I have to admit, there was no real reason for me to hang out for the Group Circle time at my daughter’s class (which started two hours late today for snow delay) except I had missed seeing those children (I skipped last Thursday’s classtime due to illness). Today when it was their turn to talk both Sophie and Nels separately shared about Sophie’s new bed. Tom especially always says hi to me, and seems to relish saying “Mrs. Hogaboom”. I think all the children like me. It’s not that I’m all that likable and not only due to the fact I feed them something each week; it’s because children are easy to please when you take time to pay attention to them.
Before I left Sophie took the teacher’s chair and read a book of her own premeditated selection (Theo and the Blue Note, a great story) to her class. She did a great job. I was fighting back tears. Not because of the “accomplishment” of her reading but because it struck me how fast our children attain skills and kindnesses when it seems only yesterday you felt confused how to help them find them.
But today went sideways in a couple ways. For one, I was up at 4 AM today with a head packed full of cold again. By 7:40 AM I already felt weary and dejected, and my day was just starting. Then it bellied up and got cold and snowed, preventing a bike ride this morning. And later, after running grocery errands with my mom and Nels, it happened again. This time was funnier because my mother was unsure of the 8 oz. cup capacity (adequate for the 3 year old’s bladder) and because I “made” her take the still-warm pisscup into the house to throw away. For some reason she did it, too, with that expression on her face like a cat makes when it smells something rank.
Here’s hoping – hoping! – for a restful afternoon.