They grow up so fast

Today was the first day that my entire class played together at recess. (Well, my entire class minus two sick kids. At my school right now, currently circulating in the air is strep throat, a cold/cough/fever thing, and a GI/vomit thing. I'm taking vitamin C like it's my job.) They usually separate into their recess cliques of tetherball, football, capture the flag, or some imaginary play. But today, as if finally running on one ten year old mind versus eighteen, they all gathered at the four square court.

All sixteen boys and girls, four in their respective squares, the rest forming a hodge podge line beside them. As a whole they get along, but today it was one seamless, laughing, cheering group. Beautiful. No one complained when they were gotten out, no arguments over whether the ball hit the line, just smiles and one child after another moving in and out of the four squares.

I noticed one girl off to the side with a little notebook of some kind and a pen. I didn't think about it until I heard one of my boys yell, "Hey, put me on the list too!" What is the list for? Was it for the line, to keep everyone in order? She wasn't enforcing the order, so I suppose not. Throughout recess, she made notations while laughing with the rest of her classmates. From my vantage point, she wasn't keeping too close of a watch on the game. I thought about asking when they lined up but something stopped me. Shouldn't my kids have their own secret games? Who says I have to know everything about their playing? I remember those days- silly writing and record keeping that only made sense to my ten year old dreamer's mind.

The boy-chasing started today. Just one little girl running after another little boy in her harmless nine year old variation of flirting. It seemed he had grabbed something she and her friend had been playing with, or at least that seemed to be her excuse for the chase. I laughed aloud as she chased him through the 100 Acre Woods, and laughed again as their directions changed and he began to chase her. Innocent enough and lovely in its own way. If they only knew...Though isn't that the way it is sometimes? Sometimes his "chick radar" is broken and she needs to do a bit of chasing before he turns to chase her. And then the rest could turn out to be the best love story she has ever known...