unexcused absence

I stumbled out of bed this morning at 6:37am, wrapped myself in my robe, fumbled with my glasses, ran a hand through my hair and realized that it was going to take some work to tame the bird's nest I had going on up there... I made my way into the hallway to find Josh already up and dressed, which was a pleasant surprise.

But as my eyes adjusted to the light I saw Caleb's silhouette sitting motionless in the doorway of the playroom at the end of the hall. My heart jumped when, as I started walking closer, he growled, "Get away from me... I don't want to go to school!" His glare pierced my soul... and it suddenly felt like a scene from Poltergeist as he started clawing at me to get away from him. For the next 25 minutes I attempted an exorcism to release poor Caleb from his devilish nemesis, in order to make the bus on time.

I was unsuccessful.

Instead, I sent Caleb back to bed and confined him to the house all day with nothing to do but read books and complete random homework assignments of my choosing, in hopes that I would make him so miserable that he would learn his lesson about staying home from school. I had forgotten how resilient Caleb is, so it was not surprising that after a brief nap, he was bounding around the house in a Sesame Street sort of way completing any chore I could think of. The playroom floor was covered with books and he was happy as can be. When I pulled out the Kindergarten workbook and made him trace every letter, he was literally whistling! The only exception was when he had to complete a real homework assignment that is due tomorrow. He suddenly developed ADD like symptoms and was having trouble focusing. But, I hardly blame him after hours of working.

It's still unclear to me whether or not he learned his lesson about staying home from school. I guess only time will tell. Now the problem I face, is how to convince the school secretary that "possessed by an evil spirit" should be considered an excused absence.