Oh, but wasn't today fun? Not.

I woke up this morning to a frustrated friend, then ventured on to the incompetent electrician that turned off the power to my apartment in order to do some work in the basement. Inconvenient? Yes. The entire ordeal could have been avoided if the fool had given us notice. Was he considerate enough for that, though? Of course not. He called my roommates phone approximately three minutes before he shut off the power. My roommate, who was still sleeping, did not answer his phone. Thus, about 8:25am this morning the apartment grew very quiet.

And we all know how contractors tend to behave. They say three hours, it turns out to be eight. Yes, yes. I was at work for those eight hours. That's besides the point; the point being he COULD HAVE CRASHED MY COMPUTER! Not to mention it's illegal to shut off electricity to an apartment regardless of the situation without at least 24 hours prior notice. My roommates and I will be deducting that from our rent, worry not.

This was on top of the fact that I have three children in my classroom who cannot identify the number one. Usually it works something like this: I hold up a number chart or flashcards and ask, "Where's number one?" The children either shrug their shoulders, or point to every number but 1. I then become frustrated and ask the children, show me one finger. I've explained that the number one is a straight line, just like the finger they're holding up. I've even gone so far as to make them count ONE object. This they can do. But heavens! Ask them to point to the number one and they stare at me like I have eight heads and am spewing pea soup.

I ask you, parents. Exactly what are you doing with your children at home?? Please. I beg you... don't rely solely on your child's teacher to do all of the work. Learning begins at home. Schools only enhance the process.

Time: Monday morning
Location: Brooklyn, NY; Ms. Smith's Classroom
Age group: 3 and 4-year-olds
Topic: A lesson in sequencing

Discussion: Today I attempted to teach the children sequencing. I wanted them to understand the idea of putting situations in the correct order, and to understand the terms "first", "next", and "last". I decided to use examples with them in an attempt to have them discover the correct answers on their own.

First example: I gave them three letters. A, B, and C. Mixing them up, I asked them to put them in order. This was a simple task and they accomplished it quickly.

Second example: I gave them the numbers 1, 2, and 3. Again mixing up the numbers I had the children put them in order. I made sure to use the key terms with them. Which number comes first? 1. Which number comes next? 2. Which number comes last? 3. Piece of cake.

Third example: Taking the task out of context, I provided the kids with a scenario: Suppose they were going to wash their hands. The question I asked was "What is the first thing you need to do when you wash your hands?"

After a moments silence... over half the class looked at me, and yelled simultaneously....

FLUSH THE TOILET!

from the mouths of babes... sigh.

Same stuff, different day. What's happpend here in the last week? Let's see.

I bought tickets for my trip to Florida in May. I'm looking forward to these trips more and more with each passing visit. The city gets to me more often than not now. Too many people, not enough concern, way too much chaos.

And since when are tickets to the circus $50 for the lowest price. Is that only a NYC thing? I mean, I'd like to see dancing bears just as much as the next girl, but those bears better be doing a rendition of Lord of the Dance for that price.

More after these words from our sponsor.

May your life be filled with many four leaf clovers. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Irish Lullaby

"Over in Killarney
Many years ago,
Me Mither sang a song to me
In tones so sweet and low. Just a simple little ditty,
In her good ould Irish way,
And l'd give the world if she could sing
That song to me this day."

Chorus:
"Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, hush now, don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, that's an Irish lullaby.".

Oft in dreams I wander
To that cot again,
I feel her arms a-huggin' me
As when she held me then.
And I hear her voice a -hummin'
To me as in days of yore,
When she used to rock me fast asleep
Outside the cabin door.

Chorus:
"Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, hush now, don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, that's an Irish lullaby."

Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak. Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

That's right folks. Beware. Of course, there's only an hour and a half left of the ides here on the east coast, but heed the warning at any rate.

For those of you wondering what on Earth I'm talking about, check out this link. BEWARE I SAY!

You've come so far in your first year, child.
You've learned to wiggle, crawl, walk, and run.
Your curious eyes are filled with so much wonder.

Your smiles have blessed each face you've looked upon.
You have made a lasting impression upon the hearts of those who love you most.

Happy birthday little one. May heaven continue to watch over you.
Love,
Aunty Nay-Nay.

"The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child." ~Joe Houldsworth

It's Saturday. Let's see what I've accomplished.

8am ~ Wake up.
10am ~ Drag a weeks worth of dirty clothes to the laundromat
12pm ~ Drag a weeks worth of clean clothes home from the laundromat
1pm ~ Walk the two miles to Target to pick up a DVD player for my room, birthday gifts for my godson, and a new candle. I love candles.
3pm ~ Walk the two miles back from Target, hook up DVD player, watch a bit of t.v.
5pm ~ Spend two hours working out with Billy Blanks (the cardio workout, and the ab workout, if you must know.)
730pm ~ Shower
8pm ~ Dinner
9pm ~ Blog

Yeah that's about it. Did I mention that Friday a little girl made her mommy buy me roses so that she could give them to me at school? When I asked what I did to deserve such beautiful white roses, the little girl said "I just wanted to..." and shrugged. It made my day. The mother, who is not the nicest of people that walk the Earth, said "She refused to come to school without those flowers... I had to buy them just to get her to walk to school!" She was highly annoyed. Sounds to me like the child became the teacher that day.

Well folks, the new Billy Blanks DVD's arrived today. That means you'll be seeing much less of me very soon. Literally. Pun intended even. At least I hope. The package even came with dog tags. One says "Spirit" the other says "Will Power". I suppose those will come in handy when I keel over after four hours of exercise videos.

I'm not sick anymore, which is good. The cold (or whatever it was) lasted from the minute I got home from work Friday night, until the minute I left for work Monday morning. Not fair.

While I'm at it, let me tell you an amusing story. I woke up one of my little bed-wetters this afternoon at nap, to prevent the obvious from happening. It took me several tries to wake him up, but he finally shuffled off towards the bathroom. Now, we have a large garbage can sitting near the bathroom door in the classroom. Little "T" walked straight to the garbage can, pulled down his pants, and if I hadn't been watching would have peed all over my floor. (The garbage can is much higher than his waist, to paint the picture a bit better.)

I immediately shouted "NO! Go to the bathroom! That's the garbage can!" and he turned, walked to the bathroom stall, and then attempted to turn on the light. (The switch, by the way, is on the bathroom wall, not inside the stall where Little "T" was searching...) After all was said and done, he was back on his bed, and the floor was still dry. Mission accomplished.