April 20, 2005 - 8:04 p.m.

Not a Vacation

They call it school vacation week, but it's a heck of a lot more work for me. :)

The kids are out of school this week, so I've been working 11.5 hour days. I point that out for the sympathy it will garner, but really it's been very pleasant. Monday, I let the kids sleep in, but we also cleaned out their toy boxes (yeilding 2 kitchen size garbage bags of trash and 5 grocery bags of toys to donate) and went to the playground, where the kids did the monkey bars until they had blisters. Yesterday, we took our traditional trip to the zoo, and, as always, we had lovely weather. Today, they played outside some more, we played catch, and we visited a nearby candy factory. Tomorrow's tentative plan is to fit in a bike ride between grocery shopping, a haircut for one child, and dentist appointments for all three. So, we've kept busy, but since the kids have been really well behaved, it's all been fun. They didn't even complain about the toybox chore!

Taking the kids to the zoo yesterday really helped me put their behavior in perspective. Seeing so many kids there who screamed, shoved, and were otherwise rude and obnoxious made me realize just how great the kids I work with are. I made sure to thank them for being patient, polite, and reasonably quiet many times. They have their shortcomings, of course, but they are, in the grand scheme of things, thoughtful, fun children. It was also nice to bond with them over our excitement about certain parts of our visit. We were all psyched to see a Canada goose tending her nest full of eggs very near the path we were treading. We oohed, ahhed, and giggled together over the moon bears as they climbed, tussled, and even walked on hind legs through their pool of water. There are definitely times when I have more in common with children than I do adults. :)

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