Monday, November 14, 2011

Angel Disguised as Devil


Day 43
Once a month the kids participate in a service project at church.  Designed for kids aged kindergarten through sixth grade, the projects range from making blankets for kids at Children’s Hospital to filling plastic eggs with candy for the annual community egg hunt. 

Usually I drop the boys (my husband and I refer to this maneuver as “drop and dash”) and do errands kid-free for two hours.  Today I stayed to help. 

Kids moved between three stations.  At one the kids assembled trail mix bags for fire fighters.  At another the kids decorated paper placemats for the local nursing home to be used for their Thanksgiving dinner.  The last one made angels.  That’s where I was.

My own angel A. left his wings at home as he immediately started acting up. 

“I’m going to eat one of these lollipops!”  To put this comment into context, we were making angels using a lollipop, a napkin, a piece of tinfoil and a pipe cleaner.  (I don’t think Martha Stewart will be replicating these for her holiday tree.)    

A little girl (I’ll call her the enforcer) immediately reprimanded him.  “Those lollipops are NOT for us.  They are for making angels.  Do not eat them.” 

“I think I’ll eat two!” he happily replied.  If given an opportunity, he’ll push your buttons until they bust.

“That is very, very bad.” She turned to her friend.  “The lollipops are NOT to eat!” 

I gave A. the stink eye and assured the girl that he would certainly not be eating the lollipops.

I attempted to redirect.  “Don’t forget to draw a face on your angel!” I turned my example to show them my smiling napkin covered lollipop.

“Mom?  How do I make it frown?” 

With this, the enforcer lost all patience with A.’s antics.  “Frowns?  Frowns make people sad.  This is supposed to make people happy.  They have to have a smile.”  The little girl continued to get more and more worked up over the crime of adding a frown to the angel’s face. 

I look at A. to give him another warning.  He wore the biggest smile of the bunch and looked pretty darn happy.     

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