My Turtle

Yesterday was the visit to the fire station with S.Rube and her preschool class.
Strangely enough, S.Rube had been saying that she didn't want to go right from first mention of it about 3 weeks ago. She couldn't ever really give me a reason as to why.

She maintained this stubborn position throughout the morning, going to music class, and during our early lunch, when we dropped T.Rube off at Gramps' place and as we headed to the firehall. I maintained my position that she had failed to give me a good reason why she didn't want to go and that we all have to do things we don't want to do.

We arrived and I had to threaten the loss of the birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese that evening just to get her out of the truck. We got inside the fire station. Her classmates were there. Her teachers were there.

And she totally turtled - popped her head inside, turned inward forming a lovely hard shell and lost her voice completely. She all but turned green.

No amount of coaxing from me, her teachers or the funny British fireman would get that little turtle out. She remained curled up on my lap for the first hour, peeking out at times through her shell, responding to nobody.

She slowly unfolded over the second hour, piece by piece. Desperately shy.