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My granddaughter Charlie now has four days of kindergarten in the books! All is well except for naptime.

“I asked my teacher to rub my back so I could fall asleep, but she forgot,” Charlie said.

“Charlie,” I said, “she has so many students that she can’t possibly rub everyone’s back. Come and sit on me and I’ll rub your back. Think about this tomorrow as you lay on your mat and you’ll fall asleep.”

Charlie sat on my lap for almost a minute then jumped into the next activity.

“Well, I also missed my mom. Tears started rolling down my eyes and I couldn’t sleep.”

By this time, Charlie was standing on the couch, holding her pink plastic guitar while her mother sat on the floor nearby.

“But I thought of a song I wrote for you, mom,” she said as she jumped off the sofa hitting her mom, Monique, on the back of the head with her guitar.

“I was going to save it for Mother’s Day, but who am I kidding? I’m going to sing it now.” And she proceeded to softly sing about moms and love and something else I couldn’t hear. I was unable to both listen and suppress my laughter.

Days two and three of kindergarten were identical for Charlie. She had fun, but at naptime she said she missed her mom, “One little tear fell out of my eye, so I turned around to face the other way and a little tear fell out of the other eye.”

There was progress on day four. She told her mom, “I still miss you, but there were no tears.”

Monique assured Charlie that next week will be much better. “I think you’ll be able to lay down and fall asleep without even thinking about me.”

At that point, Monique may be the one crying.

Ronny Michel may be reached at rmichel@rtconline.com .