Na, Na, Na, Na

On and off all summer I’ve had that song stuck in my head.

Na, na, na, na,

Na, na, na, na,

Hey, Hey, Hey,

Goodbye

That’s really the only part of the song that I know – it just repeats over and over.

There are two reasons that song keeps coming to mind.  First of all, of the seven children I currently have in care, five of them have names that end in ‘na’.  All summer it has been so confusing with conversations like this;

NA! Come here please. 

No, not you Na, I was talking to that Na.  

Where did you put Na’s hat?  

Yes, I know Na’s hat is on her head but I was looking for this Na’s hat – have you seen it?   

Na picked it up but she said she gave it to you. 

What? You think you saw Na put it in the bin? 

Which bin?  The bin over there where Na is or the one behind that Na?

It’s been driving me crazy!

Of course it has its plus side too.  It is usually fairly easy to get the attention of most of the group with just one syllable.

The second reason the song keeps running through my mind is the ‘Goodbye’.  Although it is the ‘Na’s’ that begin the verse, it ends with ‘Goodbye’.

I’ve been thinking about the goodbye all summer. You see, today is the last day here for two of my children.  Their family has been part of my home for nearly eight years – half of the total time I’ve been a family childcare provider.

I’ve been working on the book.  Going through all my photos and choosing some to print and include in an album for them to take with them.

Now that all the pictures are in place we’ve had a chance to go through the album together.  We’ll spend some more time looking at it today and we will write down some of our comments for the photos.

I can barely remember what it was like here before they arrived.  It’s going to be very different here without them.  They’ll come back to visit.  They might even come back next summer or occasionally on non-school days when daycare space allows.  Yeah, going to have to work on making sure I can accommodate that so it is not really a forever…goodbye.