So yesterday, Muppet went back to her old child care center just for the day. For 7 years, I was a spoiled brat with respect to child care — I had my children in an absolutely wonderful child care center in my office building. Any working mom worth her salt can tell you what a blessing that is – more time with your kids, easy to nurse them when they are young, drop in and read a story, etc. When Mupps turned 2 last year, we (sadly) said goodbye to this lovely nirvana and put her in a school much closer to home for a variety of logistical reasons. Though her new school is just dandy, I’m still nostalgic about the old place. So when I realized on Tuesday July 3 that the new school was closed on Thursday July 6, I — after a brief freak-out session — called her old school to see if they could take Mupps as a “drop-in” for the day. Being a holiday week, no problem!

Muppet was understandably skeptical of this new-old-school. She doesn’t remember any of it, including the teachers who have loved both my kids for years. OK, skeptical is putting it mildly…she was a sobbing, whimpering, preschooler who was superglued to my legs. No amount of cajoling would make her unstick herself. So imagine my absolute delight and surprise when up runs Jools! Jools — or Hellboy, as his mom is wont to call him — is the son of my dear friends Jim and Sher. We don’t see them nearly enough so Jools was at first a bit unsure about the woman who swooped him up in a big hug.

“Are you Zara’s mom?” he asked.
“No, sweetie, I’m Katie’s mom! Remember you played at our house for your mom’s birthday?”
<nothing>
“We had a chocolate cake?”
<still nothing…clearly I was going to have to pull out the big guns>
“Jools, remember the purple paint in the basement?”

<Blindingly clear recognition spreads across Little Man’s face>

“YEAH, WE TRASHED THAT PLACE!!”

That they did…

And from that moment on, Mupps had a Friend in the new-old-school. Jools got a book and took Mupps by the hand, led her over to the reading corner and sweet as pie, they read a story. As Sher later said, I guess purple paint can bond you like nothing else can.

“Katie, do you want me to read with you?”
“No, mom, bye-bye — see you at lunch!”

Thanks, Jools, for making Katie’s day! Next time, the mohawk’s on me!