Benjamin’s class went on a field trip today.  They took a bus to a farm and picked out pumpkins.  I’m sure they had a great time, but I wouldn’t know:  Benjamin didn’t go — he stayed home with me, instead.  When his teacher first brought it up to me last week, she explained about the trip, and then immediately suggested that B not participate.  Her thought was that, since he’s just now starting to be enthusiastic about being at school, they were worried that a trip away from the school, without either of his parents, might prove to be traumatic to him and undo the progress we’d made.  Although I completely understand her perspective, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad — his first school field trip, and he was uninvited.

Benjamin, however, shared none of my sadness.  After leaving school that day, I asked him if he wanted to go to the farm with his class.  He said no.  He said he wanted to stay home with me for the day — which was absolutely fine with me.  I’m more than happy to have him home, but if he had wanted to go, I would have done everything I could do to make it happen (offer to go along and chaperon, offer to travel separately and meet them there).  As it turns out, though, every time it was mentioned in front of him (like on Tuesday, when I was confirming the date with the teacher) he would look at me and ask, “Am I going to stay home with you?” and when I assured him he was, it would make him happy.

So, today, we stayed home:  Benjamin, Liam & I.  We had a quiet day.  I’d had thoughts of gonig out, doing something special, going to a park or on a trip of our own, but it was chilly and threatened rain all day (which only materialized for a few short moments).  Instead, I bought him the Disney Pixar “Cars” movie on iTunes and we watched that together (twice).  He loved it.  (We went to see “Cars 2” in the movie theater, but hadn’t seen the first one yet.)  We all curled up on the couch, or on the floor, had snacks, watched movies and read books.  It was a good day.  I got to be with both of my boys today, and that’s better than a field trip to me.