"Mr. Dougherty, will you hold my hand?"

I know that for years to come I will be kicking myself for not getting pictures of this, but on Wednesday Curt left the Fighter Pilot world for one day to spend about 6 hours at the Zoo as a chaperone for two 5 year old boys. The only thing I could say to him as he walked into my room of 20 screaming and very excited boys and girls (all under the age of 6, of course) was, "Welcome To My World".

I had to just sit back and watch as he attempted to work with these two boys and do my best not to intervene, although at some times it was hard! By noon, he had dealt with a scraped knee, tears of fear, and a bleeding finger. He also heard a lot of, "I'm hungry!", "I'm too hot!", and "Can you carry this?". My only assistance came when we were walking and one boy went left and the other darted right and Curt gave me a look that said, "OMG! What do I do, Where do I go?!?".

Curt was a real trooper and I was quite impressed with his approach to dealing with the ups and downs of our day. I had to laugh when he opened his backpack and I saw that he had actually brought along a book and highlighter to try and get some studying done. Foolish boy...there's no "ME TIME" in Kindergarten! Remember, you need the eyes in the front as well as the back of your head in order to make it through the day.

Overall it was a great day! It was so fun having Curt come to work with me for the day, even though it was just a field trip. I think he now knows why I am in bed some nights around 7:30...at least I think he does based on the fact that he took a quick snooze on the bus on the way back to the school!

I will close with some valuable lessons that Curt learned from our trip to the Zoo:
1. Band-Aids make you feel better, even when there isn't a drop of blood in sight.
2. Attempting to eat candy in front of a 5 year old without offering to share is never a good idea, never.
3. No matter how many energy drinks you consume, you will still be tired at the end of the day.
4. Don't even TRY to eat your own lunch until you have opened all of the drinks, peeled the oranges, and taken the crust off the sandwiches.
5. Finally, never point out the toy in the souviner shop that makes a monkey sound over and over again. NEVER!