That's what friends are for.

So my son has been offically initiated into the explorer class at LHCCEC.

Hunter made friends with a sweet boy named Noah yesterday. Noah really latched onto Hunter, and I can tell Noah's going to take care of Hunter and show him the ropes - kind of like his big brother will when he's a FIJI one day. (That's for you babe. You know you love it.) Noah was also in charge of the hazing today. Again, like a big brother, except this is not like FIJI. Because Phi Gamma Delta never hazes. Ever. Or so James tells me.

Over the last two days, Noah has run over to Hunter and will sweetly pat his shoulder every time Hunter's had a melt down or tantrum (which unfortunately was pretty frequent today). Noah also instigated the hazing that Hunter endured from his classmates today. I'm not really seeing this as a bad thing. It just brings him closer to the group, right? Hunter is a product of two greeks, so he gets it. Not that we were ever hazed. FIJI and Kappa don't participate in these sorts of things. Ever.

Hunter's hazing began with Noah leaning in really close to his face and repeatedly growling...or roaring...or ahhhhing in a really husky voice - you really need audio to get the full affect here, but unfortunately I didn't bring the video camera along this morning. (I know y'all are shocked. I was in rare form.) Noah kept trying to get Hunter to laugh throughout the morning with his growl-roar combo until finally several other kids joined in, which resulted in Hunter crying because there were 3 kids growling in a circle around him. Of course this made him cry. Who wouldn't? That's scary.

The hazing continued later in the morning during Hunter's biggest tantrum of our visit. He had thrown himself onto the floor face down (very dramatically) and was screaming at the top of his lungs because WE MADE HIM GO INTO THE CLASSROOM. Gasp! So Noah led the rest of the classmates over to Hunter, and they very sweetly began patting his back so he would calm down. My heart melted at the sight of this until a second later when I look up to see the kids ON TOP OF HIM. Oh yes they were. If you really want to make my kid angry, lay on top of him. In the middle of a tantrum. That will definitely calm him down.

Even with all of the touching and growling, Hunter and Noah seemed to like each other a lot - that is until Noah made one unforgivable mistake. He sat down in my lap y'all....and then repeatedly called me mama. In front of Hunter. Not good. My kid was pissed. From then on Noah would follow Hunter around or try to comfort him, and Hunter would turn his nose up at him and walk away. I'm hoping that Hunter will forget all of this by Monday so he and Noah can be best friends again. I'm thinking he's really going to need a friend to comfort him...or maybe I need him to have a friend to comfort me.

Here are some pictures of Hunter as we're getting ready to go to school over the last 2 days...

As you can see, he's really excited about school.

More excitement.

I tried to teach Hunter to thug it out a little so he could appear tough in front of the other kids.

This is pretty much the face he had 75% of the time he was at school this morning. Hopefully he'll wake up in a better mood on Monday morning. Here's to hoping...