I Love My Baby Ducks

Every 30 minutes at work my kids and I move to a different classroom. This can be a bit tricky to get 8-12 three-year-olds mobilized and walking in a line to the next room, but since we do it so often, the kids are usually pretty good about it. We have a few strict rules with transitioning, and one of them is that my children must always stay behind me in the hallway. I walk backwards in the hallway so as to see my kids at all times as we move from place to place. If I were to lose control and have one of my kids run off where I couldn't supervise him/her, I could lose my job.

One time when we were transitioning to the playground, I noticed that there were some patches of mud between the door of the building and the play area. So I told my kids, "Listen, when we walk outside, we have to pretend that we are a family of ducks. I am the mommy duck and you are all my baby ducks and you have to follow right behind me in a straight line, okay? There's mud outside and I am going to lead you around it, but you have to waddle right behind me." The kids loved pretending they were baby ducks following in my footsteps, and so it worked like a charm. But I didn't think much more of it until later that day, when we were transitioning in our normal every-day way, and my sweet N* said to me, "Ms. Abbi, you're our Mommy Duck and we're your Baby Ducks!" Melt my heart. I think whenever I see a family of ducks in the future, I'll think of my sweet kids at Creme and how they followed me around like a line of baby ducks.

Writing this story made me think of two others I want to record:

Often my kids will try to walk backwards in the hall, pretending they are me, and I have to remind them that only teachers walk backwards in the hall. My kids think they are so funny when they do this, and even though I don't show it to them, I think it's pretty funny too.

One time when my twins A* and A* were new to Creme (and the English language), A* ran off to the nearby computer room as we were all walking into the music room. When I counted all the children in the music room, I started to panic, realizing that I was missing A*. I ran and quickly found him in the computer room, smiling like it was a game. Like I said, this is a very serious matter, and so I told him very firmly, "You cannot do that. Never do that again. You have to stay WITH Ms. Abbi. You have to stay BY Ms. Abbi." When A* saw how upset his running off made me, he was very sorry for what he had done. And you know what he thought I was saying when I said that last sentence? "You have to say, 'Bye, Ms. Abbi.'" Because right after I said that, he said very solemnly to me, waving his hand, "Bye, Ms. Abbi." Hahaha. Oh my sweet A*!

Life is Short

I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of working at Creme. This is the longest I've ever worked full-time in one place before. And it's gone by so fast!

I've been thinking recently about how much my kids have changed in the short 11 months I've been at Creme, and it blows my mind how different they are now than 11 months ago. They've all grown up so much.

And this is even more apparent as I think of the children in the younger classes. There were babies when I started that are now in the 2 year old class! And there are big babies now that weren't even born when I started! Sheesh!

If there's one thing I've learned from working in this profession, it is that babies and young children don't stay babies and young children for long. They grow up so fast. It makes me want to cherish every second I have with these darling, innocent, precious children of mine. The time we have to spend with them in their first five years is really so, so short. It's a lesson I hope to remember when I have children of my own.

Thoughts on Listening

I have a few thoughts on listening, albeit three very different ones. I'll go in order from funniest to most serious.

#1. I am so glad I took the opportunity this morning to ask B* a question and really listen to his answer, because I've been laughing over his response all day. Let me introduce you to B*: he's a sweet, mild-mannered, polite, quiet, calm, good boy.

This morning he'd been riding a rather tall tricycle for his height (and when I say "riding", I mean slowly pushing his feet off the ground while sitting on the bike's seat). And then he says to me, "Ms. Abbi, I'm tired of riding bikes."

When he tells me this, I know that what he means is that he's not enjoying riding his bike, and I wonder what he'll say if I ask him this question: "You're tired? Are your legs tired, or your arms tired?" So, I ask him.

And this is his response, with a rather embarrassed look on his face, "It's hurting my....my....this thing." (And while saying "this thing," he stands up a little on the bike and points to his booty.) Hahaha!!! By divine providence I was able to keep a straight face and suggest he ride a shorter bike, but I've laughed out loud over it multiple times since then.

#2. While driving my 3 minute commute to work today, I listened to "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani on the radio. When I turned on my car over 9 hours later to drive home, the same exact song was playing on the same exact radio station. Should I take this to mean something?

#3. Recently I've been thinking a lot about listening to God. Am I really listening to Him, or am I so focused on what I want or what I need to get done that I don't pay attention to what He's trying to teach me or direct me to do? This quote keeps coming to my mind:

"The object of our prayers should not be to present a wish list or a series of requests but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is eager to bestow, according to His will and timing. Every sincere prayer is heard and answered by our Heavenly Father, but the answers we receive may not be what we expect or come to us when we want or in the way we anticipate."
-Elder David A. Bednar, "Ask in Faith," Ensign, May 2008

This quote makes me think about my kids--they are usually all too eager to "present wish lists and series of requests" to me, but they are not so eager to listen to me and do what I ask them to do. Frequently throughout my days I try to motivate my children to listen, ask my children to listen, remind them to listen, command them to LISTEN!! :) Some days I get exasperated over how they do not listen to me, and I wonder if that's how Heavenly Father feels sometimes. I think, "If they'd just listen to me, this whole experience would be sooooo much better!" And then I wonder if God thinks the same thing in regards to me sometimes.

So this is my new goal: to listen to God as attentively as I would like my children to listen to me.

I love my job

I know I keep saying this, but I am so happy at work! After 10 months in my position, I feel like I have a lot of stuff figured out and I'm feeling confident in my role. It's a good feeling. If only I could feel like this with all the other parts of my life... :)

But anyhow, I wanted to share two things that made me happy last week. One was when I was reading Eric Carle's book "1, 2, 3 to the Zoo" to my kids. It's a book about animals riding in a train to a zoo. On the first page, 1 elephant is in a train car, on the second page 2 hippos, and so on. The last page is of all the animals at the zoo (1 elephant, 2 hippos, 3 giraffes, etc.)

While looking at this page of the zoo, that same blonde mentioned in my last post asked, "Why is there just a mommy elephant? Why isn't there a daddy elephant?" I said, "That's a good question. What do you think happened to the daddy elephant? Where did he go?" To which another little girl in the class enthusiastically responded, as though very proud to know the answer to the question, "At the office!!"

And the second thing that has made me very happy not just last week but for the last several weeks is what many of my children keep themselves busy with during our outside time. They walk around searching for "flowers" in the grass. These flowers are actually weeds, but if you look close enough, you can see there are tiny little blossoms in them. I would never have noticed all these tiny colorful blossoms, but my children do!

There are white, yellow, pink, and purple "flowers." They pick a handful of these blossoms and then bring them to me, proudly giving me flowers. And I have to say that close up, these blossoms are very pretty! I am so lucky to be given flowers every day! And I try to show my kids how much I appreciate their kindness.

I love how children see beauty all around them. Beauty that most adults overlook, are too busy to notice, or are too practical to appreciate. These flowers have brought so much joy to my life, and I am so grateful for my children for helping me notice and appreciate the beauty around me.

Today's Funniest Moment

I'm reading a book to 12 three-year-olds about our bodies, and before the page about our brains, I ask the children, "What's inside your head?" After much probing, I realize none of them know. So I tell them that their brains are inside their heads and that they use their brains to think. One of my students, a beautiful girl with blonde hair and big gray eyes raises her hand and says very innocently and emphatically, "But Ms. Abbi, I don't have a brain!" Hahaha.

It was one of those moments when I couldn't keep myself from laughing out loud really hard. And so of course many other students join in happily, "Ms. Abbi, I don't have a brain!" Oh dear.

So I get myself together and say very seriously that everyone has a brain and without a brain we couldn't think or do all of the many things we do at school. But my blonde girl wouldn't have anything of it, she insisted that she did NOT have a brain. She said, "Ms. Abbi, I can think without a brain!" I finally had to drop it. I still don't know why she was so adamant that she did not have a brain. I'm glad about it though, because it made me laugh inside even after I had changed the subject.

"My Brother"

I have twin boys in my class that I absolutely adore. They are so sweet to each other and to the other students in the class. I am so glad they are in my class because I love them soooo much!! They come from a great family--their parents and older brother are all so polite, respectful, and kind. I have been so impressed by the fact that these twins never fight with each other like you would expect brothers to fight. And to the contrary, they often help each other. Today I witnessed a very touching moment of them today that I wanted to share.

During circle time all the children sit on carpet squares. Sometimes it's a struggle for them to stay sitting on their carpet square for the whole 10-15 minutes, and so their favorite part is Weather, when one of them gets to walk over to the window to see what the weather is and then tell the class. It's a real treat to be able to get off your carpet square! :) The way I pick on a child to do this is by singing this song:

"Oh dear, what will the weather be?
Oh dear, what will the weather be?
Oh dear, what will the weather be?
[Enter name here], what will the weather be?"

When I start singing this song, all the children sit so nicely because they want me to pick on them. And after I say the name, there is always an immediate chorus of "Why didn't you pick ME?!"s and "Ms. Abbi, you didn't pick ME!!"s. And every day I have to tell the children that only one person gets to do the weather each day, and they will have their turn a different day.

Well today for weather I picked one of the twins, and right after I said the name, before any of the other children could even start complaining, the other twin brother punched his hand into the air in celebration and said with glee, "YES! MY BROTHER!" He was clearly extremely happy that his brother was picked for this special assignment.

That really touched me. It was a very powerful example to me of charity and selflessness. A* was able to forget himself for a moment and take joy in his brother's happiness, even when it meant that he was deprived of something he very much wanted. He wasn't thinking in terms of "me," he was thinking in terms of his brother. His brother's happiness was his happiness.

How difficult that can be for us, children and adults alike! We so often feel envious, resentful, or threatened by the success or good fortune of those around us. But we don't need to be. We can be like A* and think in terms of our brothers and sisters rather than ourselves. Their happiness can be our happiness. And because we are all part of God's family, we can exclaim like A*, "Yes! My brother!" (or sister) whenever someone around us is blessed or succeeds. I want to be more like A* and be able to say this easily and from the heart as he so evidently can.

Expressing Love

I have been counting my blessings this week, because I have so many. My heart is overwhelmed by the love I feel for my kids and the love I feel from them. It is one of the most amazing blessings in my life. In my previous jobs there was a policy against saying, "I love you," but there is no policy against that phrase at my current job. And what a difference it makes in my day!! Some of my kids are so good at saying, "I love you, Ms. Abbi" and they will say that to me at the most random times of the day. I love it and try to show them how much I appreciate it when they tell me that. And I try to tell my kids often how much I love them as well. My life is beautiful because of this, that we frequently and openly express love for one another. These three words have a powerful affect on an environment when they are used often. I am so grateful for my kids and the love I feel when I'm with them. I am blessed beyond measure.