How Can We Be?

Now that my pretty little carpet has once again been urinated upon, I'm reminded that I haven't updated in a while. Last week I received my first holiday gift: a mug that says "Dentist." This gem was lovingly bestowed upon me by an adorable seven-year-old, who smiled sheepishly and proclaimed that she'd picked it out especially for me. How fitting. By the way, I'm closing the office for the holidays, so if you find yourself in need of an emergency root canal, it's not my problem.

Today I received a handmade card that said, "Happy Hanukkah," with a picture of Santa Claus beneath it.

I kid, but the mug and card are proudly displayed in my office--I truly appreciate both and love, love, love the children in my school. I have picked out more than a dozen I'd take home with me in a second.

Ok, I need to get back to pondering "how we all got here" so that I can get back to an anxious six-year-old with some sort of intelligible (or cop-out) answer.

Bye.

P.S. A young child walked out of my office a few weeks ago declaring that the hallway was "moist." How to respond?

Going Going Gone

I am truly a model of dedication to serving the little people. Yesterday I spent over 30 minutes combing the hallway for a lost tooth. The poor girl had quite literally lost her tooth. Somehow while being closely examined by another six-year-old friend (eww) on the way to the nurse, the tooth slipped out of her hand and skid across the floor. Feeling mighty guilty, the friend was found doing quite an impressive split while frantically searching for the lost enamel gem. Of course the hallways have been cleverly designed to disguise dirt and any sort of small object with their multicolored speckled tiles. I ran to the custodian to borrow a broom so that I could try to sweep it up. Despite a valiant search with the giant broom, several minutes of crawling around on hands and knees, recruitment of kindergarten teachers, second grade students, and the assistant principal, the tooth was not found. Devastated, the first grader slumped back to her classroom sans the necessary evidence to present to the Toothfairy. I decided to write a quick note to her parents, explaining the situation, including, "I suspect that the Toothfairy will understand." I tossed and turned all night wondering if indeed the Toothfairy had graciously left a monetary gift despite the lack of usual exchange. Or perhaps my little friend awoke to find merely a note scribbled, "No deal."

You never know....in my experience the Toothfairy was rather unpredictable. I once received a fake coin (in exchange for the fake tooth my sister and I hid). Often I received an admonishing note indicating that my tooth was not up to cleanliness standards. You just never knew.

There's even a little rug for the bathroom!

I had a ten year old student tell me yesterday, "No offense, but I want to see a professional counselor." Ha! Well excuse me and the entirely free and convenient services that I provide during the school day. Fine, bye.

These kids crack me up. I've now had my pretty new yellow chairs loudly farted upon, my checkered carpet peed on, and all the contents of my little fish tank dumped all over the counter and floor (thank goodness my little fishies are battery operated--they would've been goners). My room has officially been broken in (well, christened if you will) by many cute, germy, and somewhat nosy little children. I also have them to thank for my current illness.

Many kids come in and stare, and I mean stare at my dollhouse. Wide eyed, they ask, "What is that?" Um, it's a little house for dolls, not hard to figure out. I think they ask as a way of drawing my attention to their attention to it--letting me know that they would really, really, really like to be invited to play with it. I admit that some kids have even caught me playing with it when I'm alone in my office. I much enjoyed watching my husband assemble it a few weeks ago. Once it was completed and we were unpacking the furniture, he toggled between looking painfully bored and put out by having to help with such a project and excitedly picking up items and proclaiming, "Look at this! The lid to the grill opens! And look! Here's a little ladder for the bunk beds! Wow!" The novelty of it to a grown man who did not grow up with any sisters greatly amused me.

Care Bears and Booger Books

Apparently my husband was none too pleased with the meticulous grocery list I left for him tonight:


milk
lunch stuff
fruit
dinner stuff


What? It encompasses everything we need. He feels strongly, however, that he is unable to enter a supermarket in earnest unless I have crafted him a detailed list of desired merchandise. Tonight my list wasn't cutting it.


I must remove my head from my butt and focus on something other than work. Like eating, and housework, and heaven forbid, fun activity. I seem to expel all my energy at school, getting to school, staying after school, and then thinking about school when I get home. Healthy, I know. It's that whole building the plane while you're already flying it thing....I'm trying to set up my office, figure out what I'm doing, plan my program, and meet the needs of all the kids. And I'm overwhelmed.


BUT...the kids are so darn adorable and loving that it truly puts a big ole goofy grin on my face every day :)


P.S. Thanks loyal reader, for sticking with me despite the hiatus and uber boring posts.

Me-Maw

What a great weekend with the grandparents. Shame it rained so darn much.

I am now procrastinating. I've been trying to develop a unit on tolerance for the first graders, but I can't seem to pull it all together. I have all these disjointed ideas but can't seem to get it together to organize them into sequential lessons. Can't wait to make the finger puppets though. I think that's what I'm looking forward to the most. 

So I'm back in school. And working. And interning. Where oh where does the time go? 

We finally got a new little brother for Big Brothers Big Sisters since our previous one moved away, so I'm really excited to take him out next weekend! Yes, I am going to try to be a decent Big to the little guy while juggling all the other balls I've thrown crazily up into the air. Also, I really want to go to the Renaissance Fair to people watch (and eat, of course).  Folks from all walks of life make appearances at those types of events.  Becky put the idea in my head, and hopefully she didn't go this weekend so we can all go together next weekend. And, I really want to go camping again, but Bec took her tent back. Poo.

I shall stop rambling now and go on with my lesson planning.

Salt 'n Pepa

We took our little brother and his little sister out on Friday night. Love them! I just have to share some funny things they said....

When they first got to the house, they started fighting over whether or not Santa Claus was white or black. So of course they asked me. Aaaah! First, I said he's both. Then I tried, "What color do you want him to be?" Well that didn't satisfy them. Should have known--they're little kids and they want a concrete answer dammit! I was stuck. So to escape I played the Jew card and told them I had no idea, but that they better be good if they want presents. Santa and I weren't exactly tight when I was a kid, so how the heck should I know what color his skin is?

After go-karting, we took them for dinner, and I kept trying to offer food choices to the little one (which were all turned down of course). I asked if she wanted chicken, and she told me she forgot was chicken is. What?! She didn't know what chicken was? And no, this was not a child raised in a vegetarian household, so that excuse for not knowing doesn't fly! But suddenly, I found it impossible to explain cooked chicken. Seriously, all I managed was, "It's white." I didn't want to explain chicken as the live animal, because she knows what it is, plus it's just not appetizing to describe the physical features of the poor animal in detail while trying to entice a six-year-old to eat it! But finally she said no, she definitely didn't want chicken. She wanted hot wings instead. I didn't bother explaining....

Driving them through Baltimore on the way home, my little brother started pointing at the huge salt piles on the side of the road asking if I knew what they were. He was so excited to tell me that it's where they keep the salt and pepper. I started laughing, couldn't help it. "Is that so? I thought that's where they keep the salt for the roads in the winter," I tried. But no, he was insistent that it was the kind you could sprinkle over your eggs, and that yes, there were pepper piles there too (we just couldn't see them). Ok, fine.

Hehe, they're so funny. I love the innocence and curiosity and hope that they hold onto that for a long, long, long time.

Mr. Laura Bush?

After yesterday's shenanigans, I feel compelled to write more serious post. I do have a quite serious and mature side you know :) So this one will be dedicated to my love for the coolest kid ever-- my little brother.

For those of you who may not know, we are a "big couple" to an amazing 11 year-old boy, and have been matched with him since he was 9 years old. He's so funny and clever and energetic--so inquisitive and so craving of attention. We just love that kid. (And seeing how great my husband is when playing with him and his little sister in our pool makes makes me all smiley)

We brought him to my friend's parents house the other night because I needed to pick something up. While there, I pointed to a picture of the friend's mother posing with George and Laura Bush at some White House function, asking my little brother if he knew who that guy was in the picture. "Him?" he asks, pointing right to Laura Bush. I lost it and couldn't stop laughing. He finally got it right once he realized I was referring to the president and not his poor wife (who is by no means masculine looking). She's actually quite pretty I think. Ok fine--she's no Jackie Kennedy, that's for sure, and she should fire her current stylist immediately, but still...

I know this is a shameless plug for Big Brothers Big Sisters, but it really is an amazing organization. I've been involved for over three years now and have had nothing but great experiences through it with my former little sister in Pennsylvania and our current little brother here in Maryland. The commitment is only a few hours a month, and not only will you brighten the life of a child, but you'll also learn a ton about yourself in the process.

Even if you have kids of your own, you can still get involved and become a "Big." You'll love it! Chances are you'll be matched with a child more interesting than your own kids anyway. Kidding, kidding. But these kids need us--they need adult role models to be their friends, to listen to them, to encourage them, to laugh and have fun with them. It's such a fantastic program. Check it out at http://www.bbbs.org/