The joys of getting peed on by toddlers and such.

This past week was interesting. I decided that since Thanksgiving was almost over and we’d made about as many hand –turkey creations as we could, we could probably start making Christmas crafts. First I made a Rudolph hand puppet and then a Christmas tree with the kids at Bright Start. I don’t care if some people think it’s too early; what can I say, I love the holidays. The children seemed to know that we were getting a break – they seemed a little rowdier than usual. I noticed a two year old girl, Molly, heading to the potty. I also noticed that she wasn’t potty trained yet, so I asked her if she needed help. When she said yes, I tried pulling her pants down to help her, only to get peed on. She told me she was already going. It was pretty disgusting. On top of that, I showed one of the older girls a picture of me and my co-worker Jill, from when we were in 10^th grade. She told me I looked scary. Don’t you just love little kids sometimes?

Along with all the constant cleaning, changing diapers, and wiping noses, I felt sick all week at work.  But since my coworkers love calling out and taking days off left and right, I stuck it out until the short week was over. Fortunately, this upcoming week there will HOPEFULLY be less children and Jill and I can work together.. Otherwise, if I have to deal with getting peed on again, I just might have to call out. FOR ONCE !

Stupid Strep

SO this past week at Bright Start, I started off feeling great. Then as the week went on, I noticed that my co worker Jill was coughing quite a bit. Before the week was over I was feeling terrible and I had strep throat :( It was completely awful. All week at work I was feeling like crap, getting stuck watching all the kids by myself. And on the playground, there was this two year old girl and boy who were each taking turns hitting another little two year old girl and making her cry. It was almost too much to take. I felt so bad for her! Sometimes I don’t understand children.

But there is one little boy I do understand. That’s my baby brother. Ever since I started working at the daycare, we’ve become so much closer. As crazy as he is – he once started screaming, “Jesus, Mommy! I want to see Jesus!,” in the middle of church – I still love him more than anything. He and I have a wonderful bond now, one that cannot be broken. If he ever needs something, he knows he can always come to me and I’ll be there for him. Just like I know if I ever needed him to be there for me, I’m sure he would. That’s really all I could ever ask for from anyone.

The rest of my week at Bright Start was interesting to say the least.. that’s a story for another time I think though.

Halloween & Goodbyes

So, this final week at Bright Start (before the new school opened) was quite eventful. I had to say goodbye to a few of my favorite children that have been there forever as they made their way to a ‘new’ and ‘better’ school. It was tough watching them walk out on that last day.. But on the Friday before Halloween they got to wear their costumes and they were just all so cute. My little brother was Batman, another little girl was Superwoman. There were princesses and fairies and even Velma from Scooby-Doo! There was one little girl, Madilyn, who told me she was going to be a “dunk.” And when I looked in her backpack to see her costume- it was a skunk costume! They were all SO adorable. So while saying goodbye that day was hard, it was made easier by reminding me why I took this job in the first place; because children make me smile. We played Halloween games with them, made Halloween crafts with them, and one of the girls named Layne kept persistently requesting that I play the song “The Monster Mash” on the Friday before Halloween. When I went home that day, I could not get that stupid song out of my head. And all day long, one of the older boys that goes there, Antonio, was doing the dance to ‘thriller.’ Some days, it isn’t all bad taking care of children. Just as long as they don’t drive me crazy, I think I’m good.

Pumpkin Patches & Bee Stings!

So I recently found out that as of November 1st, our daycare would be losing ten children due to a new, more expensive school that is opening up just down the road. A lot of my favorites are leaving and it has me really depressed that they’re actually looking forward to go : ( They call it the “Elephant School” and I’m not exactly sure why. There’s one girl named Katarina who has been there ever since I first started working there, almost a year ago. I think of all the children going to the new school, I’m going to miss her the most.
So this past week, the owner of Bright Start bought a bunch of little pumpkins and set up a mini “pumpkin patch” just outside back doors. The children loved it! They went absolutely crazy over it. They all went outside and picked out their perfect, ideal, pretty little pumpkins and brought them inside. They painted faces on them, and the little ones stuck stickers on them : ) They all came out so adorable! But while outside, my little brother started yelling that there was a bug near him, and five seconds later…
“MY OUCH!!!” he was yelling. My poor little brother got stung by a bee! It was the funniest/cutest/saddest little thing I’ve ever seen. My mom threw a fit when she came to pick him up that day but he didn’t seem to mind about his bee sting. He just grabbed his pumpkin and showed my mom, while yelling “My punkin!” I swear to god I don’t know what I’d do without him at work.

My Baby Brother

This past week at Bright Start was quite interesting, to say the least. I got a tooth pulled so once again I missed a day of work.. and by the end of the week it came back to bite me in the butt.

However, throughout the week my little brother Connor continued to torment me while he was causing mayhem throughout the daycare. Whenever I would read a book to the little girls in my class, he would come up to me and smack the book out of my hand. At the end of the day when I was cleaning the room, he would come up to the shelves and pick up buckets of toys and empty them out onto the ground. He also would enjoy hitting me, spitting at me, and screaming at me when I tried to give him a hug. But of course, on Thursday when he was getting sick, he wanted nothing more than for me to hold him and pick him up constantly. He’s a funny little guy sometimes.
This week I made witch hats and a Sorcerer’s hat (for the only boy in class) for the girls in my class. I tried making cat masks for them, but after cutting out two masks’ eyes, and slicing two of my fingers with the scissors, that turned out to be unsuccessful. One of the little girls Lindsey, also dressed herself for school on Friday, and totally didn’t match. We all knew when her mom came to pick her up she would have a cow because her dad let her dress herself in the morning – and she did. But Lindsey loved her outfit anyway. I think she’s going to grow up and be an interesting girl.

Monarchs

This past week at Bright Start was not too exciting. I missed a day because I had to go to the hospital, so it didn’t feel like a whole week had gone by when the end of the week actually came. However, something quite interesting and beautiful did happen..
One of my co-workers has to go on break everyday at 3pm to go pick up her son Antonio from school. He’s a really neat kid, he’s ten years old and I’m really good friends with his older brother. I swear he’s like a mini version of his brother. Anyway, as I was creating a craft for the other kids to do (I mad witch hats for the girls and a Sorcerer’s hat for the one boy) he asked me if I could get someone to stand in my room for a minute. I kept asking him why and all he could say was that he wanted me to see something. He was holding something in his hand that looked like honeysuckle. I was kind of annoyed at first because I was in the middle of doing my job and what not. But after persistent begging, I got someone to stand in my room and followed him out into the parking lot.
When I got outside into the field just beyond the parking lot, I was amazed. There were millions of tiny little monarch butterflies flying around the flowers. They flew to the honeysuckle-looking thing in his hand, and he told me they’d fly to me if I picked a flower. I did, and he proceeded to splash a bit of his water from his water bottle onto it claiming “they liked water.” And we stood there for a few minutes, admiring the pure and simple beauty of life. It was really just plain.. awesome.
It’s the little things like these that make me love my job, mostly because I believe that kids understand something that most adults forget – simple happiness.

Too many kids...

This past week at Bright Start wasn’t too interesting.. however, it was actually a good week. My boss gave me Friday off :) So I only worked four days. And two out of those four days, I got to work with my friend Jill who I never get to work with anymore, yay! My boss was feeling sick so she went home early, and my brother Connor (who’s her favorite) got to come into the pre-k room for the day with Jill and I. It was nice actually working with someone for a change, since I normally watch 7-12 kids by myself. But on this particular day, there was an abundance of children (17 to be exact) and the pre-school room, which Jill works in, only had 11 children and two people working there. So she got to work in my room, and we basically wreaked havoc upon the pre-k children’s lives.

During the course of that day, I was mauled by children, “thrown into jail” by a little girl, and tricked by another little girl into giving her a muffin. Kids these days are a lot smarter than they look.. I also decided it would be fun to do coloring with the kids, and when they do coloring, I normally end up coloring pictures too. I believe it’s the kid inside me. I drew a picture of Ariel the Little Mermaid, and of Elmo. These two sisters, Layne and Lindsey, kept saying how much they loved the pictures I drew and wanted to take them home. But then all the other kids kept saying they wanted me to draw them one too and I didn’t have time. So to be fair, I told them no one could have them. But Layne and Lindsey are usually the last ones picked up by their mom at the end of the day, so when I was cleaning I snuck the pictures inside their backpack. Their tiny little faces lit up when they went to go get their backpacks and saw this and its things like that, that make me love and appreciate my job a little more.