i want my mommy

so we have a new friend in our afternoon class. today was her first day - she's just turned four last week, is on the chubby side, and super cute. i met her yesterday, she was all smiles and happiness to be at school. then today, her mom stayed for about fifteen minutes and then left. well, my new friend tried to run out after her mom. i picked her up - oh, strained a muscle or two - and we sat in a chair for a few minutes.

"I want to go home," she said. Over and over and over. I tried to pat her back, soothe her hair, show her my watch and tell her we didn't have that long. "I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home." Oh, girlfriend, so do I. Trust me, so do I. But we're here and we're going to make the most of it.

So for the rest of our time before we went to lunch, I chased my other friend in the class who requires alot of attention while my team-teacher taught the circle time lesson. The student grabbed some tape off the teacher desk and wrapped himself in it while I attempted to ignore him. Then he yelled and kicked until I helped him get it off himself. He tried to bite me - not to hurt, only because he wants attention. But he calmed down and we made it to the cafeteria for lunch soon after.

My new first-day friend was on my lap, refusing to eat. "I want my mommy," she said through tears while gasping for oxygen. Take a deep breath, I would say. "I want my mommy," she would say through a thick Hispanic accent.

Well, ladybug, I want my mommy, too. Literally. I want my mommy to come and whisk me away sometimes and I want to cry, too. But we carry on, with our heads high.

I began to worry about my friend. It had been an hour and she hadn't calmed down. None of my usual tactics were working. So, we went back to the room with my other friend, the one who likes to tape himself around the midsection or take off his shoes and fling them at my head.

So me, the crier, and the sprinter were in the classroom, building towers and castles with blocks just the three of us while the rest were in the cafe. The sprinter talking, the crier crying, me building. The crier all of sudden sprints, literally, sprinting, toward our door which I had propped open. I was frozen in fear. How could I leave the sprinter in the room alone to chase the crier? Could I carry him and still run quickly enough to grab her? I could not carry both of them. My biceps can only take so much. I am not, in fact, Michelle Obama. She continued to run a few more feet away from me. Oh shit, oh shit, I thought as she lunged for the door. (Sorry but sometimes bad words fly around in my head at these moments.)

The crier stopped. She wasn't running for the door afterall. She was reaching in the shopping bag that her mom had dropped off, full of her school supplies. It sat right next to the door. She carried it over to us - this girl is strong! - and plopped down next to me. "Oh, crier, what are you doing with that big bag silly girl?" I asked with a smile.

She reached in and grabbed a packet of play-doh. She was suddenly rambling in spanish, talking 90-to-nothing and thinking I was fluent or something. "Oh crier, lo siento, but I don't speak Spanish very well. Just a little."

She kept on with the Spanish. "English?" I prompted.

She looked at me with her huge brown eyes. "Oh, English." She said quietly. "My daddy bought me this playdoh! My daddy bought me this playdoh." More spanish, very fast.

Oh! Jackpot! A connection. "Crier, we have play doh in our class. Can you make me something with playdoh?" I whipped out some already opened hot pink playdoh.

"Sure," she said. "I'll make you a ball." Um, wow?

It was the strangest, awesomest thing in the world. I don't know what triggered her moment of joy in the classroom, why it occurred to her to get playdoh, but she didn't cry another tear all day. Sure, she was sad at times and asked for her mommy, but I do that everyday too. She participated with the class for the rest of the day - i didn't see her much because i was with the sprinter, but at dismissal I was standing outside with another group when she and her mom walked up to me. I didn't see them but I suddenly felt a body hugging my knees tightly. I looked down and there were her dark brown eyes smiling up at me.

"Oh, crier, I love hugs. Thank you. Did you tell mommy you had a great day at school today? Will you see me tomorrow?"

She hugged tighter and nodded her head, smiling at me as if we were best friends. That, right there, is what makes all of the madness seem worth it.

Hope you had a blessed hump day!