Chase me.

I know without asking that it's too late to change career tracks and be something more... athletic and in an environment that has more grown ups.

I was interested in becoming an astronaut when I was a child. I thought maybe I could go to the moon someday. 

That didn't happen, or at least as far as I know it didn't. 

About 18 years ago, one of the parents in our all-homeschooled Girl Scout troop invited a former NASA doctor to speak at one of our meetings. One of the things she talked about was the astronaut diapers. She even brought some (unused!!) to show us. 

If it hadn't already been too late for my earlier aspirations, that would have sealed the deal for me.

I need to start doing small posts with a single event or I'll never get stuff written down. 

Remember Ben?

From an earlier post: 
Then there's Ben. 
Ben stood at the door of our storage closet watching the piano tuner work on tuning the piano. 

He observed for a couple minutes, then popped off with, "Hey Mr. Bald Man. What's your name?" 

I wasn't close enough to hear the answer. 
Ben said, "Hey! That's my middle name! We have something in common, Mr. Bald Man!"

Geez. 
'Hey Mr. Bald Man.'  

Ben has a little brother. He's in Kindergarten this year. I met him when he was three because Ben's been with me at this program since I started working there. 
Oliver was the kid a few weeks ago who melted down over missing out on the five o' clock box.

Oliver is one of the smalls who really loves Andre. We're working hard to keep the kids from chasing, as it not only sets Andre off and gets him escalated scary-fast, it's now against the school rules. Apparently three incidents in one week, one of which ended by the ambulance taking a child to the hospital, were enough for them to just prohibit the activity.

They can still run, and they do. But they're not supposed to be chasing each other. It makes my job easier to tell kids that it's against the school rules, as we follow them while in program, too.

Sometimes when I stop kids from chasing indoors, I remind them, "You must walk in this room!"

"But I had to run! He was chasing me!"

So I say, "Okay. Chase me."
And I stand there with my arms folded.

They sort of shuffle around and look sheepish. 

"Why aren't you chasing me?" I ask.

They say, "I can't chase you because you're not running away."

"Correct. And if you don't run away, James isn't going to chase you, either."

Andre and his brother were picked up very early on Friday afternoon. Most of the kids were, it was Halloween and parents do the best they can to get off work early so they can take their kids out trick or treating.

But even with Andre gone early, Oliver still wanted to chase on the playground. He has a hard time remembering rules AND he's five. 

He's acting like a child. The science says his prefrontal cortex isn't fully developed, but I don't need science to tell me that he's going to have some issues following instructions because he's a kid.

I shut down a few tag games that he started, and kids began NOT running from him. Necessity is the mother of invention, or so I've heard. He came up with something new.
 

He picked his nose, got a big green glob on his finger and started trying to touch people with it.

They ran away from him. 
I have to admit, I would, too.

So I called him over.
"Oliver. It's not okay for you to be chasing people. And picking your nose and trying to touch them with a booger on your finger is really gross and I don't want you to do it anymore."

He looked at me with his wide-eyed innocent little five year old face and said, "I didn't do that!"

"Buddy. You know I can see you, right?"

"But I didn't do it."

"You did do it. And you're not going to do it again, or you'll be playing by yourself until we go back into the building."

He blinked at me carefully, looking at my face to gauge my sincerity and decided he would not chase anymore, saying, "Okay, I will be good."

I sent him off to play again.

I did have a quick chat with his dad at pick up time.

Dad rolled his eyes and said he'd talk with his little guy.
Then he said, "Chasing someone with a booger on our fingers is not something we usually do at home." 

Which cracked me up. 
We laughed together and they were out the door.

I wonder if NASA is hiring old lady astronauts.