John Deere Buck

There is a 3-year-old boy (we'll call him Peter) at preschool who talks all the time about his John Deere Buck. I didn't even know John Deere made something called a Buck, but here it is:

What's so funny about this is not the fact that he's a little talker. And it's not even what he says that cracks me up, but how he says it. And the only way for you all to understand what I mean was to somehow have a recording of it. *angels singing* "And God said, 'let there be an Iphone with a recording app.' And it was so." :) So I just happened to ask if he rode his tractor over the weekend, and here is our conversation: (I have included a transcript, as it's funnier when you actually know what he's saying.)

Hold the ctrl key and click here to listen. (It'll come up in a new tab so you can read and listen at the same time. You might have to click on the second tab to get it to start, then click on the first tab to read.)

Peter: I actually drove my John Deere Buck at my Grama and Grampa's. There's kinda rocks near my Gram...Grampa has a little shed that's beside a little playground, and I drove my Buck past it on fast speed on the...on fast speed on the rocks. There's kinda rocks.

Me: Did you drive it by yourself or did somebody help you drive it?

Peter: I just have to put it on just the gas pedal and I just...

Me: You just go?

Peter: Yeah. Well, it's kinda electric.

Me: 'Lectric? 'Lectric John Deere? It doesn't take any gas?

Peter: Naw. Just the gas pedal.

Me: Just the gas pedal.

Peter: Yeah, the gas pedal. It's not really real...It really does go pretty fast on its fast speed.

Me: Yeah?

Peter: Yeah. Well, my tractor actually needs...my tractor needs to be charged.

Me: Yeah? It's out of battery?

Peter: (nods)

Me: Yeah.

Peter: Yeah, so that's a fast one, too. Grampa has a little four-wheeler. It only goes on slow speed.

Me: What, the tractor or your John Deere Buck?

Peter: Um, well, my John Deere Buck goes slow speed, and back up, and fast, and then...well...Grampa's (not sure what he said here) Buck is kinda...just goes pretty slow. Just on slow.

Me: It's just a slow one? You can't go real real fast with that one?

Peter: Naw.

R.I.P. Mr. Goodbar

Josh happened to catch this sad event down the block the other day:


So long, Mr. Goodbar. We salute you.

Not Funny, just a note...

Hey, ever'body! I just wanted to point you to the new feature of my blog, the "followers" section (to your left). If you read my blog regularly, go ahead and list yourself as a follower, just so I know. I do have a tracking program, but it doesn't tell me who. Just where the person is from. Plus, I throw my numbers all the time because I check my own blog for comments. :(

There's a Penguin in the Bathroom!

At preschool, part of my duties include maintaining the library/workroom. Today was one of my library days, so I spent much of my time organizing and tagging books.

Next door to the library is a 4-year-old classroom. I like to listen in on what they're doing, because they happen to be the cutest class in the entire preschool. Today, the director of the preschool made a special visit to their class for a very important announcement, and this is what I heard:

Director: "Boys and girls, there is no longer a penguin in the bathroom. We have moved the penguin, and it's not in the bathroom anymore."

You'd think that at this point I would just start cracking up. Instead, my face got super hot and I'm sure turned beet red, and my heart fell through my stomach, for, you see, it was my penguin in the bathroom.

Let's back up...this is my penguin Pally:


I use him for some of the games that we play in several of my classes. Here's the problem...I can't keep him in the room when the two-year-olds are in there because he drives them beyond distraction. They won't do anything else as long as he's watching them. And even though Wednesday is largely a library day, I do have one two-year-old class first thing in the morning. So this morning I dropped him off in the bathroom and went about my two-year-old class.

Then I forgot about him.

Obviously this caused quite a stir as I gathered from the little announcement the director made to the k-4 class. Afraid that I'd be "talked to" about it, I made myself scarce until it was time for my next (and last) class of the day. As I returned to my classroom, however, I ran into our snack lady (nutrition coordinator, and believe me, she does a lot more than just fix snacks.) in the hall. She opened her mouth to, I was sure, bring up the incident, so I beat her to the punch.

"I overheard," I told her. The she just started laughing. Figuring I must not be in too much trouble, I relaxed and asked her what happened. "Did it scare the kids?" I asked.

Now, I need to preface this with a little information. That k-4 class by the library is the only k-4 class on the first floor, and the only classroom on the first floor without a bathroom in it. AND the classroom is too far from the public bathrooms on the first floor to just let the kids go by themselves. So every time one of them has to use the potty, the teacher has to radio down to our snack lady (Whose kitchen is next to my room and right by the bathrooms) to come escort the child to the bathrooms.

So our snack lady brought one child to the bathroom and he just thought that penguin was the coolest. She explained why it was there, he went on about his business, and she returned him to the classroom. No sooner did she return to the kitchen and she got another radio call that someone else needed to use the bathroom. So back down the hall she went to go get the second kid. Again, the child was wowed by the penguin. And, as with the child before, pottied and returned to the classroom. Now a THIRD call came in on the radio. Back down the hall she went, suspicious, but dutiful. She confirmed her suspicions when the third child was directed to the second bathroom (there are two) and said, "no wait! I wanna use the first one."

As the kids don't generally have special bathroom requests, she knew what was going on and talked to our director. And thus, the important announcement.

All ended well, though, as Pally is back in my room, safe and sound, and I didn't get "talked to" at all by our director. :)

Happy Valentines Day!

I know...I'm a big fat cheater because my awesome funny blog entry is just the address of someone else's blog. But you've GOT to check this out, if for nothing else, the portrait of Cupid. I was Googling for cupid pictures that I could use in my class, and the picture from this blog came up in my search results. I just had to see where it came from, so I clicked and was led to this blog:

http://shakeyourfist.blogspot.com/2006/02/screw-cupid.html

The song links don't work anymore, but just the titles were enough to send me rolling.