Fantastic Friday!!!

Mostly because it's a 3 day weekend!!! Thank you, Christopher Columbus!

One of my absolute favorite blogs is Cake Wrecks. (Notice the link over there on the side.) You really should check it out if you've never read it. It makes me laugh every single day! Today's post is especially funny. Enjoy!
My little buddy E.B. looks, to me, exactly like David here. Except for the crazy teeth, of course. E.B. is missing most of his front teeth, so he's even cuter!! He has the same round face, and cute little triangle-shaped nose, plus those cute ears. I'm telling you, just like David! So, from now on, I'm going to refer to him as "David." You may remember that David came to me from a therapeutic school. He has kept me thoroughly entertained for the past 5 weeks. He says and does some of the funniest things of any baby I've ever had in my class. Remember the day he let D.B. into the line in front of him? There are so many other cute stories, I could create a blog just to tell David stories. These are the things just from today that I actually remembered to write down:

• We received a new student today (I'll bitch, I mean write, about that in a minute). David is one of the most friendly kids in my class, and New Boy was having a difficult time, so I asked David to be his "buddy" for the day, and show him the way we do things. So David says, very enthusiastically, "I'll teach him EVERYTHING all day today!"
• At the end of lunch, I chose David and New Boy to be the table washers. (I know, sounds like a punishment, but trust me, my kids fight over the job everyday!) I watched from afar as David showed New Boy where to get the washrag, then how to wash the table (so cute!) and then after he shows him, he says, "Ok, you do it just like that, New Boy." After a few minutes, he actually turns to him and says, "Great job, New Boy!" I swear, my heart melted a bit!
• As we came out of the lunch room, we were making our way to the stairway to go up to gym, and there were a couple of guys coming in with some sort of construction material. I had to tell the babies to please move quickly and quietly because we were making them wait for us. The men waited to the side as we started up the stairs. Naturally, David and New Boy were at the end of the line since they just came out of the lunchroom after doing their job. As I was walking up the stairs, I hear David say, "Hell-O PEE-ple, how YOU doin'?" (I was trying to show you how he emphasized the words) I almost wet my pants! As did the men, I'll tell ya! He's so damn funny and cute! Thankfully, they answered him back, because I wouldn't have wanted him to think they were laughing at him.
• When we got up to the fourth-freakin'-floor to the gym, as ALWAYS, David turns to me and blows me kisses as I tell them all to "be good and have fun!" He is just so adorable and sweet.
• At one point this afternoon, D.B. tripped over a chair leg and fell down. David rushed over to him to help him up, and asks, "Are you alright, Little Buddy?" I could eat this kid up with a spoon!

For seven years now, I've been asking/begging/pleading with the office to please not send new students to our classrooms in the middle of the day. If the parents can't get in and get the child registered before school starts at 9:00, then they should have to bring the child back the next day to start school. But, of course, the Hell-Hole does everything ass-backwards, so they have no set times to accept new students, they just let people register at whatever time they walk in, and then they send the kids to their new classrooms. So, this morning, as I'm in the middle of our reading block, the office interrupts on the intercom and asks how many students I had on my roster. I made the mistake of telling the real number (meaning, I didn't include the two that go to preschool in the afternoon) and I just knew that meant I'd be getting a new student. Damn it!!! Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, there's a knock at my door, and standing there is a mom and her two sons. Greeaaattt!!!

So now, I have to stop my lesson, meet and greet the new mom and her son, have a freakin' twenty minute conversation with the mom, all while my other 21 babies are supposed to be keeping themselves occupied. Yeah, like that's gonna happen! Needless to say, it completely upset the peace in our classroom, and it took several minutes to get them back under control. By this time, we had missed a big chunk of instructional time. Then, to make things even better, New Boy suddenly started wailing, saying he wants to go home. Well, of course you do! You were thrown into this crazy room with kids who were already in the middle of a routine that they know, you have no idea how to follow along or what to do, your new teacher is sounding like a big meanie because she's trying to get the rest of the class back on track, gee, why would you want to go home?

Ready for the icing on the cake? Today we had people at school from CPS and from the state doing a walkthrough! Yeah, that's right. And, when do you think they walked in? Go 'head, guess! Yep, you got it! Right in the middle of this chaos! So, here I am, sitting with New Boy, who's crying, the other 21 are basically running amok, even though they really were given something to do. Unfortunately, we were going to try a new center today, which I was in the middle of explaining when New Boy and his mom showed up. Needless to say, they didn't really have a complete grasp on what the hell they were supposed to do, so it seemed like they were wandering aimlessly around the room. What they were supposed to be doing was "Writing the Room," which simply means they walk around with their clipboard and paper, writing whatever words they see around the room. Normally, this is one of the babies' favorite activities, but like I said, they really weren't 100% sure of what to do. Now, here come 5 strangers into the room, wandering around, watching them, looking into every nook and cranny of my room, and, I'm sure, wondering why the hell we were writing when we were supposed to be reading. Gee, guess I didn't make a very good impression, huh? Oh well, fire me!! PLEASE!! I could use the break!

I'm sure I'll be hearing next week from our LLT about what the Higher Ups had to say about what they saw. Ask me if I care. Oh, never mind, you already know the answer. Hell no!

Another cute thing I heard today...One of babies (the last new girl I received) was trying hard to tell me a "story" during our reading time. I tried to ignore her for a few minutes, but then I firmly reminded her that it wasn't time for telling stories, it was time for listening. Well, when we moved off the rug to start our next activity, I remembered that she wanted to tell me something that started with "My momma said..." (That's usually a BIG clue that I don't really want to hear the rest!) I asked her, "Now, what did you want to tell me?" Confused look. "Remember, you started to say, 'My momma said...'" "Oh, yeah! My momma said that you are the bestest teacher in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!" Of course, she threw her arm up to show me how big the world is. Awww....and for the 2,385th time...THIS is why I show up at the Hell-Hole every morning!! Of course I told her, "That's because I have the best students in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!" She's another cutie patootie. I think a great nickname for her would be Sunny, since she's always got a sunny disposition. Always smiling, always happy, love her!!

Since I didn't work at the bar Wednesday because I had a Mothers' Club meeting, I'm working tonight, so I guess I'd better start getting ready. I hope you all have a great weekend. I know I will, although I'm not entirely sure what we'll be doing on Monday. For the past 14 years, we've spent Columbus Day at the pumpkin farm, since we were off from school. But, now that my son and niece are at private high schools, they don't get Monday off. Crap! For some reason, they'll be off on Friday instead. Weird. My younger niece IS off on Monday, though, so I'm tempted to just take her to the farm. However, the two older kids actually want to go, so I'm a bit torn. I've thought about maybe trying to go on Sunday instead, but I know I'll be really tired after working Friday and Saturday at the bar. I guess we'll just play it by ear. It's kinda buggin' me that I'm not even going to be able sleep in on Monday, since I still have to drive my son to school. Ah, the joys of motherhood, right? I hope the rest of you get to enjoy a day off with your families on Monday. Later!

My parents spent the first few years of my life trying to teach me to walk and talk. Now, all they do is tell me to sit down and be quiet!
-- (One of my boys wore a T-shirt to school today with this printed on it. So
funny!)

It's so crazy to me that I started this post at 4:51, like the time stamp says, but I'm just finishing this now, at 6:12. In between, I've done dishes, made dinner, fed my son, thrown a load of clothes in the washer, and had a snack. Women really are the superior sex, aren't we? ;-)