Happy Halloween

Don't the mummy dogs look fun?

I survived our "Fall Festival" (yeah because we don't celebrate Halloween at school, right.) I am soooo thankful that Halloween is on a Friday and I don't have to deal with over tired, over sugared kids trying to sneak candy tomorrow.
Relia looked cute in her skeleton costume. We visited Nana & Grampa after daycare, and stopped at Uncle Ryan & Aunt Carrie's on our way home. Aunt Carrie was getting ready for a party in the coolest Charlie Chaplin costume.
Hopefully I can share photos later.
We got home later than I planned and Relia was super tired. I quick put her down and set up for tricker-treaters. In the next hour and a half, we'd had 7 kids stop by. After 8 we just get the big kids, so I shut off the lights and settled in to a little TV.

So I went to the MN zoo yesterday with my kids. It was a great field trip even though I was feeling rotten. My kids did a nice job, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to take them out in public again.

I hadn't been to the zoo in several years, and I've never been there on a field trip. The Russian Grizzly Coast exhibit is really cool. I was a foot away from a grizzly bear's nose! It will be even cooler when it snows. If you can swing it, I recommend going.

Anyway, after that adventure, I am back at home today. This is a crazy week for my poor kids.

It's the Relia show!

Yucky Monday

I decided to stay home today. My first day out. I HOPE my kids are being decent. But, I won't be surprised if there are a couple of behavior referrals on my desk tomorrow.
Relia has had a cold too so I decided she would stay home too. It has been kinda fun having a day with her where I am not thinking about all the crap around the house that needs to be done.

Thick once again

I have a cold. Relia has a cold.
I also have a field trip on Tuesday. So I've decided that I'm taking tomorr

I feel good

du-nah du-nah na na na

So I made a proposal a few weeks ago that our 4th and 5th grade team try working together to do reading groups. We would take all of our kids and sort them by reading level. The seven of us would each work with a group instead of each of us trying to manage three or more reading groups in our own classes. (You know the groups, the eagles, the robins and the penguins, or whatever they were called in your elementary school. As though bird names will keep kids from figuring out who the "dumb" kids are) It was met with interest and I set to getting the data together to sort out our kids. I put a few extra hours in and we had several meetings to try to figure out how it would work. The weekend before it was supposed to start I got an email from one of the teachers saying she wasn't so sure it was a good idea. I spent the entire weekend worrying that all of my work would be undone.

But it worked and everyone loves it! I feel so good. I really believe we are doing the best thing for kids and saving ourselves a bunch of work in the process.

The huggening

FP predicted it would happen in the not too distant future. It did:



I can't believe Ozzie hung around as long as he did.

No more kitty.

Why haven't I taken pictures in this chair before?

Child development is so cool

It was one thing as theory in college, but it's a whole 'nother thing when it's your own baby. I love going through all of the stages. Just wait for the post 5 years from now when I announce "She has reached the concrete operational stage!"

Anyway, today my darling daughter spent a good 20 minutes on the floor transferring 12 wine corks from a measuring cup to an egg carton and back again. She was completely focused on the task. It was amazing to me. Is it completely stupid that I am excited simply because this whole baby raising thing is turning out just like they said it would?

Cur-eee-py

A few weeks back, FP and I were at MOA early on a sunday morning. We stopped on the third floor near sears to rest because one of was having some kind of health issue (blisters, heart palpatations, I don't remember what it was). I look over and there is a guy dressed in a Best Buy outfit talking to no one. It was a SIGN. It was video on a flat screen shaped like a person. It was about an inch thick and, honest to pete, looked like a guy standing there talking. It was so weird. I wish I'd had my camera so I could taken some video of the video "person". I'm sure we will start seeing this everywhere soon. Maybe I can teach from home with this kind of technology.

Found youtube video of it:

Seriously?

A stroller DVD?!!!

Visiting Grandpa

And my favorite:

Now and then

Vina at Nana and Grampa's

From Untitled Album

From Untitled Album

It's MEA

No it's not! MEA hasn't been in existence for many years. The union changed it's name from Minnesota Education Association to Education Minnesota when I started teaching almost (gasp!) 10 years ago. It's interesting how they haven't made any progress on brand recognition. I guess EM weekend just doesn't sound as good.

anyway, I spent yesterday in my classroom. I planned to be there now, but Peder let me sleep in, and I realized that I have zero even kinda clean pants. Plus I have a flat tire. So here i am doing laundry debating hauling my car out of the garage and changing the tire or just walking to work and taking the bus to get Relia. I am that lazy.
Well, I guess neither choice is lazy. I'd be trading one PITA for another.
I probably should just change the tire.

Update:
I tried to change said tire, but after jacking it up and removing the nuts, I could not get the darn thing off. so I cursed for a little while and called Triple A. I know, I know, that is why we pay them, but I hate calling for something I KNOW I could do myself under normal circumstances.

The guy was very nice and soothed my poor ego well. I took the tire in and it was pretty messed up so I had to get a new one. I love my tire place. I trust them and they are always willing to go the extra mile. (Mr. Tire at 60th & Nicollet in Minneapolis)

I totally caved.

I can't do it. I tried it for nap and after 20 minutes of crying I went in to find her sitting up, red faced, clutching her teddy bear, with her lower lip stuck out as far as possible.

So I asked myself, "why it is so important to me to have her give it up now?" I want my baby to be independent. I want her not to need it. But why now? I have no good reason other than I have some idea that she is older than she really is. Maybe it's cause she walked early, I don't know but I think she is too old for it. But Sarah, she is only 13 months. She is still a baby. She doesn't have many reasoning skills and still goes by how things feel.

Bottom line, one of us is not ready. It might be her, it might be me. Maybe in a few months we'll try the trick where we cut it down bit by bit. For now we'll limit it to her crib.

Cold Turkey, anyone?

So I have decreed that this is give up the rasser (pacifier) week at our house. Because I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow and can deal with a baby who is sad all night. I just don't want to have a child who is 3 and still using a paci. (like I was) But I already feel guilty taking it away from her. She is too young to understand what we are doing. She is just going to be mad and sad and tired. Everyone I've talked to says it is okay after 2 days.

Relia initiated photoshoot

I guess she missed our monthly shoot because this is how I found her this afternoon:

Here's my cheezy grin:

I love bear!

Okay, I'm done now. What's over there?

I was cleaning out lots of junk in our bedroom and Relia was helping. she hopped up on the cement pillars I have and just sat looking out the window for a while. Uh yeah the pop can is empty and has been for probably a month. I found it behind a shelf while I was cleaning.



Eating her chicken noodle with a fork just like momma.

Happy Birthday Moma!

I am so lucky to be blessed with a mom who turned into my friend.

Complaining

Or sorting out my thoughts or whatever...

I woke up this morning around 5 am with my mind spinning about school stuff. Not fair. This was my day to sleep in. Now I was wide awake thinking about how to solve some major problems in my class. Course, none of it could be done now. I can barely drag myself out of bed on a weekday, now I can't stay in bed on the weekend.

I'm not eating very well, I'm not sleeping enough simply because I want a couple of hours to myself and to spend with my hubby after baby goes to bed. I am stressed out. I have two chronic illnesses that raise their ugly heads when I am stressed, and lately, they appear to be taking turns every two weeks. They've been mostly under control for the last 5 years, even when I didn't have a job, so that tells me it's all about work.

Plus, I can't find my stupid drill.

humpf.

No offense,

All you people with music players on your blog, but please switch autostart to "no". I really do like to see/hear what you are listening to, I just want to do it in my own time. (Not when I am at work or trying to be quiet when my hubby is sleeping)

My daughter has a favorite cup

Relia and I went for a little sojourn to the park after work/daycare. I was stroller-less, so we took the wagon on it's maiden voyage. It went well. The only trouble is when we pass something interesting she likes to turn around and ride on her knees. She does fine, but it makes me nervous, especially when crossing those busy streets between our house and the park.

She LOVES the swings. walks right up to them and gets up on her tippy toes to indicate "up". She also tried slides today. Hearing about Claire's adventures made me think "Could my baby possibly be big enough to go down a slide by herself?!" After a few practice runs down the toddler slide, and a few belly flops, she couldn't get enough. Then she saw the big kids going down the tube slide and dove right in, literally.

We walked around the lake and headed home for dinner. She would NOT drink from the cup I gave her. She wouldn't touch it. She kept reaching for a cup that was left from breakfast. After she ate I let her down and she kept going to the kitchen and whining. Finally I lifted her up and she grabbed the red cup from off the counter. Amidst her cries, I washed the cup and refilled it. She sucked down that milk. Great. My daughter has a favorite cup. Sigh.

My class was REALLY good today. Which was nice, cause they were pretty rotten yesterday and I started the day by dumping half a large nalgene bottle of water on my desk.

SNL Debate

I'm kind of surprised they didn't do more with Biden's ridiculous anecdotes.

Terrible example

Yeah, I'm a bad student. I have had 2 weeks to work on this project for my class tomorrow. When am I doing it? Yup, 9:30 the night before. I keep telling myself, no one cares about your GPA, a "B" is perfectly acceptable. But alas. I feel the need to make some kind of super fantastic power point in 2 hours.

Funny story...

So I was at target and found an Anywhere Chair knock off on super clearance at Target. Being a total cheapskate, I bought it. It is bean bag-esque and squishes so much it is pretty much useless.
Anywhere chair:
Knockoff:
I get the bright idea to replace the base with solid foam instead of bean baggy stuff.

Big.

Mistake.

I don't know what I expected to find inside, and I don't know why I at least had the good sense to tackle this project in our pantry. But wow. large pearl sized, static charged balls EVERYWHERE. I was terrified that Relia would find one and try to eat it. I spent a good half an hour getting those things up off the floor and, the wall, and the cupboards. I wish I'd taken a picture.

It felt something like this, only with a more horrified expression:


The result worked better, but this is still Relia's favorite chair:

We'd like to be the ideal parents, but we're too busy raising our kid.

Long ass day

Conferences. 7 am to 7:30 pm without any dinner break, teach and then be instantly ready to greet families. So many of them quite nice and very concerned about their children. (one flat out lying to me) I really don't like conferences. I have more to do tomorrow. But I'll feel good when they're done.

Let's see, what do I have for you today?

Remember the days when I posted daily photos of my daughter? you could scroll through and my blog was like a flip book of her growing up. Now, not so much. So here's what I have:

Bouncy seats are still as engaging as ever, though not for as long.

The weekend after it opened, without fanfare, we traversed the new bridge. Apparently they decided to keep the U of MN.

New road leading up to the bridge is begging to be rollerbladed on


So wide!


The giant waves (?)


Looking back from the University ave exit


View from the stone arch bridge. The structure of the 10th avenue bridge (I never new what that one was called until all of this) really hides the starkness (boringness) of the new bridge.