Odd

Just when you think you've got your kids figured out, you see a new side of them that surprises you completely.

When I think about how Darcy would act at school, I expect her to be a complete chatterbox, the kind of kid who has a story for everything and tries to answer every question (kind of like me when I was in school). Yesterday I accompanied her class on a field trip and I saw a completely different kid than I was expecting to see. Our trip took us to the local Children's Safety Village and started off in a classroom with a Police officer teaching the kids about safety. Darcy sat beside her best friend, Sam, and pretty much did the opposite of what I had expected her to do. She raised her hand from time to time but not often. When questions were asked that I knew she knew the answer to, she didn't put her hand up. She knows her address and phone number but when the officer asked, she was silent. When I asked her about it afterwards she said she had been too scared to answer. So I don't know if she's always like that in class or if the police officer made her nervous. I think if she had been asked the question in her regular classroom by her regular teacher then she would have answered.

At one point, Elmer the Safety Elephant came in to help reinforce some of the rules the kids were learning. At the end, all the kids were given a chance to go and give Elmer a hug and Darcy stayed in her seat. She wasn't going near that elephant. Her teacher told us that they'd had Carnaval a few weeks ago which featured a visit from Bonhomme. Not only would Darcy not go near Bonhomme that day, but she cried. A lot. It brought me back to her fear of Santa Claus too.

Aside from her fear of small animals, Darcy isn't the kind of kid who's afraid of lots of things. We don't face these kinds of situations a lot so when we do I get caught a little off guard. I'm sure the new situation made her a little uncomfortable so I hope that's all. We'll have to keep our eye on this one.