5.25.2008

Tales from La Petite, Part 1

Here are a few more memorable kid quotes I dug up, except these are from La Petite Academy. Just as awesome, though. These are from my sweet 4-year-olds....... Enjoy!

I was observing a few of my girl students playing a weird game in the play-kitchen area. They had made a boy, Devin, lay down in the cradle with his eyes closed, while they took turns poking at him with plastic spoons and hairbrushes and the like. Mystified, I asked what they were playing, to which Kourtney (the ringleader) replied simply, "Dead." Cuh-reeeepay.



Gaven was roughhousing with his older brother, Caden. He bonked his face on a toy accidentally, and immedietely Caden exclaimed, "Gaven!! Oh no, you hurt your face! Mom says that's your money-maker!"



I was planning a lesson durning naptime, when I heard something that strikes fear into the heart of any pre-school teacher - a fervent cry of, "EMERGENCY!!! EMERGENCY!! TEACHER!!!" coming from the bathroom. I sprinted over, trying not to panic as scenes of little Jake with his head stuck between the toilet and the wall, or of his shoe clogging the toilet filled my mind. I got to the door, and there he was, sitting very still on the toilet, his blue eyes huge.

"Jake! What's the problem?" I panted, out of breath.

"Miss Tami!! My poop is GREEN!" he said.

(Breif pause)

"That's okay, honey. Sometimes poop is just....green." I said, relieved.

"Okay. Do you want to see it?"

"Nope. That's okay."


Devin was playing in the dressups, with a big, white blanket over his head, when I heard him say to his buddy, "I am the ghost of Christmas Pageant...."



Aiden was coloring a picture with markers, and was concentrating very hard on the paper. However, the child sitting next to her was amusing herself by occasionally smacking Aiden with her ever-present blankey. It was after one particularly hard whip of the blanket that Aiden finally cried,"Would you quit SWACKIN' that at me?!"

The swacking ended, and Miss Alex asked with a laugh, "Aiden, where do you learn words like that?"

"Um, I don't know....actually, Jesus. Maybe."

5.18.2008

Talking, mythical woodland creatures rock my socks.


So, I saw 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' on friday, and I felt compelled to document the awesome viewing experience that it was.

Wow. I mean, just wow.

I may be a little biased, since I am 1.)A fantasy-loving nerd, 2.)A diehard fan of all things magical, and 3.)Of the mind that C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest storytellers of the century. All that aside, I think anyone who watches the movie will come away feeling a little more....Narnian. Ha ha.

The plotline moved fast, but it was really easy to keep up with, even if you haven't read the book (I haven't since I was 8). Breathtaking scenery, and great cinematography. It also had some pretty intense action sequences, and, as always, was a perfect blend of the entertaining and the symbolic.

If I were to rate it on a scale of 1-10, it would get a rating of "Magical".

The End.

5.12.2008

Kid quotes - Candy Campus style

My fabulous mother found the beloved little pink notebook that has all of the quotes from the kids at Candy Campus Daycare that me and my sister Kristin jotted down while we worked there. I was so relieved (THANKS MOM) and excited to be able to finally put them in my blog! Hurray.

And without any further delay....

CANDY CAMPUS QUOTES - 2003/2004 - FIVE YEAR OLD CLASS

Riley was holding a seashell up to her ear. The other kids had made comments like, "It sounds like the beach!" or, "I can hear splashes!" Riley got very serious, and said, "I hear someone screaming!!"


"In Cali-forneeeya, I was at a store, and I saw a lady with a beard - then she died. Thats....just how they die." --Griffen

"Mexican horses can fly." --Griffen

"When I grow up, I want to be a policeman," then, looking at my teeth, he added, "with braces." --Griffen

We were having a class discussion about why we don't say bad words. "Sometimes I say panties, and that's a bad word," Jessica said, brightly.

There was a fly bopping around the classroom, and when it landed, River said, "Hey, look! It's baby bumblebee, and it's pooping honey. Take a look!"

"Jello is made out of eyeballs." --Kali

Christian led me over to another teacher by the hand while we were having outside time. He let go, pointed to us both and said, very seriously, "I want YOU to wrestle YOU."

"My Grandpa Chuck is really bald. He always has a sweaty head, and he's too poor to buy a hat. Maybe my dad should buy him one." --Aspen

"If anyone is ever mean to me, I'll tell my dad. He's a good wrestler." --Aspen

"I saw a grasspopper once on a flower." --Jenny

"Grasshoppers have their ears on their knees. That's why they hear so good..." --Kadin

In my class, we referred to body parts and such as "potty words." I heard something vulgar on the other side of the dollhouse, so I looked over and asked, "Who said that?" Jace looked at me guiltily and said, "Okay, I said the shower word."

"I went for a jig today with Grandpa," River said.
"A jog? you mean?" I asked.
"Yah, a jig!" he said brightly.

Kadin was looking down a large heater vent with another student. "The devil lives down there, you know," he said to her solemnly.

We were having a lesson about the solar system, and I asked my class what the sun does for us, here on Earth. "It makes you sweat and gets all the bad germs out of your body," Kadin said.


2004/2005 - FOUR YEAR OLD CLASS (these are from me & Kristin)

Natalie said, "Teacher I so love you and missed you so much!" and then looked at my necklace and said, "Are you getting married?"

The kids were having a dance party and then decided they should have boy/girl partners. Natalie and James were slow dancing to a fast song, and Emily said (referring to Natalie and James)"That is SICK and WRONG."

One day the floor was extra messy with crackers. Cayden wasn't participating in the circle-time activity. He had his face down under the table, and when I called his name, he sat up - and his mouth was covered in cracker crumbs. He was licking them right off the carpet.

Tayvia said, "I really like boys. They like me too, when I do this," and she batted her eyelashes.

Natalie had just worken up from quiet time, and her hair was sticking up all over the place. She raised her eyebrows and said matter-of-factly, "I like butter, you know."

Emily pointed to a reddish birthmark on her forehead. She said, "Angels really do have lipstick. My mom said they kissed me here when I was in heaven."

James was holding a bouquet of toy flowers. He then said, "Lets marry somebody!" in his best grown-up voice.

Parker pointed to himself and said, "You call me pocket knife, and I'll call you real pocket knife."

"Did you know there was a Hell storm? There really was...." --Logan

Emily was playing with the toy flowers. She placed one in my hair, and told me I was going to get married. "Who am I going to marry?" I asked, playing along.
After a thoughtful pause, she said, "George Bush."

Parker was looking at the Halloween decorations in the classroom. He asked me if I knew what he was going to be for Halloween. I shook my head, and he said, "FREAK-EN-STEIN!"

James didn't know I was listening to him talk with his friends. He said, "I let my mom wipe my butt. But, not with her hand." He paused, and then yelled, "STOP LAUGHING!"

Quentin came up to me during quiet time and said, "My tummy hurts." I asked him what it felt like, and he said, "Red."

Emily had just sat down to her seat at the lunch table, and I noticed she was playing with her full milk cup. I asked her to stop, and she said, "I'm not playing. I'm blessing it."
She put her hands on the top of her cup, closed her eyes, and mumbled something. Then she spilled her milk.

We were leaning about money one day, and I asked what 5 pennies added up to. With proud excitement, Cayden screamed, "A NIPPLE!!!" instead of a nickel.

Natalie made a pretend microphone out of the blocks, pointed it at my face, and said, "Talk to the hand," with a serious face.

"Teacher, we're gonna make chicken-noodle soup with blood in it, and poison!" James exclaimed.
"Why?" I asked.
"To make someone drink it and spit it out!!" Parker joined in, as James continued, "...and bats in it! and Rampires in it! And we'll cut off Cayden's hand and make him put it in it! And mix it with sprite and coke. And we each have to put a shoe in it. We're making poison-noodle-soup and shoes."

James looked at Sinai and said, "Sinai looks like a strooooong man."

Cayden took a rock from outside and as he put it in his cubby, he said solemnly, "I like to lick them."

We were watching 'Beauty and the Beast' on movie day. The part of the movie came when the magic rose dies, and the Beast lays down and looks dead. Then, a magic raindrop falls, and the music changes to a hopeful tune.
Cassidy looked up at me and said in an excited voice, "I know what he's going to turn into!!! A BREAST!"......I have no idea what she was trying to say.

The kids were all watching the sunset when Cayden said, "I think that's Jesus's. He makes the sun come up and down."

Daisha came up to my desk and put a huge lego thing on wheels on my desk. I said, "Daisha! That's very nice! Is it a train?"
"No," she said, "It's what carries the princesses when they die."

Parker walked up to me and said, "I....am a broken woman. I really am." (FYI, Parker is a boy.)

Tyler pointed to a naked barbie, looked at it's white plastic 'undies', and said "EEEEWWWW!" and threw it on the floor in disgust.

James was crying and I asked him what was the matter. He said, "I'm just having a hard day."
I asked why, and he said, "Because I'm having a heart attack!!"

During outside time, Dannica came up and told me that her cat "..always fwisks awound da house wiff my scwunchies."

The new girl, Aliyah, was having a really hard time adjusting to daycare. She had layed down on the carpet sadly and just was watching everyone play. Emilee walked up to her, put her face close to Aliyah's, and said, "Daycare sucks, huh?"

Wyatt pointed to the waffle blocks and said, "Can I play with the pan-cakes?"

Parker was singing, "Foot shoes, fruit loops, duck-dutch-sunny shoes!" to the tune of 'Footloose'.

We were having a lesson on feelings, and I had the children color those 'Happy and Sad upside-down' faces. Afterwards, we were talking about how sometimes we feel sad, and sometimes we feel happy. I asked if we could ever feel happy and sad at the same time.
"Yes!" Cayden said, smiling while pulling down the other corner of his mouth to make a 'half-frown.'

I'm guessing that Daisha and Brynne were playing school, because Brynn was sitting in a chair while Daisha strolled around and read to her in a very grown-up voice. I overheard her saying somthing about Chinese hair, and jewelry, and then she said, "In China, they do not respect beer."

Cayden and Parker had just found out that we were going to watch a movie that afternoon. All of a sudden, they both started dancing and singing "I love movie day, movie day, oh yea!" to the tune of 'lets get physical' by Olivia Newton John.

Natalie looked at me and said, "I'm going to have a baby kitty, and it's going to come out of my tummy, and it won't have any sharp teeth."

Quentin came up to me and said, "Geez, Kip, thanks for eating all the freakin' chips." He sounded EXACTLY like Napoleon Dynamite. I burst out laughing.

Out of nowhere, Cayden pointed to his ears and said, "Look! I have elk-ears. I really do."

We were drawing family portraits as a part of our lesson, and then we talked about them. When it was Braxton's turn, he pointed to his picture.
"This is Ethan, my brother," he said, "and this is me. I'm a jellyfish."

Erin and I were reminiscing about the day the poopy toilet overflowed all over the carpet. Hearing us, Austin said, "There is a dead body, with no head, in that shower. His head got the toilet all plugged."

Stephanie said to me, "My little brother is a Monkey-Butt-Farmer," with a giggle.

5.08.2008

Tears of....

I really can't figure out what you call the tears that happen when you laugh too hard, and start crying. Because they're not tears of joy, exactly; they're not like the kind you cry at weddings or when a mommy holds her newborn. Hm. I'll just call them tears of funny.

Today was the first day in a long time that I cried for two entirely separate reasons, but neither instance was negative. The first time was a few hours ago, while reading my new favorite book, "The Host" - there were really tender parts in it, and while some of it was wrenching, none of my tears were sad. Just touched.

About 20 minutes ago, I was reading my little sister Nicole's blog about tetherball and fish, and I started laughing so hard that I was sobbing. Not just a lone tear, trickling out as I calmed down - I was crying. And wheezing. And I had to reach for the same box of tissues that I had used earlier.

It was weird, because in that moment when I grabbed the tissues, I just felt so lucky. Because it wasn't that long ago that crying twice in one day, and going through tissues like no one's business, wasn't something that was out of place for me. When sadness and fatigue and helplessness and stress were the cause of my overflowing emotions. Come to think of it, I can't pinpoint the last time that I cried because I was sad...

It's funny how life can tip you upside down, rattle you around, and spit you out, but still let you land on your feet somehow. No, it's not funny actually, it's amazing. And the fact that I had a loving family and a strong support system to help me to my feet made all the difference, I think.

:)

5.05.2008

HOLY TWILIGHT TRAILER!!

Oh. My. Gosh.

I may or may not have watched this five consecutive times.

Wowzer.

I also may or may not get the chills each time Edward looks at her after the car accident scene. And when he smiles at her before jumping into the forrest. And pretty much everytime he is on the screen. Yes, I surely have the hots for Jacob, but Edward will always be my love.

PS, am I the only one who thinks that this movie really is going to attract as many guys as girls? There's some pretty intense action! Ok, I'm done.


Twilight


Okay, last thing!!

.....the play by play, courtesy of Larry's blog at MTV.com

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1586891/20080505/story.jhtml

Shot 1: A crane shot swoops in on Edward and Bella, alone in the woods of Forks. "How old are you?" she asks breathlessly, to which he replies, "17."

Shot 2: As Edward looks over her shoulder, Bella's eyes say it all (that Kristen Stewart can act!). "How long have you been 17?" she queries, afraid of the answer.

Shot 3: Edward, squatting down, feels the dangers of the forest. If such brevity could ever foreshadow the ominous events to come, Robert Pattinson is doing it nicely here. And is that a cheetah scream on the soundtrack?

Shot 4: In the most vivid display of deer destruction since "Bambi," Edward takes to the hunt. Quick shots of some poor animal who has no idea what's about to hit it are intercut with footage of a fast-moving Edward. For this vegetarian vampire, there is no other choice.

Shot 5: Take another look at Edward Cullen, and you might notice that he's eyeballing Bella the way we'd expect him to have hungered over that now-dead deer. Even in this brief trailer, we can see how director Catherine Hardwicke will portray Edward's undead dilemma. Oh, and what do you think of Pattinson's non-accented voice while saying "a while"?

Shot 6: The return of the tagline: "When you can live forever ..."

Shot 7: Edward soaring through the forest. It looks to me like he's running through trees, not on top of them. But do Twilighters even still care about this issue anymore, or has footage like this forgiven it?

Shot 8: Hey, it's somebody other than our star-crossed lovers! "This is wrong, Edward," warns Kellan Lutz, a.k.a. Emmett. "She's not one of us!"

Shot 9: A harried Edward takes in Emmett's advice. Is it just me, or does Robert look a lot like James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause"?

Shot 10: A quick shot of Edward giving in to his desire ... for a little lip action.

Shot 11: The end of the tagline: "... what do you live for?"

Shot 12: Yes! This is what you've been waiting for, folks. Standing in the Forks High parking lot after getting dissed (yet again) by Edward, Bella leans against her truck.

Shot 13: Edward gives her the stink-eye from across the lot. Notice how far away he's standing.

Shot 14: As an out-of-control van veers into frame, a key moment from the "Twilight" novel comes to life.

Shot 15: Edward flies into the shot with superhuman speed, stopping the van from crushing Bella. His strength leaves a dent in the side of the vehicle.

Shot 16: As the soundtrack swells, both characters look up at each other, realizing all that has just been revealed. Well, does the scene look like you imagined it?

Shot 17: "From the worldwide bestseller ..." Don't you wish Stephenie would just appear here and take a bow or something? At least a little curtsy? OK, maybe not.

Shot 18: Edward and Bella in some sort of residence (the Cullen house?), as she attempts to assert some strength. "I'm not scared of you," Bella insists.

Shot 19: "You really shouldn't have said that," Edward replies, flashing a mischievous grin.

Shot 20: You'd better hold on tight, spider monkey! Edward whisks Bella through the window and into the tree-climbing adventure that reveals the full breadth of his power. That sound you hear is a few thousand Twilighters screaming, "OMG!" in unison.

Shot 21: The "Twilight" logo, surrounded by ominous clouds, with a bit of thunder on the soundtrack. As the release date of "12.12.08" follows behind it, we realize that we truly are in for one heck of a storm.