A Few Thoughts

Well, I have finished my last FULL week of school. By this time next week I will have already been finished for over a day and relaxing with my baby in the comfort of my own home.

This week seemed easier and went by WAY quicker than the last. I got more into the groove of things, relaxed a bit more, and just kinda went with the flow. We had some funny moments, some sad, some proud, some embarrassing, and some scary. But they were moments that were lessons learned in one way or another. I've gotten nice drawings from students and angry letters from students, smiles and glares.  But in the end, I hope those kids know I love them and I'm grateful for what they teach me every day. Also, I would just like to note that in the last 2 days we have had students trying to choke one another, a student cut her finger so deeply that it was nearly squirting across the classroom, and a student who had to leave today and go to the hospital for a possible broken arm. Excellent. 5th graders are a little crazy. This will be a placement that I will never forget, for sure. 

These last few days will be easy and hard.  Easier because I'll be turning more lessons gradually back over to my mentor teacher. Harder because the lessons that I DO teach need to be some of the best of my life, I need to get more assessments done, papers graded, grades entered and get all information that I may need to complete assignments. Final observation on Tuesday.  Truthfully, I don't normally care about observations. But this is a big one. So if you wouldn't mind keeping me in your prayers for this one, I could really use it. 

Also, Stephanie's due date was on the 23rd!  No baby yet! We are sending thoughts and prayers your way Steph!! Can't wait to meet this little boy. We love you :)

Surviving!

Well. We are almost there!! My last day of student teaching is October 31st. What better way to finish my college career than a party with 5th graders?  I'm grateful to have a great school, mentor teacher, and a pretty good group of kids. But even though that's all great, I'm still counting the days til I'm done. 

I haven't posted much in the last 2 months because it's been busy. But because this week in particular has been all GO, GO, GO... I'm taking some time to reflect. I've never loved a Saturday morning more than today. It's the little things like being able to hold, rock, and sing to Jimmie while he takes a nap. Being able to stay in my sweats and do some cleaning, moving, and organizing with Jim and enjoying one another's conversation. Being able to play with Nala and go for a walk. These are the little things I miss. 

Being a teacher is hard. And even though you know that, you don't realize quite how much they sacrifice and do until you're immersed in the trenches yourself.  This last week I took over the class full time. My mentor teacher has been finding things to do in the faculty room and elsewhere in the school while I run the whole day. It's a hard adjustment for the kids and naturally some of them are rebelling. It's hard, but it's been good. Still not 100% as having my own classroom because I would do lots of things differently and have a relationship started from the beginning of school. But it's a great learning experience. 

Jimmie has been going to sleep around 10:30 and, as you can probably imagine, it's hard to get any planning done with him awake. So after he falls asleep I plan, evaluate, and grade til about 2-3 in the morning and wake up at 6:30. (If you know me at all...you know I'm an 8 hr kinda girl. I could get by on 6...but 3-4 hours doesn't quite cut it). I learned the hard way yesterday that those missed hours of sleep will catch up with you. My observation went pretty bad and I was just at my whits end. But you know, it's okay to have a breakdown every once and a while :) I'm grateful for an awesome husband who had the house all cleaned and watched Jimmie so that I could take a much needed nap. With a hurt back and all! It's great to know that when I drop the ball I have someone who is happy to keep dribbling it for me! Hopefully I can get a lot of planning done this weekend so that this week isn't quite so hard. 9 days left...I can do that! :) Once I'm done with my student teaching I'll have about a months worth of writing up papers but at least I can do that at my own pace in my pajamas ;) I may also substitute teach for the remainder of the school year. 

Earlier this month our grade took a walking field trip through the canyon by our school. We had just studied landforms, erosion, weathering, deposition, etc and got to go experience and identify it first hand. It was a long day of walking but it was a lot of fun! I can't post many pictures because you aren't supposed to post pictures with the kids faces but these give a pretty good feel for what it was like. 

Jimmie has been doing great. He's sitting up on his own mostly, though he's a little shakey and falls over a lot :) it's pretty cute. He had his 4 (and a half) month checkup and got all of his shots. He did better with the shots this time. 

4.5 month stats: 

Weight- 17.0 lbs (78%)

Height- 25.75 in (68%)

Head Circumference- 17.25 inches (80%)

Wearing size 3 diapers and size 6-9 month clothes (though he can squeeze into a few of the bigger 3-6).

Got rid of the crusty, guckiness in his eyes, but now have a touch of cradle cap. 

We are back to not sleeping through the night...still wakes up at least twice but goes back to sleep quickly :) 

Still no tooth...but anticipating an arrival any time now! Teething teething teething. 

Can't push himself up in tummy time but can hold his head if supported another way. It's the arm strength not neck strength that he lacks. 

We've all gotten our Halloween costumes and are excited to wear them! 

He's still got a bit of a continual cold but is healthy otherwise. He does have a few pretty significant flat spot on the back of his head so we need to take him into a pediatric physical therapist. They will examine and assess the situation and let us know what to do. If it's bad enough he will have to wear one of those baby helmets.  You know, the ones that I think make the baby look like an astronaut :) but overall he is a very happy and very good baby! Everyone always comments on how good of a baby he is. 

Here are some shots from over the course of the last few weeks:

Happy October, friends! 

He had more fun than it looks :) But I took these pictures with my big Cannon and he's still not quite sure what to think of it.

He's LOVING toys right now. 

He's a pretty happy guy! 

Snuggles with Daddy. Sometimes I look at the two of them and I swear they look identical. 

Aunt Meg came to Visit last weekend and I didn't get any pictures!! Sorry we are so lame Megan but we loved getting to see you. 

 He loves mirrors or the self facing camera on my phone. He managed to snap one of himself one day! 

We're all feeling a bit like this around here right now. 

Sitting up!

"I'm teething Mom!"

And he loves to stand! 

He's getting to be such a big boy! Can't wait til I can stay home and play with him some more :) 

4 Months Old!

Last weekend, our little baby turned 4 months! Can you believe it?  He's growing up so fast.

At 4 months, he is much more into toys and holding things than ever before.  His favorite toy is anything that crinkles or that he can chew on with the occasional rattle.

Jimmie is getting better and better every day at sitting up.  On average he can hold himself sitting up between 5-10 seconds before toppling over.  It's adorable! On his tummy, he still cant quite pick his head up.  But every once and a while he will kick so hard that he rolls over.  Mostly, he just tries to scoot along the ground with his face on the ground.  It's pretty funny...but stay immobile for a little longer okay baby??

Even though he's been "teething" for the last month, it appears that we may have a tooth breaking surface any day now.  The funny thing is, it's not one of his front bottom teeth... it's a side bottom tooth! It appears to be one of his "vampire teeth" or "fangs".  For Jimmie's sake and for our sanity though, I hope it comes through soon.  Right now he is at the stage where he is sensitive to everything and will just scream in pain half of the time.  It wakes him up a lot and generally stops him from falling asleep which results in an overly tired baby in pain.

He takes it very seriously ;)

Some people Jimmie's age start introducing solid/real food.  Jimmie's really not showing any of the signs that he is ready for that though.  And as his Momma, I'm sure not ready for it either.  That would mean admitting that my little baby is not so little anymore...and I'm not sure that I'm ready for that :)
(Though it is really funny to see his reaction to bits of ice cream here and there).

Aside from teething, I think he's finally starting to get the sleeping through the night thing.  This last week or so has been full of nights where he will sleep from 9:30 or 10:00 straight through til 5:30.  I'd love for him to sleep even longer than that, but we'll take it!

He's doing great with his daycare Monday-Wednesday and it's working out just fine.  He's still a very happy baby (unless he's got mean teeth trying to poke through) and just loves loves loves to smile and laugh.  His new favorite thing that makes him giggle is when I laugh...especially if I do a silly laugh, he seems to think it's about the best thing in the world :)

HAPPY 4 MONTHS, LITTLE MAN!

Baby Blessing/Grandpa's Visit

I know I keep promising a post about my student teaching experience, but realistically, all you need to know right now is that it's going well, and I'm very very busy...which I why I don't really have time to blog about it :) I have 3 weeks left--my last day is officially October 31st.  I am excited for my last day because 1) It's my last day 2) it's Halloween so we have a party and 3) Jimmie and Jim are allowed to come visit so that we can have somewhere to wear our little family costumes to.

As far as what our costumes are..well, I guess you'll have to wait and see.  It's not really anything too special, but I haven't really liked Halloween since I was a kid.  It's really fun to now have a baby to make Halloween fun again!

The last weekend of September, I finished my placement at Sunset View in 3rd grade in Provo.  My TELL endorsement placement is complete, I just have a few more little assignments to type up.  That night my Dad flew in for the weekend and it was a lot of fun!

Saturday we spent mostly hanging out, exploring Provo, going on walks (to the Farmer's Market, around Center Street, etc) and eventually decided on getting lunch from a Peruvian Restaurant on Center.  It was delicious!!  We did some typical grocery shopping and played some games.  We played with Jimmie, took some pictures, and just enjoyed one another's company.

It was a little sunny...

Jimmie and Grandpa

Grandpa and Jimmie some games...and Nala.

Having a good talk

A happy little man in his overalls

He needed to wear overalls since he was going to a FARMERS market. :)

He wasn't quite sure how much he liked this yet

 On Sunday, we finally got baby Jimmie blessed at church. Yes, I know it took us 3 months, but we were so glad Grandpa was able to fly out and be with us on such a happy day!

Jimmie was good--he slept during the blessing, and Jim did a great job!

Our family

(It was a tad bit sunny!!)

Jimmie wasn't quite sure what was going on with this frilly blanket...

 Us with Ben (Our home teacher)

After church and eating a quick lunch at home, Dad, Jimmie, and I headed up to the American Fork canyon.  Jim wasn't able to come because he needed to get some sleep for work that night.  Jimmie fell asleep very quickly in the car, so it was nice to be able to just spend some Daddy-daughter time with my Dad...away from the world, in the beautiful Utah mountains!

It's around the time where the trees start to change in the mountains.  We went a tiny bit early, but it was still gorgeous nonetheless.  It had snowed up in the mountains and even in lower parts of Utah earlier in the week, so you'll see bits of snow remaining in some of the shots.  

I'll just post a bunch of pictures from our little Sunday afternoon outing

It was a bit of an overcast day, but still absolutely breath taking up there.

Dad posing

Happy Fall everyone! Even if it is short lived in Utah. 

Even though he slept for hours in the car... apparently the weekend was just all too exhausting for him

 He must have just loved having Grandpa stay with us because the next day (Monday morning), I woke up to Jimmie talking and smiling at me.  No crying for this little man!

We had such a fun time with Grandpa! We loved having him.

Here are a few shots from around and about in the last few weeks. 

Jimmie loves staring out the window

 He does not love ice cream so much though apparently

 We've been trying to spend more time on the ground playing

And doing a bit of tummy time...

Which normally just results in him trying to scoot across the floor or roll over.

(or chew his hand until he naps)

 Basically he likes to play with anything near him... hmmmm

 And even if he isn't feeling so great and had a hard day, we can almost always count on a bath to calm him down and cheer him up :)  Because who doesn't want a pile of bubbles in their hair?

This picture was from this afternoon from my school.  This morning it was snowing/sleeting and some parts of the state got up to 6 inches of snow. (Higher up obviously but still).  Orem, the city that I teach in, got up to an inch in some places.  It is early October.  One question: WHY!?

I put a Christmas onesie on today because it was so cold, I felt it appropriate.

Oh well, and the fact that since this little man is growing so big, it will be much too small by the time the season arrives to wear it :)

(These pictures are from pre-Grandpa's visit)

 Jimmie doing some tummy time in his Rock n' Play.  Yes, don't worry.  It's safe and I stay right with him.  It's really one of the few ways that he likes and can be successful!

 Just trying on some cowboy boots from Tracey's family!

 He just loves reading this book. 

Well, he loves crinkling the noisy pages :) but it's a start!

He's already learning his "concepts about print"

Your child may be sick of you taking pictures of him when he starts trying to kick the phone out of your hand.  I don't know, just maybe :)

Videos and more pictures to follow.  These next few weeks will be insanely busy as I will be taking over the classroom as the teacher and teaching basically full time.  So bear with me :)

3 weeks to go.  I can do that!