The Amazing Amount of Non-Teaching Stuff

First, I want to say that I know every job has stuff that you hate to do, you feel has no real bearing on your performance and is a waste of time. That being said...

Let me shed some light on some of the things teachers have to do when they should be teaching kids how to read, how to add and how to write their names:

* Test every single kid who is below grade level (in some classes, that's every kid) every week to see if they are improving. Keep in mind that there are 5 days in a school week and testing that many kids is going to take time. When do you do it? During class time of course. Instead of running a small reading group or teaching handwriting, we have to take time every week out of our instructional time to test every single kid. Do you think a kid will make any significant gains in 4 days? No...but we still have to do it.

* Link the state standards (the stuff the govt says we have to teach) to our curriculum to prove we're actually teaching it. Like we're idiots. This is going to take me all year to do: even though a committee linked everything 2 years ago, we just got a new curriculum so I have to do it myself. I have to take every lesson I teach and write it down on how it applies: even something like "writes legibly." (yes, that's writing standard 1.3). I feel that should go without saying, but who am I to argue with the district or the state?

* Enter my miles and miles of testing results into different computer programs that will analyze it for me. I need to enter reading data every week, writing data, math data and decide what I should be teaching in order to fill in the gaps....hmmmmmm. Aren't I supposed to hit all the state standards? (see above) Didn't realize I had a choice about what to teach! (don't forget I'm taking that much time away from my instruction in order to give these tests every week!)

* Meet with the administration for 40 minutes every week to discuss our testing results. Okay, I'm over this already! Please trust me and leave me alone to let me teach the kids!

* Clean my room. Yup, the custiodian vaccums but that's it. What other profession has their staff dusting, washing down the sinks, disenfecting the tables, desks, computers, water fountains, etc.? I'd love to walk into a dentists office or a marketing firm and see the staff cleaning their sinks instead of working.

There's more of course, but you're getting bored: heck, I'm getting bored with it. Couldn't we just all agree that teaching is a profession: just like nursing or being a lawyer and we should let the professionals have the final say in how it's run because they just might have the kids' best interests at heart? I know that the public has a right to say what they think because it's their tax dollars being spent and their kids, but really folks:

Is it better that I'm spending about 5 hours per week (of class time) administering tests, grading tests, entering data for tests and discussing the data around the tests or would that time be better spent actually teaching the kids how to read?

I think George Bush and the No Child Left a Dime act has decided that question for all of us already.

Maelin is 5 Months Old Today!

My little one is growing up! I can't believe that it's been 5 months since we've had her: it seems like it's gone by in the blink of an eye, but I also can't imagine life without her.

It's crazy how fast kids grow up. My friend from high school's son is in 5th grade now! That's so hard for me to believe because I was there when he was about 3 weeks old: I remember helping to change his diapers and I remember the wonderment that comes with a new baby and now he's in 5th grade and it seems like that happened yesterday.

I wish there was a better way to preserve the precious time we have with our kids when they are young...I take tons of pictures, we bought a camcorder, I record things in her baby book and I'll have this blog to look back on but I won't have the smells of Maelin. I won't have the twinkle in her eyes, the softness of her skin, the soft sighs she makes as she snuggles into me when she's going to sleep. My little infant is already gone forever: there's a chubby, drooling, squealing baby in her place. I love this baby as much or even more as I loved the infant, but I miss the infant just the same.

In a few short months, my chubby baby will be gone and a toddler will be running amok. Then an inquisitive (I hope) pre-schooler will be hanging out and then a school-aged kid and before we know it, Maelin will be in 5th grade and this post will read, "Maelin's in 5th grade today: Where did the time go?"

It's hard to imagine I'll be as in love with these other kids that Maelin will turn into as I am with her now. I hope that I'll be as present as possible and our time together will be well-spent. She's such an amazing little soul already: full of love and happiness and contentment and sweetness and joy. Those are such precious qualities and I hope they grow with her...

It's going to be a great ride.

Back to School Night...Will My Extra Work Be Worth It?

Tomorrow night is BTS night. The purpose is for the parents to come see their child's classroom, meet the teacher, see the resources and ask any questions that they may have. It's usually a pretty fun time for both teacher and parent ( and the kids loooooove to bring their parents into their classrooms.)

BTS nights in the past have usually been pretty low-key for me. I set up the room so the parents can wander around, I give a quick over-view of what my expectations are and I invite questions. I haven't put a lot of work into it before now because I never really got much of a showing. Most parents in my district have to work at night or they don't have a car or they're afraid to come to school or they're just not interested enough to get down there.

I decided this year was going to be different. This was the year I was going to get more participation from my parents and that's going to be the difference in my kids' performance. I've got a pretty tough group now so I can use all the help I can get.

Together with my student teacher, I created a "Back to School Night" powerpoint presentation to show the parents. I even sent it to Kevin's work and he had a co-worker translate it for me so I have something for the Spanish speaking parents. I'm really excited about it. There's nothing on it that I didn't tell the parents about in past years, but I hope my enthusiasm rubs off and more parents come, more parents get involved in their kids' education and I set a good example for my poor, naive student teacher who thinks I do this every year and I just lost it because I got a new computer over the summer.

I'll let you know how it goes. For the past 3 years, I've gotten about 5 parents show up from my entire class. I'm hoping to at least double that tomorrow: I'll be happy if 10 show up.

I'll keep you posted.

Maelin Discovers Gizmo

Up until now, Maelin hasn't really noticed the cats much. They're gray, slow and they've learned to stay far away when she's around. Lately, Maelin has taken an interest in Gizmo: for no other reason but that he gets in her face and around her.

When he was sleeping up here, we brought the baby over for them to meet each other. Maelin grabbed at his fur, taking out handfuls at a time but Gizmo just sat there and purred. I guess negative attention is better than no attention at all!

I think they're going to be great friends eventually. They sure were cute together!

You Liked Worksheets When You Were In School, Right?

School has started and I'm crazy crazy busy (hence the lack of frequent posts). One thing I thought you might all be interested in is the look of my class and the way things are going up to this point. Here are the specifics, without any identifying details:

24 kids. This is the most I've ever had. I don't even have mailboxes for all of them: one of them has to put their stuff in one of my files every day.

I have the "high" kids. This means that at the beginning of the year, we test every single 2nd grader and the higher ones go in my room. This does not mean, however, that I don't get the low kids. Just means I get the high ones. You'd think this would be a good thing, wouldn't you? Most of the time it's just fine but with the higher kids come the freakier parents, the behavior issues (because some GT kids are what we call "twice exceptional" which means they are really smart but really dumb behavior-wise), and the pressure from the principal, district, state and Bush to be sure every single one of my kids is reading on or above grade level by the end of the year.

To give you some background info, one of the tests we give the kids says they need to be reading (and understanding) 40 words per minute by the beginning of 2nd grade. By the end of 2nd grade, they need to up to 90 wpm. My class looks something like this: 3 kids at 100+ wpm, 11 kids at 50-100 wpm, 5 kids at 30-50 wpm and 4 kids at 10-0 wpm.

That's right: I have 3 kids who are reading above a 3rd grade level, 11 above 2nd grade, 5 right at grade level and 4 who are reading at a kindergarten level.

To put that into perspective, I have to create 3 different lesson plans for every lesson I teach. One for the high kids so they aren't bored, one for the grade level kids and one for the super low kids. That's 3 plans each for every reading, writing, math, grammar, handwriting, (the low kids can't even form their letters yet), spelling (oh yes, I have to create and test everyone on two different spelling tests each week), science and IB lessons that we do. (more about what IB is later...). This takes me at least 4 hours every week to research, plan, gather materials, make copies, etc. This does not take into account the hours I should be putting into testing the kids, entering the data, meeting with the special ed teacher (for my one special ed student: all the rest are general ed), coaching my student teacher and all the rest of the stuff I'm expected to do every single day.

Normally, I'm very excited about all this. I think it's a great challenge of my abilities. However, this year is presenting a problem for me which I have yet to discover a solution to. In the past, I'd stay after school for a bit doing lesson plans, doing research for my GT kids, preparing hands-on activities for my low kids and just generally getting things ready for the next day. Since Maelin's arrival, I'm unable to continue doing that and I've found myself in a situation that I don't see an answer to: How can I be an effective teacher for these kids when I don't have enough time to plan for them?

To answer the question I'm sure you're going to ask: Why are those low kids in your room? How did they get into 2nd grade? Why didn't your school hold them back? What's with these schools not retaining kids???

I have to say, I'm starting to agree with you. However, the climate now reflects the many many many studies that show that retention of kids is detrimental to them and they don't end up any more ahead. The fact is, schools are under tremendous pressure to NOT retain any kids. Our hands are tied on this matter. It's just not up to us anymore.

Okay, you may be saying, what about your plan time? Don't teachers get hours of plan time where they gather in the teacher's lounge and eat donuts and talk about their students? I'd love to say yes because that sounds like lots of fun, but the answer is no. We get 5 hours of plan time a week. One hour is taken up by our team meetings (where the 2nd grade teachers meet to plan our units), and close to 45 minutes is taken up by formal meetings with the principal. That leaves about 3 hours every week. Put bathroom breaks in there (that's the only time you get to use the restroom because who would watch your kids if you duck out?), pumping, making copies, checking emails, phoning parents, and you've got about 1 hour of plan time per week.

Hence, my stress level. I just don't have enough time to do this job as well as I've done it in the past because I'm not able to give my own time anymore. I work 9 hours per day: shouldn't that be enough? Unfortunately, it's just not. I would have to stay after on my own time for 3 hours every week in order to have everything done. That's just not going to happen, so I have to find ways to cut corners.

It's my kids who are going to suffer. When it comes time to choose activities, I'll have to choose the ones that require the least amount of planning and gathering of materials. When push comes to shove, I'll have to give more seatwork (the dreaded worksheet) and less hands-on activities. I'll teach more out of the manual and less from my own creative stores because I just don't have the time to research and plan for it.

Hopefully, one day teachers will have the time they need in order to create exciting, creative and inventive lesson plans that reach all of their students: the smart ones, the behind ones, the ones learning English and everything in between. Ideally, teachers should be given one full day per month without kids so we can collaborate with each other, gather materials, set up technology and really be able to teach the kinds of lessons that our kids deserve.

Today is not that day. Kevin just got done putting Maelin to sleep and I'm right behind her as I got up at 5am to get into school early in the hopes of getting some planning done before the kids got there. I was able to have a good lesson for my low kids, but the bell rang before I was done planning for the high kids. They had to suffer through a "Where does a capital letter go?" lesson with everyone else when I would have loved to have them researching authors or doing a book study or an independent newsletter.

If only I had the time...

Having A Baby Won't Change Me!!

My brother mentioned yesterday that I’ve really changed since having Maelin. I was offended at first, but after I thought about it, I’m supposed to change…there’s no way you could have a baby and not have some changes.

As I was feeding Maelin this morning at 3am, I was thinking about all the ways our lives look different. Here are a few of them:

Before Baby: Fridays were Happy Hour time: I looked forward to them all week and it would start off a great weekend of partying with friends. A fantastic way to relax after the busy week.
After Baby: Fridays are baby hour time: I look forward to them all week because it’s the start of a few days with my baby. An ideal Friday night now? Hanging out with baby at home and then having a few friends come over for a glass of wine to hang out with both of us and in bed by 11pm.

Before Baby: All my extra money was spent on clothes. I loved going shopping and searching the sale racks for cute stuff that I could wear out to the bars or to work.
After Baby: What extra money??? Seriously, there is no extra money! If I need clothes, I’m going to have to start checking out Goodwill.

Before Baby: The kitties were my babies. I’d sleep in one position all night so as not to disturb them, I’d give them most of the covers, and I thought their meowing for food in the morning was cute.
After Baby: I kicked Gizmo off the bed yesterday because he was taking up too much room, I close the door so I can’t hear them meow and I can’t remember the last time I was able to sit with Sophie for longer than 2 minutes.

Before Baby: My top priorities were Traveling, Family, Work, Friends, Partying, Shopping, etc… I always had a trip planned: whether it was to Santa Fe for the weekend with girlfriends, New Orleans for my 30th bday with friends, Chicago to hang out or to Rome for Spring Break.
After Baby: My top priority is Baby, Family, Baby, Friends, Baby, Work, Baby, Shopping, etc. No traveling. I can’t imagine leaving her for longer than a night now that I’m back at work.

Before Baby: After work I would grab dinner with friends, lounge around on the couch, go shopping, or read a good book and take a long shower.
After Baby: After work I feed baby, take her for a walk, grab a frozen pizza, do laundry, clean pumping stuff and collapse exhausted and dirty into bed.

Before Baby: Weekends were a fun-filled time of sleeping at least until 10am, drinking every night, staying up until 3am, hitting the malls, and lying around on the couch watching HGTV while recovering from the partying.
After Baby: I got up today (Sunday) at 6:30am and was at Wal-Mart by 8am. I put 3 loads of laundry in, played with baby, cleaned the bathroom, fed baby, put her down for her nap, helped Kevin clean the basement, fed baby again, pulled some weeds from my horribly neglected flower garden, played with baby, organized my clothes for the week, decided what to make for dinner, fed baby, gave her a bath, cleaned kitchen, took baby for a walk, read some (BABY!) books and put baby down for the night at 9pm. Too exhausted to do anything else, so I go to bed and read a magazine. (if you had told me that’s what my Sundays would look like before I had Maelin….)

Before Baby: I would hang out with friends for hours. There was always something to do or someone who wanted to go grab a beer.
After Baby: I went an entire week last week with not talking to a SINGLE friend of mine.

Before Baby: I’d wonder how Kevin would do as a dad. He’d always shy away from OPK’s (other people’s kids) and act like they were annoying him.
After Baby: Kevin is an amazing dad. He lights up when he sees Maelin and she always has a smile just for him. I can count on him for everything. Now I have huge amounts of respect for single mothers.

Before Baby: I was always in the midst of a great book: usually even in the middle of two or three.
After Baby: Does “The Nursing Mother’s Companion” count as a great book?

Before Baby: My favorite stores were NY & Company, Gap Outlet and Old Navy.
After Baby: My favorite stores are The Children’s Place Outlet and Once Upon a Child (a baby consignment store).

Before Baby: I’d always be up for anything. Call me at 9pm to go get dinner? Sure! Want sushi on a whim? I could get 3 or 4 people to meet me there and we’d have a great time. The Nada’s are at the Little Bear on a Sunday night and I have to work in the morning? No problem…I’ll just tell the kids that they have to be extra good because I’m sick!
After Baby: I need at least a week notice for anything so I can decide if baby goes too or I need a babysitter or if we can afford it or if it’s an appropriate place to bring a baby or if there’s a discreet place where I can feed her or will she be fussy the whole time or if people will glare at me for bringing her. No wonder I like to stay home!

Before Baby: I’d stay late at work at least 3 days a week getting stuff done. I’d visit with other teachers, I’d volunteer for meetings and trainings, I'd tutor kids and I was always the last one to leave the building.
After Baby: Bell rings at 4:05 and teachers have to stay till 4:15. I’m out of there at 4:16. Don’t you dare ask me to stay later or be on a committee!

Before Baby: I had no idea what it was like to love something more than anything in the world. I had no idea what it felt like to have a little person need you just to love them and take care of them. I had no idea what it was like to walk in a room and see that little person light up just because you are there. I had no idea that you become obsessed with love and you feel like you’ll burst and you can’t believe you got so lucky to be blessed with this perfect little thing that is so beautiful and innocent and precious.
After Baby: Now I know. I think some changes are good ones.

Kevin's Bday

It was Kevin's birthday on Thursday: he's the ripe old age of 34 now. I keep teasing him that he's getting closer to 40 than 30...I don't think he finds it very funny.

We got to go out to dinner last night for his birthday. Kat and Jeff came along with us and we had Papa Dad and Grandma Jean babysit Maelin for us. One of the many benefits of a good daycare is that Maelin and I are both getting used to having someone besides me watch her. So far, Maelin isn't showing any seperation anxiety (I know that comes later...) when I leave her, so it makes me feel okay about having people babysit her.

Kevin loves seafood and I can take it or leave it (plus it's expensive) so every year for his birthday we got to Pappadeuxs. We've tried Joe's Crab Shack (horrible idea) and the Fresh Fish Company, but we like Pappadeuxs the best. I called Papa Dan and told him to come over around 6:30pm figuring that I'd have all day to get ready. What a laugh. Nothing is quick like it used to be!

We went to Boulder to visit with Grandma Lea. She's healing great and was in a really good mood. Maelin was a little star: she spent the afternoon talking and squealing to everyone. She's getting so darn cute: I can hardly stand it. We stayed a bit longer in Boulder than we had planned on and got back to Denver around 4pm. I was still exhausted from the work week, so I went in to take a nap while Kevin played with Maelin. I woke up around 4:45 thinking I still had plenty of time to take a shower and get ready for dinner. Well, Maelin needed to be fed and then I needed to pump and then she really wanted to take a nap and Kevin was having a hard time putting her down.

It's so hard not to "step in" when I see stuff like that. I know I'm supposed to walk away and let him figure it out: not only for his benefit (so he feels successful) but also for Maelin's sake (so she realizes that other people besides Mommy can comfort her), but it's sooooooo hard to do that. I was looking at the clock and thinking how my shower was slipping away and just snatched her away from him so I could put her to sleep myself. It worked too: after about 30 seconds, she started to fall asleep.

Then I felt bad. If I had just gotten in the shower then, he would have eventually gotten her to sleep and I would haven been enjoying a uninterrupted shower instead of grumbling that I have to do everything around here. So I gave her back to him to try again. She arched her back and fussed for about 5 minutes and then he did it: Maelin fell asleep on him. At this point, it was 6:30. So much for having plenty of time to get ready.

I jumped in the shower and really tried to go fast but I can't get ready start to finish in 15 minutes. Kat and Jeff showed up and then Papa Dan and Jean came in and I was ready around 7pm. Dinner as adults at last!

Off we went: Maelin was in a great mood and Papa Dan and Jean were so excited to be watching her that I didn't worry a bit about leaving her. They were going to have a great time (and they did: she only fussed for them for about 5 minutes). We got to dinner and I told Kevin we were going to pretend to be "baby-less" for a night. Maybe we could talk about the things we used to and enjoy each other like it was before Maelin came along and we were too sleep-deprived to remember we like each other.

We had a very nice dinner: a bit expensive, but great. Towards the end, I went to the bathroom and saw a little baby in her carseat: almost exactly Maelin's age. Then it was over: I wanted to get home to see my baby. Darn it...

We got home and Maelin was just going down for the night. I was able to cuddle her for a bit before she went to sleep and Jean rocked her to sleep (she really wanted to do this). Jean offered to take Maelin every other Thursday so she won't need to go to Sandra's which will be great!

All-in-all, Kevin's bday dinner was a lot of fun. It was great to go out w/o the baby for a few hours and have a nice dinner. However, having frozen pizza at home while your baby sits and grins and squeals at you is pretty nice too.

We Love You Grandma Lea!

This is Kevin's mom, Lea. She's amazing. Kevin's dad and mom divorced when he was about 3 so Lea was a single mom to Kevin and his brother most of their lives. She worked full time and was always available to both of them.

As a mother-in-law, she's fabulous. She's like my 2nd mom. I can pretty much go to her for about anything. I know I'm really lucky. Maelin loves her grandma Lea and although she lives in Boulder and it's a good drive to see her, we try to do it every few weeks because we really want them to be close.

Lea is battling skin cancer. She had surgery for it last year and now it's back. She had her 2nd surgery yesterday and is so far doing great! They had to remove quite a bit of scalp (the cancer is on her part in her hair...let that be a lesson to all of us who never wear hats outside!) and it burrowed its way into her scalp. The doctors think they got it all this time, so we're keeping the faith that they are right. It's going to be a rough few months of recovery for her (she may have to have radiation and will probably need reconstructive surgery), but we're confidant she'll be okay.

Please keep Lea and everyone else that is going through a hard time right now in your thoughts. In the day-to-day minutiae of life, we tend to forget what's really important. Having healthy, happy family and friends around you is the most important thing of all...not whether or not your blow dryer is working (see post below...) or if you're having a rough day on the job.

We love you Grandma Lea!

A Day in the Life of a Working Teaching Mommy

I thought I was tired and worn out before I got pregnant. Then, I whined all the time about how I never got any sleep and all I could do after work was collapse on the couch and stay there all night...

I didn't know what the heck I was talking about!

Nothing prepares you for how hard it is to go back to work when you have a baby. Especially when you're a teacher and you have to spend so much of your own time getting your room and lessons prepared. It's amazing. Here's a sample of my day:

5:30am Wake up. Have to get up this early so I can squeeze in a shower and a bowl of cereal before baby wakes up.

6:15am Try to dry hair and see sparks in dryer. Realize that blow dryer has finally died after 8 faithful years and thank God that it waited till hair was just about dry.

6:30am Wake baby up. She's in a fantastic mood so try to feed her.

6:45am She's too excited to eat and she wants to play. With extreme sadness, I put her in her crib so I can pump out what she didn't want to eat. Listen to her kicking and squealing in her crib and wish like hell that I could go play with her all day and not go to work.

7:00am Pack up my stuff. I need a bag full of Maelin's milk for the day, I need my empty bottles and pump, my lunch, my bag with my teaching stuff and bottled water and my purse.

7:05am Take baby in to Kevin to say good-bye. She's in such a great mood, we play with her for a bit before we load her into her carseat.

7:15am Load baby and all the crap into the car and jump on the highway for the 20 minute drive to daycare. I usually try to sing or talk to Maelin the whole way to make myself feel better about leaving her.

7:40am Arrive at Sandra's house. She's very happy to see Maelin and immediately starts talking and cooing to her. Maelin is all smiles and goes right to her. I put her stuff away and give her a quick good-bye before I start to cry.

7:50am I leave Sandra's and drive the 6 minutes to work.

7:56am Arrive at work and put pumping stuff in pumping room (the file closet...with the copier. At least it has a lock on the door!) and get stuff ready for the day. This includes checking email, making copies, cleaning room, meeting with principal, multiple meetings, coaching my student teacher about the day, etc.

9:00am Kids arrive. Spend the next 2 hours teaching. Usually too busy to think about the baby much.

11:00am Kids go to music, gym, etc. I go pump in the hot closet room. Try not to think about how much I'd rather be feeding her in person instead of what I'm actually doing.

11:20am Finish planning, have more meetings, run to the restroom, make more copies, rearrange more things, do some grading, filing, calls to parents, write newsletter home, prepare PowerPoint for Back to School Night, answer emails about new autistic student, meet with child advocate about special ed students, etc.

12:00pm Kids come back. More teaching.

12:40pm Time for lunch. After I take kids to the cafeteria, I have about 19 minutes to eat lunch, go to restroom, fill up water bottle, visit with other teachers, check mailbox, talk to parents, etc.

1:10pm Kids come back. More teaching.

3:00pm Kids go to recess. Send student teacher out for recess duty so I can go pump again in hot closet. Try to finish super quickly before kids come back.

3:20pm Came back in after kids...thank God for student teacher. Wonder what I'll do on Friday because she's only here on W and Th.

4:05pm Kids go home. I walk them out and talk to parents and teachers.

4:15pm Run out of work before I get stuck in a meeting or doing work (I really should be getting more stuff done, but I just can't! I'm dying to see my baby!)

4:30pm Get to Sandra's. Today, she met me at the door smiling and motioned for me to go upstairs. I went up there and Maelin was lying on her playmat: kicking, squealing and batting at her toys. When she saw me, she gave me a huge toothless grin and squealed.

4:45pm Chat with Sandra (her daughter interprets for us) and load Maelin up in the car to fight I25 traffic home. Usually Maelin falls asleep at some point.

5:15pm Get home with baby. Put all pumped milk in fridge, throw old bottles in sink, go to the bathroom and settle down to play with my baby. End up falling asleep with her on my lap for a bit...what quality time.

6:00pm Feed baby. Start thinking about dinner and really wishing we had a maid...

6:30pm Put frozen pizza or pasta in oven with one hand while holding baby.

7:00pm Kevin comes home and plays with baby while I scarf dinner down. Then I play with her while he eats.

7:30pm We both take baby outside for a walk. She loves this...this is the best part of our day. Yesterday, the neighbors dog was out and every time he barked, Maelin laughed. She really laughed and giggled and had a great time. It was hilarious!

8:00pm Give baby her bath. She loves her bath and it's a good way to wash up from the day and give her a chance to relax.

8:30pm Feed baby. I feed her first and then Kevin finishes her off with a bottle. This process, along with the burping and changing (Maelin always lets loose on us while she's eating!) goes till around 9.

9:00pm Rock baby to sleep. I love this time with her. She snuggles into me and just looks at me while I sing songs to her. She doesn't mind that I'm off-key or that I get the words wrong...she just loves being close and hearing my voice. Eventually, she drifts off to sleep.

9:30pm Kevin comes in and we lay her in bed gently so she doesn't wake up. Little thing stirs a bit but then goes right back to sleep. We tip-toe out.

9:35pm I sit for 10 minutes to catch my breath...the first time all day that I haven't had something else I should be doing. Then I have to get up: there's more to do.

9:45pm I pump..this takes about 20 minutes. Usually, I try to sit so I can see the weather for the next day so I know how to dress in the heat inferno which is my classroom.

10:15pm Kevin and I clean up and I pack up everything for the next morning...bottles, lunches, clothes, etc. I give the kitties a pat on the head and go check on the baby.

10:30pm I watch a bit of Jay Leno and then go lay down. It takes me a good 30 minutes to settle down, so I read a book or a magazine.

10:31pm Darn it! Just remembered the blow dryer and how I forgot to stop on my way home to pick up a new one. I guess curly hair is in the forecast...

11:15pm I check on the baby again. She's so cute...

11:20pm Finally...to sleep. There's been no friends time, no drinking wine or beer on a patio, no getting laundry or dishes done, no vegging out in front of the TV, none of that. It's amazing.

3:15am Baby gets up to eat. Luckily, she eats and goes right back to sleep. I, however, am awake so it takes me a bit longer...

4:45am Go to sleep.

5:30am The alarm goes off and we do it all over again.

I asked in a previous post...how do working moms do it???? It's only been a week that I've been back and as you can see, I'm wasted! What's the secret??

(p.s. I wrote this post over a period of 3 days. That's how long it took to actually have time to sit down and finish it)

Baby's Got A Cold...It's Going To Be A Long Night

Maelin has been a bit fussy all weekend: we chalked it up to her adjusting to the new daycare schedule. Yesterday, I noticed she was really stuffy and I had to start sucking the snot out of her nose.

Today, she's been a little bear. One minute she's precious: smiling, laughing, eating her hands, etc. The next minute, she's sceaming and arching her back. Her nose is even worse today: I can hear her sucking up all this snot in her nose and I can't get it out. It's up there way too far.

We put her to bed at 9:30pm and she was up again at 10:30pm crying. We think it's because the poor thing can't breathe. We sucked out as much snot as we could get (which she loves...) but we can still hear and see it up there. We put her back down and I can hear her in there breathing really loudly.

We propped up her head a bit, that's about all we can do: unless I sleep sitting up in the chair with her all night. Why the heck didn't she get her first cold before I went back to work????

It's going to be a long night with baby...

Be Careful What You Wish For

If you've read my posts about Maelin sleeping, you'll know that we've really been wanting to get her on a schedule of some sort.

Well, it seems as if daycare has done that. At least for the last two nights, Maelin has slept through the night! She goes to bed at 9:30pm and we haven't heard a peep out of her until 6:30am!! Of course I run to her bed at 4am, 5am and at 6am to be sure she's still breathing, so I'm as tired as ever, but at least she's starting to get it!!

Daycare has its benefits, it seems! (but, deep down I wish she were still waking up because I liked having that time with her)

The Beginning of the School Year

Every year I panic: "How am I going to get it all done before the kids get here?" Every year I totally freak out that the kids are going to show up and the room is going to be a mess, I'll have no lesson plans, no computers, etc. So far, I've been organized enough and able to spend many many extra hours in my classroom setting up so those things have never happened.

This year may be the year my fears come true.

Every teacher spends their own time setting up their classrooms at the beginning of the year. It's one of those things that just goes with the territory: the building custodians tear your room apart during the summer and it's up to you to put it back again. On your own time, no less. In the past, I've looked at this daunting project with a bit of excitement: it's fun to rearrange your room, throw out things that didn't work last year and plan for new activities. Last year, I went in to school for 2 additional days before the start of the year and I easily stayed every night for two weeks until 5 or 6pm. If you've been keeping up on my previous posts, you may have spotted the problem that is totally stressing me out right now: how the heck am I going to get my room ready, have lesson plans prepared and still have time for Maelin?

In order to fully have you understand my problem, let me give you a glimpse of what my room looked like when I came back from summer break and the things I need to have ready for next Tuesday:

**Computers are trashed. They aren't hooked up, monitors are upside down and they are in a tangle of wires, plugs and outlets. I'm missing all my mouse pads, my printer and all my discs that the kids used last year. Plan on spending at least 4 hours putting all this back together because the district cut the technology services this year due to budget cuts.

**Desks and chairs are stacked up to the ceiling. This includes my teacher desk (which I had to empty last spring and now I have to find the box with all my flies and supplies) and my filing cabinet and my big table.

**There are 33 boxes of curriculum materials for me to go through and sort. Each box will take at least 45 minutes to put away.

**Most of my books are completely mixed up. Plan on spending at least 3 hours organizing them.

**Different odds and ends need to be taken care of: cleaning, putting away school supplies, throwing trash away, getting rid of old curriculum, etc.

**Read entire new curriculum so I know what I'm supposed to be teaching. This will take 2 days.

**Complete entire new lesson plans on my hard drive because we added 45 minutes to the school day this year so the entire day will look different. This will take about 3 hours.

**Create new literacy and math centers. This is huge. Centers are a great way for kids to learn, but they take a lot of time to create. Once they're up and running, they're easier, but they are a huge pain to create. This will take the better part of the next few weeks to create and gather materials.

**One more day of professional meetings our principal has scheduled for us.

No wonder I'm stressed out! Normally, I find all this fun and stimulating, but how in the world am I going to get this all done by next week when the students get here and still leave at 4:15 to pick up Maelin?????

Hmmmmmmm....is it too late to just stay at home with the baby???