Unintentional Eavesdropping

While I am taking care of small children, I tend to hear a lot of things that either I feel like I shouldn't hear, or that really just shock me. Unfortunately, when these things are overheard, I am usually only in the company of one or two children, who are totally oblivious to it, and would probably still be if I explained the whole scenario.

Yesterday, for example, I was sitting in my usual spot on the little platform below the fish tank in the "Inside Out" kids room at the Academy Of Natural Sciences. C was doing what he always does, making sand piles and "roads" in the big sandbox they have there. I was sifting through my head for interesting things to think about, or interesting people to text, to get me through the inevitable hour of watching C play with the sand (he never really wants anyone to play with him). Then a man walks in, who could be classified as a "crazy person". He's kind of hunched over and wearing HUGE thick black rimmed glasses...and he's the only person who is above the age of 5 who isn't chaperoning someone under the age of 5. You might think that the outrageous thing I overheard came from him. But wait. The man starts talking to one of the young volunteers there, who seemed to be about thirteen years old. He asks if he can see some creature called "Whip". As I watch this girl take down the little plastic terrarium that "Whip" lives in, I start wondering what "Whip" is. I figured it was a lizard, until the girl reaches in and starts beckoning to a terrifying looking insect with eight long legs and a HUGE abdomen that looks like a bird's egg. My skin was crawling. Apparently, so was the "crazy" man's because he made a comment expressing so. Then the girl says "Aww, don't worry, he's really a sweetie once you get to know him". About a creepy scorpion! Within 5 minutes, she also called the giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches "sweeties" too. Yuck.

The next one happened when I was at the playground with K and T. We were sitting in one corner of the playground, when the local daycare brought all their kids over to play. My favorite part of this (aside from all the cute stumbling babies) is the daycare workers, who just fascinate me with their conversation. The other day one of the women was going inside the rec center to get drinks for she and her co-worker. They were scrounging up change when they suddenly stopped, fascinated by one of the coins. The following is the dialogue I heard:

One woman: "Wow! Look at this quarter!"
Other woman: "What is that on it?"
Both women simultaneously: "Eee...Eee Pluriboos...Eee Pluriboos Ewnum"
One woman: "What are we celebrating the Spanish now? These new quarters are crazy!"

I just stood there, probably with my mouth hanging open, staring at these women in disbelief, searching around me desperately for someone who had heard this and was as shocked as I was. But all I saw were little, smiling, stumbling babies running around and screeching. Ignorance is bliss.