"You have the Right to Remain Silent..."

I picked up HK from school last Thursday.

Correction -- has it already been 2 weeks since school started? I picked up Hannah Kate on Thursday, August 2, two weeks ago after her second day of kindergarten.

She had been spending afternoon with 2 of her many "favorite boys" -- Austin and Peyton Hoopengardner. As we all settled in for the trek back up 441 toward Mad, i harmlessly asked, "How was your day?"

Was somewhat turned around in her direction in car for i was trying to navigate Hoopengardner mountain -- backing down in reverse. Michele -- have no idea why i just don't turn the car around and proceed forward down hill? Maybe i just like the adventure of trying to navigate perilously down cliff in reverse and still stay on drive? i like a challenge -- what can i say?

From this turned-around vantage point, i saw HK unzip Pink Pony purple bookbag, reach in, draw out white slip of paper and say, "Here, Mommy -- you have to sign this before i can go to recess."

Sign this? hmm. Maybe some form i forgot to turn in? field trip permission needed? IOU for school lunches dished out, but payment never received when Jake was a Primary Panda six years ago?

Glancing down, it was none of the above -- in fact it was something i had never seen before.

A note from the Asst. Principal. On the 2nd day of kindergarten, HK had been sent to the office!

Panda Prison! Ling-Ling or Sing Sing -- or whatever they call it?

After i picked my jaw up off the stained carmat, i said calmly -- think composed manner more from shock than any attempt not to get overly upset -- "Hannah, this is bad......." oh dear.

So the whole ride home, we discussed the infraction. Got a lot of "You don't love me-s" and "i don't love you-s" thrown my way all the while trying to get to bottom of the said "incident" that resulted in the incarceration.

Well, we finally got home and i said, "Go to your room -- i need to tell your father about this." As defiantly as she could -- and she can be extreme (remember the reason for this post) -- she marched all 38 inches of her wee self through back door.

I heard "Hey -- Hannie!" John's very exuberant hello. Then i heard silence for about half a second followed by a meltdown. Tears. Tears. and tons of tears. "Daddy!"

Now HK is one smart cookie. This could have been Academy Award-caliber performance as tactic #1 to avoid major punishment.

"And the Oscar goes to........."

But really think in this case, she was really and truly upset.

A little girl who knows she did something her Daddy is going to disapprove. That was more terrifying than any punitives handed out at Panda Penitentiary.

On the other hand 7 years earlier, Jake made it an entire year through Miss Sally's class with out so much as moving a clip. He never had to transfer his "safety" off green -- never, ever. Toward the end of the school year, i was rooting for him to do something -- anything -- to require clip movement. Challenge authority -- just a little -- please, son.

Well, i guess like Jake i was total first born as well. Didn't want to mess up. Didn't want anything to risk parental or faceless authority figure disapproval.

Can remember long ago nap time in Miss Annabel's first grade at Audubon Park Elementary. We were all on our red-and-blues scattered here and yon over the polished cement of our classroom like some huge cushy primary colored quilt.

One day in particular will always live on in my memory. Robert Miller and Keith Maddox were messing around. Giggling on their mats in that semi-dark lighting tossing some object betwixt them. Then she appeared ....... Miss Annabel. Now she was tall, thin, wore sensible cotton-print dresses with matching thin cloth-covered belts and oozed strictness, discipline and order from every pore of her paper thin skin.

oh dear... poor Robert and Keith. I was in fear for their very existence. Except a very odd thing happened. Miss Annabel came right to my wee mat and looked down. Her pencil thin, very proper lips parted and clipped, "Tracy -- come with me." Gulp!

Then she looked to my left over the metal tables and chairs to another child lying helplessly on his little mat and succinctly snipped, "Steven Brown -- you too."

Talk about "oh dear"..............And before i knew it, little Steven and i were behind her desk getting a talking too. In that darkened classroom, all those numbers and letters circling the room -- there we stood -- totally misunderstood. All the while feeling 25 pairs of eyes were boring into our backs. Everyone else i am sure enjoying all the drama unfolding.

Mistaken identity -- we had done nothing wrong. We both just stood there like little stoic soldiers and took the dressing down. Don't remember exactly what she said -- but i do know that there was lots of disapproval talk. The total and complete injustice of it all made amazingly bearable because at my side was little Steven Brown.

the future Steve Brown. Future Wildcat football star. Future WPHS Homecoming King circa 1980.

ok -- this is not actual picture of his coronation, but he did have curly hair and dimples. those dimples. He really wasn't my type blond, shortish, brown eyes, but even back then he must have had that dreamy homecoming king mojo -- and those dimples. All i know as petrified as i was of Miss Annabel's disapproval, it was still not so bad standing up there with Steven Brown behind her desk -- shoulder to shoulder -- in 1968.

As far as the present day, i am happy to report that things have smoothed out for HK at MCPS. At the Open House, her teacher said she really has become her best little helper. Give that girl a task, and she is happy, happy.

And quite frankly -- though i would absolutely refute emphatically that i ever said this if you tell anyone -- i think it is good to push the boundaries some. One thing is for sure, i know Hannie will never do anything just because the crowd is doing it. Now she might be the one leading the crowd down a crooked path --

Guess that is why she was given to us. Out of the millions of couples out there -- the Lord placed her amazing little self with us Miles. Sometimes i do wonder. Will i be up to it? I already know she is 10 times smarter than me.

Wonder if at the Panda Primer tiny schoolers are read their rights before they are sent on a one way fling to Ling-Ling. the Mirandas...let's see?

"Book-em Brill-o!"

"You have the right to remain silent...anything you say can and will be used against you in Dr. Meyer's office."

Guess that really is the sticking point in little HK's Primary learning curve. She does indeed have few silent thoughts, all wrapped up in a very strong will.

Told friend Steve Stromberg how our children' s first few days of school went -- there was some good, some bad. Jake made football, wee Hannie sent up the river. To which he replied, "She's just social!"

He's right. She's just social and just plain something else.

Don't really think she has a future in fashion design..

No, she'll probably have designs on something else.

the White House?

World Domination?

Guess it's our job as her parents to make sure she keeps going in the right direction.

Please keep us in your prayers.....

thank you.