Rainy Days and Mondays

It is hard to get up and moving on Monday morning especially when it's raining. My little man was going to carry his breakfast and his lunch as we scurried to his classroom. I gave him some smooches and squeezes and before I left he told me, "Momma, be really careful. Hood up. Rainy today." 

With tears in my eyes, I hurried to start my day thankful for his genuine sweetness.

Just as soon as...

How long is your to-do list?

I have found myself making lots of excuses lately. I have had several days of "just as soon as..."

• the dishes are caught up
• the laundry is caught up
• Joshua is napping
• I'm caught up on sleep
• my lesson plans are done 
• my classroom is clean

followed by all the things that I will accomplish...

• routines for myself and Joshua
• exercise 
• more family time
• scrapbooking/ organizing my pictures
• better/ more teacher preparedness
• more student one-on-one time
• professional reading development
• FL driver's license 
• baby things...

And yet I'm faced with the fact that: 

Someday is not a day of the week.

Reading to Diego...

Peeking into Joshua's room around the corner, I got to witness him reading to Diego. He was reading Aliens love Underpants. So Silly! I was glad I didn't get caught watching...

Consequences vs. Reward

Joshua painted his wall again. 

After I had him clean his walls, Michael and I discussed what to do next. 

We really aren't sure what to do about it, but for the day, we decided that there would be no shows for the morning. We know that our son probably watches too much tv, and that it's something that he values so we told him he could watch shows after his nap. 

Here are some pictures from our morning...

Breakfast on the lanai

Reading Alphabooks

sock hands, backwards undies, and winter hat

While he took his nap I wondered: was it us who learned or him? 

TV-less Saturday morning seems like a pretty good idea to me!

Silliness

Our son is bound to be silly. 

Look at his parents. 

We had some great family snuggle time, tickles, giggles, and overall greatness.

Jumping on our bed, using the sheets, and Mommy's leg as the post making a tent and whispering.

We asked Joshua to make a smiley face for us, and this is what we got.

Priceless.

There's just something about bath time...

I'm not sure what it is about bath time, but I love it. 

I love the way you play. 

I love sitting quietly wishing you would talk more so I could know what you were thinking.

Soooooo BIG

My dearest boy, 

I can remember at the hospital stretching your tiny body and saying, even from your first day, "sooooo big!" 

Your regular lunch box was dirty, so we went with the fall back character lunch box. This time however, it wasn't ok for Mommy to carry the lunch box. "Joshua do it." and off you went. As proud as my heart was, it hurt that you were getting "Soooo Big."

You stopped on the way to your classroom to watch for otters, and I stopped to watch you.
(Some days you try to convince me that there could be a polar bear, walrus, or octopus living in the waters behind the trailers.)

I'm so proud of you! Thank you for being you!

Hero

Joshua has been pretending to get caught on things or in places and insisting that someone help him.

"Help!! Help!!"

After he has been saved joyously thanking with hugs and kisses... "You Saved ME!"

This is a game that he has played not only at home, but also at school. One of his classmates caught on and she climbed up saying, "Help, HELP!"

Joshua was quick to come to the rescue. He helped her down and then proclaimed, "I a Hero!"

Fishing

Michael was in the kitchen, I was in the laundry room, and we heard grunting from our bedroom. 

We snuck up to find:

Joshua standing on our bed, daddy's belt in hand. He claimed he was fishing.

 "I caught something!" 

He labored the "fish" onto the bed and tumbled over the comforter. 

"Oh, so heavy!"

At the end of daddy's belt there was a "Nemo fish" a "Dory fish" and they were "so yummy!" to eat. 

Michael and I discussed the books he has read and the shows that he has watched lately and neither one of us could come up with an explanation for where his fishing adventures had come from. 

Painting

A quiet Saturday afternoon. Nap time. My nose told me before my son did, that Joshua was not sleeping. I peeked around the corner, and gasped. 

Michael asked what was wrong, and I told him he needed to look for himself. 

Our son was an artist. Painting with the contents of his diaper all over the wall... 

For better, or worse, I took a picture. I couldn't help but laugh. Part of my laughter could have come from a similar picture, taken of me around the same age.

This too shall pass.

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

A blustery Friday and a l-o-n-g week I said to Becky, "I wish I had a kite."

To which see replied, "I think there's one in the van." 

She ran to get it as the last students left school and the parking lot was as great a place as any for kite flying. 

Becky helped Noah figure it out and I remained with the spectators Gwen and Joshua.

 It made me smile that the kite got stuck in the tree. It brought back memories of flying a kite as a kid. We would go back behind the cemetery. The perfect place to learn lots of things... how to fly a kite, how to ride a bike...

Joshua was glad to be around Gwen and spending time with her. She had surgery earlier in the week, and he was missing her. They shared a nice hug as they watched. 

 They probably won't remember this, but I sure will.

"Momma, Cheese!"

"It's just another Manic Monday!"

What began as a decent morning took a turn for the worse when we got to school. We were running behind, so Joshua didn't get his normal minutes helping me set up my classroom. This threw him for a loop. Tears. Crying. and yelling, "Stay! Momma, Stay!" Broke my heart. I stood outside the classroom pulling myself together, but I could still here my son's pleas for me to stay. 

That on top of many other things, made for a 'manic Monday.' 

However, when we got home tonight we built with thistle blocks, had dinner, worked on Joshua's new puzzle, and read books, all before it was time to brush teeth and 'slug.' 

Michael wasn't feeling well, so he was already resting in our bed, when Joshua and I invaded. We climbed up together for some family 'slugs.' We were laying there a few moments when Joshua turns to me and says, "Momma, Cheese." It took me a while to figure out when he was talking about. 

I wondered if he was hungry, but cheese did not make sense.(This child does NOT eat cheese.) That is when I realized, that he is my son. He wanted to take a picture. While I ran to grab my phone, Joshua informed Michael, "Daddy, Momma get phone, take picture."

So we did, several...

We took some fun family minutes just to 'slug.' 

Part of me was a little sad that Joshua wanted to take a picture... as though he knew it was something special. And he was right, it was special, but

It hurts my heart a little. 

We need to take more minutes to have family time so he doesn't feel the need to make sure it's captured on film. 

Diego Days

Joshua intermittently tells Michael and I that the baby should be named Diego, or Dora. At school, someone dropped off a stuffed Diego, that was purposefully left where Joshua would see it. When we first brought Diego home, Michael said, "Isn't he a little young for sleepovers?" Diego is about the same size as Joshua. The two of them are now pretty inseparable...

A less than proud mom moment, was dressing Diego in jammies to avoid wrestling with Joshua. 

A great night was when they were watching a show together and Joshua asked Diego, 

"Did you see that?"

I walked out of our bedroom and wondered where Joshua was. I couldn't find him. We were being silly so the worry mommy face had not set in yet. I looked out on the lanai, and there they sat there enjoying a beautiful Florida afternoon. 

Daddy Time

After Michael's travels during the month of January it has been nice to have him home and around. We spent some family time. It was great to be in the background to watch them reconnect. Joshua is a "momma's boy" and after three weeks minimal daddy time, he became even more attached to me. 

They read books and jumped on the bed and had silliness. It felt good to watch them together, and sneak a few pictures.

The more that you read...

... the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. ~ Dr. Suess


We went to Barnes and Noble today. It has my brain twisting and spinning and day dreaming. I love children's literature! I have started a list of books: books I loved as a child. books I want my son to love. books I found as an adult, and want to share with him, and everyone!


I must admit that despite being in Florida for over a year... I have yet to get my Florida driver's license. Random thought? No. Without a FL driver's license I'm unable to get a library card. 
A library card is something I feel the need to have. It is a place that I want my son to know and love. As a kid, my friend and I would walk to the library. We were part of the summer library program. I went and listened during the story time offered there. 


Reading was something I struggled with throughout grade school. I sat in my room and practiced reading out loud, because I dreaded it so much in school! I was the kid with sweaty palms praying to look too busy reading/studying for the teacher to call on me to read out loud. I vividly remember "round-robin" reading, in 4th grade, and not listening to any of the people before me, because I was busy finding my paragraph and pre-reading and mentally prepping for my turn.


I don't want my son to be that kid. I want him to love books, and read confidently. 


I haven't had time to keep up on reading children's books. I miss reading.


So I continue my dream of 'someday' having a masters....(even more someday... doctorate in children's literature, to teach teachers to love books and share them in a way that makes children love books as well.)

It's a ...

“Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”

After many anticipated weeks, we had our second ultrasound. People near and far from us made their predictions about our baby's gender. (I must admit that overwhelmingly, people were convinced girl.) My students cast their votes as well. 10:7 girl according to the morning class and 5:12 boy from the afternoon children.

When I laid down the technician asked if we wanted to know the gender. In unison, Michael and I replied "yes!" She explained that she had measuring to do, so if she couldn't tell right away she would go back and forth trying and measuring depending on the baby's positioning and activity.

She no sooner put the wand down, and this is what we saw...

The words that echo in my head, were from Michael. Before the tech could say anything: "That's a Boy!"

And so I remain the queen among my jesters.

The tech continued doing the routine measurements. Michael and I asked our questions about weight (13 oz) and development (20 weeks, 5 days, a 3 day difference). Then we asked about his head, knowing with Joshua, at our second ultrasound we were told that his head measured 2 weeks further than his body. That was also the case with this little one. Oh, Joy!

The tech commented about his activity and we looked with awe and amazement as she took 3D shots. With Joshua we did not have 3D and it was unbelievable!

We collected our prized pictures and headed to the lobby to wait to meet with the doctor. The doctor said at this visit that he hopes to tell us two things: 1. all the anatomy is there and looks good 2. the baby is developing at a normal rate. With pride he said, "Today I can tell you 'yes' to both of those things, so today was a success!"

I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

And now to name this little man....

Nesting

There was a grouting... situation during my pregnancy with Joshua so I have been wary about what projects to take on during this pregnancy.

I have already taken on my closet, but today is not about that:

What started with the normal saturday laundry and dishes took a turn. With Michael now home, I no longer have to go to the grocery store, but before he left he asked if while he was gone, I could clean out any food that had outstayed its welcome.

I started my search... after the old food was gone, I needed to wash the glass. Washing the glass turned into scrubbing out and under the produce drawers, crept to hand washing the floor, wiping down the baseboards, washing out the trash can, cleaning the stove, and washing the rest of the appliances (mixer, toaster, coffee maker.) My kitchen looked great...

until... it was suppertime.

There is always tomorrow to clean it up again.

(As much as I want a house, on nesting days like today, I think it's probably best that we have an apartment. I'm not great with maintenance of the space we have now, and I want something bigger?!?)

On Top of Spaghetti

Joshua was playing outside at school with a basketball. He would hold the basketball then pretend to sneeze and let the basketball roll away. Then he would run after it and repeat. I asked him about it and he mentioned spaghetti. Then it started to make sense. I asked if he was singing, "On Top of Spaghetti" He said yeah, and looked at me surprised I knew the song. So I sat with him as he sang and pretended to sneeze the basketball sized meatball off of the table. It made me smile that he was using his imagination like this, but it got even better.... Joshua then told me that the Isty Spider ate the meatball, and I couldn't help but giggle. 

We ate spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. He didn't try the meatballs... they mysteriously kept jumping off of his plate. 

(The slurping that accompanied these pictures was amazing!)