Someone was the recipient of some goodies from Santa!
THIS POST IS VERY DISJOINTED BECAUSE I WAS STILL VERY OVERWHELMED AND EXHAUSTED FROM THE EVENTS - I INTEND TO ORGANIZE IT AT A LATER DATE
Once Thomas adjusted to the environment again, he really enjoyed himself. He hasn't been at the daycare with me since July or August, so it took him a little bit to get comfortable. He spent the afternoon with me and I was so happy to be able to help out in the class he was assigned to. It was his old class, even though he was technically considered an after schooler and should have been with them, and he did well. We enjoyed pizza and candies and juice and playing with new presents and seeing old friends that had been asking about him.
While we were waiting for Santa to arrive, he sat with his back to the kids, entirely unhappy at the noise and uncertainty. He has always been one that prefers to know what will be happening well in advance, not unlike me and his older siblings. Living with Michael has taught me that I don't need to control quite so much, and it's very liberating! I'm working on teaching the kids that spontaneity is ok.
One of my awesome coworkers had the daycare camera out, so I'm looking forward to seeing the picture she took. She laughed when she snapped it, so it could look much like the one above, for all I know. Lol The kid is one of the most expressive people I know. And his eyebrows!! I've got to show you a pic of him when he found out that Mike had come to visit me at my old house on a day when Thomas was with his dad. There is no doubt whatsoever that he was one pissed off little dude!
Anyway, there's Mr. Expressive for you. Once he saw the helicopter, he perked right up! He asked me why there was no sleigh. I had to think of something quickly, so I told him there was no snow. My super smart boy said, "And the sleigh needs snow to work." Exactly. When Santa came out of the helicopter, he said to me, "Is that the real Santa? He isn't fat." Again with the quick thinking, I told him Santa lost some weight. He hasn't been eating as many cookies yet. He's a smart kid, so I'm not sure he bought it entirely, but it seemed like he was considering the plausibility of it.
I've told him that there was a real person that Santa is based on but that it has now become a story that parents teach their children because it's fun to imagine and pretend and imagination is a WONDERFUL thing. He's also been told that the Tooth Fairy is also a story and that mom and dad are the ones slipping money under his pillow. He chooses to believe. And his father and I allow it. The magic and innocence of a child is something that more adults should learn from and remember.
He was the only kid wearing something festive, and I'm actually surprised that he kept the hat on! Maybe it's because it was Spider-Man, maybe it's because mom was wearing her Santa hat with the tiara and the other teachers were dressed up, maybe he's just the kind of kid to dress up. Whatever the case, I'm glad he was so willing to participate and have fun with it. (I found it at our local grocery for $2.50! And now he has one for next Christmas.)
It wasn't planned for Thomas to be there that day. I didn't realize what was happening until last week, well after the arrangements had been made for Santa to come with gifts for all of the kids. So my director suggested I bring him a gift and just wait and see because sometimes there are extras. I could see that they were quickly coming to the end of the gifts for his class and so I discreetly gave the one I brought to my boss, the owner of the center who was dressed like a super cute elf, and she very kindly had Santa call for Thomas and give him the gift. Additionally, another little boy no longer attends the daycare so she arranged for Santa to give Thomas that gift, as well. It is a little young for him (a large blocky truck with Duplo Legos in it), but he likes all Legos and he likes cars, so it worked out ok. At the end of the night, another child didn't want the puzzles she'd been given, so Thomas acquired that, too, with permission from the center director. He was happy and had a really nice time. :)
After all the gifting was done, there was massive clean up to be had in all the classrooms, so while that fell to the lead teachers for those rooms, I was assigned to take Thomas' class out to play. Another class and teacher joined us for a little while until the kids started going home and I had few enough students to care for on my own. (By law, I can care for up to 26 within a certain age bracket. I had 16, but because of the age gap between youngest and oldest and the age of the middle child, I had to have a 2nd teacher with me until a few went home.)
Even though my attention was on my job, it was very very nice to spend the time with my boy. :) I miss him a lot and wish he could live with me, but his dad and I agreed that he's better off living with dad. Maybe in the future it will become an option. :)
Sometime last month when I had my weekend with the kids, Mike and I bought them Nerf guns and Rachel a Nerf bow & arrow from The Hunger Games movie Catching Fire and they had an epic battle in the hallway of the apartment building and inside our apartment itself. So epic, in fact, that the fire extinguisher box fell off the wall in the hallway and maintenance had to remount it. Uhh, oops. :-/
We quickly decided that certain rules are to be followed and everyone started to calm down. Lol But they all also realized that 3 darts each weren't nearly enough for their individual toys. Hence, Thomas' excitement over a pack of darts. (I intend to get a pack for each of the older kids this weekend.)
While it was a very exhausting day and I went home with very sore feet and a sugar-addled boy (who somehow managed to remain quite well behaved, even though), it was also a really fun day that I'm incredibly grateful to my employer for allowing us to participate in. I'm grateful to her for much more than the Christmas Party, but that's for another post. :)
That is one happy 6 year old who heard from The Man In Red himself about a red bicycle that will be left at Mom's & Mike's house!
Thomas' favorite color is blue, but I didn't find a blue one, so I concocted this story: There was an accident at the North Pole where the blue paint machine exploded and turned all the elves blue, just like the Smurfs!
He will probably be doubtful, but he will also probably let us tell the story and believe, at least a little bit. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment