Back To School

Wow. Today was a kooky day. After dropping the kids off at school, I headed out- on my way to Target, when the school receptionist stopped me. "Is there any way you could sub for us today?" she asked. "We have so many teachers out sick, and all of our subs are here- any chance you can help us out?" I agreed, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. I stepped into another 4 year old class, and had a terrific time. There were only 9 kids in the class, and they were absolutely adorable.

But, something about assuming this new role made all of the logic seep out of my brain. During circle time, when the other teacher was reading the kids a story, I noticed this really cute, shy little boy start to look sad. Immediately after story time was done, he started to cry. Without thinking, I scooped him up and gave him a big hug. He put his head on my shoulder, and started to blubber, and I sat there, rubbing his back. The other teacher then comes up and says to him, "Benjamin, did you have another accident?" That's when I realized Mr. Cutie Pie had soaking wet pants and had just peed all over me. Nice. Apparently, he does this a lot.

When I was on the playground, I started to help each kid cross the monkey bars. This one, adorable little boy- was seriously going to break my back, he was so heavy. I said to him- "Hey there- did you have a bag of rocks for breakfast?" He answers, in a very serious tone, "No, I had pancakes and sausage."

I didn't really get to tell my own kids that I would be at their school today, so when Annie spied me on the playground, playing with all of these other kids, my tough little girl had a complete meltdown. She couldn't understand what I was doing with those other kids- and thought I was cheating on her. When I picked her up at her class, she gave me the biggest hug and told me how much she missed me. I took them to Jamba Juice after school, and over Mango Madnesses, Annie asked me, "Mommy, are you going to be a Teacher again, or just my Mommy?" I replied, "Just your Mommy, Annie." Because that's a job that I really treasure, most of the time.