thrills of imagination

I love children. Love them. I have worked with kids my entire life. They are super entertaining and always make me smile.

So, even though I am crazy busy, I have been volunteering with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program for almost a year now. Each Monday I visit my little at her elementary school, go to recess and eat lunch. Basically I get to hang out during the best parts of the day. Since today is Monday, you guessed it, I was there.

I was greeted by a giant hug, haven't seen her for 2 weeks, so this was to be expected. Following the hug, I was ran from. This might seem weird, probably looks weird, could be weird, BUT her favorite game is tag... which is definitely not my favorite, but I appease her and run around anyway. While playing tag a little boy ran up to me, tapped me on the side, and told me to follow him.

This type of behavior is what makes kids so awesome. He had no idea who I was. All he knew was that I was tall, clearly older, and wearing a name tag. And yet, he was beyond excited to show me something.

This something turned out to be a "dinosaur bone" aka random chunks of cement, half hidden by gravel. Who else would think this could be a dinosaur bone? No one, that's who. Adults always spoil these types of things, but not me, no sirree. I played right along and took in each and every gasp as more of the "bone" was uncovered. I love this. I love seeing a kids face light up all because of mistakenly dripped concrete. It seriously makes my day.

Once we went inside for lunch, some random little boy--who I may or may not have seen before--runs up to me and asks if he can sit next to me. I told him we'd have to follow the rules but if there was space by me, sure he could sit there. My little and I went and sat down and not 2 seconds later I hear this boy shout "YESSS! I made it just in time," as he plops down next to me. LOVE IT.

While eating lunch and chitchatting with my little about Halloween and her costume, another kid comes up to me, puts his hand on my shoulder (all serious-like mind you, putting his face right up next to mine, SO FREAKING CUTE) and starts talking to me about the food. Telling me what's good, what's bad, etc. I'm not even eating, this kid isn't even sitting at our table. But here he is, talking away. Kids are scared of nothing, they aren't self conscious, they rock.

After lunch, I walked my little back to her classroom, checked the place out, gave her a hug, promised to call, and went to leave. As I was walking out, I was confronted with one final thing....

"Are you her mom?"

EH!
No.
Do I look like I could be a six year old's mom?
I'm 20 for crying out loud. BOO!

Mostly kids' wild imaginations and big mouths are cute. Sometimes not.

--Brynn