I know so much has happened since the last update but since I’m in the misted of it I can’t remember it all. I told Justin that he would need to be responsible for one of these entries since I’ve gone brain dead most days. I’m pretty sure his response was a snort and rolling over and going back to sleep.
I got a teaching job so that’s my excuse for not updating like I should. School started on the 14th and well I’ve taught a totally of five days, three at one and two at the other. It’s not the full time teaching position that I had hoped for, but I think teaching full-time right now would kill me. For privacy reasons I will not reveal the identity of either school, but they are considered “urban” teaching. They are both small K-6 schools under 100 for one and under 150 for the other. The schools are 80% and 95% poverty with over 75% of the students being on tuition assistance. Even though they are small schools it doesn’t however cut down the class sizes for me since I’m only at each school one day a week. Luckily my largest class is only 24 but they happen to be 2nd graders, which for me is some what of a nightmare. I will need to restructure my approach with the younger ones k-2 and remember that at this age fine motor skills are still being developed. Unfortunately that means a lot of basic cutting, gluing, and coloring. My older kids seem excited to have a new art teacher. I’ve heard from the other teachers that the previous art teacher refused to do any art and had them fill in coloring book pages. My first “real” lessons with them started this week and I only cried twice! I know I shouldn’t complain and I should be thankful for the position but there are certain restrictions that are driving me crazy. At one school I don’t have a classroom and must teaching in the basement cafeteria, not a huge deal……. accept I don’t have a sink, a desk, place to hang work, a drying rack (or even places to lay work out to dry), a trash can or decent supplies and I’m forbidden from putting anything on the tables permanently, painting on the tables, hanging anything from the ceiling or the walls. The ironic thing is that the students in this situation are great, I enjoy teaching them and my peer teachers are friendly and will talk to me I consider it my “easy” day. At the other school, the larger of the two, I have my own room (which until this year was a dumping ground for big junk of the school). I do have a sink, my own desk, a TRASH CAN, lots of supplies and places to hang. However the students are much more difficult and I have seven classes with only one short break for lunch. Neither school has a place for me to pump and has not really accommodated the need. They seem to think that I will quit in a month or so.
Klayton is working on walking; he stands for about 5-10 seconds alone and tries really hard to step with out holding on, but if he really wants to get somewhere quickly he crawls.
He really enjoys drumming on things, particularly the metal tables in the café at the New Central Library.
He LOVES pizza which isn’t surprising since it runs in his veins. He LOVES avocados which I have mixed feelings about since I liked not having to share my avocados.
He LOVES pizza which isn’t surprising since it runs in his veins. He LOVES avocados, which I have mixed feelings about since I really liked not having to share my avocados with anyone else. He really enjoys eating what ever we are eating, but I sneak in bites of his pureed baby food. He still loves any and all fruits, especially my parents freshly picked peaches from their overabundant peach tree. He is still not a huge fan of the green stuff, but will at least eat it. He is always eager to get tastes of our food, most times he will grab for it himself or if I’ve already given him a bite and he has yet to finish it he will let it fall out of his mouth in order to try the next thing mamas got. I love that he is excited about trying new foods and hope he will not be as picky as either Justin or I as children.
He is starting to understand and respond to our questions. Mostly just jabber but Justin is trying to get him to identify objects. He will say nose and 2-5 times Klayton touches Justin’s nose. Justin and Klayton now have a new favorite game, it’s called “half-turn” Justin will change the name to full-turn once they accomplish it. The basic principle is Justin tossing Klayton is the air and rotating him at the same time, to do a 180 turn. Klayton laughs so hard and just adores the thrill. I think he will be a roller coaster maniac.
Ciotka (Jen) has also taught Klayton how to “sing” He starts to hmmm and then Ciotka moves her hand over his mouth to create the changing notes. I will have to upload a video, it is too cute!
Still no sleep-filled nights, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I will not get another “good” nights sleep until all our children are in college and even then it will be sparingly. However he has developed a new technique to insure that I can never leave his side while he is sleeping. As he is falling asleep I lay next to him shhhing him to sleep he gets comfortable and in the final seconds before completely knocking out for the night he rests his head and at least one limb on my body. I call it his mommy alarm. If I even try to leave the bed his “alarm” goes off and he wakes up too. In turn this systems makes it incredibly difficult to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, clean or do anything after he goes to bed. We are trying to provide a substitute for me. During these sleep times and nursing times I try to have BB (his blue velveteen rabbit that Bubka made him) with him so he can become attached to him instead of needing me all the time. I think it will be a slow process.
We don’t have another doctor’s appointment until after his first birthday, so we have been doing unofficial stats, he is 20 something pounds and 28 inches tall.
FYI….. I will be throwing Jennie a “housewarming” get together sometimes in the near future so be on the look out for an invite in your mailboxes
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