Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas



Merry Christmas, from our family to yours.

As Celia has also been saying

Happy Birthday Jesus.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas

I am not into the holidays at work this year.  It is odd, coming into the classroom during the holidays is not as great as I thought.  We have play practice and chorus practice, special holiday shows, special holiday craft events, etc.  I have no idea at this point what our normal schedule is going to look like, not to mention some other stressers going on.  Actually I still live by my Dad's philosophy of "nothing in education is an emergency".  Truely it is not.  This week should fly by fast with Dress rehearsal Tuesday, my own Polar Express fun day on Wednesday for the class, and then our show on Thursday.   Then I have a nice vacation with my two girls the following week but sadly Mom Mom is going home.  She has been such an amazing help over the past month and we will all miss her.  Celia and I talked about it on the car ride one day and she was very sad.  I am not looking forward to Audrey going to daycare.  I love our daycare and I know she will be in good hands but it can not compare to the attention my Mom has been giving her.  According to my Mom though, she really enjoys her classroom.  So I think she will have fun and then she is all mine in June.  Celia too, but Celia would rather be at school, so that is a different story!!

Last weekend Celia helped me make my main holiday treat this year.  I decided that instead of the various sweets I was going to make that I would go with something simple, so I made a hot cocoa mix.  It is likely the only chocolate treat that I do eat/drink on occassion.  I am not a chocolate fan, I gag on dark chocolate.  So we filled over a dozen mason jars and I put the labels on.  I still have to make my infamous cheerios mix.  I struggled with whether to make it this year because Audrey can not have cheerios.  But I decided I would give it a try and make sure that everything is wiped down and the floor is inspected for stray cheerios.  


On Friday Celia has school and I do plan on sending her.  I plan on spending some quality time with just Audrey and I then tackling some house cleaning and maybe some cooking so I will not have to stress over it during the break.  At this point my Mom is saying two things, well she is laughing at the fact that I think I can get things done with Audrey and she is also saying "well I cleaned for you".  Yes she did, a lot, but the bedrooms upstairs need some TLC.   Audrey may spend some time in my Ergo or Moby wrap so I can get some things done!  Or I may just decide to scrap everything and play, play, play!!  I am excited that this year we have found a children's church service that starts at 4:30.  Every year we spend Christmas eve dinner with our neighbors/good friends and we are always very late getting there as our church service does not start until 6 pm.  This year we should be at their house by 6 pm!  We get to go with my friend and Celia's little friends too.  Of course Celia is irritated because she found out that some of her friends go to our church and she will not be there.  She will get over it.  But really, 6 pm for a children's service is wonky.  Kids eat at 6 pm, little ones need to be in bed at a decent hour.  Just my opinion!

Okay, a wordy post.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Monday, December 12, 2011

Natural Consequences

My Mom and I took the girls to Longwood Gardens last Monday evening for a members only night.  Their Christmas display is amazing.  Celia was very good despite being tired and a bit hungry, but towards the end she started whining more and more.  We came to one tree and she wanted me to take her picture.  She backed up to the tree and did not take notice of the small fencing around it and backwards she went, right into the dirt.

My Mom and I lost it.  Celia was not happy that we laughed at her expense.  I did snap the picture and Celia demanded that I erased it.  I promptly did not erase it!  It is dark but you can see her in the dirt.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Teaching Giving

Celia is old enough this Christmas to understand the giving part of Christmas a little bit.  It is very important for my girls to value giving more then getting.  I am not sure if I will win that battle until they are past the teenage years, but I will try.  Last weekend I took Celia to 5 Below to use some of her piggy bank money to buy some gifts to put in the Salvation Army stocking her school gave us.  I do this every year but I have never included her.  To my surprise she was not interested in buying things for herself and she was very into buying something for that special girl.  What was funny was that the 4 year old, I am number one philosophy, came through in another way.

"Mommy, do you think that when she opens her gifts she will say Celia is just the greatest?"

"Mommy, do you think that she will want to meet me to say thank you?"

I am not sure how I answered those questions but I figure that we will take baby steps







On a more pressing topic.  Pete's Grandmother needs some prayers.  She is in the hosptal and having a very hard time.  So if you are inclined to prayers, please say a prayer for her and for Pete's parents as they are certainly going through this with her.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Touching Base

Updating my blog since going back to work is hard.  I am not going to write very much about work, for a few reasons.  I am a teacher and honestly there have been some issues with other teachers blogging or going onto facebook about their jobs.  I am an Autistic Support teacher, my students have behavioral issues, that is why they are in my classroom.  So my job as a teacher is a bit more complicated then the norm.  I can not say that I am happy to be back to work, I wish I had made another decision.  That said, I also can not say that I am unhappy being back in the classroom.  I do enjoy working with my students and interacting with adults.  The time away from my little girls is hard on me and I think that I do not want to make working full time permanent. 
Audrey has given my Mom a rough time this past week.  We think she caught my cold and unfortunately on the first day she was left with my Mom I forgot about her reflux meds.  That did not create a happy baby!  Audrey is communicating very well now, but it is not with words.  She is pointing and saying "Ah ah ah", it is annoying.  Yes, I said it, it is very annoying.  She hands me the boppy when she wants to nurse and yesterday she tried to hand my Mom the boppy!  When someone leaves she waves bye bye and goes to get her own coat and shoes, very cute.  Hopefully Audrey will give my Mom an easier time next week!
Celia has enjoyed her first full week of school.  On Monday when I picked her up we talked about the next day and she said, "Wait, you mean I am going tomorrow?"  I actually thought for a split second that she was upset and was going to say that she missed me and wanted to be home with me.  So then I checked my ego as she says "That is so cool, I love school so much, I am so glad I get to go there all day instead of with you".  Thanks sweety, love you too.  Picking her up this week has been interesting.  One day I was yelled at because I picked her up in Splash room.  The next day she threw a fit because I would not buy her the same book her friend received at the school's book fair.  It was a $20 radio playing barbie book, no way.  On Friday, she was actually okay, even when we did go to the book fair and I purchased a book for her classroom and not for her! 
I have been surprised that getting out of the house in the morning has been fairly easy.  Now when I throw in making sure Audrey has breakfast before we leave, that might be complicated.  She may have to eat breakfast at school, which I do not want.  But we will see.  Celia typically gets up so freaking early that getting out of the house on time seems to be the least of our worries.  I am not happy with making lunches again.  I detest that.  Ugh, I do not know why, but making lunches just kills me.  In January I will have 3 to make, ugh.  Luckily I could start making mine ahead and just leaving them at work.  Our classroom has a full size fridge, go figure.