Thursday

( The picture is what I want her to do all night, but know she won't)
I'm so glad it is Thursday night! This week has not been as long as last week, but Alyssa has decided that sleep is over rated and woke up every hour last night. That makes for one tired momma in the morning. She would not calm down for Chris no matter what he tired. I think she might be getting teeth, that is the only thing I can figure because she isn't running a fever, her nose isn't stuffy and she doesn't seem sick. But if she is teething it is going to be a LONG week because you can't even feel the teeth in her mouth and her gums aren't swollen.
Tonight she was asleep I put her down, she woke up 5 minutes later and SCREAMED for 40 minutes, nothing worked, not holding her, not leaving her alone, not trying to feed her, not giving her the pacifier, finally I told Chris to get the Tylenol. He put it in her mouth and she was asleep within 2 minutes. I don't believe that Tylenol can work that fast, so what fixed her crying spell? Will she sleep tonight? How can I make her feel better? So many questions and not one answer.
The only good thing is I have an extra half hour of plan time tomorrow and an assembly tomorrow morning. I might be asleep for both! On a side note I am becoming addicted to soda in the morning to get me through the day. Alyssa needs to sleep through the night before I start gaining weight from all the soda I drink to stay awake.

Off to a good start

We have been back to school with students for almost a week now. I think we are still in the honeymoon period but so far I can't say anything to bad about my class. I don't see the issues I saw last year, though I do have one or two that will keep me on my toes.
Alyssa has also been at a new daycare for the last two weeks. Alyssa is loving it. She likes watching the older kids, they play with her give her toys and just love her up. Yesterday the babysitter sent home pictures of Alyssa with a note thanking us for picking her to watch Alyssa for us. That was really comforting since all of you know I have such a hard time leaving her every morning.
Now I do have my one complaint. Alyssa is STILL not sleeping through the night. For about 5 nights we got away without feeding her, we would just put the pacifier back in her mouth and she would go back to sleep, now for the last 4 we are back to eating at least once and sometimes twice a night. I don't know what to do, if we don't feed her she just cries and cries. I know it can't last forever she won't wake up at 18 to eat in the middle of the night will she?

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. I have a list of 21 first graders. 16 showed up today. I have two that I'm going to have to keep my eye on. But I didn't have anyone cry, I didn't have to send any to the nurse and none that peed their pants. So I would say all in all it was a good day.
I forgot how tiny they are when they enter first grade. I was telling them how to sit in their chair and I had one raise her hand and say "But my feet don't touch the ground." now mind you these are not "normal" chairs these are little kid chairs. It is also amazing to see all my kids from last year, they all look so big.
It was nice to be in the same school for a second year and have a class from last year that comes by to see me.
I am tired tonight but not too bad. What is even better is that tomorrow is Friday and so that means that only one more day until the weekend.
Hopefully I have enough rules and games to last the day tomorrow, otherwise I will have to think on my feet! Okay off to see how many can write their numbers.

Dear Alyssa,

Dear Alyssa,
You are now six months old. I can't believe how fast you have grown. Just last night we put you in your bouncy seat and realized that you don't fit, your legs are to long and you can reach and pull off all the toys.
You have found that you don't like hats. At the begining of summer you would wear the hat and be happy. Now as soon as we put the hat on your head you pull it off. You can roll all over the floor and your crib and are up on all fours ready to crawl.
You are enjoying eating solids. You will eat oatmeal for the babysitter but not for me. You like peas, green beans, and squash. You LOVE peaches and pears.
Everyday when I go to pick you up from the babysitters you give me the biggest smile and it makes my heart melt. When I go to put you down you snuggle into my shoulder and make it so I don't want to put you down.
I love you baby girl and can't wait to see how you grow over the next six months.

Love,
Mommy

Working Mom

Being a working mom is hard. I read many women's blogs that seem to manage working and being a mom pretty easily. But everyone of those blogs also has one or two every so often that they question if working is really what they want to do.
Today as I dropped Alyssa off at her new daycare I barely made it through telling the lady all about Alyssa and out the door before I started to cry. I called Chris and told him I didn't think I was cut out to be a working mom.
I got to school and had meetings all day with my wonderful first grade team. During one of the meetings I was busy typing lesson plans and helping to organize things for the start of the school year. One of my teammates looked at me and said, "You can't tell me that you aren't meant to be a teacher, look at you".
I thought about that comment a lot today. I do enjoy teaching when that is what I actually get to do ( not all the other political stuff). I also know if I stay home I would miss my adult interaction.
However I couldn't help but all day think about Alyssa too. I couldn't wait to call to check on her, think about all the smiles I was missing and in fact started to miss her so much pulled up pictures on my computer to stare at. Every day at work I think about how I'm going to miss her first steps and words.
I wish I could have my cake and eat it too. I would love to work with school aged children and stay home with Alyssa but I know that isn't possible.
What I want right now is to start my own daycare, because then I could see adults, teach children and still be at home with mine but I do know that with that comes downfalls, not much vacation, and lots of diapers.
What does the future hold? I have no idea, but I do know that right now I look forward to walking into daycare at the end of the day and see Alyssa give me a big smile and snuggle into my shoulder.

School

School starts tomorrow. I am so nervous. I haven't been this nervous in a long time. I don't know what grade I'm teaching, I have to met with the principal and an NEA rep tomorrow.
On top of all that we just changed daycare providers and Alyssa can't start her new one until next week so she is going to spend the week with my mother in law. This is great because she is close to my work however the last three times Alyssa has been over there she has cried pretty much the whole time. Now I'm going to leave her for 4 days nine hours a day. I hope she is happier.
I can not believe how fast the summer went by. It seems like just yesterday I was walking out of school to start summer. This summer Alyssa has learned to roll over, roll across the floor, sit up by herself, laugh and play peek a boo. She has traveled to Ohio, the lake, and California. She has seen both sets of great-grandparents, all of her grandparents, great aunt, great uncles and 2nd cousins.
It has been a busy and very fun summer. If the school year flies by half as fast as this summer it will be over before I know it.
Alyssa will be 6 months on Thursday. I will write more about that later. Now off to enjoy my last hour of summer before bed. :-(

Baby Led Weaning

I had never even heard of this term a week ago. But for the last two weeks Alyssa has hated eating baby food. So after doing some research on line I found this idea. That babies really don't need baby food. So starting two nights ago we started giving Alyssa regular food. She has eaten, apples, broccoli, banana, and watermelon. She really like apples and broccoli.
I give her the food and I get to sit and eat while she eats so I don't have to keep stopping my meal to feed her, she loves it!
I will keep you updated on how it goes over the next few weeks.