The Mysteries of Motherhood

Well, Ellie has her first official mysterious illness. All weekend we were dealing with new teething, the incisors. This, of course, came with a finicky appetite, drool galore, atrociously messy diapers and a tired little girl. After working through barely crowning one of those little toothers, we have our first mysterious rash that appeared everywhere this morning. She doesn't seem to be bothered with it, but it almost looks like bouts of poison ivy all over! My only guess is perhaps it has to do with the Rice Milk I gave her the last two days to try to combat the digestion issues we were dealing with in relation to her teething. So, we're off of that and we'll see if anything improves....

It did give us a good excuse for a luxurious bath and extra cuddle time....that and book reading. Ellie LOVES pulling books off of the shelf and looking at each and every one. When I'm trying to be super mom I let her take one off at a time, read at least a page to her before she's ready for a different one and then put that one back before she chooses the next one. I sure do love my little baby girl.

A Glimpse into my Everyday Life

I don't remember how many posts ago I talked about the amazing growth I feel I've made this year as a teacher. It's been so inspiring to learn from the teachers around me and join a book club to gain some really challenging and motivating tips and lessons. I even hosted my first student teacher this semester. These are some pictures I took documenting this year's journey...

My book shelf, leveled by student lexile scores.

Pictures posted outside my room of our reader's theater experiences...

Our measurement unit, documented with student drawings filled with exact measurements and three-dimensional shapes as well as pictures of students exploring the measurements in the room and below the charts of the teachers' heights in the building after a height scavenger hunt one morning.

Our "FRQ" chart - Facts, Responses and Questions students had after reading a picture book about government as a class.

Our Six Traits of Writing charts - student made including their own checklists to help them become better writers -

Learning about geometric transformations...

The writing process wall - students move their little star along the writing process as they write...

This is the sun Chris painted this summer on my wall, now it hosts our vocabulary wall that we add to during our book clubs...

I am so blessed to be in this profession. Although there are mornings where I don't want to roll out of bed, and it's hard not to count the days until I'm spending afternoons at the pool with my little bikini-clad almost-toddler princess, I love being a teacher.

Ellie's Garden

We did manage to start our very first garden this weekend. We planted tomatoes, red and green peppers, banana peppers and jalapenos. It'll be interesting as I have less than a green thumb...but we sure had a good time trying.

Ellie with her piggy on the way to the Family Tree Nursery

Ellie and the ceramic frog...her future prince perhaps???

Ellie assisting daddy...oh so helpful...

Pippy helping Daddy...even more helpful...

Dreaming of things to come...

Like daddy, like daughter..

A Weekend with Mr. Mom

My dear, dear husband was Mr. Mom this weekend. I ended up being quite busy with family funeral arrangements and helping with the process of moving Papa out of their house as he'll be moving to Arizona with his son. It's been quite a sentimental experience - a strange, reflective sort of weekend. Memories keep flooding in and while I processed, Chris kept busy watching little Ellie, cleaning the house top to bottom, mowing the outside, getting her down and back up for naps and all in all keeping life moving. It was really nice even as I got to go shopping for a nice dress to wear to the gathering yesterday while he did all of these things. Ellie and Pippy pitched in with their cute little ways. Not sure how much help they were....but boy are they cute!