Weenies and Junglemints

I mopped my kitchen floor today (yep, it's that time of year again...I almost put it off 'til spring because of all the dirty snow that gets tracked in these days, but all that dirty snow made mopping mandatory). I piled all the kitchen chairs into the living room, putting one of them on the stair landing. Drew and Owen were very good to stay in that general area and not tromp all over the wet floor in the kitchen. As I was mopping along, I heard Owen yelling the strangest phrase over and over. I could tell he thought he wasn't pronouncing it like he knew it should be pronounced, because the words changed each time he said it:

Weenies and Junglemints!

Babies and Winnamence!

Lalees and Ambience!

Wallees and Jellamence!

I peeked around the corner to see what the yelling was all about. Owen was standing on the chair on the landing, with his arms outstretched, making declarations to the people (which people included Drew, Samantha [held captive in her booster seat] and Vito): Weedies and Mimamints!

I cracked up! It took me a few minutes to figure out he was trying to say "Ladies and Gentlemen." It reminded me of a favorite poem that I heard when I was about four or five that I've always tried to remember and finally thought to look up online. There are lots of versions of it and no one can seem to agree on who wrote it, but here's my favorite version:

Ladles and Jellyspoons:

I come before you

to stand behind you,

and tell you something

I know nothing about:

As next Thursday is Good Friday,

there will be a Fathers' meeting for Mothers only.

Wear your best clothes if you don't have any,

and please stay at home, if you can be there.

Admission is free, pay at the door,

have a seat on me; please sit on the floor.

No matter where you manage to sit,

the man in the balcony will certainly spit.

I thank you for your unkind attention,

and now present the next act:

The Four Corners of the Round Table.