Testing, Testing...

It is testing season over in my neck of the woods.  We have spent the last 8 days testing and we still have two more to go.  I'm also reading Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech aloud to my kids so poems inspired by the poems in her book are being composed in my heard during my hours of active proctoring.  I don't normally think in poetry so it is kind of fun.

 

 

Wooden Graphite Based Number 2 Pencils

Inspired by William Carlos Williams

 

So much depends

upon

 

An empty plastic container

filled

 

With perfectly pointed

pencils

 

Sitting on the wood grained

desk

 

Straight Rows

Inspired by William Carlos Williams

 

So much depends

upon

 

Seventeen silent students

sitting

 

In straight

rows

 

I also began a poem inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's Bells poem, that describes the events that took place when I tried to take S and E to the store yesterday.  It is called Wails but I'm not done with it yet.  It is amazing the things you come up with when you are forced to wander silently for an hour or two a day.  I sure will be glad when Friday comes and we can get back to teaching!

Miscellany Monday

 

It seems as though these are the only posts I can get written lately.  I have all these thoughts and they fly out of my head as soon as I sit down to type. So here we go:

 

• The relationship between my two little people is quite amazing.  Whenever something happens to one of them the other is usually there to try to make the other happy.  Unless, of course, they caused the unhappiness.  Tonight S accidentally hit E with a plastic tub, you know they kind that held the cars that were dumped on the floor.  He immediately went up to hug her and asked, "Okay?"  It was pretty cute.  Later S was upset because E was sitting on the riding car that he wanted, so I convinced her to play with the stroller, then S was mad because he wanted the blocks in the stroller.  Oh to be a two year old!  Well, in an attempt to distract him I tried to give him some carrots that were ready to eat for dinner.  He wouldn't take them from me (there was a little scuffle between the two over the blocks which resulted in me taking them, so I became the enemy), but he took them when E, on her own, offered him some.
• I'm totally obsessed with Harlem Shake videos on YouTube.  I'm a little behind the times and just figured out what it was all about this week.  My current favorites are:

I could do without the swearing at the end of the second one, but I love the Gangnam Style too.  We are currently working on our own video.  Maybe I'll convince the play group on Saturday morning to join in.  There should be a toddler version!

• Last week I went to the doctor to get over my cold which turned into a sinus infection and to have the little blisters on my hand checked out.  I left with an antibiotic, nasal spray and a steroid cream for my hands.  I guess my overly dry skin caused the little blisters, which are not contagious.  While I was there I figured I get my cholesterol checked.  I have been avoiding this since July.  It was last checked the July before and was slightly elevated.  I attributed it to the fact I had babies in January and I was eating whatever I could find and I craved sweets the whole pregnancy.  Well, that and my sweets addiction.  I was convinced my cholesterol would still be high.  I got a call from my doctor's office today saying everything looks good and to keep up the good work.  Umm... I haven't really changed any of my eating habits and I can't say I worked on it.  So I guess that means my once a week donut habit is okay, right?
• Along with Harlem Shake videos I'm also obsessed with decorating my house with typography.  I love quotes, always have.  I used to, before Pinterest, have a binder full of my favorites.  I'm starting to try to make my own but I don't love my handwriting and I REALLY don't like my handwriting when I try to write with a paintbrush.  I'm wondering when my husband will realize he is surrounded by words.



To do list:

I occasionally make to do lists but I don't use them very well.  It seems as though lately I have way TOO much to do.

HAVE TOs:

1. laundry
2. clean the tile floor
3. get ready for conferences next week
1. organize data
2. organize printouts of data
3. finish grading last week's science tests
4. grade Friday's spelling assessment
5. grade Friday's reading responses
6. grade last week's narrative summaries
7. reflect on data
8. print out current grades
9. write down all thoughts so I don't forget what I need to say
10. update ILPs
11. figure out when state testing days are and make a schedule for parents
12. plan for the week so I won't have to do it after my 12+ hour days
4. put away laundry
5. get over my cold (It showed up on Friday, lucky me.  It seems to be the same cold I've had about 4 times since before winter break...sore throat, stuffy, headache, exhausted.)

NEED TOs:

1. clean the bathroom  (The master bathroom tub has been a great fun place to throw femine products for the kids.  I let them because it keeps them out of everything else.  BUT it is time to try to USE the tub.)
2. clean the other bathrooms
3. figure out what I'm going to eat the nights (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) that I work until 7 pm this week
4. send back shoes that are still too wide, although they are narrows, to Amazon
5. make a photobook on Shutterfly before the 28th so I don't lose my $20

WANT TOs:

1. hang my new air plants that my sister gave me for my birthday above the clean bath tub in our bathroom
2. hang S's Dr. Suess prints of his name that he got for Christmas
3. finish E's name for her wall
4. find and paint frames for the playroom
5. organize my craft room
6. sleep

Miscellany Monday

 

I wasn't sure I had anything for today but surely I can come up with some random stuff.

 

1. This morning as I was leaving for work I grabbed my scarf to put it on and E said, "Mommy's blanket."  Silly girl.
2. On a similar note we do gymnastics on Mondays and we alternate weeks with S and E.  It was S's turn this week but E came and Mr. P met us there.  On our walk into the rec center S pointed out doggy poop, although I never did see any.  Most of it was snow or leaves.
3. S can lock the dead bolt on the front door.  We need to find a place for a key just in case we get locked out.
4. I turned 33 yesterday.  I took about 5 videos of the kids singing Happy Birthday to me. 
5. My husband must have found my blog because he is on a roll with presents for the last two holidays.  Thank you Mr. P!  Yesterday he gave me a spa gift card (with instructions to NOT use it on my hair cut), an elliptical (not sure it this counts as a present), flowers and Starbucks when I got up. 
6. I took Friday off, for my birthday, and we went to breakfast at my favorite place with my parents.  S, who has always been a direction giver, has no started demanding you eat or drink more.  He decided I need more coffee and he needed to help.
7.  We had a snow sculpting contest in town over the weekend.  Once it was over we finally got winter weather.  The rest of the week was 60.  We drove by Friday and S wanted to see "more big snow."  On Saturday he just really wanted to throw the snow.  We always are looking for free things to see or do with the kids.

Toys

Even after Christmas AND a 2nd birthday my kids play with a lot of "non-toy" toys.  Lately their favorite has been canned food.  The cans are in our corner lazy Susan cabinet that I can't justify child locking.  The cabinet is routinely emptied, the cans lined up and moved around the house and then, thankfully, returned.  Yesterday S and E decided that the cans should be cooked on the grill and moved with the shopping cart.  I'm not sure they believed me when I told them that the cartons of vegetable broth were NOT milk and that they really won't like what was in their if they managed to open one.

It goes almost without saying that we like boxes at our house.  This lovely uncaptioned picture is of E after the "house" fell down.  It was really hard for me not to sing a Wizard of Oz song as I took this picture.  The silly girl was perfectly happy laying inside the house.  I guess she isn't claustrophobic.

Micsellany Monday

1. Last night as I was picking up toys I emptied out three gift bags that E had been carrying around.  Inside them I found:
• 6 Duplo Blocks
• 3 wooden pepperonis
• 4 wooden mushrooms
• 2 wooden peppers (They got a Melissa & Doug pizza set for their birthday.)
•  a wooden policeman from a train set
• 1 slice of pizza, wooden
• 1 cupcake baking cup
• a Mr. Potato Head nose
• a strip of red fabric that had been tied around their birthday shirts
2. After S and E's nap today we were picking up more Duplo blocks but S couldn't part with two of them.  One was a see-through block and the other was a brown block with coffee beans on it.  I asked him what he had and he said, "Blue and coffee."  I asked, "Who likes coffee. He replied, "Mama."  With a sly smile.
3. Please ignore the incorrect punctuation and lack of new paragraphs in the number two.  Blogger won't let me indent and keep my numbers.
4. Today was our two year appointment with the doctor.  S is in the 99th percentile for height and the 95th for weight while poor little E is only in the 25th for weight and the 75-85th for height.  This explains so much about gymnastics class tonight.
5. I have an agreement or I "okayed" alternating gymnastics classes with S and in for two sessions.  E went the first two because S was sick last week.  It was finally his turn.  I had to take E with me and Mr. P met us there.  E was not happy about missing out on class but S was pretty excited.  He does a much better job copying motions of the teacher but he just isn't as nimble or a fast or as much of a risk taker as his big sister.  I think he larger than average size has affected his flexibility and it takes him a little longer to be confident.  He did love the parachute too.  He did a pretty good job but got "stuck" under the tent once and then was unprepared for a quick up and down and did a face plant with a little blood onto the chute.  But he happily joined back in a ran all over it.
6. When I asked what his favorite part of class was he said, "Tunnel. Swing, knock it down."  There was a tunnel set up over a wedge that he would have stayed at all class and they got to swing on the bar and knock down a larger block.  He giggled with excitement every time he knocked it down.  Oh boys...
7. E got a little baby for her birthday that has a paci.  We are only 3 weeks into being paci free and I was a little worried she'd inherit the baby's.  BUT she tells you to be quiet when the baby is around and gives it the paci and she hasn't tried to suck on it once.  (Her brother did twice at dinner though.)
8. We played with play-doh tonight for the first time.  In the 30 seconds that I left the kitchen to grab the camera S had taken a bite of the orange dough.  Yuck!
9. No pictures today.  I'm still trying to learn our new computer.  Our old one died on Saturday and we're still trying to recover the memory.  No fun!

Another step away...

from being my babies.  As of today S and E have been paci free since January 1st.  It is the one resolution that we can check off the list.  Mr. P has been trying to get me to get rid of the kids' paci's since they were about a year old.  I have been reluctant for no reason other than laziness.  It was part of their nap and nighttime routine.  They knew the paci meant it was time for bed.  They were becoming more attached and E had started throwing major fits when you tried to take hers from her.  So, we made it a resolution to wean them off, or really quit cold turkey.

Tuesday before nap time I asked Mr. P, "So do we start now?  Should we put them to bed without their paci's?"  Of course he said, yeah.  We talked to the kids for awhile about being big and big kids don't sleep with pacifiers and then we put them to bed.  S didn't have any trouble.  He whimpered for a bit but he was tired.  (They were both up until 11 pm on New Year's Eve and didn't really sleep in.)  E on the other had cried, after 10 minutes Mr. P went up and told her it was time to go night night and put her back down, she cried, and repeat.  After 30 minutes of crying we decided that maybe she needs to just use a broken one.  So I slit the tip and gave it to her.  She took it and went right to sleep.

So we decided to try the same trick that night with the broken paci.  She cried a little bit but not too bad and then went to sleep.  S continued to have no trouble.  He'd ask for his paci and we'd tell him big boys don't use them and he would go to sleep.  So we thought it would just take time for E to get tired of the broken paci.  Well, we were wrong.

On Wednesday, Jan. 2nd, we spent the morning running errands and getting E's first haircut.  We made it home late, about an hour past nap time.  The kids were tired so we thought they'd go right to sleep.  We decided to try to put E down without her paci, give her some time then, if needed we'd give her her paci.  I snuck downstairs to escape the crying and because I'm not very good at just putting her down and telling her it is night night time.  I'm a sucker and I know it.  So Daddy gets to be in charge.  Forty minutes later Mr. P comes downstairs and tells me that E is still crying.  He hadn't given her the broken paci and every time he goes upstairs she has taken all of her clothes off.  We decided to give her the broken paci and see how it goes.  Well, it didn't help.  She still screamed for almost an hour.  I finally decided to try to get her to sleep.

When I went in she had taken her clothes off, again, and she was saying, "change".  So I figured she must be dirty.  Well, she was practically dry.  But not she had gotten herself out of bed.  So I took her to my bed to lay with her to try to calm her down.  She was calm and asleep, I thought, so I took her back into her room.  Well, she was back awake and clingy to me like a little monkey.  I finally pried her from me and put her into her bed.  Where she cried, and cried, and cried.

Well needless to say a little bit later I gave her a regular paci, she still cried.  The girl needed to sleep so I laid down with her in our bed and she was out like a light.  Unfortunately all the commotion had taken a toll on S's nap.  He was up.  Phew, the worst nap time we've had in a VERY long time.  My kids are generally great sleepers.

So Mr. P and I had to come up with a new plan of action.  E is a smart, stubborn little girl.  So we went back to cold turkey.  There wasn't a time that we'd give her the broken paci, she wasn't going to get one, or we'd but up for hours at night.

So we put her to bed with a paci and I went to the grocery store.  (I did the same thing when we had to let her CIO around her first birthday when she just wanted to be held when she slept.)  I got the all clear about 40 minutes later.  She had fallen asleep without her paci.  Hooray!

Nap time yesterday went pretty good too.  She only cried for about 8 minutes and then was asleep.  We did however double layer her clothes and put a onesie on just in case.

Last night I put her down and she went right to sleep.  Not a peep.

Today at nap time she cried a little bit.  Then woke up about 30 minutes later crying.  I went up and she again had taken off her shirt.  I put her back down and after a little more crying she was out.  Tonight, not a peep.

Hopefully it will continue to go well.  I am a little worried about going back to work next week.  Grandma has her our first day back and last time she watched them E didn't take an afternoon nap...at all.   

Now I just have these 4 pacifiers left and I can't get myself to throw them away.  It is just another sign my babies are getting big.