Stop bothering me.

On Tuesday as I got out of the car in the parking lot to pick up Malia, Mrs. Lerma saw me and walked towards the fence to chat with me.

Now, I won't kid you, but my first thought was: "Oh crap. What did she do now?"

In my defense, what else could a parent think when their child's teacher walks towards them, before the parent is even in the pick-up area, with the intent to chat clearly showing on her face? And that's what I asked Mrs. Lerma. Laughing, Mrs. Lerma assured me that everything was fine and Malia had a great day. She then continued to tell me a funny story that occurred over lunch:

As Malia was eating, another teacher (Mrs. Mancini) came over and played with her. I can't remember if Mrs. Mancini played with Malia's pigtails or what, but she apparently was touching Malia in some fashion.

** Now, if you remember, one of the reasons I was nervous about Malia going to school was that I felt she was too young. I feared she wouldn't be able to communicate clearly and effectively if something was wrong. **

So Malia's eating lunch. Mrs. Mancini is fiddling with her in a playful manner. Malia turns around, looks at Mrs. Mancini (who is a very wonderful, fun, loving teacher) dead in the eyes and says: "Stop that. You're bothering me. Please go away."

Erg!

I didn't know whether to laugh or be embarrassed, or if I should march over and apologize to Mrs. Mancini. Luckily the teachers all thought it was hilarious. According to Mrs. Lerma, they don't expect something so intelligible coming from one so small. I wanted to tell her "You should hear what she says to Kael at home..." but I figured I'll let them think she's cute for a little while longer.

Then she tells me story #2.

Ever since Christmas 2007 (thanks to my 19 year old niece Jackie), one of Malia's favorite sayings is: "No way!" and alternatively but to a lesser degree "Yes way!" Last week she No Way'ed Mrs. Lerma a lot, especially as it pertained to doing school work. It was funny and cute for a very short time. On Tuesday, at the fence, Mrs. Lerma told me that she had to deep-six the "No Way" from Malia's vocabulary.

Why? you wonder.

Because Malia got the entire class to say No Way to Mrs. Lerma whenever she asked the class to do something. So she had to institute a No "No Way" policy.

That's right. At the tender age of 2.5 years old, my daughter led her very first rebellion against the system.