Field trip

Yesterday I chaperoned Isabella's field trip to the Museum of Flight. It was one of those days that I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera. Picture me with Melanie in her baby carrier on my chest, Isabella by one hand, Kahina (her pre-school classmate) in another hand, and Darien (a boy from the class) alternating between holding Isabella's hand, holding Kahina's hand, and running off.

Chaos!

Or rather, some sort of magical controlled chaos. Each of us parents had 2-4 kids on hand. Inevitably, one would run off. As the parent turned to chase that kid, another would run off. Fortunately, another parent would notice and would help that parent during that difficult moment. It reminded me of... what was that game... pong? A ball bouncing around and you try to move your little line at the bottom of the screen to bounce the ball back in, like tennis? Except in this case there were many many balls, and many of us lines (parents), and somehow all the balls seemed to stay on screen. Magical slightly controlled chaos.

In fact, there was some sort of magic to the whole day. On the drive over there I heard Isabella and Kahina in the back seat chatting. "What do you have for lunch? I have peanut butter and jelly." or "I like your socks, see my socks?" or "Do you want to come over to my house for a sleepover sometime?" They chatted back and forth and I delighted in the simplicity and sweetness of two little friends, not a trouble in the world. They ran around together, argued over who got to use the controls when sitting in various airplanes, and shared snacks at lunch.

Then, after 2 hours, we all went back to the car, I strapped 4 kids into car seats, and we drove home. For them - just another day of playing. For me - a day of delight and exhaustion. I know now that this is just the beginning of me volunteering to chaperon class trips, as I can't help but savor these sweet moments - aware that they are fleeting, aware that my 2 little ones will be grown up before I know it.