Funny Things Friday

Is it Friday already? Wow. That snuck up on me. Here is this week's quote from Mr. N.

When I pick N up from school I'm always excited to hear what he did with his class that morning.
I often find myself asking him 'What did you do today? Did you play play-doh, did you color or paint? Did you play in the activity room?" I try to be sure that I leave a little space between my questions so he can answer, but sometimes I realize I am throwing lots of questions at him at once. His response is usually something like "I don't know" or "nothin" or "ya."

The other day I decided not to ask him so many questions to see what his reaction was. I stood outside the door of his classroom. I always stand there quietly and watch him play if I can. I'd love to be a bug on the wall to see how he behaves at school. I waited and waited until he saw me. We he realized I was standing there he jumped up, ran to me and said "Mommmmmmyy!!!" Then gave me the best hugs. I loved it. On this particular day I said " I missed you. You must have had a good day," and didn't ask any questions. We walked down the hall quietly...got into the car quietly and drove quietly. Half the way home he started talking and this is what he said:

N: "I missed you today."
Me: " I missed you too, honey!"
Pause
N:"I had a good day at school, Mom."
Me: "Good, honey! I'm glad you like your school."

We entered the house and got seated for lunch. I kept quiet and didn't turn on the TV. After eating a few bites our conversation continued.

N: "A boy put a cracker in his nose at school today."
Me: "Oh gosh, he did? Did it get stuck?"
N laughed: "No,silly.... but it was yucky so he didn't eat it.." Then without pause, " We painted at school today. I used yellow and blue and red.. I painted on a plate and it was fun.. It's still drying. We get to bring it home later...." He went on and on about school while we ate lunch. It was so sweet.... So I learned that sometimes adults just need to give children a little time to process their thoughts and put them into words before we start asking questions.