Conversations

Rebekah has this funny little habit of calling everyone Monkey.  It's especially funny when she uses it casually in everyday conversation.  For instance, as Ryan is leaving for work he gives her a hug and kiss and she lovingly hugs his leg and calls out "Good bye Monkey!"

Or as I am giving her an instruction she will promptly reply "Okay Monkey!"

It is perhaps not totally respectful, but it's sure adorable to hear it with her little voice.  To sweeten the deal she has also grabbed onto the phrase "Pretty pretty please".  She pulls this out when she wants me to do something for her.  She's got the twinkle down to an art form as she opens her big eyes wide and says "Pretty pretty please!".  Luckily for me I am not as susceptible to her charms as her daddy.

Good bye Monkey.

Yesterday was full of great conversations with my big kids.  Meagan came home from school with her weekly progress report.  She pulled it from her backpack and handed it to me and promptly went to her room and started crying on her bed.

Curious as to what could possibly be written on her paper that would cause pre-emptive tears I scanned the sheet.  Underneath the standard check box area, her teacher had penned the phrase "Meagan has been very social this week".  Which I interpreted to mean "Meagan has been chit chatting with her friends during class".  Which is certainly behavior to work on but nothing worth crying over.

I tend to not be very stern about that since I brought home notes with the message "Michelle is a great student but she needs to stop talking to her neighbors and stay in her seat".

Yes, that's where they get it from.

At any rate, I walked to the source of tears and asked Meagan why she was upset.  She said she was in Big Trouble because of her weekly report.  This is the conversation that followed:

"Well, I don't think you are in Big Trouble.  Did you read what your teacher wrote?"

"Sort of."

"She wrote 'Meagan has been social this week' not 'Meagan is in Big Trouble this week'"

"Oh.  What does social mean?"

"It means being friendly and chatting with your friends"

At which point she looks up at me with wide tear-filled eyes "Is that a bad thing?"

At which point I can't decide if I want to pull her into my arms to soothe her or laugh out loud.

"Being social is not a bad thing.  I think your teacher just wants you to save your chatting for recess and lunch."

"Huh.  Okay!"

Silly Monkey.

By far my favorite conversation yesterday was with Caleb.  We were sitting outside watching Bekah ride her bike around.  We had the following conversation:

"Mom, I have a vocabulary question."

"Okay.  What's the word?"

"Well, I was reading from my friend's book and came across a word I didn't know.  But when I raised my hand to ask in class all the kids were surprised and covered their mouths."

??

"Okay, what were you reading?'

"I was reading 'Where the Red Fern Grows' and it talked about the dog.  And it used a word I had never heard before.  The word was b$%*!"

"You raised your hand and asked your teacher what that word meant?"

"Yes."

At this point I am super pleased that I have not burst out laughing.  I proceeded to explain what the word meant in the book as well as what it means otherwise and why the kids were astonished that he brought it up in class.  I also gave him a little tip that he shouldn't use that word outside of Dog Shows.

Later that night I had a conversation with Ryan relating these prior conversations.  We were laughing until we couldn't breathe envisioning Caleb and that innocent question in front of his entire 4th grade class.

Bless teachers everywhere.