Clever Title Here

I sent two children home today with stomachaches and there were a few absent as well. I'm praying my teacher's immune system is able to keep me protected from all my germy little students. I'm having a time with my boys. I have two passes hung by the door and the kids know that if one pass is gone they have to wait because only one person can be gone from the room at a time and they know they can only invoke this privilege at certain times (not when I'm teaching). Those little stinkers have been randomly sneaking out of the room and "going to the bathroom". What the heck they do in there, I have no idea. I revoked their pass privileges today. They have to ask me individually to use the bathroom until they show me they can be responsible. Grr

When I was driving past my parents' on the way home, I saw Dollface sitting in the middle of their long driveway crying. Thinking she was hurt, I stopped. When I got out of the car she cried out, "Maw Maw gets too much mail!" Her job is to get the mail everyday as she gets off the bus and I guess today it was a very big job. It was scattered all around her. I guess as she walked a piece would drop and when she would try to pick it up a different piece would fall. She had thrown everything down in frustration and was just bawling. I dried her tears and rolled the mail up in a tight roll she could carry and sent her on her way.

I showed my parents my big list of names. They had the opposite reaction that I thought they would. Mom was very supportive and said she liked them all but gently tried to steer me away from the harder sounding names like Kent and Clint. Dad was quite critical in a humorous way, saying things like, "Weston is a hotel chain." and "Willow is a tree not a girl's name." I thought my mom would have been the critical one and my dad the more neutral one.

Dad also asked that I do not use a common name. His name is William and another boy in his grade was also William. He was told that he would be called William and the other boy Billy. It was like that until after high school and he hated being told what he would be called. His uncle called him Cottontop for his white blond hair and around the family they called him Billy, Cottontop or just Cotton. I can still hear my grandma's voice when she would say "William" to get after her adult son. I love the story but I hope my kid doesn't end up with a nickname like that.

I also shared the list at work and I'm having fun seeing what people "vote" for. I need all the help I can get. Can't believe someone's letting me name a kid.