My Life at the Daycare

Day in and day out, I am working all day at a daycare that is just around the corner. Let me tell you, there are days that I hate it, but on the average I absolutely love it. It is so fun. There are a TON of kids, but eventually you get to know all of them because they move you around a lot and you aren't in the same room for more than half the day. Remember how I said I didn't like that? Well I changed my mind. Moving from room to room makes the day go soooo much faster. And it's even better when they decide to take you out of the room full of monsters and put you in the room full of sleeping babies. That is the best!

Being surrounded by so many kids all day though, it starts to take over your mind. I am constantly thinking about these kids. I keep thinking I see them everywhere, even when I'm not at work! I see other little kids running around and I expect them to be the kids that I take care of all day! But they never are. It's kind of like when you move away and then you start seeing people that you think are the people from where you lived before? Yeah, just like that, for those of you who understand that experience. I even have dreams about these kids! Almost every night they are incorporated somehow to my dreams. The other night, I just had dreams that the kids kept tripping and every time one fell down I would jolt awake like I needed to go pick them up. They are taking over my mind!!!

But I love them, so it's okay. They are crazy though. There are times where I just want to go home and not have to deal with them any more. These times can be simply summarized into two instances:

Naptime for the two year olds and the three year olds - Naptime isn't so bad in the nurseries because I just put them in the cribs and rock them to sleep. For the older kids however, they just lay on mats and there is nothing to keep them there except themselves. And with all the toys and other children around, who would want to lay down!? There are some really great kids who just go right to sleep and then there are the monster children who run around and wake everyone else up. So this is how I put those kids to sleep:

Unorthodox, but it works! You just hold em down till they are ready to go to sleep, or they have cried so much they are tired, and then they fall right to sleep! It sounds really cruel when I say it like that... But it's really not, I promise you! It's the only way to keep them quiet and get them to go to sleep. 

The other time is quiet time for the five year olds - Somehow, they have to be kept quiet for three hours while the babies and younger children take naps. How in the world do you keep 35 five years olds quiet for that long?! Their attention spans are smaller than teaspoons! We try movies but that lasts for maybe 45 minutes, tops. It's awful. And in order to be heard over them, you practically have to scream. My throat hurts after every day that they put me in there, which is quite often because I know the kids... They can just be demons sometimes! There was one girl the other day who made three kids bleed and didn't even bat an eye when I told her off. She just stared up at me with this creepy face, you know, the ones that psychopaths have. Yeah. It was scary. But she came up and hugged me today and asked to be my helper so apparently she still likes me.... 

What makes it all worth it though are the kids who are absolute angels. There are two kids in the five year old class who are honestly my favorite kids in the whole wide world. If I could have kids just like them, I would thank my Heavenly Father every day, profusely. They are quiet and well mannered, but happy kids. They are so helpful, they do everything I ask and they are fantastic listeners! In a room full of maniacs, they are the only ones I can turn to in order to stay sane. 

And then there are my one year olds. There are some of them that I wouldn't mind if they never came back, namely this one little girl who will not stop screaming ever and she sounds like those little baby plant things from Harry Potter. I swear, she has this demon scream that never ends. But then are Cooper, Darien, Aiden and the love of my life Kingston. They are just so adorable and smiley. Aiden, whenever I walk in the room, runs at me in the most clumsy awkward way and gives me the biggest hugs! Cooper can't even crawl yet but he just sits there contentedly with his feet crossed in front of him and just has this adorable smile. Darien, whenever I am sitting on the floor, will crawl as fast as he can over to me and climb up so he is standing and just smile and laugh in my face haha And then there is Kingston. 

He took a little bit to warm up to me, but now whenever he sees me he gets the biggest smile on his face and he always comes over and plays with me. He is just too cute! He had a fantastic gene pool as well, let me tell you, because he is a gorgeous baby. And he took his first steps for me! You would have thought I was his mother from the way I reacted, I got so freaking excited. It made my whole day hahaha 

I love these kids. Even the ones that don't always listen have great moments that remind me why I put up with them. I am so grateful that I am working there :)