Day 4

This weeks's PSP experience was a little different than the usual Monday afternoon infant child care. The first problem that I encountered was that I ended up being a half hour late for my two hour session because the city bus was running really behind schedule. I guess next time I will have to leave earlier. When I finally arrived, the instructors already had a volunteer on the infant side so I went over to help out in the toddler section. Their ages ranged around 2 and 3. One thing that is good to know about toddlers is that they are more cognitively developed than infants so one who is in charge of care taking them needs to be more engaging with them. They will lose interest faster and know how to use their emotions to get the different things they want or need. 
As I stepped through the enclosed gate to go inside of the toddler area, two of the little girls stopped what they were doing and walked over to me to stare up at me. I am not going to lie, it was a little awkward and uncomfortable to be out of the comfort zone I call the "infant side". After all the kids became adjusted to the idea of me watching over them, they warmed up to me and one of the little girls asked me to read her a story. I sat down in one of the rocking chairs and pulled her up on my lap. She listened attentively to the book about spiders and while we were doing that, the other instructors were setting up the main table for the upcoming shaving cream activity. More like the impending doom shaving cream activity if you ask me.
After we finished reading, I went over and helped the other instructors put on the little red smocks that was supposed to prevent the shaving cream from getting on their clothes. It didn't help. Once all of the kids were suited up, we seated them each in a chair around the table. The kids had a blob of shaving cream in front of them which was in the shape of the first letter of each of their names. They stared at the tempting pile of fluff for about two minutes deciding whether their instructors were actually encouraging them to make a mess or if it was a test. The head instructor made a blob for herself and smacked her hand into it and started to smoosh it around. The kids caught on to the idea and eventually the whole table was white with a clean-smelling shaving cream. Of course all good things must come to an end, so when one of the little girl's face and arms were covered in the white shaving cream, we realized it was time to start cleaning them up. All we could see left of her face was two circles around her eyes and she had even eaten some of it because we realized it was just sitting there in her mouth. The head instructor made her spit it out and the process for cleaning her up was a struggle. 
Then as if my prayers were answered, I got called over to help out on the infant side again because the other volunteer who had been there earlier had to leave. Even though I would not have minded helping out, I was totally okay with dipping out on the cleaning-up portion of the shaving cream activity. I was directed to play with one of the girls who I had never met before. Surprisingly, I realized that almost all of the kids in the room were new except for the one boy I had held the week before. I did not get the chance to ask why there was a new group of kids, but I figured that possibly these ones were just absent from the two weeks before. There has to be about a little over 10 kids involved in the infant child care program, then. However, there could be more. 
The second half of my volunteering time was just about as interesting as the first. As I was playing with the little girl, I started to smell a very foul odor. I looked at the girl and thought maybe I had not noticed it at first, but maybe she has a smell to her. I do not have "mommy instincts" necessarily hardwired into my programming yet, so I was not really sure of the source. After a while, the stench became too much to bear and so I took a glance down at her pants, which of course showed evidence of a "blow out". If you have never heard of a blow out, this is where the "nasty-nasty" (for use of a "better" word) kind of explodes from the diaper. I am so sorry if this is TMI, but I honestly was a little traumatized myself and felt the need to share because I am working with babies. I'm honestly surprised this is the first time it's happened. I immediately sent her off with one of the instructors and they told me to hold one of the other babies. The next one I held was already sleeping so I just continued to rock her until she woke up. After about a half hour, she opened her eyes very slowly and looked up at me. I smiled at her and she smiled right back. This is probably my most favorite part in working with infants. I proceeded to talk to her and make her smile with the random stuff I was saying because I was trying to engage her more through her expressions. This is what I feel we actually should be doing with them instead of just trying to get them to stop crying and then let them be until they start up the crocodile tears once again.
One point I feel that needs to be brought up from this past Monday after watching the babies, toddlers, and instructors interact is about comfort levels and boundaries. What is the comfort level that we can have with these kids? I understand that there is love for the children from the instructors after working with the same kids for so long, but I am just curious as to what do the parents want for their children, and how can we as instructors show love without it being too much.