Happy Sunday! The sun is finally back after a week of clouds and cold. I'm hanging out on the porch in the sun as I write this, charging up my crystal team as well as myself. It's been another fun week, full of new experiences.
Monday night I did some last minute babysitting after work. The boys were so excited to see me, with the 3 year old declaring, "I'm going to show you my army stuff!" as soon as I arrived. He later announced, "You need to come over to my house every day." We played an interesting game where Mitchy the fishy was hurt (he hit his knee). Batman and Anakin Skywalker were taking him to the hospital. At one point they were taking Mitchy on a pirate ship to the Batman Castle. Why the Batman Castle? Because Batman Castle has a jail with a hospital inside of it with healing beds, obviously (I love the creativity and imagination). There was a lunch party at one point, where everyone got cake. At one point Mitchy hit my knee, but he was sorry (he kissed my knee to make it all better). While we were playing this game, his older brother was playing my Switch with Pokemon Shield. They didn't want to go to bed and wanted to keep playing with me. When their parents returned, their mom was telling me about how the boys found out there would be a babysitter that night. She told me that the older brother announced, "It'd better be Ms. Jessica! If it's not Ms. Jessica coming over tonight, I'm going to be SO MAD." He happily found out that he got his wish and that I would be coming over. I know I'm loved, but it's always nice to have reminders.
There's been an interesting development in before care; this week a group of first graders decided that they needed to create drawings for my mom and talk to her. It started off with one of the little girls creating a how to make a cat story/picture for my mom (although, technically, it started a while back when she spontaneously made a how to make a dog picture for my dad). She told me that I had to give it to my mom and that she had to keep it forever. My mom found it humorous. The next day she arrived to before care with newly pierced ears, showing off her soccer ball earrings. I commented on how she had new soccer balls, earning the immediate response, "NO! They're earrings! They're too tiny to be soccer balls!" I replied that they could be soccer balls for mice. She insisted that mice couldn't play soccer. I told her that it could be possible and then proceeded to tell her that she could create a mouse soccer tournament. She asserted that she was too big to play with them. I informed her that she could be the referee. She shook her head in disbelief but continued to practically sit on me at the coloring table. She then had me text my mom to ask her if mice play soccer and send a picture of the earring. She also tried to claim that she was my dad. The other kids sitting at the table thought the whole exchange was humorous. A 4th grader looked at me and commented, "You're weird but the good kind of weird. I like it." This was followed by another 1st grader exclaiming, "You're my favorite teacher!"
The next day was an expansion of the silliness. The 1st grade girl roped her friend into the shenanigans, and they begged for me to send the stories/pictures they created to my mom. The 1st grade girl started the morning off by announcing, “I’m a baby inside your mom’s tummy!”
Me: Hmmm…. Then how am I talking to you right now?
Girl: You’re talking to the spirit of Hannah! I’m actually your sister!
The morning’s conversation between my mom and the kids went something like this:
1st grade girls: Your dad (as in my dad) is the funniest worker at Schnucks! AAANNNDDD he’s the weirdest person in the WHOLE WOLRD.
Mom: Well, I can’t disagree with them.
1st grade girls: He gets told to go to the bathroom and then adopts a pig! And his boss is a pig! AND a chicken! And his name is BOB.
*they then proceed to draw a series of pictures of my dad and mom, ranging from unicorns, a clown on a wheel, a heart-shaped butt, my mom in the shower, etc.*
1st grade girls: Tell her it’s from Jessica!!!
Mom: A heart shaped butt… And I am a “Mr.” Giant drops of water! Thanks, “Jessica.”
1st grade girls: Wait, where does your mom work?
Me: Rice Painting.
1st grade girls: NO, it’s from Rice Painting!
Mom: Nope!! I am Rice Painting XD
1st grade girls: It’s from David!
Mom: That’s normal. Schnucks is EVERYWHERE.
1st grade girls: Schnucks is not everywhere. Schnucks is not in Adventure Club.
Mom: Sure it is!
1st grade girls: There isn’t any food anywhere around us, and it isn’t cold anywhere around us.
Mom: I thought you get snacks.
1st grade girls: We do get snacks, BUT there is no milk around us.
Mom: In the cafeteria?
1st grade girls: Yeah, BUT there is no healthy stuff in there.
Mom: I bet there are fruits and veggies.
1st grade girls: There’s no turkey in the cafeteria! And Schnucks has turkey!!
*my mom was then busy with work. The girls kept begging for me to check my phone to see if she responded. They were desperate as the bell for school rang, meaning that had to leave for class. I checked one last time and read them the response.*
Mom: It’s not Thanksgiving.
If only my mom could have seen the look the girls gave me; that glare was the look of utter disgust, as if my mom had said the most offensive thing possible. I was crying as I was laughing so hard.
After care had similar lighthearted silliness and fun. During snack time we were watching Story Bots. The kiddos were very into the episode (it happened to be about colds/viruses). When the virus appeared, announcing that they would infect MILLIONS, one of the little boys declared, “I can’t watch!!!” He then proceeded to cover his face with his sandwich, which would have been convincing if he hadn’t eaten a giant hole in the middle of it, leaving essentially only the crusts behind. My coworker and I exchanged a look and tried VERY HARD not to burst out laughing.
While playing in the gym, a little girl said that we were going to go get ice cream; she was sitting with a hula hoop in a chair next to my coworker and announced, “Hop in the car! Let’s go get ice cream!” So I “hopped” in the backseat as she started to drive. I started shaking the back of the chair and continuously asking if we were there yet: “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I want ice cream! Are we there yet now? What about now???” She kept replying “NO!” (but she was also constantly giggling). After “forever” we finally arrived. I asked if I could eat all the ice cream because I really wanted it. She replied, “No, you have to leave some for me and the rest of the people. You can have two.” Me: “Can I have ten?” Little girl: “What??? NO!” My coworker was cracking up from the whole exchange.
Later in the gym a little boy tried to catch me with a hula hoop “because I was a bad guy.” I flipped the hula hoop at the last second so that he ended up getting caught instead. He went back to the little girl he was playing with, walking very slow and saddened. My coworker and I heard from across the room, “Sorry, you have to put yourself in jail now because you caught yourself.” The little boy was not happy about that, but my coworker and I burst into laughter, nearly in tears.
When the last kid was getting her stuff together to prepare for to go home, she looked at me and declared, “YOU can’t come to my house. You’d just eat all my food!!” My coworker asked if she could go to her house, and at first the little girl agreed to it. My coworker went on to explain, “I’ll eat all your food, I’ll sleep in your bed, I’ll play with all your toys, I’ll use all your hot water—” The little girl interrupted, “That’s fine, I don’t even like hot water.” My coworker continued, “I’ll use all your COLD water.” This resulted in the little girl erupting, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” She had second thoughts about my coworker going to her house and looked at my third coworker, announcing, “Only YOU can come to my house. They will eat all my food, and then I’d die!!!” My coworker explained that she could go to the store to get more food. The little girl looked at my coworker and announced, “You can have Goldfish and pretzels, but that’s it.” My coworker convinced her to allow her to eat chicken, fruits, and vegetables, as well. At this point, her mom arrived, causing the little girl to run to the doors, shouting, “MOM! They can’t come to our house! They’ll just eat all my food!!!” The mom thought it was humorous. The little girl forgot her backpack on the floor, however, so I slung it over my shoulder and commented, “I have this awesome new backpack! I can’t wait to take it home!” Noticing the backpack, the little girl screamed, “AAAAAHHHHH! Give that back!” She then happily went home with her mom. My coworkers and I erupted in laughter. Working with kids is always interesting. There’s never a dull moment. It can be so much fun.
Saturday was the first day of my five day training for Project Construct. It was pretty interesting. I'm looking forward to the next four Saturday sessions over the next two months. It was a bit of a drive out to the school, but my school covered the cost of the Professional Development (PD); if they hadn't covered the costs, I would have needed to come up with $1000 (I know that money will continuously come back to me, but that's a bit much for my current income--but I know that I will continue to grow and expand, so that one day $1000 won't seem like much at all). It was great having some of my coworkers from school attend the training with me. We were able to bounce ideas off each other during brainstorm sessions. The facilitator was nice enough to let us out a half hour early (it was supposed to be 9:00-3:00). I know that this PD will provide a great wealth of insight (as it already has from just one day--I found the section on inventive writing and spelling approximations rather interesting). This Module will be wrapped up on February 15th, and I look forward to it.
After PD I cooked up some ramen using udon noodles; I hadn't tried udon before, but I really enjoy it. The impromptu recipe I threw together needs some tweaking, but it was pretty tasty. I enjoyed eating the ramen while watching anime. I love Ascendance of a Bookworm; I can't wait to see how the series progresses. I also tried out my new singing bowl; it's pretty neat.
The universe is full of abundance, love, and joy. All we need to do is look for it and allow it in. Stay blessed, everyone. 2020 is a fabulous year!
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