Mommy's office

At 2:00 this afternoon I was buying a cup of coffee from the vending machine on the first floor of Lommen Hall (this is the building at MSUM where my office is as well as where Ross's preschool is). As I turned to go back upstairs, Jessica (Ross's teacher), Ross, and Chloe were walking toward me. They were on their way to the gym after naptime. Ross, who is hardly ever outwardly affectionate the way Grant is, drew close to me as they approached. As I hugged him hello he looked at me questioningly with his big blue eyes, and his lips actually started to quiver. Tears welled up in his eyes when he realized I wasn't picking him up to go home. It was almost as though he tried to be "strong" and then couldn't bear it any longer--his face twisted as he started to cry. Well, I was so moved by his emotions that I told him he could come to my office with me. That's one major perk to my job--I can bring my child to my office whenever I want to (not that it happens all that often), and thankfully I wasn't too busy to do that today. Ross and I "worked" together for about 45 minutes: I replied to emails and listened to voicemails as he noticed family pictures on my wall, ate a tootsie roll, ate some pretzels, and then dumped the entire bag of pretzel sticks on the chair and floor (he was trying to put some more in the bowl I had given him). We also went to the Dean's Office down the hall. All in all, I had just as much fun as Ross did!