Email of the Day

Ok, I know this is old, but my dad sent me the link in an email today, and I just had to share.  The last three snippets made me literally tear up.

I can't wait to watch Jimmy tonight to see this year's collection of videos.  (I think this was last year's?)

*I think this NaBloPoMo thing must be working already.  TWO posts in one day?!?! ;-)

Today's Highlights

I was working with some 1st graders today who I'd never met before. While I was working in a small group with some babies during reading, one of the girls randomly came over to me and whispered in my ear. "You're so pretty."

Then later, while we were taking our afternoon bathroom break, a different little girl got out of line, walked over to me and pulled me down to her, then whispered, "Mrs. ChiTown, you're so beautiful. You're beautiful like a princess." I seriously almost cried.

I think we need to keep working on those letter sounds...

"MRS. L.!!! J JUST SAID THE A-WORD!!!!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Yeah, he just said, 'N@$%#$%!' "

"Um, well, that word starts with an N, not an A. And, you're right, that's NOT a word we use in here."

"Um...I meant...."

Suddenly, Table 2 erupts into a cacophony of "ooohhh"s and "oooooo"s and "I'm tellin'!!"

Me: WHAT is going on!?

Table 2 (in unison!): M is cursing!!

Me: M, I hope that's not true.

M: (wildly shaking head)Uh, no, no! I, um, I just, um, I meant to say 'bitch.' (He then proceeds to shake his head, kinda like when you clear an Etch-A-Sketch) Um...yeah...(then he just kinda looks at me, defeated)

This all happened as we were preparing for dismissal. So after helping 32 babies put on and zipper their coats, tie their scarves, put on their gloves/mittens and hats, put on their boots....wait, where the hell was I going with this? Oh, yeah, after helping them all get ready, we started lining up, and I pulled M to the side for a second. "Were you trying to say 'pinch'?" "YES!" The look on his face was priceless!

OK, so New Principal never had anyone come to cover my class so we could talk about The Great Divide (as I keep referring to it as) so nothing was done today. I have a sinking feeling that the lists are just going to be made without my input. The plan, from what I understood, was to make the lists today, so that letters can go home tomorrow, and the 'new' classes can start Monday. (There is no school for students on Friday, because it's a professional development day.) Now, I have no idea how she plans to inform the parents of the switch.

I mentioned the possibility of children being taken out of my room in my newsletter last week, and again this week, so the parents wouldn't be caught by surprise when the switch happens. I had two parents come to me on Tuesday, demanding that their children NOT be moved out of my room. The one mom was pretty funny. She told me she planned to "march right into that office and tell them that I will pull A out of this school if he is moved out of your room!" I gotta tell ya, this is the same mother who pissed me off royaly when school started because she kept her son home on his birthday because she couldn't have a party in class. She did a few other things to bug my ass in the beginning of the year, however, over the past few months, we've come to an understanding. She actually wrote me a lovely thank you card at Christmas time to go with the pretty earrings that her son gave me. (She told me he bought them with his own money. Too cute!!) Anyway, I wish I had been a fly on the wall when she went in there!

I hope I have something to share with you tomorrow about The Great Divide. Friday, like I said, we have a professional development day. Unfortunately, I have to attend a workshop, along with about 20 coworkers, at the Double Tree Hotel in a suburb that's about 45 minutes from my house. I actually would rather be at school since I have lots of work to do. Report cards are due by tomorrow, and I'm not quite finished. I've been a DIBELing fool since we came back from break, and after doing my own kids, I had to do the kindergartners that are in the K/1 split class. I really don't want to start a full-on rant about this, but let me just say, that teacher had the balls to send me TEN kids to DIBEL today, during our rest time, which is when I DIBEL my own kids. I had planned to work on report cards today, since my kids have all been tested, but obviously, that didn't happen. Once again, I don't have a prep tomorrow, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get them all done. In the ever-abundant wisdom on CPS, you can not access the system we use for report cards from home. They all have to be done at school. Have you ever heard of anything so stupid? I feel a rant coming, so I'm going to move on.

I need to get going anyway, since the groomer just called, and Buster is ready to be picked up from his Spa Day. I need to go straight from the groomer to my girlfriend's salon, for my own beautification project. I have a feeling Buster is on the winning end of this one! ;-)

Email of the Day

Grandparents:

1. She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she'd done many times before. After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said, "But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!" I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye...

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday. He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62. My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair. As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin. Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings. As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"

4.. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?" I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?'' "You're both old," he replied.

6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story. "What's it about?" he asked. "I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

7. I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued. At last, she headed for the door, saying, "Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these yourself!"

8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in. Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use, Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."

9.. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure." "Look in your underwear, Grandpa," he advised, "mine says I'm 4 to 6."

10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today." The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting," she said, "how do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."

11. Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher. The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked. "Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child."

12.. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog. The children started discussing the dog's duties. "They use him to keep crowds back," said one child. "No," said another. "He's just for good luck." A third child brought the argument to a close."They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants."

13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived. "Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."

14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!

15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over; you hear gas leaks, and they blame their dog.

Too cute! Thanks, Dad!

Things that made me smile today...

I promise to come back soon with a proper post, but let me give you these little tidbits in the meantime.

I missed most of last week because Stud Muffin was sick. When I returned today, the babies were VERY happy to see me. I got my lovin' at the door, as each one was properly squeezed before going into the room. Little Miss A.L. saw me from the end of the hall and RAN, full-speed ahead, to jump on me, put me in a death grip and say, "I very, VERY, very, VERY, very, VERY mis-ted you!!!!!" What an awesome way to start a Monday, huh?

S.H. happened to be sitting next to me at lunchtime, and was happily munching on his apple. Suddenly he says to me, "Mrs. L., my apple tricked me!" I said, "Huh?" and he explained, "It made me bite my tongue!" Too cute!

Finally, let me show you what I came home to this afternoon.

My lilacs have bloomed!! Yay!I can't even tell you how awesome my backyard smells. I'll tell you next time about why I couldn't haul out and set up my hammock like I wanted to, so I could lie under my lilac bush, and drink in the heavenly fragrance! I want to enjoy every minute of it, because sadly, they don't last all that long. :(

This is currently my favorite air freshener!

Wait, what was the point of this blog again?

Oh, yeah, school! OK, I've been downloading freakin' pictures for over an hour and a half. I HATE putting pictures on here because it takes so damn long!! As a matter of fact, I've only put about a third of the photos I planned to post, cuz I can't take it anymore. I'll come back tomorrow and post the rest. I figured out a while ago that Blogger posts photos in reverse order, so I've learned to post them in the opposite order from how I want them posted. I was working backwards from the pictures I took today, and had planned to go back to the beginning of February. Maybe tomorrow... Be sure to click on each picture to enlarge it, so you can really get all the details (AKA cuteness!!)

On the 100th Day of School, we put together a Word Worm with 100 words that we can read.

In March, I always have my babies make these lions and lambs for my March board. There were still a few drying, which is why the board looks a little bare.

As we do every year, we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. The hats came out really cute this year!

The babies are in the library in these photos. I was hoping to give you some idea of how sad our library is at the Hell-Hole. It's so small for a school library!

It isn't much bigger than a regular classroom.

Our librarian has been working really hard to get us some new books, but there's still a long way to go!

The books that are there look pretty good, though, right? Yeah, that would be cuz the kids aren't allowed to check them out!!!

Ah, but we DO have a big screen TV!! Of course! That's cuz the entire library curriculum is watching cartoons! I requested that they at least watch a Dr. Seuss movie on this day.

We made some Valentine people back in February. (I realize this is out of chronological order, but it's just too much of a pain to move it!!)

My girls are obsessed with these links! We take them out during math centers, and inevitably, they always use them to make jewelry. Oh, and crowns!!

Look at how they put them on their ears!! Ouch! They insist it doesn't hurt, but I don't know...

This is from a while ago (I think the date stamp says 2/19/09?) but I took the picture because it was so damn cute. It's a page from one of the babies' journals. When I was asking about the picture, I said, "Oh, is that the snow coming down?" referring to those squiggles. He said, "No, that's God, and he's sending down snow angels!" How freakin' cute is that!??

This was from the same day. This is Twin Boy's journal entry from that day. I could not stop laughing at this because it's a self portrait, and he drew himself so perfectly! He has a green coat, with a hood, and unfortunately, he usually has a sad face. :( But, if you ask, he'll say he isn't sad.

This is an actual note that I received from a parent. Um, WTF? Did somebody snack on the bottom of this paper, or did you pull it out of the garbage? And, apparently, she still doesn't know my name, despite the fact that her child has been in my room since September 5!!!

I couldn't resist taking this picture. This little darling always falls asleep during rest time. This day she somehow fell asleep with her legs up in the air!! How cute is she?! OK, this was exciting!! At some point, either at the beginning of this year, or the end of last year, we were told we could order some "stuff" for our classrooms. I vaguely remember ordering these electronic learning toys. Well, imagine my surprise when a BIG box of things was delivered to my room last week. The babies went ape shit nuts!! They were enthralled for nearly an hour and a half! And, they shared like little angels, working in pairs, with NO fighting, NO yelling, etc. I couldn't help but take their pictures.

OK, this was today. Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I always buy this mylar garland to make these "Leprechaun Prince and Princess Crowns." The babies always love them, and this year was no different. They left those things on ALL DAY!

Damn!! According to the time stamp, I started this freakin' post at 7:48, and it's now 10:21! Perhaps this is why I've been so sucky at updating lately.... Night night!

Maybe a little Vagisil would help?

Yesterday was J.K.'s birthday. Her momma asked me in the morning, when she brought her to school, when a good time would be to bring up a treat. I told her that she could either bring it at 10:40, which is our lunch time, or 1:15-1:30, which is snack time, and as far as I was concerned, the better time. She then turns to J.K. and asks her what time she would prefer. I found this a bit irritating because I just got done telling her two second before that I would prefer snack time. It's hard enough for the babies to eat their actual lunch in the short amount of time they have (20 minutes). If you bring them cupcakes, or whatever, they'll NEVER eat their food, and then I'll have a bunch of wild, sugared up crazies on my hands! Not to mention that they will go all day without eating any food.

Anyway, come lunch time, we go down to the lunch room, J.K. gets her tray, and as she reached the end of the line and I handed her a spork, she says to me (with an eyeroll and a turkey neck!) "My momma pants are on fire!" My first thought was, "Holy crap! She must have heard her mom say something close to that at home." Mom has 5 children, ages 7-1 1/2. So, of course I say, "Um, excuse me?" Again she says, "My momma's pants are on fire!" I say, "WHAT in the WORLD are you talking about, Little One?!" She says, (turkey-neckin' the whole time!) "She told a story. Now her pants are on fire." (eye roll) For those of you that don't speak Englewood, telling a story means lying. That's when it hit me. Her mom lied! Liar, liar, PANTS ON FIRE! Of course, I had to bust out laughing, and then I assured her that her mom was probably waiting for snack time. Thankfully, she did.

Now J.K. also cracked me up one day a couple of months ago, and I forgot about it until today. She had been absent one day, and when she returned the next day, she handed me a note from her mom. It was your typical Please excuse J.K. for being absent yesterday. She wasn't feeling well, blah, blah, blah. Well, that day was J.K.'s turn to be our reporter for Daily News. I usually try to give the babies a little help coming up with something to report, so I said to her, "What did you do yesterday while you were home sick? Did you stay in bed all day and rest?" She rolled her eyes and kind of shook her head in disgust, and said, "My momma told a story. We had to go to the laundromat yesterday. ALL DAY!" She seemed genuinely pissed off that she had to miss school, especially to go to the laundromat!! Too funny!

Email of the day...

Here's my favorite email from today. I've been sent this a hundred times, so I assume some of you have seen it before, as well. But, it's still cute. Quite frankly, I don't even know if the backstory is true, but I like to think it is. Enjoy!

Fw: Today's Humor

1st grade school teacher had twenty-six students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the 1st half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are first-graders, 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!

1. Don't change horses until they stop running.
2. Strike while the bug is close.
3. It's always darkest before Daylight Saving Time.
4. Never underestimate the power of termites.
5. You can lead a horse to water but How?
6. Don't bite the hand that looks dirty.
7. No news is impossible.
8. A miss is as good as a Mr.
9. You can't teach an old dog new Math.
10. If you lie down with dogs, you'll stink in the morning.
11. Love all, trust Me.
12. The pen is mightier than the pigs.
13. An idle mind is the best way to relax.
14. Where there's smoke there's pollution.
15. Happy the bride who gets all the presents.
16. A penny saved is not much.
17. Two's company, three's the Musketeers.
18. Don't put off till tomorrow what you put on to go to bed.
19. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and You have to blow your nose.
20. There are none so blind as Stevie Wonder.
21. Children should be seen and not spanked or grounded.
22. If at first you don't succeed get new batteries.
23. You get out of something only what you See in the picture on the box
24. When the blind lead the blind get out of the way.
25. A bird in the hand is going to poop on you.
And the WINNER and last one!

26. Better late than Pregnant.

Did you miss me?

OK, I know I've been gone for a while (which is why I did the "fake post" and threw up a video yesterday!!) but I've been busy. Yeah, I know, I'm always busy, but this week had a little extra sumpin' sumpin'.

(Ok, I can see this post is going to take a while, a customer just walked in, so I'll be right back.)

We've had family in from Italy for the past two weeks, which has added to my already long list of responsibilities these past couple of weeks. I feel really bad that I wasn't able to spend more time with them, but there just wasn't time. My father was able to take some days off work to show them around and do some things, but I couldn't do the same. They will be coming up here to the bar tonight, though, so at least I'll get to see them before they leave on Monday.

I actually wrote some things down the other day at school to share with you. Let's hope I can find the damn scrap of paper I wrote it on in my purse! I had to DIBEL the other kindergarten class (maybe I'll bitch about that in a minute...) so I had a couple of funnies from those babies, as well as my own precious sweethearts. Let me go look in the bottomless pit I call a purse....

The unit we are doing right now for literacy is about neighborhoods. So, the other day, we were talking about maps, and we were looking at a map of the United States. I was surprised that one of the babies actually knew we lived in Illinois. Usually, the babies just know we live in Chicago, but they have no idea what state we live in. We were talking about the states, which are the biggest, which are the smallest, etc. I asked the babies if any of them have ever been to another state, mostly because I knew I would get a few giggles out of their answers. (See how I'm always thinking of you guys?) I was telling them all the states I've been to, and showing them on the map. Then the babies started doing that frantic "my-hand-is-up-and-I'm-waving-it-around-like-crazy-and-I-can't-sit-still-just-call-on-me-already!" dance. I called on Miss T.P., who proceeded to tell me that she went to "White Castle Dells." At first I wasn't sure what the heck she was saying. Then I understood the White Castle part. It wasn't until the third time I asked her to say it that I realized what she was saying and that she was trying to say "Wisconsin Dells." I just burst out laughing, which thankfully didn't upset her, as she just laughed along with me.

As we continued this discussion, I asked the babies again to tell me places their parents have taken them. Mr. D.U. waved his hand around and blurted out"My momma took me to the Aid Office!" Good Lord! The babies are always good for a laugh!

***(1:00PM Sunday afternoon)
Speaking of laughs, one of the babies from the other kindergarten gave me this one while I was testing her. There is a component of the DIBELS test that tests the children's knowledge of letter sounds, and asks them to put these sounds together to form nonsense words. (The component is actually called "nonsense word fluency.") There are a couple of practice items, and I was going over one with a little girl. Actually, I was "cheating" a bit, because I was asking her what sound each letter made, as opposed to just letting her look at them and tell me, which is what they're supposed to do. Anyway, the practice item we were looking at was "lut." I asked, "What sound does l make?" She said, "eeellll." I then fight back a giggle and say, "What about u?" She says, "Me?" Bwah hahaha!!

One more little funny from Mr. D.U. This was the baby who, you may recall, told another student a while back, "Don't eehhhh at my lovely teacher!" Well, I was complaining (really to myself, but out loud) about a movie I had lent another teacher being returned without being rewound. Truthfully, the babies hear me complain about this quite a bit, as it's a HUGE pet peeve of mine! [I have quite an extensive collection of educational videos in my classroom, (Magic School Bus, Between the Lions, the Scholastic DVDs I mentioned recently, Sesame Street, etc.) which other teachers often borrow. All but the Between the Lions were videos I had for my son, then I later purchased the BTL, because it's absolutely one of my favorite shows on PBS. I started bringing the videos, and building this collection, because until pretty recently, we only had 3 prep periods per week at the Hell-Hole, so Fridays afternoons were often "Fun Friday." They would watch a 30 minute educational video while I worked on lesson plans/homework packets/recording grades/project preparations etc. Yeah, I suck, I'll admit it. But, there just wasn't enough time to get everything done during the week, and there was even less time outside of school, between working a 2nd job, raising a son, and going to grad school. So sue me!]

ANYWAY, I was bitching about a video not being rewound, again, and we started talking, again, about how when you borrow something, you should take good care of it, and return it in the same condition it was when you borrow it, blah, blah, blah. My kids know the sermon by now, and often have the discussion all by themselves. It's actually pretty funny. Well, getting back to D.U., he shared with us that "I always grrrr when people touch me stuff." Maybe you had to be there, and see the expression on his face when he "grrrrr"ed. Priceless! Good Lord! That was a looonnnggg way to go for a two-second story, huh? Sorry. But, hey, if you're still reading, that's your own damn fault! ;-)

Well, for a post that took me two days, this is boring as hell, isn't it? Too late to delete in now, since I put so much time into it. haha.

DIBELS sentences

OK, I see I didn't remember exactly what A.L. said yesterday. Her exact quote was, "A meant is when your teeth stank, you put a meant in your mouth and it smells good!"

Most of the babies used meant as mint. Another word they used "wrong" was which. Naturally, they used "witch." All except for M.A., my resident genius. Her sentence was, "I don't know which one to choose."

Three different babies said, "A witch is evil." One little darling, T.R., had me laughing because HE said, "I am a witch." We both promptly had a fit of giggles as soon as he said it. He also later said, "I am a woman." Again, giggle fits.

A.L. gave me this gem for woman - "A woman cooks with her husband, and then lays around the house."

Twin Boy AND Twin Girl both heard "mitten" when I said meant. Twin Girl's sentence was - "A meant is like a glub." Poor baby, I laughed right in her face! Glub!!! Love it!!

My little pervert in the making, J.L., gave me, "You can look at a woman." (Ok, I'm kidding about the pervert part, but he's definitely gonna be a man!!)

I'd love to know what's going on at A.M.'s house. She told me, "You can hang your dog on the fence." I'm pretty sure she meant tie the leash to the fence, but that wouldn't have been as funny!

Back to A.L.'s cute statements. "A coach can make kids do stuff." (Suz, is that true!?)

One of the other absolutely RIDICULOUS words in this test is felt. (Well, maybe they're only ridiculous words for my students. I'm not sure.) You might remember that last time I wrote about it, most of the kids used this as the past-past tense (?) for "fell," as in, "I felt down." It was the same this time. However, A.M. did tell me, "I felt real bad." Well, gee, maybe it's cuz you hung your dog on the fence!! tee hee! One other baby did give me, "I felt bad." But, he obviously hadn't maimed an animal, so he didn't feel REAL bad. :)

Finally, one of my favorite little boys, J.W. almost made me sad when he gave me this one - "Nobody will play with me." I had to remind myself that at least he used the word properly, and earned himself 5 points. But, I didn't like hearing it from him. He told me today that his little sister got all the siblings in trouble and "now we're all on punishment." Jeez, I just hope that means no T.V. I few of the others immediately started chiming in and telling me how they get "whooped" with extension cords. Yikes! OK, I'm stopping this tangent in it's tracks!

Overheard during centers today...

Boy 1: "When girls are around, I get nervous and fall out!"
Me: "WHAT?!"
Boy 1: (giggling now) "Yeah, when I see a girl, I fall out!"
Me: "You're so silly!"

I then overheard another snippet of conversation involving kissing! "...and she kissed me on my lips and I fell out!" Several of the boys mentioned girlfriends (!) which makes me a little uncomfortable. One of the boys did make me laugh, though, when he said, "Everytime a girl comes around me, she wants to be my girlfriend!" Hmmm...future playa in the making?

(For those not in the know, "fall out" means to faint/collapse/pass out, depending on the situation. It's very much an "Englewood-ism.)

I forgot...

...to mention this little tidbit yesterday. While I was working on the Thanksgiving project at the back table, some of the babies were at centers. One group happened to be working on the floor next to my table. I suddenly heard D.U., the same little darling you said, "Don't 'ehhhh' at my lovely teacher!" say, "John McCain tried to kill Barack Obama." He stated it very matter-of-factly. My head snapped up, and I said, "What?!?" He repeated himself, so I asked where he heard such a ridiculous thing. He said his cousin told him. I assured him that the story was utter nonsense, and told him he shouldn't repeat it again.

These are the moments that make me shake my head in sadness.

Some funnies...

Even though I think you all will find this humorous, my teacher friends will especially appreciate it! This is what happens when you use Everyday Mathematics!!

This week, I've been working on a Thanksgiving project with the babies (pictures are coming!). I had a group at the back table with me, working, and the rest of the babies were at their seats doing their name papers. Well, S.H. brought his paper over for me to check, and I asked him to fix something, and he went, "Ehhhhh!!" I guess kinda like a cross between a growl and a groan. So, D.U., who was sitting at the back table with me, yells back at him, "Don't 'ehhhh' at my lovely teacher!" Have I mentioned how much I love my babies!!??

On the way to lunch, one of the first grade classes passed us in the hallway. They had a sub today, and she was having a hard time with one of the little darlings. He also happens to be the nephew of a woman who works at the Hell-Hole. I tried to get him to listen to her, but he was more interested in whining and pouting, so she told him to go stand on the wall while she took the rest of the class to lunch. In the meantime, he stood there, whining and whining, so Ms. C., one of our custodians, said, "Boy, what is you whining about!?" R. proceeds to whine, "He whine, whine, whine, my, whine!!" So Ms. C. said, "What!?" and he repeated, "He hit me in my privacy." I heard and understood him, but she didn't. So, with a completely confused look on her face, she says to him, "What?! He hit you in your popsicle?!" I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even explain to her what he actually said! Maybe you had to be there, but I'm telling you, it was freakin' funny!

Yesterday, my favorite mom, Mrs. G., brought me a big bowl of her delicious pasta salad. OK, technically, I can't honestly say if it's delicious, because the last time she brought me some, my son ate the entire container, so I never got to taste it. I told her that when I gave her the container back, so yesterday she says, "I brought you a bigger container this time since L ate it all last time!" Gee, guess what happened to this container? I told my son about it this morning, and he proceeded to eat 3/4 of it for breakfast, and ate the rest on the way home from school. The little pig! But, it did smell delicious, and he sure wolfed it down, so I assume it was wonderful. Mrs. G. even put broccoli in it this time because she knows we like it. There was also shrimp -yum! I just wish I would have gotten a bite, that's all.

Wow, look at that, a whole post about school stuff!! It's about time, huh? I'm even gonna give you one of these:

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted. ---Garrison Keillor

Has it really been a week?

I can't believe I let an entire week go by without a post. Shame on me!! I better get back on track, huh? I was so good last school year, and literally posted every single school day. Man, I've become such a slacker...


*****
Recent conversation:

Smart Boy: Mrs. L., Twin Boy keeps breathing by me!!!

Me: And....

Smart Boy: His breath STANKS!!

Me: Oh....hmmm....Twin Boy, did you remember to brush your teeth this morning?

Twin Boy: No. I don't have a toothbrush.

Me: (Trying to hide my shock/disgust) You don't have a toothbrush?!

Twin Girl: Yes he does! He just doesn't use it!

Me: (Now stifling a giggle) Ok....well, Twin Boy, you need to brush in the morning, ok? Twin Girl, maybe you can remind him.

Twin Girl just looked at him in disgust and turned around.


*****
When the babies finish their name papers, I let them turn them over and draw me a picture while the rest finish. Last week, naturally, all the babies had Halloween on the brain. On Thursday, David drew an awesome picture of three "things" that I thought were kids in Halloween costumes. When I asked him, he said, "No, those are monsters!" Then he went back to drawing. When it was time to clean up, he brought me his paper, and showed me what else he drew. "That's me. And those are the monsters, and I'm kicking their butts!" I gave him a 'look,' because I tend not to condone violence, but he thought the look was for something else. He looked panic-stricken and immediately says, "Oh, um, I mean I'm kicking their bottoms." It was hysterical!

*****
So, last Wednesday, Glasses decided to steal from me. He wouldn't be still or quiet during rest time, so I finally had to make him sit by the door (our naughty spot). Suddenly, I hear the sound of a bunch of 'things' hitting the floor. I look over at him, and I see a few of my counting bears on the floor. I asked, "Where did those come from?" and he just looks at me. I tell him to put them away, and go back and sit down. He does, and a few minutes later, the same thing happens. So I say, "Do you have my counting bears in your pockets?" He shakes his head. I tell him to come over to my desk, and I ask him again if he has my counting bears in his pockets. Again, he says no. So I tell him, "Come here, I want to check your pockets." Well, then he looked worried. Sure enough, he pocket was filled with my counting bears! Ugh! I wanted to smack him!! Not so much for taking the bears (he certainly isn't the first to do that, and he won't be the last) but for lying right to my face about it! There is NOTHING I hate more than lying. NOTHING! I let him have it, telling him, among other things, that the next time he steals from me, I'll be calling the police. Then I sent him back to the door.

Forward to Friday (Halloween). Every Friday, the babies take their Treasure Test, which is simply a test on their sight words. The Treasure Words (sight words) are from our reading program. I don't like the way they introduce words because I think they go WAY too slow. We are now 10 weeks into school, and they are only expected to know 7 freakin' words!! But, I digress. If they can read all the Treasure Words to me on Friday, they get a treat. I always give them Smarties. (Smarties for my smarties!) There are a couple of kids who still haven't passed the test even once, despite there only being six words on the list up to that point. D.B. is one of those kids. Last week, I gave the babies two "bonus words," and told them that if they could read the bonus words, too, they would get an extra treat. OK, so D.B. comes over for his test. Up until this point, he's only been able to tell me "we." Well, he had obviously been working hard that week on his words, because he was able to read 5 out of the six words, and one bonus word!! I was shocked and thrilled! He finally earned his Smarties!

What the hell does all this have to do with Glasses you're wondering, right? Well, normally I give them their treats in the afternoon, but last Friday, we did our test before lunch since the rest of the day was going to be tied up with Halloween activities. When we were lining up for lunch, D.B. comes over and bangs on my arm, and says, "My candy." (If you're a regular reader, you'll know that's only the third time he's said more than one word at a time to me.) I figure out that he doesn't have his candy, so I ask, "Did someone pick up D.B.'s candy?" Nobody had it. I ask again, "Who has D.B.'s candy? It didn't just disappear." No one 'fesses up. I finally say, "We are NOT going to lunch until D.B. gets his candy back!" A couple of the babies say, "Glasses took it." So I ask him, "Do you have D.B.'s candy?" "No." I get closer to him. "Did you take D.B.'s candy?" Again, "No." "So, if I check your pockets right now, I'm not going to find his candy?" "No." I took a couple of steps toward him, and he knew I was going to check, so he says, "Well, maybe if somebody put it there." I seriously saw red!!! I had to stop myself from cracking him one! Naturally, the candy was in his pocket. My blood was seriously boiling. Again, it was more the lying RIGHT TO MY FUCKING FACE that bothered me than the stealing. Although, the stealing really pissed me off, too, because poor D.B. worked hard to earn that treat, and this little shit goes and steals it!! AAAUUUGGGHHH!! Naturally, Glasses is one of the three that hasn't learned his words yet. I really want to smack his parents for being so completely uninvolved with their child. Again, I digress...

I made him sit at the table with me during lunch, away from the rest of the babies. I already told him before we left the room that he would NOT be going to the parade, he would NOT be participating in the party, he would NOT be getting any treats, etc... On the way to the lunchroom, I brought him over to our security guard to ask her if she would keep him while the rest of us went to the parade, and she laid into him, too. She suggested we call the police. I said I was going to seriously think about it. On Friday, we have gym, so of course, I made him stay with the security guard while I took the rest of the class up to the gym. Then, while walking back down the four freakin' flights of stairs (!) I decided that I was just going to call his house and have him picked up. There was no reason for him to stay, since he was NOT going to be participating in ANY of the Halloween fun.

I called his home number, and got no answer. I called the emergency number, which I think was his aunt, and a woman answered. I told her who I was, and that I tried calling his mom, but there was no answer, and then asked if she had another number. She asked what number I called, and I told her, and she says, "Oh, that's the right number. As a matter of fact, I was just talking to her." So, I figure, that's why she didn't answer, she was on the other line. I thank the aunt, and tell her I'm going to call again. She says, "Oh, no, I'll call for you. If she sees it's the school, she won't answer." Of course!! Why would you answer if your child's school is calling? I mean, hell, your child could have been in a terrible accident or something, so why would you need to know that?! Ugh! Anyway, I tell the aunt the whole story and tell her to tell the mom that she needs to come get him right now. That was at 11:00. Guess who was still there at 2:45? Guess who had to sit in the naughty spot all freakin' day (because I couldn't send him to another classroom, since everyone was celebrating)? Guess who bugged me all afternoon, mostly because everytime I turned my back, he was poking his head around the corner and making faces at the rest of the class? Eh....alright, ChiTown, let it go, it was days ago.... Glasses didn't come to school yesterday, although I doubt it had anything to do with what happened on Friday. Guess who didn't really care, and just enjoyed a day without Glasses? Now guess who is on the express train to hell for feeling that way about a little boy? Just trying to keep it real....

Wow, I guess this saga makes up for a week of no posts, huh? I'm gonna let you off the hook, and not write anymore tonight. I think my son and I are going to have a movie night, since the only thing on TV right now is all election related, and I can't take anymore!

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? ;-)

More tidbits I keep forgetting to share...

The month of time from Sept. 15-Oct. 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. So, every morning for our Read Aloud, I've been reading a book from my Latino collection. There are many Spanish words for the babies to learn, and they love it! So far, we've been sticking to one book for the whole week, which was how the babies wanted to do it. So far, we've read Abuela, Manana Iguana, The Cat Who Came for Tacos, and this week's book, Elena's Serenade.

I just realized that I started reading Manana Iguana before Hispanic Heritage month officially started, which is why we're up to four books already. Anyway, one of the points of telling you all this is that the babies are sooo into learning Spanish words. About three days into HH month, I was getting all the babies to the carpet and settled for our story, and I hear J.L. say, "Delicioso!" (I hope that's spelled correctly.) I was cracking up! We've been trying to use the words we know whenever appropriate. We start with "Buenos dias!" when they walk in, "si" and "no" when we remember, as well as "gracias." Then there are some words that are especially fun for them to say. Tortuga (turtle) came from Manana Iguana, and they just love to say it. They also learned rabbit and snake, but both words are escaping me right now, sorry. Of course, they learned pinata and fiesta, which are both a big part of that story. They know that at the end of HH month, we will be having a pinata at our fiesta. Culebra! That's snake. Maybe rabbit will jump into my head, too. Wait for it... Conejo! Ah...I might be a little slower at flipping through my mental roledex, but eventually I find what I need. (God, it sucks getting old!!)

We also practice some Spanish when we do our Calendar Time. I've always done my calendar this way with my babies. We count the days of the month in English, but then we do 1-10 in Spanish, Italian, French, and American Sign Language. We use ASL every morning when we do our ABC Book, too. As we say each letter, we also make the sign. We learn some basic words, too, like Mom, Dad, brother, sister, yes, no, please, thank you, and so on. We really get excited about how it's our "secret language," and the babies love trying to finger spell words. Sometimes, I will test them on their Treasure Words (the sight words from our reading program) by spelling them in ASL. Yes, I know, they're sight words, but the kids love to try and figure out what I'm spelling. My absolute favorite thing to show them is the "I love you" sign. We learned it today, as a matter of fact, and the babies could not stop flashing it at me ALL day. I loved it!!

I always make sure they know to explain it to their Mommies and Daddies as soon as they get home so 1) they can flash it to them! and 2) so their parents don't think they're flashing gang signs of some sort. Trust me, some of them would surely think that. Hell, some of them might actually be proud of that.

I was planning on sharing some more cute stuff about the babies, but I'm suddenly freezing. Naturally, I have all my windows and doors open, to catch every bit of the delightfully fresh air coming in, but I'm suddenly feeling cold. Hmmm, maybe it's the capri pants and the flip-flops I'm still wearing? Oh, wait, I just glanced at the TV, and because the news is on, there is a time and temp stamp in the corner. It says 55. Yay!! This is MY kind of weather!! I'm going to sign off and go turn the oven on. I feel a batch of cookies coming on!!!! Man, I'm in a good mood! I almost forgot what that was like.... I'm going to put on my jeans and a sweatshirt (yay!) and get to baking. Have a great night!

Memorable Monday

I mentioned Thursday that I had a rough morning with three boys, one who was punching people all morning. This is J.F., who I think I'll call Twin Boy. (He and his twin sister are both in my class.) I just went back and reread all the posts from this school year so far, and I see I haven't written about Twin Boy yet, so here goes...

Twin Boy has had many "issues" since school started, the most troublesome one being his aggression. The very first day of school, he hit me at least three times. And, for seemingly no real reason. The first time, I simply asked him to find his name tag. He kind of grunted, then punched me. WTF?! It happened a few more times, like when I asked him to line up, and when I told him he had to wait his turn for the bathroom. Naturally, I spoke to Mom immediately about this. I had one of his older brothers a few years ago, so I'm familiar with the family. I believe there are about 9 kids in the family (all with J names!) and the twins are the babies. I've been really struggling to figure out how many of these issues are simply due to being babied for the past 5 years.

Over the next few days, Twin Boy hit me several more times, as well as many of my babies. I spoke to Mom every morning about it. Mom strikes me as being a bit "slow," (I promise I'm not trying to be funny) which I noticed several years ago when the brother was in my room. The father of this brood is about 70 years old, Mom is probably younger than me, so it's an interesting coupling, to say the least. I wish I knew the back story there.

The following Monday, Twin Boy had an explosive episode in which he beat the living crap out of his sister. He was kicking and punching with both hands and both feet. I literally lifted him up off her, and then removed him from the room. I went straight to the office and called home, hoping someone would be able to come get him. Dad answered, I explained what happened, and filled him in on what has been going on for the past week. He immediately started telling me about how Mom babies Twin Boy, and doesn't discipline him like she should. He told me he was from Nigeria, and he believed in spanking his children, but Mom doesn't do it like she should. Then he says, "I'm giving you permission right now to spank J anytime he needs it!" I almost laughed. Trust me, he is FAR from the first parent who has told me the exact same thing. Not that I haven't thought about smacking a few of the babies on the bottom over the years, but I would NEVER do it. Besides, I know that if I did, the very parent who gave me permission to do it would be suing me faster than I could blink an eye!!

Anyway, Dad said Mom wasn't around to come get him, but he wanted to speak to Twin Boy. I don't know what he said, and Twin Boy didn't utter a word into the phone. The next day, he had a MUCH better day. Wednesday, again, a fairly good day. Thursday morning, Dad brought the twins to school, and asked how Twin Boy has been doing since Monday. I happily told him that the past two days were much better. He says, "Ah, that's good. I've been whooping him in the morning before school." Jeez Louise!! NOT what I wanted to hear. Hopefully, after a "good report" that morning, Dad stopped with the morning beatings.

So, over the past four weeks, Twin Boy has had some bad days, even more really awful days, and a couple of good days. Thursday, obviously, was one of those awful days. When I called home, Dad said he would send Mom to come get him. That was at 11:15. Nobody ever showed up. Around 12:30, I knew I was reaching the end of my rope with him, so I asked Ms. W. if he could sit in her room for a while, which gave me the respite I needed, especially because I was still dealing with the other two boys. (This may be a good time to remind everyone that I have NO ASSISTANT again this year. Ugh!) I was hoping to talk to Mom and/or Dad the next morning, but neither of the twins came to school that day. Truth be told, I wasn't that upset about Twin Boy being out, but I missed Twin Girl. She has her own "issues," (for another post!) but she's generally a very sweet little girl. I guess Dad decided to keep them home after what happened the day before. I just hope it wasn't a day filled with spankings....

Today, Twin Boy started out a little rough. Before lunch, he punched two boys. Then, during rest time, he absolutely would not be still or quiet, which is annoying enough, but I was trying to DIBLE some of the kids. Finally, I had him come sit on the floor next to me, and warned him that he needed to be absolutely quiet because I was testing at my desk. Believe it or not, he was actually pretty good. Granted, it was only for about 10 minutes, but still, not bad! After I finished the last test, I had Twin Boy come stand next to me and have a little chat. We decided that he could be quiet when he tried, since he just did it, and that maybe he could try to be really quiet for the remainder of rest time. We talked about why he needed to be still and quiet, and how it was hard for his friends to rest when he was disturbing them, etc. I wasn't really sure how much of what I was saying was sinking in, but I hoped for the best. I made sure we only had a couple minutes more of rest time so that he could be successful at his first attempt. He was!

After going to the bathroom, we started our Math Centers. Usually, there is a LOT of fighting during centers because Twin Boy doesn't particularly like to share all the time. This is when he normally does most of his hitting. Today, he chose the center he wanted, and actually played nicely for a quite a while. The fact that I was sitting next to his center may have helped, but I was still impressed with him. Even better, the two boys he was playing with noticed how nicely he was playing, and said so! It was great!! This was done with absolutely no prodding from me. It came directly from the babies, which just made me beam with pride.

We continued our afternoon without any problems, and before I knew it, it was time to go home. I was calling tables to go to the coatroom, and suddenly one of the boys who had been playing with Twin Boy earlier again made mention of what a good afternoon he was having, and told me he wanted to give him a high five! I almost fell off my chair. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Then, naturally, ALL the babies wanted to give him a high five. Too cute! So what if we were going to be late for dismissal today, Twin Boy needed to get his props!! What a great way to end the day. Especially a Monday! Maybe it's a sign of what the rest of the week will bring...

That's when it occurred to me that I needed to thank all of my longtime readers/friends who must have been praying for me all summer. I know we all were hoping I would find myself at a new school this year, but I'm just as happy to be having such a great year so far, even if I am still at the Hell-Hole. (Good Lord, I hope I didn't just jinx myself!!) I think I'm really going to enjoy the 2008-2009 school year :) Just to be safe, feel free to continue those prayers ;-)

I only have a second...

...but I wanted to write this down before I forgot. First of all, I jinxed myself, just as predicted! I received a new boy today. More about that later. I was giving him one of the assessments that I have to give him, and during one part, he was identifying colors for me. First he made me giggle (on the inside, of course!) because he called red "dark orange." The first time I pointed to it, he said "orange," then the next one I pointed to was orange, and he again said, "orange." So, I went back to red and asked again for him to identify it, and he said, "That's dark orange." Naturally, that was accompanied by a look that said, "Jeez, Lady, are you stupid?" The last color I asked him to identify was black. As soon as he said it, he said, "I don't like black, cuz that's what makes nighttime scary." Let's all say it together now....aawwwww!

I just remembered...

...one day last week we were making birdhouses out of milk carton. We had saved the milk cartons the Friday before, but never rinsed them out or anything. So, they sat in my room, which we all know is 100 degrees, over the weekend, and basically fermented. Come Monday, I started the project with the babies, and as I cut the first hole in the first carton, I noticed the rancid smell. I had made the babies wait all weekend to do this, so I figured I would just ignore it, fill it with bird seed anyway, and call it a day. Well, by the third one, the smell was really getting to me. I had one baby standing next to me, since we were making her house, and little D.D. was standing behind her, getting help with spelling a word in his journal. As I was cutting the carton, I got a big whiff of the icky, spoiled milk smell, and said, "Oo, jeez, this REALLY stinks!" Without even looking up, or stopping his writing, D.D. says very matter-of-factly, "Oh, that's just my breath, I didn't brush my teeth this morning." Well, thank you for sharing!