Preschool Love
Daddy picked Olivia up from preschool today. When they got home (after a lunch date at McDonald's...bonus!), Jason told me that he overheard a "b-o-y" telling his dad that he "liked" Olivia. We had a little chuckle over that and later as she unpacked her backpack, she showed me a picture that a different "b-o-y" had drawn for her. The girl is on a roll, apparently. "Screeeeeeeeech" is the sound of Mom putting the brakes on time, thank you very much.
Do you have random, disconnected memories from early childhood like I do? Take, for instance, the incident at daycare in which I was sitting on a little scooter, wheeling backward and ended up under the seat of a teeter totter at the exact moment the child on one end was headed down. Seat square on my head, blood everywhere. What I remember most about the day is being absolutely convinced that this would wreck my chance of getting to wear the paper crown on my birthday.
Or the memory I have of a little boy chasing me into the tunnel on the daycare playground and trying to kiss me. Do I REALLY remember that, or did I just hear the story replayed enough times by amused family members that I *think* I remember it? It's hard to say. The boy, whose name for whatever reason was seared into my memory, moved soon after from my small town and I don't remember hearing another thing about him.
Fast forward 14 years. I was a college freshmen. It was Wednesday, the first day of classes and I had gone to a campus ministry gathering with a guy from my hometown. Part of the meeting included an introduction of the group's leadership team. Yeah, yeah, yeah...nice to meet you. Then this guy stepped up to the mic and said his name. An alarm sounded in my brain. That name - the one seared in my memory - was now being spoken into a microphone. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It's the boy who kissed me on the playground! I whispered to my friend, asking if this guy had ever lived in our hometown. He said he had. After the meeting I went up and introduced myself to him and said something brilliant like, "Uh, I think we went to daycare together." What a nerd.
Or maybe that nerdy move was ACTUALLY genius! Because the mysterious tunnel kisser? He told me today that he heard a five year old was sweet on our daughter.
