Walking Backwards

Today I got to be "helping parent" at Nico's preschool. I must say that it was probably the longest four hours of my life. Who knew that ten two-year olds could be that hard to handle. Okay, when I write it out, it does seem that I should have expected something like this. Man am I tired. First, I was up super late last night because I forgot to get a snack for the class. The helping parent has to bring a balanced snack for the class (a protein, a fruit or vegetable, and a carbohydrate). Also, the food cannot contain nuts, meat, hydrogenated oil, excess salt, or excess sugar. So, I went to three different stores to get stuff (hydrogenated oil is in EVERYTHING). I didn't even bother to prep it before I collapsed into bed (bad idea). Second, Nicholas slept terribly last night and I woke up feeling like I had spent the night rolling out playdoh with my face. I could barely open my eyes and only made my first, tentative movements to down several tylenol. Then, we had to go through the task of getting Nicholas dressed, fed, and into the car. I'm lucky that I managed to change out of my pj's. With Joe's helpful and irritating prodding we finally made it out the door ten minutes late. After arriving at school, I got to prep snack and set up the class room and then the kids started showing up. What followed was three hours of uninterrupted chaos. At the time I am writing this, I am having a hard time recollecting specifics because I seem to have blocked the horrors out of my memory. Finally, class was over and I had to clean the classroom while watching Nico and Megan, whom I had to take home later. Trying to move from room to room, let alone do dishes, while wrangling these two was an adventure in itself. In the end, I don't ever want to do it again. Good thing they have me scheduled to do it next Thursday. On another note, I now have almost a hundred dollars worth of circus tickets that the school is making me sell (or be responsible for myself). If anyone is interested, let me know. You don't have to go - just send me money to cover them :)