Adventures in the Nursery

Today was a rough day in the nursery. One of our three nursery workers moved away recently and the official nursery leader had surgery this week, so I was essentially by myself. Another sister came in to help and the nursery leader sent in her son, but I think both were a little hesitant to step in and they probably weren't always sure what they could do to help.

My first freak out came when I was walking around the outside play area and Woody (all pseudonyms, of course) pointed at this giant spider web and excitedly said, "arana, arana." The spider web stretched from the fence to our shade tent and was probably two feet wide and a foot tall. The spider itself was probably the size of a dime, which doesn't sound big, but it's way to big to be hanging out in the nursery. I was afraid Woody would try and grab the spider, so I found a broom and relocated the end of the web attached to our shade tent to the fence.

My biggest problem was with Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (JtYC). JtYC's mother recently gave birth and JtYC is obviously having some adjustment issues. She's a very bright, sweet little girl, but lately she's been extremely possessive, grabbing toys away and yelling "mine" like a little monster. Last week she shoved another little girl into the side of the plastic house for no apparent reason. This week she took all the plastic baby dolls and put them in the toy refrigerator, like it was a morgue or something. Then when another little girl found them and tried to play with them, she waddled over towards the other girl, screaming something to the effect of "they're all mine; don't touch them" only it wasn't that articulate. So at that point I stepped in and started to explain the concept of sharing. But instead JtYC decided she wanted me to pick her up. I didn't mind. In fact, I'm always flattered when these kids want me to pick them up.

Almost as soon as I picked up JtYC, Bo Peep (BP) started to cry. She had just realized that while she was momentarily distracted, her dad had slipped out. Usually BP's mom stays with her the entire time and BP rarely leaves her mother's side. So I was sort of shocked to see that her father had left. The other helpers, tried to soothe her, but no one was picking her up. In my experience (all 2 months of it), some kids will eventually calm down if you pick them up. But before I could pick her up, I would need to put JtYC down, logically. But JtYC was wise to my scheme. As soon as I tried to put her down, she locked onto my waste with her knees. I tried twice before I gave it up and scooped BP up with my other arm. Amazingly, BP did settle down eventually.

And then to top it all off, Tour Guide Barbie (TGB, and yes, I'm running out of Toy Story pseudonyms), decided she needed to go to the bathroom. In addition to its own outside play area, our nursery also has a toddler sized bathroom, but sometimes the miniature toilet is still too big for these kids. The last time TGB tried to use the bathroom she practically fell into the toilet. So I decided to hold onto her while she sat on the toilet. When she stood up, I had two thoughts: That is way more poop than I can ever imagine coming out of a kid her size and what on earth did she eat to make it bright blue? And I think I'll end now on that lovely thought.