Vanilla, aka Ice Cream Face, and Others

Since every post I write about my students is something to the extent of "Stories About the Kids," or "More Stories About the Kids," or "Even More Stories About the Kids," I thought I should try a little harder and get a little more creative. Also, although all the kids have ben great and hilarious lately, tonight's main character is one Vanilla, the 5-year-old. Now, what parent would name their kid Vanilla, you ask? Well, probably no parent. See, Vanilla named himself. You can read about it here in the 4th to last paragraph. But enough about Vanilla for now - I'm gonna save him for last this time. Here's how a couple other kids are doing:

E, age 16, got his license a couple of months ago. It's weird, man. I've known him since he was nine and in 4th grade! And now he's driving. Weirds. Anyhow, today he was practicing a 4 measure section of the song he's working on, going slowly with the metronome and repeating it over and over again to get it right. He was actually doing really well until he stopped suddenly and exclaimed, "How do you do this every day?!" I looked at him. "Do what everyday?" I asked. "Sit here and listen to kids do the same thing every day, over and over again, and do it week after week?" I, of course, started in on a speech on how much I love it and how I love watching how kids learn differently from each other and blah blah blah. After a minute or so, E interrupted me with this: "You're really nerding out right now. Whatever, I could never do it." and kept playing. Fantastic.

D, age 7, tells me all about her day every Thursday. Like, a little too much, probably. Today she talked about eating an apple turnover at school. In complete seriousness, she said to me, "I turned it over, but nothing happened, so I just ate it anyhow." Then, as she was doing some theory work, she meant to write an E but wrote a 5. She laughed, erased it, and wrote another 5. She laughed harder, erased it, and wrote a 3. She then laughed too hard for it to even matter anymore.

L, age 9 (who you can also read about in the above link to Vanilla - she wants to give her sister a high five in her face), is very excited to go to the dentist next week. She thinks the dentist is going to send her to the orthodontist, who will tell her she needs braces. She is so excited to get braces. She says, "I am going to look so cute with braces." She also kept laughing at everything I said and clapping me on the shoulder for some reason.

Okay, are you ready to hear about Vanilla? Here is all the stuff he did and said today (keep in mind this all happened within 30 minutes):

There is a quilt on the wall that shows animals from all over the world, he shows me his favorite fish. He shows me the path that the fish swims, all the way down the river into the ocean. He's very sweet and gentle, and then proclaims, "This fish is going to punch the earth!" He then punches the wall and laughs hysterically.

"Today I made a dinosaur picture. He's the kind with the spiky face. I don't know his name today, but it will change every day. Tomorrow it will be called Benjamin Franklin."

"I had a dream last night about a little girl who got so many presents from Santa Claus!"

He made up his own words to the tune of Dynamite, which is his favorite song. They go: "Reem likes to throw up in the air sometimes. Likes to throw up, she likes to throw up!" Then he switched to his own tune and sang "She throws up like a club throws up!" When I ask him how much throw up is in a club, he tells me "Throw up the size of a million people. And that's a lot!"

Last thing: He called me mommy when he was leaving and his mom tells me that he's been calling everybody Mommy lately. I don't care, I'm still flattered. Thanks, Vanilla!