I promise I'll stop, but these stories are just too good.

My pre-k's love for me has been progressing rapidly:

2 days ago at nap time a kid in the class that I'm helping out in this week looked at me and said: "Take your shoes off and then get in," as he held up his sleeping bag...that he was already in.

Today I was laying on my side during nap time next to a student in an effort to model proper napping behavior/to squeeze in a small rest for myself. All of a sudden I felt a different student cuddling up behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and quickly realized that Marcos had just made me little spoon. HAHA. No one ever lets me be little spoon because I'm 5'9"...but this little one who has yet to round out 4 feet was totally in favor of the idea...however, policies are definitely not in favor of this idea...so I had to quickly remove myself from that silverware drawer!

On a different note then nap time...when I first got to the school in the afternoon I made the little devil child pinky swear me that he would behave all day. This entire exchange took place in Spanish, except of course "pinky swear" which I did not know the translation of.

Later on in the day when he he pushed another kid I said, "Oye, me prometiste que te vas a portar bien con un pinky swear, que paso?" (You promised me you were going to behave well with a pinky swear, what happened?)

He pointed at his pinky and said, "But this one is behaving well like I promised." Then he made a thumb's down and said, "Only this one is behaving poorly."

POGS

Not the topic of my post, but a great childhood toy, no? I think that's where the saying "I'm playing for keeps," originates from.

Today I'm talking to my dad on the phone and he says, "So I read that book called 'Twilight,' the one about the girl in love with the vampire, you know? Have you read it yet?"

Uh, no. I had no idea what it was until my 25 year old first grade teacher sister called me squealing with delight about Edward the vampire.

My dad: I don't know, it held my attention and I just kept reading and reading, and it went so fast.

Molly: Um, it probably went so fast because it was written for thirteen year old girls.

My dad: Yeah, maybe...I finished the first one and Emily wanted me to read the second, but I said, "How much can you really read about one girl loving a vampire?" But then Emily told me that Edward wasn't even in the second novel very much, so I said "okay."

Here's to mi padre starting Twilight part 2. You're awesome.

When my brother grew up he wanted to be an airplane

This morning my five year olds got on the subject of what they wanted to be when they grow up. I went around the circle to listen to all of their aspirations, all of them being fairly standard responses:
1. archaeologist
2. police man
3. mermaid
4. veterinarian
5. teacher
6. artist

Last but not least I got to the tiniest, cutest, blondest child of the group. She looked up at me with her bright blue eyes, paused for a second and then said: "Miss Molly, when I grow up I want to be a bear hunter."

Scene 2:

At the end of the day I told the boys that there was no playing inside the bathroom.

"Your buses are going to be here in a couple of minutes, so go right in and come back out quickly."

One kid stared at me for a second and then said: "But I need to party for 5 seconds in the bathroom."

He looked back at me for some sort of confirmation but instead I couldn't stop cracking up.

Awesome.

“Friendships of 20-plus years gone over a spray tan?”

I think this is creepy.

On my...

Job:
Let's just say that five year olds were a lot cuter about six weeks ago.

Life:
This past week I have watched a grotesque amount of bad television (Read: TLC and MTV) I need to start doing more useful things with myself when I get home from work and I'm really tired.

Today I was talking to my brother, who just moved to D.C., about buying furniture etc. for his apartment.

Me: make sure you remember to buy some accent colors from Ikea this time, so it's not a room full of khakis and naturals again.

Ben: No!

Me: No? You want to have an entire room of khaki?

Ben: No, I will not go to Ikea, because
A) I don't even know where the Ikea is in D.C.
B) There's a Target like 3 blocks away from me, and
C) I fecking hate Ikea

Ikea can definitely be crazy town if you shop there in person vs. online.

I am looking forward to being on the east coast in 2 weeks and 2 days, because it means that I won't be working! D.C., Philly, and NYC here I come.

hey bear!

I spent this last weekend visiting my friend John at the camp he works at up north by Shawano. I went with 4 other people that I lived with in the dorms, where John also lived.

On the way up my friend Peter explained a game to us called, "Hey cows!" (if you know Peter you can imagine what voice he says this in, which makes it much more hilarious) The game is fairly self explanatory in that you have to call "Hey cows!" to cows on the side of the road, and you get points for however many look up at you.

When we camped out on Saturday night we were informed that a bear had been spotted on the same land a few camp sites away a few days before. We soon changed the game to "Hey bear!" We all thought we were really funny when we threw this line out as all 6 of us snuggled into a tiny tent.

In the morning we made a mancake (all of the pancake mix poured into one pan over the fire for a long time), and headed out after a weekend of Sun Drop, rock climbing (a wall), a canoe trip down the Wolf River, swimming, hiking, and laying out underneath the stars.

We quickly learned that "Hey Cows!" was a game of strategy, and as we slowed down as we rounded a corner and all shouted in unison to a small cow pen really close to the road, I think we got every cow to look at us besides one. We glowed with triumph for the rest of the trip home. It was a good weekend.

hover mother, hover round

Yesterday a new session of Safety Town started with a whole new group of kids. Many of these parents are nervous to send their kids away for the first time causing them to ask questions like: "What do parents normally do while their kids are at Safety Town?" (Well, gee I don't know, you have 2.5 hours, do whatever you want).

One mother hit new extremes of "hover mother," a word I thought my older sister who's a teacher coined...but urban dictionary knows about it, so maybe not.

She sat next to her child for 15 minutes asking him if he was going to be okay, and then told him she would just wait out in the hallway for a few minutes to make sure he was. When she saw her child happily playing with legos, she re-entered the gym 3 separate times over 15 minutes to ask him if he was doing okay without her and reminding him she was out in the hall, or to deliver messages to me such as: "He likes to pee a lot." Well, okay.

When I thought she had finally left...turns out she didn't. She didn't ask me when we were going to play outside...so I assume she was sitting in her car waiting for us to go out (which was 1.5 hours later) My director saw this mom hiding behind bushes and the fence around the playground to watch her child play.

At pick up she said to her child: I saw you playing outside. Even he seemed to be startled by this and responded: "Hey, you shouldn't have been able to see me!"

My co-worker reminded me the police were coming to talk at Safety Town the next day in case I needed to report her or anything.

Scene 2: I'm crossing the street in front of my apartment to get in the car with Nick, Trisha, and Patrick for our volleyball game. An old man just tips right over the curb and falls face first into the street, with a car braking to not run over his head. Startled I ask him if he's okay while he just lays there for about 10 seconds not responding. Everyone looked on with jaws dropped, I think my jaw was dropped, too.

He finally rolls over so I ask him if he wants help up, it takes all of my strength to pull him up off the ground. I give him his bag and he says he's fine so I go get in the car.

He moseys up to the car and says: "You can't tell me that happened because I'm old (chuckling)." Nick: "Oh no, you just tripped, it was the curb." Man: "Well yeah, I think I missed it because I was watching you guys." (I now recall that they had been honking the horn and yelling things out at me, whoops) Man: "I thought if I just laid down there for a couple extra seconds it would be more dramatic (chuckling)."

Sir, you nearly gave me a heart attack for your health, and Trisha one for your Tbell (it's what was in the bag).

We drove away down University where we passed an old man waiting at a red light in a turn lane in an electric powered wheelchair (this is where the hover round comes in). Ummmm...maybe he thinks he's a car, we pondered? Hopefully that turned out all right for him.

Hahaha.

Until Death Do Us Part

A few weeks ago I picked up the book Until Death do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia, by Ingrid Betancourt, a French Colombian presidential candidate kidnapped by the FARC in February of 2002.

It was very eerie as in the first chapter she discusses how people around her were constantly warning her to watch her back, foreshadowing an impending doom she was unaware of. Her reply in the book was always that she was perfectly fine. It was this response that made me research when the book was written and released. It was copyrighted in 2002, released September 1st, 2002. It was sad that the words she had written only took on a publishable relevance after she was kidnapped.

The interesting timing of picking up this book was amplified today when I heard news that Ingrid Betancourt, 3 Americans, and 11 other Colombians were rescued through a secret operation by the Colombian Army.

You know it's true love when News of a (rescue of a) Kidnapping makes you want to go back and live in a country.