Show and Tell

Yesterday Jimmy came home from school with the "show and tell" bag for his class. Which meant that he was supposed to have his turn for show and tell in class today. He told me that he talked to his teacher yesterday about bringing Xena for show and tell. I guess other kids have taken their pets and he really wanted to take Xe.

My first thought when he was saying this was how I usually don't bother getting Molly and Lyssa dressed until after Jimmy and Emma have gone to school. Thought that it might work if Jimmy did what they did when he took her for show and tell in Kindergarten and just have me outside and the class come out and see her. Thought I could easily leave the girls in the car and just basically stand outside of the car with the dog. But he wanted to take her in his classroom like the other kids had with their pets.

My worries about not being able to get Molly and Lyssa ready in time to go over to the school were cancelled out when all of the kids decided to get up early this morning. But then I remembered that Molly had taken off with Xena's leash. Molly was the last one to get up and Jimmy decided he would rather accuse Emma of losing the leash than going and looking for it himself. When Molly got up Jimmy asked her about it, and amazingly, she knew right where it was. So Jimmy was happy.

When it was time to go, I loaded all of the kids in the car and put the leash on the dog and drove over and parked. Walked first over to Emma's line for her class where Xena was practically mobbed by children excited to see such a big dog. (Of course, the teacher who acts as crossing guard for the kids to cross the parking lot to the sidewalk also asked if he could pet her.) While Xena loves kids and loves attention, she doesn't really like that much attention. Gets really nervous. She seemed quite happy when we left that area to head toward the door Jimmy goes in.

Jimmy went in his classroom first, telling me he needed to tell his teacher I was there before I went in. I chuckled at the kids who peered out the doorways to see the dog before I went in. When Jimmy came back out to tell me to go in, I couldn't help but smile at all of the ooo's from the kids as I walked in with her. I think Xena's tail wagged most of the time, but she was nervous about being there. Jimmy had a good time telling his class a little about her and then helping to answer any questions the kids had about her. He also tried to take her around his class to let everyone get a closer look at her, but when she's nervous like that she likes to stay right by my side. I was surprised that she went a little ways with him before turning around and dragging him back to me. She was very happy when we finally left. And it really was much easier than I pictured it being.