Kids We Love: Mattis

When I think of the term childhood, the first word that comes to mind is Freedom.

Freedom to imagine, freedom to explore, freedom to create, freedom to play, freedom to make your own rules, freedom to live in the moment. Pure, limitless, timeless, freedom.

And when I think of the term freedom, well, I think of Mattis.

Most days I arrive at Buddings around 3:00 pm after commuting from my morning preschool job. Some days I’m fully energized by the time I get there, other days, well, not as much. But it never takes long to warm up when you see all those smiling little faces looking up at you. Especially, when one of those little faces hears the sound of your voice as you enter through the squeak of the Buddings gate, comes rushing over to you as fast as he can, and literally, crashes into you with so much joy and excitement and laughter and anticipation, all the while yelling, “Shark! Shark! Shark going to eat you!”

The huge, sparkling gleam in his eyes seems even bigger now that his newly learned words have allowed him to communicate his imaginary experience, not only to the outside world, but more specifically, to me.

God, I love Mattis. Mattis’ imagination is huge!

I LOVE that he loves to play. And I totally understand why he’s not to keen when we ask him to stop playing so he can go wash his hands for snack.

I mean, seriously, imagine yourself sleeping and having the best dream you’ve ever had, like the kind that you just don’t want to end. When suddenly, someone jerks you back into reality and says, “Get up man, you gotta go to work.”

Sorry Mattis. Total bummer. But he does it.

He begrudgingly washes those hands and sits down at that snack table.

And good thing, he’s usually quite hungry after using up all that energy on play!

Mattis, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your hilarious, wild, adventurous, creative, huge, imaginary world. You’re like a little time machine that brings me back to my own childhood for a couple of hours, a few days each week. Your spirit and your openess remind me to stop and appreciate all the beautiful, positive things in this world. I honestly feel so fortunate and so lucky to know you.

You’re the best! Christa