Classroom 2014-2015

Sorry I've been MIA lately. I reported back to school on Monday and have been preparing for the upcoming school year. I've been busy during the day, prepping my classroom, and at night I'm back to washing bottles and pump parts, prepping dinner for the following day, etc.

It's kind of difficult to get back in the swing of things, so I don't have much time for blogging. And I don't really have much to blog about anymore either. No more play dates. No more daily adventures with my babes. But...I am beginning a new adventure, which I think is blog-worthy - a new school year!

When I walked into my classroom last week, it looked like this:

Bare walls and everything packed up in boxes.

After about 4 days of working (in between meetings...so many meetings!), it now looks like this:

I have a love/hate relationship with setting up my classroom. I love it and get excited for a fresh, clean start. But I am not great at decorating and it stresses me out because it takes so long! But it's done and ready for my adorable students to come to school on Tuesday.

Happy new school year, teacher friends!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Back in June, I made a list of some of the things I wanted to accomplish this summer. On Monday, I report back to school, but I am spending part of today working in my classroom, which means my summer is pretty much over. So let's see how I did, shall we?

Visit Leland (the town) - check

Visit Alden (the town) - check

Run at least three times a week - no check
I ran about once a week.

Organize basement bedroom - check

Scrapbook as much as possible - check

Practice my photography - check

I did more at the beginning of summer and then I just got busy with everything else.

Family pictures - check

Bake with Leland - check

We did lots of muffin baking this summer. And now I have what is known as a "food baby." My belly looks like there's a baby in there, but it's just muffins and cookies.

Save/plan for a vacation for our 10 year anniversary - check 

Way excited for our mini-getaway in October!

Save all my tips for Alden's piggy bank - check 

I made lots more in tips this summer than last summer, so once Alden got even with Leland's amount, I split my tips between the two of them.

Go to the beach at least twice - check

Date nights/days with Dave - half check

I wanted to do at least three. We did one, but we did more family stuff than we are normally able to do, so I'm okay with it.

Family walks - half check

We did a few, and I took a lot of walks with the boys alone, but many nights were "hang out at home" nights because our mornings were so busy.

Finish Alden's bedroom - still in progress

Get Alden to start sleeping in his own room - CHECK!

Nap as much as possible - check...I guess
I actually didn't take very many naps, but I did take some.

Friend dates - CHECK!
I was able to meet friends for lunch a few times, and we had a few play dates as well. Perfection.

Craft project for pregnant friend - check
It was actually for my sister-in-law.

Work on potty-training - check

We're working on it, but he's not all that interested.

I'd say I did pretty well at accomplishing the tasks on my list. Plus, we did lots more fun things like attending the Cherry Festival and the fair. We went cherry picking. We visited Grandma Josie. Went to the library. And we played and played and played. It was a wonderful summer, even though we didn't get much "summer" weather.

I am sad for my time at home with the boys to end. I have loved every second of this summer. But I feel so fortunate to have this time with them, and still have a job that I love. I just wish I could take them to school with me.

How we wear undies

 I have been looking for tractor/construction vehicle underwear for Leland for a long time. I wanted to get him something that he would be excited to wear, but I haven't had any luck. On a recent trip to Target, we found some Planes undies, and Leland really wanted them. I figured this might be the ticket to get him interested in potty-training, so we got them.

Well, Leland was excited about wearing them. But not necessarily for potty-training. The first thing he did was put them on his head.

Now he wears them the way they are meant to be worn, but also still likes them on his head.

And it looks as though he's got Alden convinced that this is the way to wear them as well.

In case you're wondering, the undies haven't helped with potty-training. He will wear them and stay dry for a decent amount of time, but doesn't want to use the potty. He's too busy playing and doesn't care to use the bathroom. But at least we're prepared for when he is ready.

Fishtown

This weekend we visited Leland, a small town about 45 minutes from our house. And within Leland, there's a teeny little village called Fishtown. Fishtown is made up of several old fishing shanties that are now cute little shops.

Watching the boats - Leland loved this.

The Dam Candy Store

The Cheese Shanty makes the best sandwiches on this amazing pretzel bread! 

We spent the morning just being tourists. We wandered around, watched the boats, shopped, and ate.

My favorite shop is one called Tug Stuff. That's where I got Leland's and my tugboat shirts last year. This year, I got myself a hoodie and a different shirt for Leland, plus a Fishtown t-shirt from another shop.

On our way home, we stopped at a school playground to burn off a little energy.

I was glad that Dave was able to come on this little adventure with us. Many times, our weekends are so full with stuff we have to do (groceries, housework, errands, and sometimes work or other obligations) that we don't get to do a lot of fun stuff. I end up doing a lot of things with the boys during the week by myself. I don't mind having time with just me and the boys, but we sure like when Daddy gets to come too!

Learning Letters

Leland has been really interested in learning letters lately. He often asks about letters, and in the last few weeks, he has surprised me with what he knows. Since he's showing interest, I decided to get more of our magnet letters out. For a while, I only had the letters of his name out - why clutter up the fridge if he's not interested, right?

Well, a few days ago, he was playing with the letters and naming the ones he knew. Once again, he surprised me with what he knew. I love listening to him name them.

I heard him name probably half the letters. "That's X. That's O. That's S. That's W." And so on. Then he got to the letter F and said, "That's...hammer."

This boy. :)

Ten Months

Dear Alden,

Today, you are 10 months old. I think this month went the fastest of all. I am usually thinking about your letter and “photo shoot” a few days before, but this month completely snuck up on me and I didn’t remember until late in the day.

You are a cruiser these days. You crawl faster than ever and love to chase your brother around. You also do a lot of “furniture surfing” and can make your way around by holding onto furniture. You can stand on your own for about 15-20 seconds, but you haven’t tried to take any steps yet.

Just like your mama, you love to dance. Whenever you hear music play, you start bouncing up and down and smile the biggest smile ever. Even if it’s just me singing. I’m pretty certain that you and your brother are the only people on this planet who enjoy my singing. This makes me happy, because I love singing, even if I’m terrible at it.

At your nine month appointment, we found out your iron was low, so we started you on a multi-vitamin with iron. Since starting that, your sleep has improved greatly. You now sleep in your own bed and usually sleep 3 hour stretches all night long. Sometimes less, but it’s definitely getting better. We’re also giving you another mineral supplement that I think is helping as well. You take about an hour nap in the morning and a 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. You go to sleep around 7:30 at night and, after waking 2-3 times, you are up for the day at around 6:00am.

You don’t eat purees anymore – you much prefer small chunks of food. Funny thing, you didn’t like avocado much as puree, but you like it in chunks. You will eat pretty much anything I give you, but you like when you can feed yourself. Cheerios are your favorite; you get so excited just seeing the box! We’re still working on getting you to drink from a sippy cup.

He looks so much like Leland here!

Two more teeth have popped through this month, so you now have three teeth. You also have one more that is just away. And I think two more shortly after that. This has not been a fun process. During the day, you grind your teeth, and at night, you’re having a hard time getting back to sleep after waking. We will all be glad when we get a little break from teething.

You started babbling this month. Lots of da, ba, and la. Not much ma yet. When Daddy gets home from work, you crawl to him and say “da da da.” I’m working on mama, but you don’t have much interest. You’re still such a mama’s boy though. You definitely prefer me over anyone else, even though you love other people. My favorite is when I pick you up to hug you and you hug me back. You wrap your little arms around me and hold on so tight. It’s the very best feeling.

Everywhere we go, people comment on your flyaway fuzzy hair, your gorgeous blue eyes, your amazing smile, or your general cuteness. You are just the cutest, sweetest babe in all the land and I adore you. I am so blessed to call you mine.

Happy 10 months, sweet boy. I love you bunches and bunches.

Love, Mama

I'm Going to Miss This

One of the best things I've been doing with my "me time" this summer is visiting my Grandma at her nursing home. I try to visit her at least once a week. It's a lot easier to visit without having to keep track of two little ones, but she loves to see them and I want them to know her, so I try to take them with me sometimes.

After we went cherry picking back in July, we brought her cherries and doughnuts. Since that was going to be a short visit, I just kept them in the stroller. That worked out great because they were contained but could still visit.

On longer visits, it's nice to have another adult with me. Leland does a good job for a little while, and I usually bring something to occupy him, but he eventually gets antsy and wants to run around. This past week, my mom met us at the nursing home and helped me a lot with Leland by just following him around to make sure he didn't get into any trouble, and by letting him play with Grandma's walker. He loves that thing.

Alden is still pretty manageable because he doesn't like to lose sight of me. He mostly crawled around the room and did a little furniture surfing. At one point, he was walking along, holding onto the furniture and he fell. Without missing a beat, my grandma said, "He walks about as well as I do." She is hilarious.

I am so fortunate to have this time to visit with her. Once school starts, my time is much more limited, and while I will still try to visit her often, it won't be as easy as it is right now. And then the mom guilt will be nagging at me to do things that are more entertaining for the kids. I have to remind myself that, even though it's not a playground, the nursing home is fun for the boys. Leland always finds his own fun, and he enjoys the treats we bring Grandma as much as she does. Regardless, it's still not easy to visit when I work 45+ hours a week, and I am going to miss seeing her so much. But I am definitely going to make an effort. I cherish this time with her so much. 

I used to be a brat.

Last week, my mom brought me a box filled with my old school papers. She had stuff in there from preschool all the way through high school, and she kept everything.

When I say my mom kept everything, I mean she kept the usual report cards, conference notes, and projects. But she also kept behavior referrals. When I went through it, I started with upper elementary, and, let me tell you, my 4th-6th grade years were interesting. I was a pretty smart kid - I got good grades on assignments and tests. School wasn't too difficult for me. But, man, was I a brat.

I saw referral after referral of me not listening and being disrespectful to staff members, as well as arguing with classmates. I had to stay in for recess, write sentences, write notes of apology, etc. Basically, I was a major pain in the arse. I remember those years being particularly difficult for me - some issues with a close friend (which led to being teased/bullied for much of 4th and 5th grade), not feeling like I "belonged" in my family, and being somewhat bored academically. Apparently, that all came together and fueled some serious attitude toward everyone. Also, despite my being pretty smart, I struggled to complete my assignments and turn them in on time. I would like to apologize to my teachers from those years; I bet they would have never imagined me becoming a teacher.

(Also, I went to a school in a "high risk" area. Low income and drug and alcohol use was/is fairly common. Many of my classmates from elementary school didn't graduate high school, and very few went on to college. So there were a lot of behavior problems in my school. While I look back with embarrassment about my behavior, I wasn't the worst-behaved student - not even close.)

But looking back further, I wasn't so bad. In my preschool-3rd grade years, I was a friendly (though shy) and sweet. My teachers had wonderful things to say about me. In those early years, I was a teacher's dream.

I had a good laugh looking back at all of it. I can't believe my mom saved behavior referrals. And bus suspensions (junior high was pretty rough as well). Who saves that stuff?! Thankfully, I ditched the attitude around 9th grade and returned to being the sweet, shy, polite girl I once was. Though my husband might argue that I'm still a brat.

Me Time

This summer, I have been working at the coffee shop on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:00-1:00. The boys go to daycare on those days, and since the time I get out is about the time they go down (or have already been down) for nap, I have some time to kill until they wake up.

For the first few weeks of summer, I tried to spend that time running errands or just finding things to do around town. I was trying to save gas money by not going home and then going all the way back to daycare later. The problem with this is that, while in town, I pretty much always end up at some store (usually Target), which inevitably means I spend money. I'm pretty sure I wasn't saving us any money by staying in town.

After a few weeks, I decided to go home on those days. There are lots of things I wanted or needed to do at home, and it was nice to have that uninterrupted time to do it.

For example, scrapbooking. I love to scrapbook and I keep a book for each of the boys. I used to work on it after the kids went to bed, but Alden's sleep continues to be rough, to say the least. With him waking every 1-2 hours, I don't have time to do any work on my scrapbooks. So a few days, I went home to work on them, and I am almost caught up now.

A few days I did some chores around the house. A few days I attempted to organize the basement bedroom. I had it how I wanted it, but then we went through more things upstairs, so I have more organizing to do. One day I redeemed a massage gift certificate. And a couple of days, I met friends for late lunch dates.

I was hoping to work on a painting for Alden's room during this free time, but I haven't yet. I still have two weeks until I report back though, so maybe I can still try it.

It's a very rare occurrence that I have a couple of hours without kids, and it feels good to take this time for myself. Of course, I miss them and usually count down the minutes until I can pick them up, but I know that time alone is good for me. And since it's coming to an end soon, I am taking full advantage of it.

Fair Fun 2014

Last week was the Northwestern Michigan Fair. Last year, Leland didn't care at all about the animals, but spent almost the entire time we were there climbing on the tractors. I was pretty sure this year would be similar, but this year Leland was old enough and tall enough to ride some rides.

One of my favorite things about the fairs and festivals is the food. So we started there, and then went to see the tractors. 

We saw our new friends and hung out with them for a little bit, but then they went to see the animals, which, as I assumed would be the case, Leland wasn't interested in. Instead, he rode a pony and then we went on some rides.

Leland was really excited to ride the motorcycles. He was one of the first kids in line so he had to wait a few minutes. He waited pretty patiently and then suddenly he was frantically trying to get off. He was shouting about a helicopter and I couldn't figure out what was going on. And then I realized there was a helicopter ride that he wanted to get on.

Leland did a couple of rides by himself and we enjoyed the ferris wheel and slide together. I asked Dave to take our picture going down the slide and I am dying at his facial expression. He was so excited to go on it, laughed hysterically the entire way down, and wanted to go again and again, yet he looks terrified.

He did eventually ride the motorcycles.

We left without seeing the animals. But on Wednesday, I went back to meet our daycare friends and we walked around to see the animals then. We didn't do rides that day though.

Too much excitement for this dude.

Visiting with one of my former students and her calf.

The daycare crew (mostly alumni from Julie's that are in school now).

Another fair is in the books. Kind of crazy to think that next year Alden will be climbing all over everything with Leland!