Conversations overheard

Sally: "I have boobies!"

Abby: "You have boobies? I have boobies."

Sally: "Boobies are private."

Abby: to the teacher "Are boobies private?"

Teacher: "Yep, boobies are private"

thankfully that was the end of the conversation. much better then, "Why do boys have peanuts?"

While wearing super awesome homemade cape costumes..."I'm a super helper!" from a child who refused, refused, refused to help put the toys away during clean up time

Also overheard while running in awesome capes "I'm a superbat!" (clearly better than batman) "I'm superhero!" (although it took several moments to decifer this. Sounded much more like I'm superhobo!)

Thank you awesome kitchen chef for cooking our lunches everyday. And for gathering our snacks. And for cleaning our dirty cups, bowls and toys that we try to eat. But really? Beans and Weenies????

5 pottytrained children. This has to be a record, that's almost half the class! Unfortunately only one potty. Spent most of the afternoon wiping poopy bottoms. Convincing child on the potty to poop faster. Convincing child waiting for the pooty to just hold it in a lil bit longer.

Whew

Now that the crazy busy rush of the holidays are over I feel like I can finally breathe (and count my gift card stash!) The gift card is the traditional teacher gift and I love it. Last year I hauled in over $100 in target cards. And boy did that check out lady hate me when I used 7 different cards to pay for my purchase. This year, the cards are more spread out- some target, some starbucks, some barnes and nobles.

I think I'm most excited about the B&N. You see I have a secret love relationship with B&N. It goes way back. In high school (although we didn't have a B&N) much time was spent grabbing coffee and browsing the latest selection of books. Somehow this tradition continued on with my friends even when we moved away. A phone call- I'm headed to B&N! Several followup texts- check out this book in the new arrivals! mmmm my mocha is amazing! theres a weird guy in the medieval arts section! A "shared" B&N experience from different time zones.

In Cali something happens with sunset. You see, it happens really really early (or so it feels) and once the sun goes down, heading to the beach is not the same (except for night beaching of course) As the sun went down, we grew hopelessly bored so we would trek to the local B&N. We tried learning foreign languages (not me really) tried to achieve New age enlightenment and enjoyed the variety of people watching that any place in Cali brings out.

My relationship with B&N solidified the years I only worked 4 days a week. (Well I did work a weekend day, so in fact it was 5 days) Every Monday I had off. While some Mondays I spent hours on end in my pjs, some Mondays I spent hours on end at B&N. I didn't have much extra cash then (not that I do now in my lucrative position as an educator) so I would traipse to B&N, buy a nice hot mug of coffee, find the book I left off with last week and cozy up in the overstuffed chairs. I had come to discover which B&Ns had the coziest chairs. Not the one at Easton. Here I devoured the latest Nicholas Sparks book, traveled around Ireland with a fridge, and dreamt of adventures to come.

B&N reminds me of my youth, my lazy days with no responsibility. How can I reclaim this? Well tomorrow I will be spending hours on end at the local B&N, we'll see what I figure out.

Traffic is stupid at 3pm

How do I know that traffic is stupid at 3 pm? I was driving in my car (but Carri, shouldn't you be working?) I know, but I was driving in my car. Driving rather quickly. I speeding/swearving/honking my way up 315 in an effort to make it home and back to work in 20 min.

For months now I've been thinking, I really should put some extra clothes in my car. In the past I have been "splashed" with bodily fluids. But yesterday I was fully baptized into the club of educators.

You see, as I was changing a rather sleepy and hungry toddler we had a bonding moment. Just as I took the diaper off and asked if he wanted to sit on the potty I noticed something. My right leg was feeling rather warm. I look down and follow the huge stream of urine flowing to my leg. With a quick shout and turning his toddler body I was able to miss most of it. But the giant wet patch on my leg had to be rectified.

And that is why I was speeding home at 3pm. Nothing felt better than getting out of those pants.

Potty Talk

Yesterday as Ana was going to the bathroom before nap we had rather an interesting conversation.

Ana: I'm gonna stand up.

Me: What?

Ana: I'm gonna stand up and go potty.

Me: No, I need you to sit down and go potty.

Ana: Why?

And here in lies the trouble of striving to be a great educator...I refrained from saying, cause I said so. Even though that would have been so much easier. I strive for avoiding this phrase because I honestly believe that the children learn more from the discussions that follow the endless string of Whys?

That being said, I will not continually walk down that perilous path of answering every why question, because if I did I would lose my voice. (can't wait till this phase is over) But I often indulge for a few moments. So here is how I answered sweet little Ana...

Me: Girls pee sitting down.

Ana: Why?

Me: Daddy's pee standing up, but girls need to sit down to pee Really really hoping this covers it

Ana: Why?

Me: Well, what do Daddy's have

Ana's face lights up as she exclaims: Daddy's have Enis!

Me: That's right, Daddy's have penises and thats why they can pee standing up. What do you have?

Ana very seriously: I have gina.

Me: That's right you have a vagina just like mommy and thats why you have to sit down to go potty.

And that right there is why I love my job. While sharing this fun tidbit with some friends last night, one challenged me. Apparently there are techniques and body positions that with training allow a woman to stand up as she pees. They think I need to begin incorporating this into my curriculum. Ha, I don't need any more body fluids covering the bathroom floor- no thank you!

I forgot

Just what it's like coming back to a room of toddlers who haven't been to school in 5 days. Oh and our schedule changed. Oh and we had a sub. The worst sub ever. She just stands there, repeating everything I say and I sweep through the room wiping noses, breaking up fights and comforting the crying children- yes I am that super hero.

I was greated yesterday morning by over half my class in tears and the day didn't get much better after that. Of course, in the middle of all that snot there were some funny moments...

During a doctor play idea (fully clothed of course) one friend was using the lil thingy that the doctor hits your knee with. Well apparantly she was using this tool to "fix" her friend. Except her friend didn't want to be "fixed" (ie: hit multiple times) with the hammer like object. When the child wasn't listening to her yelling no! She pulled her hair. All out girl fight in the Koala Room. My favorite though is the way this one reacts to having her hair pulled- "NO, that's Mine! Give me back my hair!" Then works really hard to collect each piece of hair that came out of her head.

Another creepy crawly made its appearance in the classroom. As Sally was getting up from nap, we were putting her blankets away. As she stood up, I noticed something on her cot. This is when I began praying "don't turn around, don't turn around." Luckily someone else distracted her and she walked away without ever seeing what was laying on her cot. Somehow, she spent her entire nap cuddled up with a big, brown, crumpled, spider. Thank God it was dead! But how did it get there. It was not there prenap so either

a) during the quiet, calm of naptime a suicidal spider crawls out, sees the cozy green blanket. Climbs inside and hunkers down for its own nap. Then in the course of this, somehow ends up crumpled and dead. Hmmm. or

b) it arrived to us already crumpled and dead either in someone's shoe, shirt or blankets from home and somehow we didn't notice till after nap.

Seriously it was lying in the middle of her cot. Seriously I did not freak out (yay me!) Parents and I had a good chuckle about it that night, but still wondering how it got there...

Even in the drama of a first day back, a break is definately welcomed. I spent some serious quality time with my couch including all day Friday. That's right in spite of phone calls to rush to the nearest sale, I spent all day in my jammies. Made a big pot of soup and relaxed all day. Mmm

Enjoying some calm before the storm

You know what the storm is, the upcoming holiday season. Oy. Every time I think about it, I just think Oy. I'm not even ready to go there yet. Seriously, who decided to schedule 2 different opportunities for Forced Family Fun within 5 weeks. Oh, plus we're Jewish, so throw in a 3rd required family get together. And someone decided to graduate in December instead of May like normal people, so we have the opportunity for Four Forced Family Fun get togethers in 5 weeks. Who came up with this idea.

At least my job this time around is a lot less Holiday inducing stressful. The kiddos are actually pretty fun around the Holidays. That and the fact that many take some time off, which allows for more quality fun time with the kiddos that stick around instead of quality intervention/peace maker practicing time.

Toddler moments of the Week:

a) after Halloween sales=super fun dressup costumes= a little one "flying" around the room chanting "I'm Super Bat!" Yes, I imagine this will be the stare of the newest comic book soon.

b) Utter meltdown as Dad was trying to leave with his Little One. What I could decipher through the hysterical crying "My note. My note! My note is in Sally's cubby!!!!!" I get up to investigate and sure enough. The note he painstakingly wrote with a grown up pencil is in Sally's cubby. I pull it out, hand it to him and remind him. Next time why don't you put your note in YOUR cubby, then you won't have to be so sad.

2 minutes later on the way to the door, he tosses the note in the trashcan. 10 sec later more hysterical crying. "My note. My note! My note is in the trashcan!" Well duh. If you need your note, don't put it in the trashcan. Seriously. I called out "Good luck!" as the Dad finally got him out the door. Seriously.

back to holidays...

My kickoff to the holiday season is this weekend and I'm super stoked. It's our annual Holiday Card Making event. Supposed to be last weekend but due to some fevers (and everyone's panic about the swine flu) it was delayed a week. This time it happens to fall on the day after an out of town wedding that I'll be gracing with my presence :)

An out of town wedding in some small town that was so small we had to get a hotel reservation like 6 months ago. An out of town wedding scheduled to start at 1:30. An out of town wedding in which the groom promises to be finished in time to catch the big game at 3. An out of town wedding in which there is an open bar. An open bar with top shelf alcohol. An out of town wedding where I will have to be up and outta there at 9am the next day after fully enjoying the top shelf alcohol to head back to Columbus.

Its gonna be me, a giant bottle of water and a giant cup of coffee making the long drive back. But I wouldn't miss it for a thing. Cause not only is this card making event the kickoff to the Holidays (and the fun part) Not only is it a time surrounded by some of my favorite people as we all pretend to be Martha Stewart for a few house. But this is the same card making event that I was at 3 years ago when I met Jesse. Well met his mama, and then 6 months later met Jesse. And for that reason alone, it is my favorite event of the Holidays.

Ready for Fall

I am so ready for Fall to be hear. All weekend I sported my favorite brown boots and grey sweater. I'm ready for wrapping up in blankets by the fire, drinking red wine (cause it works so much better in fall than summer) eating soup by the gallons and enjoying the breezes through the open windows.

Speaking of, apparently last night a giant front blew through columbus bringing with it thunder, rain and wind. Slept through the first two, but that wind wow it scared me. I was sound asleep when all of the sudden my door began creaking open. A slow (murderer on the other side) kinda creak. I'm very proud of how I handled this. I took a deep breath, felt really really brave (what I tell my toddlers to do when scared) and ran to the door. Flung it open, good no murderer on the other side. Slammed the door and carefully placed a heavy shoe just so. My theory being that the shoe will hold the door shut. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it was one of Jesse's shoes. One of Jesse's steel toe boot shoes. And it did the trick- yay me!

What else do I love about fall, football! A time for friends to gather, lots of food to be consumed and cheering to be had. I think I'm going to be focusing on 'morning' drinks this season. We began the season with a toast to mimosas. Have continued for several weeks, cause really a mimosa is the perfect drink. Its sparkling, you pour it in a pretty glass and its full of vitamin c! In the last couple weeks I've been in love with bloody mary's. Bloody Mary's without the vodka. (Cause we all know I don't work well with vodka) Bloody Mary's with tequila instead- Wahoo! It's fabulous. Just need to work on my portion pouring. The last one was way way way too strong.

Super Stoked: Ikea trip in 2 weeks. Need to begin planning now. No matter how much of a master packer I am, only so much will fit in the trunk of my car.

Super Stoked #2: I got a bike! A shiny pink bike with a matching pink helmet! And its awesome. Through many test rides it was determined that I enjoy a "more aggressive ride" Who would have thought? Rode twice this weekend. Re remembered how to ride my bike with no hands- wahoo! My doctors can now officially get off my back. I'm officially exercising! Woke up this morning with a sore buttox and a sore back. Thats a problem. I feel like my back gets a workout everyday with the wrangling of the toddlers. It does not need to get stronger. My core could use the attention. However if this means I have to start doing sittups that is not ok.