So a couple of months ago I was asked to be a nursery teacher.  This means I co-teach with another adult the children ages 18 months to 3 (until the January after they turn three, so I could have kids who are 3 and 364 days theoretically).  At the time I wasn’t so thrilled.  I’ve spent a lot of my church ‘career’ in nursery which can feel like a life sentence where you’re forgotten in a corner of the building and thought to be inactive (not coming to church on a regular basis) by everyone except the parents of the children who you teach.  This is the first time I’ve taught nursery and not had nursery aged children (or younger).  I think that makes all the difference. Since I’ve been in there I’ve embraced it and have been embraced by it (literally- kids that age are lovey).   I’d like to share some gems from the 18 month to 3ish set.

What I learned in Nursery:
Wiping our noses is a good thing, even if it’s on Amber’s skirt/shirt/hand.
Hand sanitizer (magic soap) is awesome.
The best game ever is folding down one end of a long folding table and racing cars down it.
Stopping the best game ever is really hard.  There may will be tears.
Jesus loves everyone.  Even grown ups.
Jesus loves people who aren’t nice too.
We don’t hit friends.
Jesus will still love you though.
Sometimes someone you don’t expect to be good at playing helicopters will be if you give him the chance.
Two and three year olds will laugh at anything.
I would have a bright future making millions if only toddlers could pay for comedy.
Even little boys like to pretend to cook.
But they find it funnier then little girls when you use a frying pan for a hat.
Even if you wear a hard hat you can still lose and eye.
Telling a little boy he looks ’sharp’ with his new hair cut will not make him happy.  It will make him very angry because, ‘Stephen is NOT a shark!’
Sometimes it’s easier to give up on singing time and look for dinosaurs.
I need to learn the names of more dinosaurs.
Moms and dads will always come back.

Sometimes when grown ups suck it’s nice to spend two hours with kids who love you because you play cars, pretend to cook (and eat) plastic spaghetti, who laugh when you fall asleep when they turn off the lights and ‘wake up’ when they turn them back on, hunt for dinosaurs, sit on your lap and let you snuggle them, play cars, play blocks, throw balls (we didn’t have any girls in nursery today) and proclaim ‘that’s my friend’ when they see you walking down the street on a random Wednesday.  I think we could all learn a little more about friendship and unconditional love in nursery. Today I was fed more than plastic spaghetti at church.

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I keep meaning to share this 5 minute moment in my life and forgetting.  I’m a slacker- we all know that.

I was at Target a couple weeks ago and when paying noticed the person behind me in line.  His ears were pierced with those ’spreader earrings’- you know the ones that make your ear holes bigger and bigger until you do something fancy with them- honestly I have no idea why you do that.  It’s something that I find interesting and a bit odd.

Anyway, in addition to his interesting ears there was the way he was dressed.  He had a grungy look to him- a look I’m prone to attribute to troublemakers.  His pants were hanging down past his butt and I could tell you about his boxers because they were visible as well.  He was heavily tattooed on his arms and neck and if I were to guess his age I’d put him at 18ish give or take a year or two either direction.

He was buying a coloring book and crayons.  That’s all he was buying.  He had who I assume was his younger brother with him.  His brother appeared to be a teenager as well.  It was hard for me to gauge his age because he was mentally handicapped.

The most interesting thing was the conversation that was taking place between the two of them.   The younger (I’m assuming) brother was asking constant questions.  The older brother was answering each of them patiently, kindly, lovingly.  They walked behind me as I walked to my car and the constant chatter of their conversation made my day.

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So- we did celebrate Easter… a little while ago. Maybe I should share some pictures?

First I’ve solved my neighbor issue. I bought a cover for my BBQ. It cost me $8. I’m pretty sure it was worth it.

Okay- pictures.
We started the day with a 4 minute egg hunt held at the city park. The field was marked off into age categories and our four girls were in three different categories. So Ashley had to go off by herself. (I did snag a picture of her beforehand).

Here’s Megan (notice how well the eggs are hidden?)

Here are Annika and Cori ready to go. Don’t look at Cori’s hair.

You looked didn’t you? (For shame!)

Since we had three areas of hunters and two parents but only one camera I handed the camera off to Steve to take pictures of the littler kids. They’re cuter anyway (don’t tell the big kids).

Hmm… think she can find any eggs?

I’m pretty sure the entire city turned out.

Yay!

Ashley found some too.

Next was the neighborhood hunt.

Annika found one in a window well.

This is my cute neighbor Maddie (seriously- the hair!)

Awww..

My cute neighbor baby Casin. (The eyebrows!!)

Megan found a bunny.

Checking their loot.

This is Britton. I’m still waiting for him to do his robot dance for me. We’ve been driving him to preschool once a week since September. Today he talked to me the whole 6 minutes drive. This was a first. I’m hoping to be buds by the time he and Annika decide to get married.

Then was ‘real’ Easter. You know. The part where you go to church and talk about Christ? Oh, and wear pretty clothes. I spent 5 hours and $12 and made 4 skirts. I felt pretty good about that.

Whew!

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