Easter

Hope you all had a happy Easter!

field trips

The first grade is going on a field trip tomorrow. In light of this, I was telling Brian yesterday about my field trips when I was little. The rest of the school year, I ate school food. But on field trip day, I got a special lunch. My mom would take me shopping the night before and I'd pick out a special drink, the kind of sandwich meat I wanted (unless I wanted a lunchable), a special treat, and usually some fruit snacks. I told Brian that I planned on doing this with our kids as well.

Well, when my cute husband came home tonight, this is what he brought me:

I feel like a kid again! So sweet!

And I really don't think I should end a post without giving you a peek at this handsome little man . . .

2 Months!

Seriously-- where does the time go? Saturday was Porter's 2-month birthday. I can't believe how fast our baby's growing! Some things about 2-month old Porter . . .

-he only sleeps when he's swaddled up so tight he can't move, sitting in his vibrating bouncer chair, next to the stereo playing vacuum sounds. that sounds so uncomfortable to me-- but hey, whatever works!!

-and he sleeps in the car (almost) every time we go somewhere

-he drinks 6 oz at each feeding-- the dr. says that's not unheard of; but it's pretty unique for such a young baby to drink so much. my friend's 3.5-month-old is drinking 2 oz.

-he smiles! and talks (baby talk, that is)! this morning i kissed his forehead as i was going to head back to bed after his 3 am feeding. then he flashed me the hugest grin and started cooing. i completely forgot about how sleepy i was and opted to stay and chat with my baby instead. who needs sleep, right?!

-he weighs 12 lb, 14 oz . . . and he's 24 inches long (90th percentile)

-he swats at the toys on his mobile and you get his full attention if you shake a rattle in front of him

-he finally "notices" the books that we read to him- which makes me happy. i was getting pretty discouraged when he completely ignored the books and he cried whenever i tried to read to him.

-he usually only wakes up 1 time each night! hooray!

-he sucks on his hands when he's hungry

-he has tons of hair that we like to try to spike-- but it usually just goes crazy!

-he likes to be sung to- especially "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

-and he's completely won over his mommy and daddy's hearts in these 2 short months!

twenty-seven

 

twenty seven candles on this cake
given to me on sunday

to celebrate twenty-seven years of me!
(and who wouldn't want to celebrate that, right?!)

i wish i had twenty-seven more pieces of this cake. it's my favorite. so yummy!
(it's from Magleby's Fresh in provo- i highly recommend all of you going there to get a piece. brian made my sister buy it & drive it up to us. . . thanks again, dawnia!)

Consistency

I do NOT want to leave my baby on Monday to go back to work. But, that being said, there will be one blessing to my returning to school. That is consistency. My poor students have not had a consistent teacher since I've left. Some of my students were even switched to a new class they created when I was gone. I feel so terrible because I know if I were one of my students' parents, I'd be pretty upset by now. It seemed like every week a new substitute was put in. Let's count:

#1: Mrs. G.- my students never actually had this sub. But she was the one I set up at the beginning of the year and told all my students' parents about. Then a month before my maternity leave, she told me she was offered a full-time teaching position. Happy for her; not for me.

#2: Miss S.- great replacement for Mrs. G. So happy I got her to be my sub! She was in my class for 3 weeks before my school created a new 2nd grade class and decided to hire her to be the full-time teacher. Again, happy for her; not for me.

#3: Mrs. H.- hired by my principal to replace Miss S. when they took her away. I never met Mrs. H. but I heard great things about her. Then her daughter had a baby and away she went.

#4: Mr. N.- had been subbing for another teacher at our school who returned from maternity leave. He was meant to finish up the time until my return. Then his mother-in-law passed away and he had to leave as well.

#5: Mrs. S.- a student-teacher at our school who filled in when Mr. N. left. She stayed with my kids for the last week of my absence.

I love my students this year and I'm very excited to see them again . . . and finally give them a permanent teacher!

Funny Moments

Today I received about 15 blank texts from Brian, all within just a few minutes. I called him to see what was going on. He informed me his phone just freaked out a bit when he tried to send me a picture message.

Here's what I said next: "Oh, I just wasn't sure if your phone was unlocked in your pocket or something."

Here's what Brian heard: "Oh, I just wasn't sure if there was a moth in your pocket or something."It might not have be that funny to all of you, but I've been laughing all night every time I picture a little moth in his pocket sending blank text messages on his phone!


This other funny moment is pretty self-explanatory:This didn't actually happen today; I just found the picture tonight as I was putting all the pics from my camera onto our computer. It was a couple weeks ago when I found my bed waiting for me like this! Brian makes me laugh!!

Another week with Porter!

Today I was supposed to go back to work. I would have had to kiss my baby goodbye at 8:00 and not see him again until I picked him up from the babysitter's at 4:00. I'd been dreading the day I'd have to leave my baby. But instead, he and I slept in till noon today (not cuz we're lazy-- it was just another long night)!

I decided to take just one more week of maternity leave before returning to my 1st graders. I'm loving being a full-time mommy too much. I love being here whenever my baby needs me. (Although the baby may have fared better at a babysitter's today since I cut his finger when I was trying to clip his nails-- he cried for 1/2 hour and I cried for 1 full hour because I felt so awful!) Despite our crying afternoon, I'm still happy that I was here to hold him till he fell asleep. And I'm happy that I'm here to greet him each time he wakes up. (And I'm happy that I've discovered that Daddy is now the official "nail-clipper" in our family!)

One more week . . . I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can!

7 Hours!

Monday night was possibly the worst of my mommy-career. The baby was finally soothed and quiet when Brian and I retired around midnight. As is often the case, the second my head hit the pillow, I heard whimpers from the bassinet which shortly turned into screams. The baby was up . . . and so was I. I spent the next 3 1/2 hours trying to feed, rock, sing to, and soothe my screaming Porter. Finally, he fell asleep again just before 4 am. That lasted for almost 1 1/2 hours before he was up again. By the time Brian woke up to go to school, I had gotten 3 hours of sleep.

Tuesday was a lot of the same- whimpering, crying (from the baby AND me!). Finally, when Brian got home late last night, we were both out of ideas. We called the doctor and took Porter to the after-hours clinic around midnight. An hour and a half later, we had a doctor telling us that we have a perfectly healthy baby and he couldn't see any reason why he should be crying so much. Then he gave us a dreaded pamphlet, "Coping with Colic." He said it was a possibility. Brian and I came home, soothed the baby to sleep once more, and tumbled into bed at 2 am . . . . Seven hours later, the baby woke up! 7 Hours!!! We couldn't believe our luck! He's never slept that long!

I don't know if he really does have colic or if it was just a bad 2 days, but he's been an angel today-- sleeping and eating normally. Fingers crossed that he stays that way!!

Brian found Porter like this during his nap this morning. Somehow he had knocked the monkey's arm into this position. So funny! Guess it's time to move the animals out of his crib. . .

Birthday

Today my sweet husband turned 28 years old! The day was full of yummy strawberry shortcake, birthday songs, time with family, homemade party hats, and some precious daddy-Porter time!What a wonderful husband I have!!

My Word

Back at the beginning of the year, when everyone was making resolutions, I read this post from Clover Lane, one of the blogs I love to read. She was copying someone else's idea of making a new year's resolution out of one word. I loved the idea. So I thought and thought of what my word would be. And this is what I came up with:
I printed the word out, stuck it in a dollar store frame, and now it sits on my nightstand to remind me each day.

There are 2 ways I'm trying to incorporate this word into my life:
1st, I want to simplify things in my jumbled-up mind. I constantly have to-do lists running through my mind. Seriously-- all day long. And, often, this stresses me out. I'm very detail-oriented (in other words, I freak out when something isn't perfect). As a result, I spend a lot of my time and energy on things that really aren't that important-- like staying hours after school to create cute little signs for a lesson I'm going to teach the next day. Was it on my to-do list? Yes. Was it important enough for me to spend all that time and energy? No. Is it the end of the world if I don't do it? Previously, I would have said yes. Crazy, huh? So to simplify the lists running through my mind, I am trying to decide which things are the most important and not "sweat the small stuff."

2nd, I want to embrace the 'simple pleasures' in life (hence, the new name of our blog!). I'm sorry to say that I wasn't a very cheerful or positive pregnant girl. I feel like I spent most of the last year uncomfortable and complaining. I stopped noticing all the good things around me like I used to. At the bottom of the stairwell to our condo, there used to be a beautiful rose bush. Every time it was in bloom and I was walking past, I would think the phrase, "stop and smell the roses." So I would . . . even when I was running late for work! And each time I breathed in the perfume, I would walk away thinking how pleasant this world is. Last summer, the grounds crew tore the rose bush out. I don't know why. But with or without a rose bush, I want to have that feeling again every single day. I want to notice the simple things around me that make me love my life! And so, for this year, I will be blogging about those things that make me happy. Enjoy!