You may be wondering what this picture has to do with this post...Isabella announced she was "going to work" when she had on this "outfit". I can only hope and pray that she is never in a job where she goes to work in her underwear...
Anyway, I have gone back to work, hence the absence of posts this past month. It is seriously kicking my butt. I love it, but life as working parents of 2 kids is definitely waaaaaaaay harder than just having 1. The first 4 months of having 2 kids was a breeze! Oh what a difference a 40 hour workweek makes!
I am teaching 2 classes this year, which I am very excited about. It has been harder, teaching 2 hours and planning for those classes on top of my "regular" job as Director of Communications, which has also had its share of extra work due to our name change. But I love being back in the classroom. I started out teaching a 4th/5th grade math class of 3 kids plus Algebra II. My first class is the same but my second class then changed to 8th grade writing, then to 6th grade math, which I was THRILLED about, but just when I was settling in to the end of the first week of school, that sweet class got snatched right out from under my nose and now I am teaching a 5th grade reading class. You have GOT to be flexible if you work at Noble Academy!
So things are good but so hectic. We are lucky to have Annie living with us for awhile. She is helping out with the girls and also with some of the housework. Nick is having a hard time getting both girls ready and out the door in the mornings. It is basically go go go all day and when we finally get the girls down around 8 (well, for Isabella, it is usually a little later, and her "schedule" tends to "require" her to "go stinky" right after we turn out the lights at night). Anyway, once we get the girls to bed, we are cleaning and getting everything ready for the morning. When we finally get to sit down at night, we are usually doing work. Nick has gone back to school for his Masters in Parks and Rec Management. He is taking several fun classes - Statistics and Educational Research Methods. So if he weren't busy enough already...
I am not complaining, just TIRED. Oh but I'm sure I will be complaining once rec football season starts and Nick is not home 3 nights a week plus Saturdays. But, I got through baseball season. I can get through football season (of course, I wasn't working during baseball season).
Isabella is doing well! She just moved up to the "big girl room" at school and seems to be settling in pretty well. She is pretty psyched to get to play on the "big playground". All the 3-5 year olds are out there together. It is a very large fenced in area with lots of trees, grass, hills, dirt, and a few playground items. Nothing new or fancy, plenty of room for running and imaginary play. Emma Deasy is out there, so I think Isabella likes that. Two of her buddies (Aiden and Marian, or "ma-mee-man" as Isabella calls her) from her old class moved up a few weeks before her, so I think she was really excited to be back in their classroom. She is potty trained, for the most part. Still some accidents and wearing pull-ups at night, but she has done really well! It wasn't even all that hard to get her to go potty in public places, so that was a relief.
Right now we are working through some, uh, let's call it "people skills". Basically I am the only person (well, I'm sure she doesn't do it at school) that she doesn't "be mean" to. It is the worst with family (my parents and sister, and even Nick), but friends are definitely not immune either. It is usually when she first sees someone and they are talking to her. She usually snaps out of it after a little while. I am beginning to see that she does it for attention so we may try a new tactic of just ignoring. A little harder to do when she hits though. Even though she's not hitting hard, or to hurt, and sometimes she just hits at the person without making contact. But it comes with angry noises and faces. I have no tolerance for it but we may have to start ignoring it a little more, I don't really know what to do.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, she is still not a girly girl. I know there's still time for her to develop a love of dresses and princesses, but she's not there yet! She wears shorts whenever possible, doesn't like to wear her hair up, and here is the epitome of growing up in her mommy's footsteps: we were at the science center the other day (our membership there is the best $70 I think we've ever spent, have I mentioned that yet?). The volunteer had opened up the bunny cage so we and another family could pet the bunny. Isabella refused to pet the bunny. Not too unusual because even though she loves animals, her shyness around people sometimes results in her refusing to pet anything. So that's what I assumed about this situation. But after she closed the bunny cage, Isabella actually spoke (more to me than to the volunteer, but still, she spoke!) and asked to pet the snake! That's my girl! And her birthday party will be at the science center this year. When I booked the party and was asked which animals we wanted, I made sure they would have a snake!
Well, I have enjoyed the chance to catch up a little bit. Now I'm off to start my whirlwind of a day. Thank goodness for a teacher workday today, so no classes, and a 3 DAY WEEKEND!!!!!
Anyway, I have gone back to work, hence the absence of posts this past month. It is seriously kicking my butt. I love it, but life as working parents of 2 kids is definitely waaaaaaaay harder than just having 1. The first 4 months of having 2 kids was a breeze! Oh what a difference a 40 hour workweek makes!
I am teaching 2 classes this year, which I am very excited about. It has been harder, teaching 2 hours and planning for those classes on top of my "regular" job as Director of Communications, which has also had its share of extra work due to our name change. But I love being back in the classroom. I started out teaching a 4th/5th grade math class of 3 kids plus Algebra II. My first class is the same but my second class then changed to 8th grade writing, then to 6th grade math, which I was THRILLED about, but just when I was settling in to the end of the first week of school, that sweet class got snatched right out from under my nose and now I am teaching a 5th grade reading class. You have GOT to be flexible if you work at Noble Academy!
So things are good but so hectic. We are lucky to have Annie living with us for awhile. She is helping out with the girls and also with some of the housework. Nick is having a hard time getting both girls ready and out the door in the mornings. It is basically go go go all day and when we finally get the girls down around 8 (well, for Isabella, it is usually a little later, and her "schedule" tends to "require" her to "go stinky" right after we turn out the lights at night). Anyway, once we get the girls to bed, we are cleaning and getting everything ready for the morning. When we finally get to sit down at night, we are usually doing work. Nick has gone back to school for his Masters in Parks and Rec Management. He is taking several fun classes - Statistics and Educational Research Methods. So if he weren't busy enough already...
I am not complaining, just TIRED. Oh but I'm sure I will be complaining once rec football season starts and Nick is not home 3 nights a week plus Saturdays. But, I got through baseball season. I can get through football season (of course, I wasn't working during baseball season).
Isabella is doing well! She just moved up to the "big girl room" at school and seems to be settling in pretty well. She is pretty psyched to get to play on the "big playground". All the 3-5 year olds are out there together. It is a very large fenced in area with lots of trees, grass, hills, dirt, and a few playground items. Nothing new or fancy, plenty of room for running and imaginary play. Emma Deasy is out there, so I think Isabella likes that. Two of her buddies (Aiden and Marian, or "ma-mee-man" as Isabella calls her) from her old class moved up a few weeks before her, so I think she was really excited to be back in their classroom. She is potty trained, for the most part. Still some accidents and wearing pull-ups at night, but she has done really well! It wasn't even all that hard to get her to go potty in public places, so that was a relief.
Right now we are working through some, uh, let's call it "people skills". Basically I am the only person (well, I'm sure she doesn't do it at school) that she doesn't "be mean" to. It is the worst with family (my parents and sister, and even Nick), but friends are definitely not immune either. It is usually when she first sees someone and they are talking to her. She usually snaps out of it after a little while. I am beginning to see that she does it for attention so we may try a new tactic of just ignoring. A little harder to do when she hits though. Even though she's not hitting hard, or to hurt, and sometimes she just hits at the person without making contact. But it comes with angry noises and faces. I have no tolerance for it but we may have to start ignoring it a little more, I don't really know what to do.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, she is still not a girly girl. I know there's still time for her to develop a love of dresses and princesses, but she's not there yet! She wears shorts whenever possible, doesn't like to wear her hair up, and here is the epitome of growing up in her mommy's footsteps: we were at the science center the other day (our membership there is the best $70 I think we've ever spent, have I mentioned that yet?). The volunteer had opened up the bunny cage so we and another family could pet the bunny. Isabella refused to pet the bunny. Not too unusual because even though she loves animals, her shyness around people sometimes results in her refusing to pet anything. So that's what I assumed about this situation. But after she closed the bunny cage, Isabella actually spoke (more to me than to the volunteer, but still, she spoke!) and asked to pet the snake! That's my girl! And her birthday party will be at the science center this year. When I booked the party and was asked which animals we wanted, I made sure they would have a snake!
Well, I have enjoyed the chance to catch up a little bit. Now I'm off to start my whirlwind of a day. Thank goodness for a teacher workday today, so no classes, and a 3 DAY WEEKEND!!!!!
1 comment:
Thanks for the update, Jen! I can only imagine how hectic life is for you guys now. I got a good laugh at the "go stinky" comment :)
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