What Caden did at school today

It is hard for me as a mother to not know exactly what happens during Caden's school mornings. He tries to talk but his words are very mumbled so he relies mostly on sign language. When I pick him up, I always ask him what he did at school today but he has never been able to sign about past events, or future ones. His signing is usually descriptive about what is currently happening , or what he wants right now. I've tried to ask him "Did you paint today? Did you have fun today? Did you play with Katie today?" but he answers everything with an enthusiastic "Yeah!" I could be asking "Did you build a rocket ship today? Did you snack on caviar and Brie? Did you shoot lasers out your fingers?" and still I would get "Yeah!"

His typical preschool posts the daily events on a dry erase board but I always wonder how much Caden participated. Did he really eat marshmallows? The special education preschool sends home a check list on what activities he performed and which classmates he played with but there are no descriptives. When it says they built a class snowman, I'm certain they weren't outside in the snow. What does "class snowman" mean? I've usually calmed my trepidation with the knowledge that whatever Caden does at his schools, he loves it. He is very excited to go to either facility. That must do.

When I picked him up this morning and as I zipped up his coat, I did the standard "What did you do at school today? Did you have fun?" To my surprise, Caden signed "sleep" and pointed to one of his fellow classmates.

"Oh, was she sleeping?" I ask. Caden points to himself and again signs "sleep".

"So you were both sleeping?" I question.

"Yeah!" he exclaims. They don't do nap time at this school. Maybe it was part of a story or special activity. Maybe he's just being silly. I turn to the classmate.

"Were you sleeping?" She smiles and nods her head. Then we are approached by the little girl that gave Caden a piece of her artwork last week. She wants to hug him goodbye. Caden does the same pointing to her and himself while signing "sleep." This second girl also confirms that they were sleeping. Now I must know what happened. Caden has never spontaneously told me about his school day. Is he actually telling me about something they did or merely making up a story? I re-enter the classroom and approach the teacher.

"Were they pretending to sleep today?" I ask her. She looks a little puzzled at first and then recalls that Caden was under the table with 3 of his female classmates. She thought they were pretending to camp but they must have been pretending to sleep. "What a smart boy!" she says and gives him a big hug. I feel nothing short of blown away.

Later when I recount the story, The Tank is proud of his son's Casanova stylings in being under the table with 3 girls. But I am less impressed with what Caden did at school today compared to what he learned.