Brigham's First Haircut

Today at 2pm I took Brigham in to see his stylist for the first time. His hair had become long, mullet-like, and just plain unmanageable. I couldn't put it off any longer. The poor little guy had become embarrassed by the mop that sat atop his head. He did such a good job! Hopefully all future haircuts will go just as smoothly.

5 Months!!!

Brigham is five months old today. I cannot believe it! We do love the little man so much. In celebration, we took him his first UNCC basketball game. The 49ers lost but Brigham enjoyed it all the same. Mark took him for his monthly doctor's visit on Friday so he could get some more shots. Since we are doing the modified vaccinations schedule, he goes for shots every month. Mark has been the one to take him since I have school. Mark said he will cry for maybe 5 seconds and then he was fine. He weighed in at 16.6 pounds and 26.5 inches long. He still doesn't have any teeth but he drools like crazy and chews on his fingers constantly. I actually can't believe how much he drools. His clothes get soaked if he's not wearing a bib in just a couple of hours. Going back to a 3 hour schedule has been great. Brigham is a fairly happy baby and we are so grateful for that.
We have continued to be lazy when it comes to feeding Briggs from a spoon. We tried sweet potatoes a couple times and he gags and spits them out. When we puree sweet potatoes and put them in his bottle he drinks it no problem so I'm thinking it may be a texture thing for him. I'm also thinking that we need to get better about feeding him with a spoon before his 6 month well check next month. We'll see.
He has contracted a cough somewhere along the way and it is getting worse by the day. He is super congested and it is just pitiful. Hopefully it won't last too long. This is the 2nd time he has been sick since he was born. I'm slightly surprised that he hasn't been sick more considering how much he is around so many other people.
As for me, I start teaching full time (all subjects, all day) tomorrow. I am dreading this but luckily the teacher I work with is super fantastic and helps me A LOT. I'm just hoping the next 5 weeks fly by! After that I get to release the subjects back to her and go back to just observing. Let the countdown begin!!!

Snow Flakes Keep Falling on My Head

Last night it snowed, again. This is a really pretty snow. It was a heavy wet snow so it's great for snowballs! What was also great about this snow was that it melted from the streets fairly quickly. Last night after Brigham's dreamfeed (yes we are back to doing the dreamfeed) Mark was acting a little suspicious when he went out to our cars so I went out the back door and made a big snowball and then went out the front door and ran up to Mark and just threw it at him. We then proceeded to just throw snow at each other. I wasn't even wearing shoes; just socks. It was wonderful. We were both laughing so hard. Most of the snow will probably melt away today and I am a little sad to see it go. It really is so beautiful this time.

Teaching is going well. I had my first observations this past week and they were good. This next week is going to be a busy one. I have to video tape myself teaching on Monday, Mrs. Smith will be doing her 2nd observation of me Tuesday, and then Wednesday Dr. Gibbs is coming for her 2nd observation. I don't know that there will be that much growth from my 1st and 2nd observation since they are only a week apart but there will hopefully be a little growth. My third observations are the week of March 8th. One of the 5th grade teachers stopped me in the hall on Thursday and told me that there will be 1 and possibly 2 openings for teachers in 5th grade at the end of the year and she told me to get the principal and vice principal to observe me teaching if I wanted to be a contender for the job. Then on Friday we had our Mardi Gras celebration at school and the principal bought lunch for everyone so we went to the teachers lounge and the principal and vice principal were there eating and we just happened to sit at their table. This was my first opportunity to talk to them since I have been there. They asked me if I was interested in teaching in CMS. So we'll see how this all turns out. I don't hate teaching now that I am doing it so hopefully this all works out in my benefit. I do love the school I am at and it is one of the few school's I would teach at in CMS.

This is a common occurrence in our home: SportsCenter. Brigham gets completely mesmerized (just like his dad does) when it's on

Brigham is doing well. He is still teething. Who knows when these teeth will finally push through but he's become less fussy and more like his old self again. This may be in part to me changing his schedule again! I have put him back on 3 naps a day and we put him to bed between 7 and 7:30 at night. I have also been able to get him to quit rolling himself over onto his back in the middle of the night (which leads to him crying until he is rolled back onto his belly) by using this wedge pillow thing that I got as a baby shower gift that is intended to help them sleep on their side. Once we began putting him on his belly to sleep, we quit using this wedge. Well now it is super handy to have and I am so glad that I held onto it. Last night was our first night using it but it was great. It has also made putting Brigham down for naps easy again! He just goes to sleep just like he used to. He has been getting liquefied carrots or green beans in his bottles each day. We put a little rice in his dreemfeed bottle. We had been giving him more rice but he became a little constipated so we stopped completely and now we are reintroducing it into his diet. He's probably forgotten how to eat from a spoon since 2 weeks ago he had finally gained the skill to eat from the spoon and was opening his mouth when he saw the spoon coming. We will probably start feeding him that way again in the next few days. Mostly we've just been too lazy to do it I think.

The Past Week

Brigham is growing up everyday. He is grabbing for his toys when he lies on his activity mat. He is starting to stare at his hands and his feet. When he wakes up in the mornings he lies in his crib and talks to himself until we get him. Most mornings when we go in at 7:30 he is already awake so I'm not exactly sure what time he actually wakes up. His new schedule is going pretty good. He has adjusted well to just 2 naps a day but he has a hard time staying up till 9:30 in the mornings so the last 2 mornings I have put him down at 8:30 and 8:45. Most nights he wakes us up in the middle of the night crying because he is on his back. We have to go and roll him over onto his belly and he goes right back to sleep. Hopefully he will learn to roll over from his back to his belly soon.
I start teaching the full Literacy block this week. I am so grateful that the 4th grade teachers do team planning. This should make lesson planning extremely easy since I'm not going to have to really write any lesson plans. I hate lesson plan writing.

We found this abandoned grizzly bear cub in our backyard on the snow day

So we brought him in and took care of him

He enjoyed eating some rice cereal while we were washing him in the tub