Field trip to the animal shelter yesterday

maggie, mom, and i chaperoned. i wasn't going to, but on tuesday night nina asked if i would come, so i told her i'd call the school in the morning and see if they still needed chaperones. and to my surprise, they did! usually maggie would have dance class on wednesday mornings, but she refuses to go any more (she was so happy there, and one week i spent the entire time outside of the dance room and she didn't mind at all. so the next week i thought, 'great, i'll go to the grocery store!' and it backfired. maggie got really upset and never wanted to go back. i tried reassuring her i would stay with her, and even dancing with her, but no luck. i messed up and there are no second chances with margarete). so, anyway, with no dance to worry about, we were free to go. and maggie loves animals so much that i thought she'd be thrilled.

nope. she did NOT want to go. she cried, protested, and insisted she wear her footies instead of the real clothes she was already wearing. finally she calmed down and we were off.

nina was so excited to see us, and they both LOVED the shelter! there were 2 connected rooms full of cats that 30 kindergarteners could pet and play with to their hearts content. maggie had so much fun! she had a great big grin on her face and occasionally squealed with delight. it was a snowy, messy, cold morning, but i was glad we'd trucked out there (it's in edgecomb, about 20 minutes away).

then, when the kids got on the bus to go back to school, maggie wanted to go with them. poor kid! but she was still happy in when we got in the car. and then she melted down again. "remember, i TOLD you i didn't want to go to the animal shelter!" she said again and again. i didn't even try telling her that she had fun there, because that would just have made things worse. so for the whole ride home, maggie cried. there is just no winning with that child!!