Mountain Mama

So yesterday, Tim started pontificating about the messy kitchen.  There was stuff all over the counters, as usual.  You see, the kitchen counters are the only place in the house that Ben cannot reach yet!  Therefore, anything that we don’t want Ben to have, ends up on the counters. 

He pointed out the Lysol Antibacterial Spray and said, “we shouldn’t have this stuff laying around.  Ben could get it and spray it into his eyes.”  Then, I kid you not, before I even had time to react, he took the spray bottle, pointed it into his eye, and squeezed, attempting to demonstrate the grave danger Ben was in.  Apparently, he thought the spray nozzle was off.  He was wrong. 

Where can I put things so that Tim won’t get into them???

 Nothing can beat the story of my friend’s kindergarten student who wants to be called Mojo, but I had to share this story:

Today, I realized that there was a kindergarten student in my class who’s name did not appear on my class list.  I knew her first name was Jane* but I didn’t know her last name.  So I said, “Jane*, what’s your last name?”  She said, “Jane Punky Punky Smith.”  I said, “So, Punky is your middle name?”  “No,” she said, “Punky Punky*.”  I said, “so what’s your full name?  She said, ”My name is Jane Punky Punky Smith.” 

OK, welcome to Music Class, Punky Punky!

*Jane Smith=not her actual name
*Punky Punky=actual middle name, according to student

Ben is almost walking.  He can walk from one couch to the other and not fall down!  He’s done it several times.  However, when we cheer for him and try to get him to repeat the feat, he gets so excited that he invariable falls down.  So, when he’s “not thinking about it” he can practically walk.  I really think he could have walked a couple of months ago, but he is such an expert crawler he had no need to try.

Something else he’s started doing the last week or so: giving kisses on request.  His kisses are open-mouth slobber festivals, but melt my heart anyway!  He’s been giving “kisses” for a couple months now (actually he tried to kiss a girl when he got to day care one day, and the teacher was like, “be nice”), but only recently has he started giving them on request.  He doesn’t do it EVERY time, but I’ll say, “give mommy a kiss” and he will put his mouth on my face.  The other day I said, “give Simba a kiss” (a stuffed animal) and he did!  Then I said, “give the puppy a kiss” (another stuffed animal) and he did!  It’s so sweet!  Now if we could just teach him to close his mouth…

Well, I’m back to work.  The bad news is that my room is tiny.  I call it my cubicle.  Seriously, picture a small classroom, and then cut it in half, and that’s the size of my cubicle.  No windows.  The good news is that I have installed surround sound in my cubicle.  It will greatly enhance my working conditions!  I had a stereo receiver/surround sound system at home that I had to disconnect due to numerous exposed wires tempting Ben.  So, I took it to school.  It’s great- I can hook up my ipod and have great quality sound.  6 speakers + a subwoofer.  I also have the TV, and CD/tape player hooked in to it.  I have really enjoyed playing high quality music while I don’t have kids in the room.  It’s going to save my sanity this year.  Oh, and it will be useful in my teaching, too.