, an extended post-dinner fruit-for-dessert chit chat on the couch (together with a talk about how she could  have a better day at school tomorrow, sans boo-boos), 7 books instead of the usual 3 before bedtime, and lots of hugs and snuggles in between. And so our snuggle bunny went to bed happy as a lark and looking forward to school in the morning.

Let's hope tomorrow will be a better day for her :)