Kids

I love working with children. It may sound cliche, but they really do make each and every day special. They make it worth getting outta bed on the days when I thought I had it made under those covers.

I feel like my shifts at work begin at the perfect time right now. Either I am getting there during nap time when only a few children are still awake, or I'm getting there when nap time is over and we're getting everyone up and all the cots put away. The latter can get super-chaotic really quickly (like today when I had one little boy following me around going, "Do you know what?" and telling me stories I really didn't follow at all...it's tough to focus when you're trying to help this girl put on her socks and trying simultaneously to get the boy on the cot next to you to get up), but the former is so tranquil (on the days where I'm not fighting a particular boy to actually stay on his cot instead of causing a ruckus that I'm afraid will wake up the others). It's nice to get to slow down to just rub backs and make sure "my kids" are all sleeping soundly. Sometimes there's even a snorer or two for background noise. Honestly, it makes me think about motherhood...and it's kind of overwhelming sometimes. It's getting closer and closer (but not TOO close yet!), and wow, sometimes I can barely take care of myself; the thought of being in charge of some little critter of my own (that is, btw, an affection nickname like from the Meyers books) is slightly unnerving. Someday I'll be rubbing my own child's backs as they fall asleep. Whoa.

It's also a blast just how hilarious it can be to listen to things that kids have to say or things that they cling to that you never in a million years thought would stick. Take, for instance, the smile button. Yeah, thinking up catchy names on the fly isn't my specialty. Anyways, we have one child who is not a little ray of sunshine when he wakes up from nap time. He gets happy at the drop of a hat, though, and I was trying to get him to that point sooo I was tickling him and told him I'd find his smile button. It worked, he smiled, but the other kids standing there wanted to try it, too. I spent a good portion of time after that finding the smile buttons on my other kids. The secret of the smile button, btw, is that young kids are 99.9% of the time ticklish on their bellies. :)

In un-work-related news, I realized that Thanksgiving break is 2 weeks away. BUT it's also going to be crazy because I have a final project due right before I leave for break, and I'll be finishing up one class and on the last legs of another. It'll be glorious to be home, though.

Alright, time to go tackle something productive for the evening...10:20's the perfect starting time for homework, after all.

~"I don't know what kind of fabric this is, but I want to marry it and have it's babies!" [-Gilmore Girls]~