::snicker::

 Sam is just a little guy. He's barely six. Compact and sturdy, black brushcut hair and thick glasses with heavy dark frames.

He's always smiling.

He likes to sit at my table during snack time. Seems like a lot of the smalls want to sit there. Not sure why, but I enjoy their company.

Lots going on this afternoon, I was trying to locate a couple kids whose parents didn't notify us they'd be gone, checking the bathroom for my two older girls. Oh, and that's fun... they are always fifteen minutes late after school.

The reason is, they don't check in with me before going to the bathroom down at the end of our hallway. They know if they check in and ask to use the bathroom together, the answer will always be no. It's a licensing thing. I don't necessarily disagree with it, but it seems kind of silly to me that kids are allowed in the bathroom together all day at school, but as soon as that dismissal bell rings and they're with me, nope. So they don't check in. It's going to have to be addressed, kids are supposed to come straight to the cafeteria for safety reasons.

I was helping make sure everyone got their hands washed, too. We wash after snack as well as before.

Finding some requested art supplies and tying a couple shoes and mediating an argument between a sibling pair and wiping up a spill and walking to the door to let an early-arriving parent in.

So I was up and down a lot.

Sam observed all this activity for a few minutes, then he said with an impish little smile, "Why do you keep getting up and down and up and down?"
He knew, of course. Everything going on was quite obvious.

So I answered with, "How come you keep asking me questions?"

I got a wide grin.

"Because I don't know anything about you!" he said.
Then he giggled.

Still makes me smile this evening.
Little gems like that are my favorite thing about this job sometimes.