Go tell it on the mountain

Natasha: "Yovary is acting like the boss of everyone because he's Ms. K's helper. But he's not the boss of me! He's not the boss."
Other kids, in chorus: "Yeah, he's not the boss! You're not the boss, Yovary! There is no boss! No one is the boss!"
Natasha, importantly: "God is the boss. God is the boss of everyone."

* * *

Recently I finally put two and two together and realized that I see Lyle in kindergarten on Tuesday mornings and his sister Lillian in first grade on Tuesday afternoons. So last Tuesday I said, "Lyle! Did you know I'm going to see your sister this afternoon? Do you want me to tell her that you say hello?" Lyle nodded. So that afternoon, I dutifully announced to Lillian: "Lillian! Did you know I saw your brother this morning? He says hello!"

Today, Lillian followed me around the classroom, a shy smile on her face. "My brother say something," she reported.

"What did he say?" I asked.

"My brother say something," she repeated.

"Okay, what did he say?" I asked again.

"I want you to tell me," she said.

"You want me to tell you what your brother said?" I echoed, totally confused. She nodded vigorously.

"I...don't know!" I replied, wondering if we were playing some kind of guessing game. Her smile faltered a little.

"You see my brother tomorrow?" she said...and that's when it clicked.

I'm not just the writing teacher, I'm a fun messenger too!

In the same class, I was helping Amber add sentences to her story, and I asked her what she wanted to say. Here is what she recited: "One afternoon, I went to my favorite store, Target. When I walked in the store, I saw lots of Valentine's Day candy. I picked up the candy and dropped it in my basket."

This is, nearly verbatim, the same story I told her class a week ago. Amazing!

In other news, what do multi-vitamins, echinacea, extra Vitamin C, Cold-Eeze, Halls cough drops, hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial soap have in common? They all spectacularly failed to keep me from getting sick for the fifth time this school year. Today was the 90th day of school, which means I've been getting sick an average of once every 18 school days, which means my next illness should roll in right around the beginning of March. Let's see if my prediction comes true!