Caiden and the Salad Fiasco

Its been fun having Caiden in school this year.  Just like homeschooling Elliott for kindergarten helped me learn more about him as a person, putting Caiden in public school for kindergarten has yielded equally rewarding results.

When I pick Caiden up from school she jabbers a million miles per minute and tells me all sorts of things that I only partially understand.

There was the one time she was chattering away while flailing her body about like she does when she talks when suddenly she got quiet.  "I did something bad, but I don't want to tell you!" she confessed.  Turns out, she told a little girl that she didn't want her to sit by her.   We talked and prayed about it, but I was just so happy that she wanted to talk to me about it!  Especially because I often wonder what is going on in her little head.  Now that we are apart for a portion of the day, she is just dying to tell me what's happening in her world/mind!

Last week, at Caiden's "back to school night" I was walking around her classroom looking at her various achievements and projects when I noticed a graph on the board.  It had different foods listed and had the names of all the people in her class in their respective categories, showing how many people liked which food.

There were options like "pizza," "macaroni and cheese," and other things that Caiden likes.  But there was her name (along with most of the rest of the class) under the listing "salad."  What?  I was so confused.  We eat a lot of steamed vegetables and sometimes salad, but I've never known Caiden to claim salad as a favorite food--never.  And Caiden is not wishy-washy.  What you see is (mostly) what you get.  Her teacher assured me that although she, herself chose salad, she had put her own preference down last so as not to influence the kids' decisions.

I thought the whole thing was weird, but...whatever.  I checked it off in my mind as another one of Caiden's quirks.  Plus, I figured she would have an explanation for it, but I totally forgot to ask.

Finally, yesterday, the graph came up while we were at the grocery store.  "We need some spinach," I said.

"Spinach?" Caiden asked.  "I don't like spinach."

"Yes you do," I chided.

"What is it?  Does it go in salad?" she asked.

"Yep,"  I replied, "And apparently salad is your favorite food.  That's what it said on the graph at school."

"Oh,"  Caiden said.  "Oh yeah, that was just supposed to be which one you wanted.  Its not really my favorite.  I just picked it because I wanted my name to be the highest.  Salad was the group that had the most."

Hhmmmm...  Well, that totally explains it!  I KNEW there had to be some kind of quirky Caiden reasoning to explain this salad fiasco.  She is the funniest girl I know.  She doesn't care if people erroneously think that salad is her favorite food.  She doesn't care what people think at all.  Ever.  She just wants to be on top.  She wants to win.  And she totally owns it.

You'll always be number one in my book, Caiden.  I love you, crazy girl.