My New Slippers

Had to make these pictures their own post...my little girl got new slippers over the weekend and boy, was she proud! She wouldn't let us take them off.

Here's some pics of our big girl running around the house in her new slippers!



What ARE these cool things on my feet??? They look like bunnies, but I'm not sure...



This is a classic Maelin face. She's looking at us like we're crazy and she's wondering who left her on our doorstep...



Okay, she's done with the slippers. She just wants to play now!

Swimming Lessons!

Finally...I got my camera hooked up and was able to post some pictures of Maelin's 1st swimming lessons.

Honestly, they are fun because they make us get to the pool but I think she's a bit young still. She is not wanting to kick or blow bubbles or move her arms AT ALL like the other kids do. (she's only 18 months old, after all).

Anyway, it's a fun Mommy-Baby time and I love how much she cuddles me while we're there. The water is warm and she has a great time...we'll just hold off on more lessons till after she's 2.

Enjoy!



MaeMae going into the pool..she's not real sure about this whole swimming thing



The only reason I got her to go in was because I promised she could eat the water...



Look everyone, I'm swimming! I'm a big girl!



Can you swim and suck your thumb at the same time?



This slide is so much fun...MaeMae loves it!

Dear Red States...

I know we're all sick of the election coverage (only 21 more days!) but this was too funny and clever to ignore: enjoy for the light-hearted joke that it is meant to be!

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii , Oregon , Washington , Minnesota , Wisconsin , Michigan , Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas , Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America 's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy b ** ***ds believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .

Peace out,
Blue States

Nice Long Weekend

Since we spent 2 12-hour days at conferences last week, we had a 1/2 day yesterday and I have Monday off. Very excited.

Maelin is going tomorrow to get her 18 month pictures taken. Kevin and Uncle Jeff are going with us to be sure we get plenty of smiles out of our little one.

Kevin unhooked my computer to work on it and since it has all the pictures stored on it, I haven't been able to upload any onto my posts lately. He has promised to put it back this weekend so check back for new pictures of the little squirt!

We're off to swimming lessons this morning: they are fun. Maelin learned how to blow bubbles last week, so we'll see what we focus on today. I hear the little one yelling in her crib for me so I better go. Check back soon for pictures!

Government Bail-Out

I don't agree with the bail-out package that was passed. This idea by "Jerry" is what I think we should do: follow this link to read about "Jerry's" idea...post a comment if you agree or disagree with his thinking!

Conferences and Crazy Times in Public School

Oh, the joys of being an elementary school teacher. We have Parent-Teacher Conferences this week which means only 15 minute blocks to tell each parent everything they need to know about their kid: behavior, academic levels, health issues, homework, challenges at home or in the classroom, etc. It's like a speed-dating episode...

Since I have such a large class this year (28), I don't have enough time in the 2 nights that we have to stay late to fit everyone in. We have to stay until 7pm on Wed and Thursday nights to get everyone in, but with 28 kids, that leaves 4 kids left over with no breaks for me to eat dinner, go to the restroom or even get a drink of water. Good fun.

I scheduled 3 kids during my plan time tomorrow (when I should be lesson planning, but whatever) and then one more before school on Friday. Whew.

Aunt Kat is picking Maelin up on Wednesday because of course Kevin has training all week and can't get there in time. She should have fun over there so I won't feel too badly about not being home till 7:30--just in time to put her to bed. On Thursday, she's going to Grandma Jean's house so she should have a grand ole' time playing and running her ragged. I'll miss her though.

In order to get ready for conferences, I've had to spend every waking minute (hence the lack of interesting posts lately) writing literacy plans for my 16 kids who are below grade level, entering progress report grades and comments, testing every kid every week to see if they are making gains, and a host of other minutiae that takes up a ton of time that I could (should) be using to actually teach the kids.

In addition, I have a really hard kid this year. We'll call him Pete. He is a big pill. I hate to say that about any kid, but it's true. He thinks he's way smarter than he actually is and he argues about EVERYTHING. Try keeping 28 kids in line and quiet and on-task and it's impossible with this kid. He questions and argues everything. Example: last week he got in trouble on the playground and totally argued with me about how he wasn't the one who was mean. I saw him being mean and he kept yelling at me "No, I wasn't!" over and over again. I sent him to sit on the wall for the rest of recess (which is the standard punishment) and he argued about how it was too hot over there (it was 75 degrees out) and then how the ground was too hard, etc.

Later he took off running because he was mad about something else and I had to chase him and literally hold him down to keep him from leaving the school. Totally ridiculous. Keep in mind that I have 27 other kids I have to keep safe and somehow manage to teach at the same time while chasing this little s.o.b. down the halls.

Anyway, we're having an okay year. Most of my kids are really respectful and sweet and I really like most of them. They try soooo hard at this age...very cute. I have just this one kid who pokes at my nerves and my spinal column like no one's business, but I'm hoping after conferences (where I'm going to spend my 15 minutes with his mom telling her how unsuccessful and disruptive and disrespectful her kid is.) Should be fun! :-)

p.s. As Terri mentioned, I do have Monday off. I'm very excited. Can't decide if I should use the time to run around and do errands (I still need to go down to the Dept of Health and Human Services to get Maelin's birth certificate) or do something fun with Maelin. Something fun will probably win!

p.p.s. Maelin was 18 months old yesterday!! Little pumpkin...she runs around now saying "MINE!" and all sorts of babble. She is so crazy cute...we just adore her. As soon as I can (probably this weekend) I'll get some recent pictures of her up.

Swimming Lessons Today!

Hello everyone,
I know I've been MIA for a few days but it's been crazy busy and awful at work (had to actually restrain a kid for the first time yesterday...I'll post about it later. It was terrible. I cried all the way home), Maelin has been teething and been a little terror and we're getting ready for Parent-Teacher Conferences so I have progress reports, Literacy Plans and scheduling due at work.

Anyway, we're off for our first swimming lesson today! Can't wait and I'll post some pics of it later on so check back!

Mistakes Parents Make...UPDATE

So I think we figured out why dinner time has been such a struggle lately. It wasn't just the tuna fish thing...Maelin does NOT like to sit in her chair and eat dinner. She's just way too busy. She'd rather run around as we shovel one bite in at a time.

However, at restaurants, she's perfect. Eats everything we put in front of her and is quiet and cute about it too. I talked w/ her doctor who advised against doing the "Deceptively Delicious" Jessica Seinfeld thing because she says if you do that, kids never learn the texture and true taste of vegetables.

Kevin and I decided that we're going to start every dinner out w/ Maelin sitting at her chair and then if she doesn't eat (or eats very little) we'll let her out and we'll feed her as she runs around. We decided this could just be a phase and we'll let it run its course.

Little Drama Queen...

So THAT'S Where My Money Went...

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received a $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you proud to be an American!

Mistakes Parents Make

I was going to title this post, "Mistakes NEW Parents Make" but I decided that was a cop-out and I wanted to own the fact that I screwed up tonight w/ my little girl.

She's a full-blown toddler now with ideas of her own. She is as stubborn as can be and she only wants to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it. Most of the time, it's pretty cute and we pick our battles with her but the time that's proving the most frustrating is dinner time.

For some reason, our little sunshine does NOT want to eat dinner. Maybe she's just not hungry...ever. Maybe she's pissed off that she's confined in her chair. The doctor says it's a phase and just make her eat a few bites and then let her go...she'll eat when she's hungry. We've tried doing that but it's so hard to only let your child eat one bite of dinner when you KNOW she's going to be cranky in 45 minutes! Oh the stress of an opinionated 17 month old!

So anyway, we've had some issues during dinner time. The worst is when Maelin gets so mad and fed up with us that she tries to hit us. That landed her in her first time-out ever about 2 weeks ago: we put her in the "naughty spot" and said "no hitting Mommy!" and left her there for 1 minute (it's supposed to be 1 minute for every year). She cried and cried like her heart was breaking...it was actually pretty funny. Then when I went to get her, my darling girl wouldn't come to me. She was mad, her feelings were hurt that I had the nerve to punish her and she shook her head "no" at me and ran into her room. That was pretty funny too. Of course, 3 minutes later, we were best friends again.

So tonight was a rough night. I had an awful day at work today: nothing super notable, just a hard day with hard kids and hard expectations from the administration that are impossible to meet. I came home exhausted and just wanted to play with Maelin for a while. Nope...she wanted to be outside. She screamed and cried and eventually calmed down but then we were both not in the best mood.

Daddy came home and took her outside while I made dinner. She's been soooo picky lately so I've been trying new stuff to see what she'll eat and what she won't. I made her old standby: mac n cheese with some veggies and tuna, hoping she might like it. I went outside to get her and she did NOT want to come in for dinner. She tried to hit me and shook her head "no" at me and tried to run away.

At this point, I was angry at her. I'm exhausted too and I just want us to eat dinner like normal people: I don't need this drama! So I said "Fine Maelin, bye." (I know, not the most mature) and went in the house. I saw her from the window just crying her eyes out like she wanted me...tears streaming down her face. So I went back out to get her. Nope...she still tried to hit me and run away.

Too bad...who's the parent here, anyway? I scooped her up and took her into the house with her wailing the entire time like I was beating her. I finally got her calmed down and into her high chair for dinner. I served her the mac n cheese/tuna/veggie combo and waited for a reaction.

She did NOT want to eat. Kept shaking her head "no" at me, turning away, hitting the air, screeching, and whining. Okay, stay calm, I was thinking. Kevin got the ranch dressing because lately, that's been the best way to get her to try something new. We dipped a noodle (no tuna or veggies) into the ranch and she did eat that. Then nothing....she didn't want a thing.

She started throwing the food and smashing it all over the place. I said "No!" to her in a loud voice so she would know we were serious about table manners. She scrunched up her face and looked like I had just beat her with a stick. She starting crying....and crying....and crying.

18 minutes later, Kevin and I are watching our little drama-queen daughter in a tantrum. She was screaming and crying and I think by this point, she was so worked up, she didn't know what to do with herself. So I got a washcloth to clean her up (from all the very rude food-throwing) so I could get her out and she tried to slap me and made a big "uuuuuhhh" noise like she was very angry!

She was trying to hit me...for real this time. Not because she was trying to get away, but because she was mad. That is NOT okay with me so I turned her around in her chair so she was sitting in the corner and Kevin said "No hitting!" and we left her there and went into the kitchen.

She was NOT happy...screaming and wailing and yelling and tears and snot everywhere. Good grief. We left her in the chair for about a minute then I went and I had to hold her arms down so I could clean her up and then I took her in her room to rock and cuddle her to calm her down. She was sobbing and hiccuping and very upset. It took about 20 minutes to get her back to normal.

I was wiped out by this point, so Kevin was playing with her while we talked about her antics. Kevin and I do not want children that hit, yell and disrespect their parents so we thought we had done the right thing...maybe we had.

Around 8pm, our little one was so crabby that I thought I would just put her to bed early. Then I saw a banana that she hadn't finished earlier from her snack. Hmmmmmm...I thought. Maybe she was just hungry and didn't like the tuna smell (like I don't) during dinner and that's what all the fuss was about???

I gave her a bite of banana and it was like the poor kid hadn't eaten in a week. She ate the whole banana: which has never happened before. She only ever eats 1/2 of it at a time. Then she drank a full glass of milk and had 3 graham crackers.

So that was it...she was HUNGRY and didn't like the tuna! That's why she was hitting me and throwing the food around. She wasn't trying to be naughty: she was trying to communicate the only way she knew how. Then when we didn't understand and got mad at her, she lost it.

I felt awful. I still feel awful. I know in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal. However, I was exhausted from work and wasn't really thinking things through: after dealing with 28 kids all day, you don't come home with an awful lot of energy left to deal with your own.

I know this won't be the last mistake Kevin and I make in this wild parenting thing but I sure wish it was. This little person deserves parents who DO have the energy to figure things out when she needs it...

If anyone wants to leave a message about the parenting mistakes you might have made, I'd feel better. I'm going to go make her a great lunch for tomorrow to make it up to her.

Katey & Jeff's Wedding

We went to K & J's wedding last weekend and had a great time! Katey was so pretty and they were both so happy that it was wonderful. It was great fun to hang out w/ all our old friends again. The only problem was that Maelin got sick during the reception (Grandma Lea was babysitting) and we had to leave to go help Grandma out.

Of course, it was the only time in her WHOLE life that she threw up all over her bed. I think kids know when you've got a special occasion and somehow figure out how to ruin it.

Anyway, we got to stay for most of the wedding (Emily and I were the guest-book girls) and we had a great time. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!



This is Jeff wiping away a tear during the ceremony. Very sweet!



This is me and my girls during the cocktail hour. We had so much fun just hanging out again!



Kevin and I enjoying our night out on the town without baby...until we had to go home.



Pretty cake and flowers! I love weddings!



Katey and Jeff during the reception. Doesn't Katey look amazing?



Cutting the cake. They were both really sweet



Emily and I...Guest Book Girls! We did an AWESOME job, if I do say so myself! We got everyone to sign the book and we took pictures of everyone for Katey to add to it later. Way to go us! :-)

I'm Confused

Lately we've been hearing (a but too much in my opinion) a lot about Obama and McCain and what they both stand for. We've been hearing all about how Palin is helping feminisim (or not...according to who you listen to) and who is better suited to run the USA.

I thought this was funny so I'm posting it here as my opinion only: not meant to start a debate but your respectful thoughts are welcome. I realize that this is one opinion only but I think it makes some good points about what might be getting lost in all the back-stabbing and yucky politics we're hearing these days.

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well-grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 2 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your broken and disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.