Test Post

I'm trying to play with some setting on this blog, so please have patience with my un-techy HTML knowledge. I'm following the directions from a photography blog on how to make the photos large...However, in the process, I've lost the ability to include a background. If anyone knows how to do this...please let me know...

But now on to the important part...the star of our show...

A few weekends back, we took a trip out to a local farmstead. I forgot to upload the pictures, but I'm thinking now that I know how to make the photos larger, you'll see how much fun we had in a bigger picture!

No. My daughter is not riding a bull. I do not plan on her riding bulls. However, this is her trying her seat in a saddle.

We thought this picture was neat because the cow's name was Ellie. In fact, we considered naming Ellie, "Ellie Mae" but we received two reactions that changed our mind. The first: "Isn't that the girl from Beverly Hillbillies?" Yes. The second: "Oh, that's my dog's name!" Oh.

The real Ellie Mae with Ellie Anna.

Our little farmer girl.

The funny thing about this picture is that I wanted to be an "Indian" (Yes, I am aware of how terribly politically incorrect that is...however, that is what I called it when I was 7.) with all of my heart when I was young. Here I am convincing Ellie how cool the Native American lifestyle was. Sidenote - I was devastated when my parents finally broke it to me that this occupation was not an option.

Please ignore the completely untanned skin of mine - adore the completely untanned skin of my daughter.

You know you're a dad when...you don't even think twice about stuffing a pink fisherman toddler hat in your back pocket.

Trying to teach my daughter to stop and smell the roses...or wildflowers...or carefully manicured and landscaped garden's daisies...same thing.

That's all for now. I have more pictures of our play date today, but will share after I clean up the kitchen from the Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken I'm marinating. And, my first attempt at homemade refried black beans! All thanks to The Pioneer Woman's website (LOVE it) in which I'm entered to win a cherry red KitchenAid...oh please let me win random number generator!

Starting our Summer

Well, things have been pretty getting to our summer. Wrapping up the school year was, as always, a rush! My students are well prepared and moving on to middle school and I'm anxious to have a few weeks home with my little Elle-belle, but it's still bittersweet.

I'm not going to lie, every moment with El is precious. I treasure her noises, her curiosity, her reluctant obedience, her silent way of exploring things. However, adjusting to a new routine and finding one that works for us is a challenge.

She's in the transition time between two solid naps and one well-timed refresher snooze. Today she had about 45 minutes of quiet time at 8:15 in her crib, not quite a nap, but peaceful crib time. As soon as she started fussing, I got her up and took her to Jazzercise, which was, amazingly, a huge success! She's had stranger danger since about 4 months old and every time I take her to church nursery or Jazzercise care, it's a toss up to see if it's going to pan out that day. Today, not only did she not starting bawling the minute we walked through the doors to check-in, but she only cried for one breath when I left before playing the whole time with a little boy only one month younger than her! Hooray! Side note - at the moment, she is sitting right outside our office here, reading a book to herself while lounging quite luxuriously with her leg in the air. What a princess.

Anyway, after Jazzercise, we came home, had a lunch of cheese, edamame, blackberries and applesauce, then a bottle then took a solid two hour nap! Mommy got lots done during this time... Back to the side note, now she's standing playing with the door opening and closing it over and over. Watch those little fingers, baby.

After her nap, we took a good walk up to the library, played for awhile in the kids center, checked out some books and new baby music and back home for playtime. What a life! But back to my struggle with finding her new schedule, today was great, however, yesterday, she took a 3 hour morning nap at 8:15 and then was up until bedtime. Yikes.. So...I did some more research on Dr. Weissbluth's sleep methods and I think we're going to aim for morning quiet times, then solid mid-day naps, then early bed times. Here are the photos of our playtime after our nap, notice the kisses for her stuffed animals.

And the painted toenails.

Reading over what I just wrote, I'm laughing at the time I, a very obviously first-time toddler mom, took explaining my little girl's schedule. However, in my defense, reading back over this blog is such a sweet experience. It's almost like a little journal of our journey together. Oh, the experiences to come for our little family...

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!