Hard to believe or imagine if you don't know me and even if you do, that before I went fulltime with Bruno Press in November of 2011, I taught preschool. For two whole years I was eyeballs deep in crazy, hilarious, interesting, wonderful, whiney, intelligent 3 and 4 year olds. When I was in the thick of it, I thought sometimes I would walk outside to my car never to return. With a good nights sleep I always came back excited to see them, all of them. Things that had happened the day before were totally forgotten, I like that about kids, they do not hold grudges. If they were bucky and crabby the day before and I had to sit them in the peace corner, by the next day, they were tripping over themselves to get at me to hug me good morning. That is a nice way to start the day. Even when they never stop talking or saying my name, not even for a second, it was such a wonderful thing to hear. "MISS MARY"S HERE!!!!" is what I would hear from 15 kids the second I walked in the classroom.
I still get to go back and bring new books that I find to read to them, or be the extra chapperone when they go on outtings. Yesterday, I got to go with to see The Lorax. They get so jacked to ride on the bus, couple that with a unannounced cameo by ME and they were freaking out. It was awesome! I had to make sure I hugged everyone atleast once, and mostly that was not enough. They had SO MUCH TO TELL ME and they all talk at the same time. I tried to slow them down and listen to each one but it was touch and go. I felt such extreme love for these kids I wondered how I could have ever left work annoyed and frazzeled. This is an example of absense making the heart grow fonder. I was so patient, I was so chill and mellow whilst they were all coming at me at the same time and talking and screaming and crying and pushing and shoving and basic mass hyteria. Slowly they started to calm down and then we started singing Row, Row, Row your boat in animals noices. That always gets them quiet, it is the darnedest thing. We got on the bus and everyone wanted to sit by me and obviosly that is not possible, so again, more crying, I took turns with as many different seats as I could in the time it took to drive to the theatre. We talked about where they live (the pointed), what they ate for snack, and how much they loved going to movies.
Once there it was just counting and recounting the kids until we get them into their seats and can finally relax a bit with the movie. Before the movie even started two kids were crying and wanted to go home. Awe man, what do you do with that? I walked one out to the bathroom, he proceeded to show me the Lightning McQueen underpants he had on, we washed our hands, talking about how cold the water was then we made our way over to a bench in the lobby for a little Miss Mary "break down of what's going to happen" talk. I said, okay pal, member when I asked you if you really wanted to go to the movies and you told me yes? "yes" Okay, well, there is no crying, the bus is gone and we need to stay here until the bus comes back to pick us up. Your Mom and Dad told me that you were a big guy and you would love to come to the movie. So, we are going to head back in there and you are going to hang out, you can sit on my lap if you want, you can even take a little nap if you want, but we are going back in there and you have nothing to be crying about, kay? "okay"
We headed back in the movie started, it was good and happy and colorful and I sat and talked to him about the movie the whole time. It was going great, then he started to lose it and I handed him my phone and set up an easy game called Fruit Slice. He was all about it and we could safely get through the end of the movie with no more wailing. It was great.
Funny though, cause through all of that, guess who lost it like a little baby at the end? Me, I am a giant sap and I left with cryface.
Best part was the text from this little guy's mom that evening that said... he said "Mom, I like The Lorax, Miss Mary is a nice guy, you know, like a superhero."
That is cool, I mean the guy part is not super flattering, but the superhero part totally makes up for it. It is nice to know that kids know what they are talking about, it's like a sixth sense or something.
Thanks guys.
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