Kosher for Passover

Some of the kids at work are Jewish, and some of them are kosher, in varying degrees.  Eloise is vegetarian at work, so that she doesn't mix milk and meat or have ham/pork/bacon accidentally.

So it was a bit of a shock to see Eloise chomping on a book.  More specifically, on the farm book.  To be even more specific, on the PIG picture of the farm book.

And it was the main day of passover.

Keeping kosher, that one is.

Sam Is Beautiful

Well, the compliments keep on coming my way.  What can I say?  I'm popular with the under 8 crowd (and a few over 8s...)


From Luke (who has proposed marriage).
"Sam, you're the beautifullest."
"Thanks Luke!"
"Sessie isn't the beautifullest."
"Well, usually only one person can be the beautifullest."
"You know why?  Because you have long hair."



From Bailey:
Randomly, while making play-dough:
"Sam, you're the thinnest," (in a VERY approving voice)


It helps working in an industry where everyone is addicted to chocolate.

Somehow, that Doesn't Surprise Me...

So, I was with the three year olds, when Rohan came up to me and told me excitedly, "My birthday's coming up!  It's in July!"

"That's great Rohan!" I said.  "My birthday's coming up too, in June.  That's just a little before yours!"

Alex looked thoughtful, then said very seriously, "My birthday's coming up, in Pluto."



I'm just surprised he's the only kid from another planet.

Best Bib Ever

I Don't Think It'll Be A Problem

So, I was playing with the (gluten free) play-dough with Gabby.  We were making biscuits.

"Here Sam.  You can have some, as a treat."

"Wow, thanks Gabby.  They look delicious!"

"Well, you can eat them.  Just don't tell your husband or your daughter about them."






Aarushi came up to me, and handed me one of the dolls.  "Here!  Here's your baby Sam!"

"Oh good," I said.  "I've been wanting a baby."

Aarushi looked at me very seriously, and said, "Now, don't throw your baby on the road Sam."

"Right..."

Not quite yours then...

At placement, some of the children were arguing over a Woody doll. It belonged to one of the children (i.e. it was a "home toy"), so I returned it to her. The boy who was arguing for it, told me, "But I NEED it." "It isn't yours though," I told him. "I've got one, but I left it." "Oh no, you left it at home? You can maybe bring it another day." "No, not at home. I left it at Target."

African Exam Answers

I marked an exam in Africa (for P4, or approx grae 3). Some of the answers were hilarious, so I recorded them for the blog.

Write Saturday in short form:
STD


Write Sun in full
Sunshine


Charity Begins...
Charity begins... the work
Charity begins... crying
Charity begins... with the letter "C"
Charity begins... talking


As black as...
Chuckle

Robin Hood and Guns

I was over at kids church, and tehy were playing games. I don't play games. I don't play them at life group, I don't play them at kids church. If I had been a kid at kids church, I would not have played games. Because games are terrible.

(Okay, I've played a few okay games. Role playing is fun. And a few other games. But we don't play those games. We play races or rhythm games or other things. I'd rather shoot myself.)

I said this, and the others were all horrified. "You didn't like games?"

"I liked real games. Fun games. Like playing Robin Hood."

This drew only blank looks. Turns out that Megan has never played Robin Hood. Evelyn has never played Robin Hood. Auntie Daisy has never played Robin Hood. None of the musicians had ever played Robin Hood.

I finally turned to Ben, the one child there at that time, and asked him.

"Robin Hood?" I explained it to him. You pretend you're Robin Hood, or someone else in the Merrie Men if there are lots of you. Then you shoot arrows at enemies. It's FUN. FUN I SAY.

"Oh yeah, I think I played that," Ben said. "Only we didn't use bows and arrows. We used guns."

Well, I Guess That's True

So, I went to Eleanor's wedding. While there, I got to talk to Mikey. He's been banned from asking Kallie about Pokemon, Sonic, and all other video games. He was told that he could "ask her about what she does". And then he was told that he was to ask that question and that question alone, to all others.

So eventually we turned the conversation to what he thought I should be when I grow up.

"A person. Because it would be really bad if you were an alien."

Thalia's Facts of Life

Working in childcare means that half the adults you meet seem to be expecting (dads don't tend to come to drop off or pick up - unless expentant Mum is labouring or is recently become unexpecting).

The kids are all always excited about their new babies. Which is really sweet. But then their friends get excited and declare that they too are having a new baby soon.

Whether they are or not.

But you can never tell. We've had mums get to 7 months before they were really showing.

Anyways, when I came into the room, Thalia ran up to me. "My Mummy's having a baby!" she told me excitedly.

"That's great!" I said.

"Yeah! She went into the toilet, and now she's having a baby!"

I alway knew I'd have Asian children...

but I kinda assumed they would be girls.

Instead, I've got 2 sons.

Isaac (at work) calls me Mumma, and cries when I leave the room. He also spends half his time running up to me and the other half running away from me. That said, he is 18 months

But my other Asian son is from church. And he is a little older than 18 months.

Vincent is my oldest child, but definitely not the most mature. In fact, he spent most of my first ever care group lesson trying to distract me and cracking jokes. And calling me Mummy.

But he made up for it. The lesson was on how Proverbs 31 is relevant for the whole church. And one of the verses we talked about was, "Her children rise up and call her blessed."

At which he stood up, and then katowed to me, shouted out "Blessed!"

Now to expand my family... who knows? Maybe I'll even get a girl?

Funnies From Africa

My Top class were learning the 12 days of Christmas for their concert. Several of them didn’t quite understand the lyrics, and were quite convinced that it was 10 lords a SLEEPING.

When I told Abby that I was going to eat her up, she told me very seriously, “You can’t eat people. You can’t eat the skin. So you have to pull the skin off and THEN you can eat people.”

Amaya retold the story of Bluebeard from a personal perspective: “If your friend is evil, and he kills all your best friends, and you grow up and marry him, he will kill you.”

Not A Great Day

I've included the first names of most people here, with the exception of those who come off badly and those in direct authority. In one case, they are the same person. Everyone mentioned by name and the manager of the centre was brilliant in all stages of this event.

It's been rather stressful recently at work. My team-leader continues to be a nasty person, the issues with the now-quit (thankfully) breaks cover were imaginabily bigger than I thought (and I thought he was a crazy b*st*rd), and we have been given a whole lot of new children all at once.

So I sent in a letter requesting a room change. I am not working with my crazy, b*tch of a room leader for a minute more than I have to.

To give you an idea of what she's like, I'll tell you about our beautiful day today.

Nicholas came in for lunch, very quiet and withdrawn. He had a few mouthfuls, then went back onto the verranda. He became clingy and cried silently. Katherine brought him inside and checked his temp. Normal.

Erin came through at this time, and also noticed that Nick was not himself. She has dealt with Nicholas having alergic reactions before, so she got him to stick out his tongue. Swollen. We start giving Nick fluids (because his parents insist each time that he's not having an allergic reaction, he's just dehydrated, so they give him water and panadol).

The team leader (TL from now on) decides that this is a great time to order me to leave Erin with Nick (even though he's having an alergic reaction) and HELP HER WITH THE CLEANING.

Instead, I phone all three of the numbers I have for his parents, and can't get through on any of them. Each phone call leads to a worse statement of Nick's stats. By the end of the third, he's having trouble breathing, so Nicole goes to get his epi-pen. I phone our manager to phone for an ambulance. Erin holds Nick, Nicole tries to administer the epi-pen, but can't because her hands are too sweaty and shaky. I give him his epi-pen. It takes until the count of 5 before he can breat well enough to cry. The manager has come in by then, and she and Erin take Nick to the office while Nicole goes out to flag down the ambulance.

And my TL? She keeps on cleaning.

Katherine and I run about, helping get the other children into bed (a reliever was outside with the rest of the children, except those in bed), and getting together all of Nick's belongings. TL keeps on cleaning. Except to ask Katherine if she can stop getting Nick's things, and can instead help with the cleaning.

Katherine ignored her.

Shortly later (just before the ambo's arrived), TL wanted Nicole (who was outside to FLAG THEM DOWN SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO SEARCH FOR THE PLACE) to come back inside, so we can "get back on schedule". "It's not like he'll be by himself," she said. I told her I didn't think so.

Nick's mum arrived, and she went with him in the ambulance. TL then went off for 40 minutes to cry about it, while everyone who actually did anything, held the room together at least until it was their lunchtime.

I have honestly never been so ANGRY at anyone in my life!

Priorities! Nick could have DIED! And she was more concerned about sweeping rice off the floor. I am absolutely disgusted.

Nick is fine, btw. Nicole is the most shaken by the experience. I am too angry to be shaken. I have my meeting with the manager about my request to change rooms tomorrow, and believe me, this is going to be mentioned.

Put On Your Happy Face

So last Wednesday I went home early feeling sick. I made it through lunch with the kids (the chaos time) and then left.

At lunch, Flick looked at me and said, "Sam, SAAHM, where is your happy face SAAHM?"

I told her my happy face needed panadol.

(Not strictly true, all my faces are non-responsive to panadol except my fever face. My happy face needed Nurofen).

So I went home, took Nurofen, went to bed, got up, and realised I only had 2 nurofens left.

So I took them, and headed out to buy more.

On the way I saw... Haison, who works nearby. I waved, because in my doped up state I thought, "Oh, random Asian I think I know. Must be from church." Two steps on, I realised that that was HAISON.

Thank goodness my happy face had plenty of nurofen, because otherwise, it might have been my angry, punching face he would have seen.

On the bright side, he didn't recognise me. After all, he hasn't seen me since before I got glasses, let alone a head-covering.

And that, my friends, is a good reason to have a Happy Face.

Not Exactly, Meggie

I was changing a display on our walls, and a few of the kids asked me what I was doing. My standard response whenever they ask me what I’m doing is: “What do you think I’m doing?” because they usually know, they just want to make conversation, and it gets them using their expressive language.
So when Meggie looked at me and said “What are you doing?” I said, “What do you think I’m doing?”

She thought about it for a second, and said, “You’re up there so we can’t reach you.”
I nearly fell off my ladder for laughing. Guess she would have reached me then!

Zoe and her Music

One of the most important things that I do is that I refuse to play kids music at work. The Toddler room is a Wiggles-free zone. We play real music to the kids. And they start developing preferences pretty soon.

So when I came in I went to put on some music. I asked Zoe wha she wanted. "Gee."

"Beatles or Fleetwood Mac?"

"Or Gee."

"We could have the Everley Brothers."

"Or Gee for Kids."

"The Beatles are really cool."

"Gee for Kids."

"Fine, we'll put on Glee."


Next week, I gave her the choice of Beatles or Fleetwood Mac again. "Gee?"

"No Glee today. I don't feel like Glee."

Zoe thought about it, then made her choice. "Beatles." So they went on.

As she usually does, Zoe stood in the home-corner where the CD player was and listened for a moment. Then she looked at me and sighed, "It's wonderful."

Car! Car!

I came into work today, and was, as usual, greeted by several of the children, including Thalia. The rest soon went back to their activities, but Thalia didn't. She looked at me and said, "Car, car!"

"Honey, you know I catch the bus."

"Car! Car!"

Then she grabbed my legs, and started lifting up my skirt.

Now, the good thing about childcare is it's pretty much all females as far as the adults go. And I wear stockings AND leggings under my skirt. But it's still disconcerting to have your skirt lifted by a two year old. So I told her to quit it.

"Car, car!" Thalia insisted.

"No, that is my skirt, not a car, and you don't lift up a girl's skirt. It's bad manners."

I walked away from her, putting away some of the things I had brought in from home. And I felt something banging at the back of my thighs. I twisted around, and saw this flash of red metal.

One of them had attached a toy car to my skirt!

I cut it off and gave it to Thalia, appologising, who promptly took the car. It was what she wanted anyway.

Well, it was an interesting start to the morning.

Another 9, and I'll have my 20...

Most people know that I want 20 children. Yes, I accept I'm mad, but I do. I don't expect for all of these kids to be bio kids - I always wanted to adopt, from before I was 10.

But I recently aquired another sponsor kids.

I was at Chadestone, getting some baskets for work, when this random African guy came up to me, grabbed me by the arm, and said: "If you sponsor a child, will you feel good? Yes! You will feel good!"

Well, who's going to argue with that?

I now have a girl called Judy from Malawi through Plan.

Poor Joash. He's my only boy.

Next time I'm accosted by people in a shopping centre I'll ask for a boy. Because who can argue with feeling good?

Why, Yes, He Does!

Jude got to go home sick. What he had was very contagious, so we were keeping him away from the other kids, on the verranda. As a treat he was looking through my photo frame. (The photos do change on a semi-regular basis, just so as you know.) Georgie was tidying the next verranda, and laughing at Jude (because he's so funny and awesome.)

"Hey look! It's Hope!" he said excitedly.

"Yep, that's my church's logo. Hope church."

Jude flicked to the next picture. "Look, it's Ps Ian!"

"You're right, that is Ps Ian."

"He's SINGING," said Jude in awe.

"He's preaching I think."

"Oh, preaching."

"Look Georgie, it's Ps Ian!"

"Wow, Ps Ian," echoed Georgie.

Jude smiled at her, and let her know one essential Ps Ian fact. "He's got HAIR."

I'm not exactly sure that's right...

We were outside, and Kleio had taken off one of her shoes. "You can't go around with one shoe off and one shoe on Kleio. That's CRAZY!" I said.

"Crazy boy!" Kleio said happily.

"No, Kelio, you're a girl, so you're a crazy girl." I told her. "I'm a girl too, so I'm a crazy girl. What do you think Paris is?"

"Crazy girl?"

"No, Paris is a boy, so he's a crazy boy."

With that, Jude felt the need to add his ever-hilarious two-cents. "Dad's a boy," he told me in a confiding tone.

"My Dad's a boy too. What's your Mummy?"

Jude thought about it for a second, and said, "Mummy's a pirate."