Smile

There's nothing more wonderful that happy children. After a relatively awful night (although the dancing was good fun), and a long walk - barefoot- halfway home before we found a taxi, i had to go to work. On less that four hours sleep. Ah well, that really didn't bother me. I've noticed that whenever i'm exhausted i do a better job at work - i overcompensate for the fact that i'm too exhausted to function properly by paying extra attention to detail. Today, my kids were all good. I got cuddles, hugs and love galore. My screamers only whimpered occasionally, my hysterical child only cried for a minute and actually laughed with me. I was so happy with them all, they're all so beautiful.

This afternoon i took 20 kids down to the beach. After we'd all mucked around for awhile, a bunch of us went fishing and crabbing on the jetty. What followed was a few hours of fun. I loved running around with the little boys, hauling crab nets around, basking in their praise (i was a girl who could tie meat to crab nets - i was deserving of their awe), giving piggybacks, bandaging fingers, being freezing cold because i'd given my jumper to another little boy - which had made him so happy - generally just having fun. Everytime we caught a little crab (sandpipers and blue crabs that we threw back due to size), i jumped around in as much excitement as the kids. I ran up and down, joked, laughed, kissed crabs, wiggled them in people's faces... i just had fun. The kids can't hurt you the way older people can - they just don't know how yet. It's just easy, it's just happy.

It's times like this that i wish i could have children. I'd like the unwavering love that radiates from them and fades with age. Obviously, i don't have many plans for kids in the immediate future, but i can't wait until i have that kind of happiness on call. Spending most of my day with kids really saved me. When they went away, i spent time curled into a ball in the hovel, watching Grey's Anatomy and The Holiday.

Kids really are God's gift.