Loving the Day Care Children

The children who attend the day care center at our building site make our work so much more meaningful.  Upon our arrival each day, we are greeted by a chorus of cheerful "hellos" and our departures are punctuated by a similar chorus of "goodbyes."

Throughout our day, our breaks consist of impromptu soccer play, awesome hugs and playtime, in whatever form that takes.  In fact, Berny and her assistant Tonya let us interrupt any of the children's lessons to play with the kids.  But it is usually the children who are interrupting our work.  In a good way, of course.

Berny is smart, interesting and does a great job with the kids 

Berny’s husband Edward looks a little like Bill Cosby

All day long, we are entertained by Berny and the kids chanting the ABCs, days of the week, months or singing all of our favorite childhood songs.  The most common other interruption is "L-O-G-A-N," meaning that our little buddy Logan is headed for yet another timeout.  Logan is in timeout at least three times a day for various infractions such as playing in the water, not sitting when the other children are doing recitations, and playing with our tools, sand or cement.

The kids are in their colorful classroom 

Logan, aka Mr. Mischief, needs a timeout baby!

This little girl is loving the attention from Sarah

Matteo crashes the noon nap time party

Tiara and Tamia are twins, and are always dressed alike. It is easy to tell them apart because Tiara happens to have a crush on John.  Tiara can often be found hanging on his extended arms, or being tossed in the air by John.  Tamia is much more reserved, and you have to seek her out.

Sarah is quite fond of Berny's kids, who don't attend the day care but are around much of the day.  Ethan can often be found helping Sarah, and Sarah got a geek fix by working with Tammy on the library computer.  Ethan and Tammy are two of Berny and Edward's six children.

Tiara (bottom right) is always in the middle of the action 

Sarah’s help desk work is up close and personal

Ethan is playing in the middle of the photo

There are a couple of kids that are in all volunteer's photos. Gandhi is a favorite, partly because of his diminutive stature and nature.  Dustin Bieber is another - well I am sure you can figure out why.  Such a cute little boy!

Gandhi (center) is wearing his Monkey Man T-shirt

Dustin Bieber (2^nd from right) is not a 19-year old Canadian

This youngster (usually smiling) looks a lot like Obama

John has recently been conducting impromptu exercise sessions involving jumping jacks, jumping up like a frog, touching toes, and signaling various American football infractions such as illegal procedure and holding.  Some of the kids are natural referees and umpires.  They are already way better than the NFL replacement refs.

John does bicep curls, using the kids as weights

Teaching the kids referee signals; they love first down!

For all you American football fans, keep your eyes peeled for next week's blog posts..Hint: It will involve the kids!  We have plans to teach them something important...well, you will see :-)