Younger and Younger

2pm

We're back outside! And instead of freaking out like I did last time, I'm going to play with the kids. I'm not too much bigger than them now, and they all seem to love to play with me because I'm the big kid to them.

"Kinwey twy and catch me!" one of the girls screamed out as she giggled and ran away from me. I gave her a bit of a head start and I started to chase after her. I didn't run too fast because she seemed to be having so much fun running away from me. As I got closer to her she took a tumble, fell on her stomach, and began to cry. I crouched down and tried to cheer her up.

"Aww it's ok, you took a little tumble didn't you?"

She took a large sniffle, wiped her nose, and then looked at me giggling again.

"Yeah I took a tumbuh!" the smile beamed back on her face. The smile quickly shifted to a look of focused concentration and then back again to giggling. I think she just went to the bathroom, but I'm too little now to help change her, I can't be more than an early grade schooler now.

She poked me and giggled again "Kinwey you it!" and started running in place excitedly, waiting for me to run away. I smiled, got back up to my feet, and started running away from her, easily outpacing her. I completely forgot what it was like to be this young, and so full of energy. I felt like I could run for ages!

I saw Gemma out of the corner of my eye smiling at me and giving me a big approving thumbs up. Even though it was something I would normally do, it felt good to make the girl feel better and keep playing with her. I looked around and a whole group of kids was after me! Looks like it's fun to chase the big kid! I kept running away from them, they're still too small to catch me, but they seemed be having the time of their lives.

After a while they got tired of chasing me and wanted to play in the sandbox, grabbing some shovels and moving the sand around. I walked over to the sandbox and picked up a bucket, filling it with sand and expertly placing it upside down. I removed the bucket and a miniature sand tower was left in its place! The kids were wowed as if I were a magician, and began clapping. I giggled, the sound of a little girl coming out of me I'm still not used to, and watched as they tried to recreate it unsuccessfully.

As they continued to play I could definitely notice that there were a few of them in need of a diaper change, and I think the staff seemed to notice as well, because they began to lead us back inside. And that was it for our outdoor time today.