Meatball Day

Yesterday I was sitting in the corner of the room, in the "house" or "dramatic play" area, calming down two best friends after one of many cat fights. Little "C" came and plopped down next to me towards the end of this conversation, and just sat there on top of the stuffed animals, sprawled out, with the weirdest hat on.

My ears don't work very well, but they can pick up the little things the kids say. And this one was saying "Welcome to the new age... to the new age... welcome to the new age... to the new age..." And I joined in, singing with her. Another joined in as well. Before I knew it, the whole class was singing Radioactive. And C knew all the lyrics, more than I knew. I realized how deep they were.


After the staff meeting last night, as Joe was driving me home, I told him the story. We got home after a quick stop at Micky-D's, a fine Scottish restaurant, threw a small fit over the lack of Monopoly pieces on our fries, which is the only reason we went there... and got to work fixing my flat bike tire. We popped on Radioactive and listened to that until the bike was fixed. I switched it to Demons before we went to put the bike outside.

I'd never heard that song before, but it's beautiful. And we danced to it in our driveway.

Today, I started class by letting them know they'd be having meatballs today. Meatball day is just as good as cheeseburger day, maybe even better. And really, those are the only two meals worth mentioning to them before lunch time. Gets their moral up and stuff.

Outside, my job, or what I pin as my job, is usually to stand by the swings. Just to make sure no one gets kicked in the face or falls off on their head.

Joe met D last week, and from the few minutes he talked to him, he garnered that D is a hilarious kid. He is.

D was shouting at T when I got to the swings.

"T!!! THERE IS A SQUIRREL IN THE TREE. BE QUIET!!!!"
T said "Where?"
"IN THE TREE!!! SHUSHHHH! YOU'RE GONNA SCARE IT AWAY! T!!! BE QUIET! SHHH! BE QUIET!!!!! T!! T! T! T!!!! BE QUIET!!!!!!!! YOU'RE GONNA SCARE THE SQUIRREL AWAY!!!! HEY! STOP TALKING! BE QUIET!!!"

T, by this point, had been gone for about 5 minutes, just walked away. D didn't catch on. I think the noise he heard was himself screaming, but I could be wrong.

I don't know where he was looking, but it wasn't in the tree. So I asked...

"D, what color is the squirrel?"

Another kid shouted out "Brown! With white spots!" before D could answer, and so of course, that's how he answered too.

"Alright friends," I said, "I'm gonna ask another question, and this time, I only want D to answer. How big is the squirrel?"
"IT'S AS BIG AS AN ELEPHANT! NO! BIGGER!"

Ah.

"Where is this squirrel?"
"Over there, on the beach ball!"

A kid next to him said "There is no beach ball, D, where are you looking?"

I walked over to K and O, two little ones in the 4yo class who know my name, but don't know me. The reason they know my name is because every day I come to work, I walk through their class first, and they all chant my name. The ones who didn't know my name know it now. And apparently I'm popular.

I said hi to them and they said hi back. One said they knew my name, and I said I knew their names too.
"Yeah, but it's your job to know our names."

I pointed to K and said "Your name is O," and pointing to O said "Your name is K."

They bust up laughing. They followed me around until recess was over telling me what my name is.
"Chocolate!"
"Sunglasses!"
"Mr. Nobody!"
"Bird!"

My favorite was "Scoobyloo (Scooby doo) sha sha nah nah."

So that's my name, I guess. You can just call me Scoobyloo sha sha nah nah from now on.