What I came back to

So after almost two weeks out of school to recover from a tonsilectomy I came back to...well let's just call it an interesting day. Here's a little sample-

M wandered back and forth in front of the daycare room door before class started, unsure if she wanted come in and say hi to me like I usually expect.

S, by contrast, came running up to the door and after telling me that he ate peas at grandma's (of course that takes priority!), he proceeds to rattle off about how I got my tonsils out, but that I was gonna be back, that I got my tonsils out, and how the fire alarm goes "eeehh!!!" really loud, that I got my tonsils out, but was gonna come back...and on and on in that vein. Obviously he'd been storing up things to tell me.

N, gave me a big old grin and then went about her day; though later I heard her telling some of the others how she was "Glad teacher Alex was back". So sweet!

And the elementary students made fun of me for sounding funny. Though I did at least get them to say I sounded like a 10 year old boy rather than 7....I think that's an improvement?

Meanwhile J and I had an excellent start to the morning, he easily came in and took care of his things in the coat room. Then he was busy running little errands for me and this kept him pretty happy. Until something glass broke in the classroom and he refused to stay away while I was cleaning up. One of the things that I'm very firm on is that all the children stay away when something breaks in the classroom until I let them know it is safe. So that led to a bit of a meltdown.

Ch and I were happily fetching cards about the Duluth area, while I juggled keeping K on task with cleaning up the pink tower.....until he pointed out the wet spot on the mat...and his pants...and a good chunk of the carpet....ooops. Luckily M was happy to finish doing fetching with Ch while I herded K to the bathroom and cleaned up.

All in all a pretty typical day, it was like I'd never been gone.

And then nap came. J needed a reminder about how I actually did expect him to stay on his cot during nap. L needed a reminder to not crawl on the couch by her bed. K needed a reminder that his blanket was supposed to stay on his cot. And S....well S needed a reminder that he's actually supposed to sleep during nap, but apparently that doesn't work when you don't have a big enough blanket to cuddle up in like normal. Tomorrow I'm going to make sure the usual spare isn't soaking wet in the wash...

Then we finish out the day by waking up a soaking wet J from nap, taking him to the bathroom and spending the next 20 minutes helping get him out of a pair of poopy pants while trying to keep the bathroom semi clean.

Yep. I'm back. And I teach preschool. No way around that. It's good to be back...from some things at least ;)