"Can we pretend that airplanes in night sky are like shooting stars/ I could really use a wish right now"

So I sort of abandoned this blog for a while there. Whoops. But I have a good excuse I swear! I got a job! As of right now it's just for the summer but hey, it's something! About a month ago, I pretty much got to the point where I had NO idea what I was going to try for next due to a lot of rejection and doors shutting. And then my boss from the summer job I had during college friend-ed me on Facebook. I thought Hmmmm... maybe I could ask her if they have any openings left for this summer so I took a chance and asked and she did! Hooray! So I am now the lead teacher of the three year olds class in a Weekday child care program (I essentially got promoted after not working there for three years. Boom). I'll include a few stories about work here and there but the employer and kids' names are staying anonymous. I'm not getting fired!

Today was a good day at work. I thought it was going to start off rough since several of the kids were extra clingy to their parents when being dropped off this morning (must of had a case of the Mondays). Little J especially had a hard time. So about an hour later during circle time, I had two books resting beside me. J excitedly said "I've never read those books before!" Then I said "Great, so they will be brand new and you won't know what's going to happen!" And J exclaimed "I'm so happy". Given his mood earlier in the day I asked him why and he said "Well I've never see these books before" and then he pointed at our Referee's Rules chart (Keep your hands to yourself, obey the first time, and so forth) and our sticker chart where once the kids get eight stickers for sharing, cleaning up, obeying, etc. they get to go to the dun dun dun daaaaa Totally Terrific Treasure Chest and said "And I've never seen these signs before". I don't know why he was so excited about the charts but I'll take it cause they are super cute (thanks mom for decorating them!). And the cherry on top, he said "And I love you" to me. Completely unprompted! Awwww. I wanted to give him twenty stickers but I fought the urge. I don't want to buy the kids' love (even though I clearly don't have to. Zing!).

Towards the end of the day I was reading a book about tadpoles and frogs to two of the kids. The little girl was saying how she had something at her house (maybe a pond or a lake, not sure) and she asked if I wanted to come over and see it. Now, maybe you don't know three year olds but this is one of the highest compliments you can be paid. If they ask you to come over to see them, babysit, or for dinner, you've hit the jackpot. Winner!

I've also gotten a drawing from one of the girls. Her mom also told me when little H was absent two weeks ago (stomach bug. super!) she said she knew that "Miss Annie was going to miss me so much today". And I did, I really did. Plus it worked out that all the girls were out that day so I was left with five boys. That was an interesting dynamic (read: Please God, don't ever let me be the mother of boy quintuplets).

Sometimes you have to come up with little games while you are waiting in line to go somewhere. My class is a big fan of "Simon Says Sitting Down" and "Raise Your Hand If...". I asked them to raise their hand if they were wearing sneakers. All of them were but all save one raised their hand. I asked little T why he didn't raise his hand since he was wearing in fact wearing sneakers. Little T replied, "These aren't sneakers. They're Pumas." Granted he was right but man it starts young doesn't it?

Oh and if you ever want to be entertained, ask a group of three year olds what they did this past weekend. Answers will vary from "I went to the zoo where there were 10 dinosaurs as big as houses!" to "I crashed my mom and dad's cars" (pretty sure both of these were dreams, but I'm not 100% sure).