Sit DOWN!

Two stories about the phrase in my title.

Story #1: When I was a teacher, we had this group of kids come through our junior high that threw us all for a major loop. There were soooo many naughty kids in this age group that several of the elementary schools that fed into our junior high actually warned us about them. They kicked all of our butts. I watched them kicking the butts of my friends who taught 7th grade. Then I got my butt kicked when they came into the 8th grade. I actually called one of them an a-hole and got yelled at by my principal. They were crazy hard.

There were these two boys who got put into my final class period of the day. That period is always the worst. That one and the one right after lunch. These two boys happened to be BFF's. Fate had it that they would be together in my class. No matter how far apart I seated these two, they would find a way to still team up and make my life a living heck. I actually really liked them each as individuals, and I know they liked me (the guy I swore at - we hated each other mutually). They just were...gleefully naughty. Like how Dylan is. :)

One of them was very small and looked like a little elf. The other one always had one hand holding up his pants (they were THAT oversized), and he looked like a Who from Whoville. It was uncanny. The nose, the head shape, everything was Whoish. The elf was Jake. The Who was Jeff.

Apparently, Jake and Jeff were together in wood shop class, as well, and they would get yelled at by the wood shop teacher every day. He would yell, several times per class period, in his gruff, dog-like voice, "Sit DOWN!" These two were always out of their seats in my class, too. My phrase was always, "Have a seat." Every time I said it, Jake and Jeff would yell, in unison, "Sit DOWN!" in a mocking tone of the wood shop teacher. I always kept a straight face when they did that, but inside, I was chuckling. So naughty. Sooo incorrigible.

They would both come and visit me when they were in 9th grade and in high school, and Jake actually kind of pulled away from Jeff. He started cleaning up his act and actually getting good grades. That made me happy. I'm not sure whatever happened to Jeff.

Story #2: This story is much shorter than the story above.

Micah is getting better and better at using phrases and two-to-three word sentences. It is so fun to see him progressing. As I have mentioned before, the kid has a temper, and he often yells at me and his siblings. It's super-special. He only has a few commonly-used phrases, words, and sentences that he can access in his little brain, so when he is in a yelling tantrum, no matter what the situation, he will often yell, "Sit DOWN!!" Tonight, we went to a movie at the cheap theater, and Micah wanted to run up and down the aisles. Ben wouldn't let him; he held Micah on his lap. Micah was pretty mad about this, so he yelled at Ben, "Sit DOWN!" If I put him down for his nap, he yells "Sit DOWN!" If it's time for his bath and he doesn't feel like bathing, he yells "Sit DOWN!" It's pretty funny.