Busy Beavers

We have been pretty busy the last few weeks. One thing that took up every free moment we had for 2 weeks is still under wraps. Other than that, Mark and I have been on school overload. It's the busy time of the semester for Mark with tests and projects and then I was finishing up everything leading up to my final observations. This upcoming week is my last week of teaching anything. I will teach literacy this week then we have spring break and when we get back, I will just be observing again. It is so nice and I can't wait to be completely done! Now all I have left to do is cram for the Praxis II and compile my data from the semester for my ISL (impact on student learning) project. I am not looking forward to working on that thing at all. When it's completed, it will be at least 100 pages of data and reflection. Two things that I do not like having to deal with or do. Oh well. The thought of graduation makes it all worth it. I can't believe I am actually going to finally be graduating! If I could do it all again, I wouldn't take a 4 year break from school. What a colossal waste of time. The one good thing that came from that was maturity. I was a much better and more focused student after I went back to school at 25.

Brigham had his 6 month check up on March 24th.
Stats:
Weight: 16 pounds 7 ounces
Length: 27.5 inches

His first tooth finally broke through on March 15th. It is his bottom tooth on the right. The one on the left should be breaking through any day now. You can see it but when you touch his gums you can't feel it. The doctor said his top teeth will be coming soon but I will believe it when I see it. She said the same thing about his bottom teeth at his 4 month check-up and it took almost 2 months for one to break through.
The boy loves rolling over but he struggles when he is trying to roll from his belly to his back. His arm just always seems to get in his way but he eventually figures it out each time. He will roll down the hallway if you let him. His favorite thing still seems to be the Jumparoo. He goes crazy in that thing. It was the best $10 we ever spent!!! Brigham still doesn't sit up on his own. He is definitely strong enough but he doesn't have the whole balancing thing figured out yet. We have been working with him everyday though for the past week or so and I think it won't be too much longer till he can sit on his own. He sits on his own now if we hold his legs down. He is growing so fast and he doesn't seem so much like a baby anymore. He is the best baby we could ask for. He is so easy. He doesn't really cry ever unless he is super tired and we are off our schedule which rarely happens. He laughs often especially if you bite on his arms. That just cracks him up for some reason. Almost every morning I hear him in his crib talking to himself at 6:30am. This is what time I leave and it is so hard to not go in there and scoop him up. His wake time is supposed to be 7:30 and that is what time Mark gets up and goes to get him. Sometimes he has fallen back asleep. Hopefully he will quit waking up that early whenever I quit being up that early. I wonder if my noise wakes him up sometimes.
He has been eating baby food for a little while now. We have been feeding him 3 times a day with a spoon. He is not a big fan of the vegetables but loves his fruit. Today we mixed the spinach with some prunes and he loved that. We are hoping that if we slowly decrease the amount of prunes we mix in, he will eventually eat just plain spinach. Sometimes we just throw the vegetables into his bottle and let him drink them. Prunes, peaches, and apple sauce seem to be his favorite fruits. He doesn't eat the bananas as easily. We have just been making our own baby food in the VitaMix. Mark takes care of it all and it is pretty great. We just add a little water to whatever we are pureeing and it is just like what is in the containers of baby food at the store. It is so much cheaper than buying all that baby food.

We're Rolling!!!

Brigham has been rolling from his tummy to his back for months now and for a while this was a problem because he was waking himself up in the middle of the night and then crying till we rolled him back over onto his tummy. This morning after I changed his diaper, I watched him frolick on the floor of his room and all of a sudden he was on his belly! It was so exciting. Since I wasn't paying complete attention, I was unsure if he had gotten his legs under mine and that had helped him roll over. He rolled himself back to his back then a minute or so later, he was back on his belly! I was so excited and he was too! He was smiling so big both times. He isn't a fan of smiling for the camera so of course he gave me his trademark look for the camera.


It's been a busy couple of weeks but I only have 2 weeks left of full time teaching! I also only have 1 more observation left and it will be on March 25th. I can't wait to start dropping some of my teaching responsibilities. Everything is going great though and I love my students (at least most of them). I have my favorites even though I know I shouldn't. I will miss these kids and wish I could know them all their lives. Oh well.
Our house has been insane this week but it's almost back to normal. I miss the normal but the insanity will definitely be worth it :)

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

First Day Teaching

Today was my first day teaching. I only taught part of literacy but it went well. The students were really excited when they saw I was going to be teaching a little and I didn't get nervous at all. My teacher said I did great. I'll spend the rest of this week teaching part of literacy and next week I'll teach for the whole block.
In other news, Brigham's schedule is changing. As of tonight his dreamfeed is no longer happening and tomorrow we are trying him on a 4 hour schedule. This will mean that we are eliminating his 3rd nap of the day and he will be going 4 hours between bottles. Here is the schedule we are hoping works

7:30am- breakfast
9:30am- nap
11:30am lunch
1:30pm- nap
3:30pm 2nd lunch
7:30pm-dinner and bed

We'll see how it goes. I'm thinking it will be a rough couple of days especially since he will be at his grandma's for part of the day but then he'll be here Thurs-Mon so hopefully we will be able to get on this schedule by then. We are having to change his schedule because he has started waking up at 6am and also not sleeping as well during the day. Lucky for us when he wakes up at 6, he just coos and sometimes falls back asleep until 7.

Pictures from today: