too funny!

owen is starting to not want to be separated from daddy. jeffy is making a donut run this morning (mmm...donuts!) and when owen saw daddy getting ready to leave, he (owen) started to throw a fit and cry, just like he did yesterday when jeffy left to go mow the lot. jeffy and i both laughed, jeffy got owen into jeans and his hawks t-shirt and the boys are heading out the door to get donuts. i told jeffy to get owen a donut with sprinkles. owen was so excited to be going with daddy. he was jumping up and down at the door. oh, and he's wearing he seahawks winter coat, too. very cute this morning. we'll watch football all day today, and do some cleaning for the birthday party that's coming up in a couple of weeks.

more stuff on friday

choir practice was fun. before i went, we went to borders and i got a couple of new cd's. one came out on tuesday (brian setzer orchestra) and the other came out a week and a half ago (songs of america - produced by janet reno.) owen and i had lots of fun dancing to the brian setzer orchestra cd tonight when i got home from choir practice.

as we were heading out the door, we noticed the family who lives down the street out with their little boy who is 15 months old so we went over to chat. while we were there, owen started navigating their stairs - WITHOUT holding on to anything! he was so steady doing it. i was totally amazed, almost to tears. he was so proud of himself, probably playing off of my reaction to him doing that. he's growing up so fast!

another new word for him lately is "row". he says it as he climbs up into my lap, takes a finger from each hand into his hands and waits for me to start singing "row row row your boat." then tonight he also said, "clap". i initially didn't understand what he was saying so i asked him to say it again and help me understand what he was saying so he started clapping, then he did "la la la la la". i immediately knew he was requesting "rock-a-bye your bear." language acquisition is awe inspiring.

sick day

for both me and the little man of the house. he has been getting a sporadic fever in response to those nasty two-year molars. they caught it at day care yesterday so he can't be there today. grumble grumble grumble. i have that beginning of the year cold which is threatening to go into my sinuses. i took a personal sick day instead of using a family leave day since i am also sick. i had to go back in last night after dinner (and after calling around to see if owen could go anywhere today so i didn't have to miss work...) to finish my sub plans. I then e-mailed them to one of the middle school teachers (i had my middle school class this morning) and the office coordinator. the latter couldn't open anything initially but the procedures. not the lesson plans, not the middle school project info to give to the kids. i only found this out when i called in to make sure everything made it to the sub. the office was supposed to have the phones on at 7:30. i didn't get anything but the immediate voicemail until 7:50. that was ten minutes before middle school starts. i was slightly frustrated, but everything turned out just fine. he should be done in about 20 minutes.

owen is down for his nap - no fighting, no getting out of bed multiple times. once jeffy gets home, i'm heading out for tgif (aka "choir practice") with people from work. he knows this, so i hope he hurries home tonight. i'll be upset if he doesn't get home in time for me to make it out. we're going to the waterfront tonight so it's going to be yummy.

one of owen's newest words is "tractor". he says it pretty clearly. i know grandpa will be happy with that one! ;-) he can also point to a picture of a tractor and correctly i.d. it. granted, most big machines are currently "tractor" but he'll get it right eventually. kids tend to over generalize anyway.

i am amazed that my little boy will be two in exactly two weeks. where has the time gone? i look at the quilt and his hands on the quilt and then at his hands now. it's incredible how much has changed in the last two years. two years ago, he relied on me for absolutely everything. now, he is somewhat self-sufficient. he is communicating his needs to us in a pretty effective way. he his gaining new words daily. this morning we were watching disney channel and i told him to say "hi, mickey mouse!" and he tried it! (deep thought: why can't i type that name without thinking of "em-eye-see kay-ee-why em-oh-you-ess-ee"?) he's imitating more and more of what we say and do. my favorite is closing the doors by backing into them (it's how we have to close the front door if we want it closed completely.)

Flying Monkey

that's what owen became this weekend. i was sitting on the couch on saturday morning when he climbed up onto the coffee table. it is about a foot from the coffee table to the couch. i told owen to put his feet on the floor, and he decided to jump toward me on the couch. unfortunately started laughing so he did it again several times. by the time he hit time number 10 or so, i realized that i really shouldn't be laughing because that was only encouraging him. wonder how long he'll go before he breaks a bone...

he slept through the night last night for the first time in several nights. two nights ago he woke up at about 1:30 hacking and coughing (due to nasal drainage...he's got that start-of-school cold right along with the rest of his class at daycare). he finally coughed so much that he threw up. we had to launder every bit of bedding, including the pillow and comforter. everything is clean and dry except for the comforter, which is currently finishing the drying process between two chairs spanning the living room and dining room.

i need sleep. the delete key has been my best friend tonight. off to bed with me.

getting better

owen went potty a total of four times on saturday. none on sunday (but we were at the fair most of the day so we didn't worry about it too much.) and three times today, i think. once first thing this morning (even with a full diaper!) and then twice at day care. he's pretty much transitioned up to the toddler room by now. that's a good thing. it's really where he needs to be for a multitude of reasons. i'm glad he's finally there. the coolest thing in my mind is that one of his teachers is the older sister of two of my favorite students. it's nice to have the family connection. the button on the book is still a favorite thing to push. usually he'll say, "button" when he wants to push it. i've pretty much learned to tune it out by now so it really doesn't bug me at all.

o started crying at 11:10 last night. i got up and went in to see what was up. he was. he was standing next to his bed in a small space. he managed to get himself mildly stuck between the bed, the wall, some sterilite tubs, and a wooden magazine rack we use for his books. once i got him unstuck (which just meant up onto his bed - he couldn't get that done by himself) and laid down with him for a few minutes, he was out for the rest of the night. i was out of bed for a total of about 20 minutes. i'm liking this bit. lately, it's taken no longer than about 30 minutes to get him back to sleep at night, if we even have to do it at all. i think having the big bed helps cause i can just climb in and snuggle with him until he falls asleep.

school is going well. the kids are learning so much already. my kinders can keep a great beat and follow direction all at the same time. it's quite cool. and so fun to watch. i made yet another small child cry today. same class as last time, but different kid. this one didn't want the red sticks either. she wanted blue. ugh. she ended up sitting out in a chair for most of the class time.

tomorrow is my first day off this year. i don't like taking a day off this close to the start of school, but it's a family funeral. jeffy's aunt died on thursday night. Lou Ann had been battling cancer for about a year. when they first found it, it was already everywhere (and i mean everywhere) and they didn't expect her to make the weekend. services are tomorrow morning at 10:30. it's too late in the morning for me to be able to take off just the morning (i'd have to be at school by 11:45 if i took a half day off and i can't make it back in time so i just took the whole day.) jeffy will be going to work, then leaving in time for the funeral, then heading back afterward. i'll just have some me time before and after. maybe i'll do some planning on my national boards. we'll see.

success...

so far. he's gone twice in the potty today. that's the most consistency we've had yet! he just loves pushing that darned button on his potty book. whatever works, right folks? and we're still on our second pair of underwear today! i guess he didn't quite finish this morning first thing so he managed to wet himself pretty quickly. i got him changed and all has been dry since!

all geared up

and ready to "go", i hope! owen is going to be in underwear (and vinyl pants) this weekend to see what happens in terms of potty training. we have 9 pair of training underwear, 3 pair of vinyl pants, a book that has a button with a flushing potty sound (the button is a hit with owen!) and cool foamy soap that comes out of a hippo's mouth (huggies clean team, i think) that he'll get to use when he goes potty. we'll see if we have to up the ante or sweeten the pot but i'm hoping that (1) keeping his underwear dry and (2) using the hippo soap will be incentive enough for him. we may have to resort to my parent's old stand-by: m's. the trick will be keeping those safe from him and daddy. maybe we'll find a cool depenser that only lets a small amount out.

anyway, he's continued to stay dry most of the day at day care and has even gone potty there once or twice. it's still tough with not knowing which room he'll be in, but when i talked with one of the directors, she said that we can send extra underwear and vinyl pants instead of pull-ups and they'll work with that. my aversion to pull-ups is that they don't let the child feel when they're wet. sure we'll be washing underwear like mad (too mad and we'll go back to diapers for the time being) but we won't have to keep buying the pull-ups. i'll keep you all posted on his progress.

the first full week of school is done. it was a good week. kids mostly behaving, classes going well. my prek/k classes can really sing this year! i have a hand full of truely tricky kids, but at least they're not all clumped together in one group! last year was a different story. it's a wonderful bunch of kids this year. cute stories from yesterday (yes, they all happened yesterday) include a little boy who came in, and proceded to start undressing himself, shoes and socks first. then he started in on his shirt, and by that time i had caught him and told him to put everything back on. he eventually ended up being my partner during the beat activity we were doing with rhythm sticks. in another class, one of my little boys totally melted down because he got the wrong color of rhythm sticks. (he got red, he wanted blue.) now usually i can talk with the kids and they'll be ok with it. not this little boy. i eventually told him that if he couldn't accept the red sticks and maybe get a different color another day, that he couldn't do the activity with us. the para that is in that class for another student ended up taking the first student back to the room where he went right to the cool-down area and told his problems to the stuffed penguin that is there. when the para returned, she mentioned that as she was walking under my window (their class is in a portable on the playground, which my room overlooks) on her way back, not only could she hear everyone using the rhythm sticks, but she could hear the beat being kept with them also! yay!!!!

we went to the homecoming game at jeff's h.s. last night. the district had closed the building a couple of years ago and sent the entire staff and student body to another site in the district while they re-did the inside of the building and added some more space. this is the first year back in the building. we're going for a tour later this morning, maybe with some friends. after that, it's offto grandma's!

owen's aunt sheena and uncle nick are moving this week from up-state new york to our city. yay! it will be really nice to have them nearby. nick is a teacher so i'm going to try to help him with finding something in my district, even if it's for subbing.

when we went to the fair last weekend, owen whinnied his way through the 4-H horse barns. it was hilarious! he even went potty in the big potty at the fair. we're going back tomorrow with katie, rob, and peter i think. we went to the rodeo last weekend, too. owen liked that. he'll do the mutton bustin' in a year or two (kids are set on a sheep and try too hold on for 6 seconds as the sheep bolts across the arena toward other sheep standing in the middle. the kids they had doing it during the rodeo last week were really funny and cute when they were being interviewed.

pictures!

Here are some pictures, just as I promised.

The first couple are of our little man reading, a favorite pasttime for him. He's not wearing any pants to make trying the potty easier for me. Too bad he didn't get that bit...

Can you tell he's not the least bit camera-shy?

Again, he's reading. I sing the words to this book to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle. Before I took these pictures, I could hear him singing away as he was reading. I even heard a few words I didn't know he knew ("see" is one that comes to mind).

I just love the look on his face in this one.




A boy and his bed. It's a beautiful thing. Too bad he doesn't realize that right now and go take a nap. He's been playing for at least the last hour, despite my poking my head in there several times and telling him to go to sleep. I've even physicall put him in his bed at least three times this afternoon. On another note, aren't the sheets and comforter cute?!




A wider view of his bed. It has been moved over to your right by about a foot so as to make it a little harder for him to work the lightswitch. He can still manage to reach it, however. The safety rails have a latch at each end so they can swing down quite easily and automatically catch and lock when they are raised. It makes changing diapers on the bed much easier. Yesterday morning, I found him laying cross-wise in his bed, head to your right, feet toward the left, between the rails

dry spell

in more than one way. i realized it's been two weeks since i've posted last so here is all that has happened in the last two weeks:

owen has his big boy bed in his room. he's pretty good about staying on it when it's time to be sleeping, even if he's not sleeping. he has cool car-and-truck sheets. i'll post pictures a little later.

separation anxiety is hitting for really the first time. owen loves his mama. that's a good thing. the other good thing is that at day care, he knows i'm going to leave, but he also knows that he has to stay. the way i look at things, he doesn't have to like it, but he does have to cope with it. he's coping. it helped yestereday when we got there earlier than normal (i have different hours depending on the day of the week this year) and the wiggles was on. he made a bee-line for that and was good.

owen should start transitioning up to the toddler room at day care starting on monday. this was helped along partly by the fact that he (1) woke up dry yesterday morning, (2) went on the potty yesterday morning, and (3) stayed dry most of the day yesterday but didn't go potty in the potty a second time. we're working on it. (this excitement sure beats the excitement we had on the first friday of school last year - a dead body on the sidewalk in front of the school in the morning.)

school is going well so far. i've seen all but two of my classes so far. these kids are really mine now. i'm finding i'm the most comfortable with my upper el classes that i have ever been. when i started teaching, that age group (4th and 5th grades) was my least comfortable. now, i've had these kids their entire school career so they really don't know any different. my rules haven't changed at all and they know me and my routines. it's really nice. i have even taken on a middle school class this year. i have them at 8:00 on monday and friday mornings. since i start teaching at the beginning of the elementary school teacher's day, i show up at 7:30 instead of 8:00 and get to leave at 3:00 instead of 3:30. i felt like i was playing hooky yesterday when i left as the elementary kids were getting loaded onto buses. i'll get used to it. my middle school class is going to be great, i think. this is the first year i've really felt comfortable having a middle school class. it is also the only situation in which i would take on middle schoolers, seeing as i've raised most of them since 1st grade. they came in so quietly yesterday, found their seats (i let them choose their assigned seat instead of me assigning them like i usually do.) there were some good questions about the course as i was describing it. and a collective moan when i announced the first quiz, which i gave yesterday. once i explained what was on the quiz, they were relieved. one kid even made the comment about how i can't do that on the first day. they have the weekend to finish it up and we'll discuss it on monday. basically, i'm just finding out what they know (or think they know) about music, how and why it changes, the different genres of music, and what composer names they might know.

jeffy is working the fair today. joy. don't have a clue when he'll be home, but it will be after owen goes to bed. we were thinking about going to the zoo, but it's too late to go, get everything in, and be home at a decent time for a nap. i'm a bit overwhelmed currently, and i think that probably has somethign to do with needing to recover from the week and having to run after a very busy almost 2-year-old all day long. anyone want to come over and help? i need it!

all for now. maybe i'll get pictures posted while he's napping. or maybe it will wait until after the fair tomorrow. we have rodeo tickets. i'm excited! i love the fair. owen will even be able to go on the rides this year (the minimum age is two, but he's close enough and definately passes for two.)