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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Noah and the Spoon

Dear Noah,


I tell people all the time that you eat like it's your job.  You stuff food into your mouth almost to the point of choking.  


One time you bit your lip while eating. You puffed up like you were going to wail but you didn't.  You just whined, stuck out your lip for a second as if to say "Ouch that hurt. You should pity me", and kept on eating.  


Another time we were at the splash park with some of the kids from Mama Jane's house.  You were eating some dry cereal while sitting in your blue car. One of the kids pushed you into one of the sprinklers.  You sat there in your car, blinking wildly while water sprayed you in the face, and kept on eating. 


All very impressive.


Clearly you love to eat.  Table manners, on the other hand, only get in the way of your feasting. I love how you hold the spoon but show little interest in using it.  You took a few bites with the spoon, but your hands are your preferred method of choice.  


Love,
Mommy




Saturday, July 28, 2012

Yogurt

Dear Babies,


You both love yogurt. You will eat any flavor at any time.  So it should not be a surprise that Noah tried to mooch some of Layla's yogurt.  The real surprise should be that she actually shared.


Love,
Mommy


Nono and the Walker

Dear Noah,


I've tried not to do it.  I didn't want to be that kind of parent.  But I can't help it.  It's just too hard to not compare you with LB. 


I find myself looking at your pictures and then her pictures from when she was the same age.  I stare at them looking at every tiny detail.  Daddy showed me that I can select several pictures then click my space bar and the pictures will pop up.  Then I can flip back and forth from picture to picture using the track pad.  It's slightly obsessive.  


I've compared milestones too - rolling over, crawling, sleeping through the night, eating solid food. LB has you beat in some areas and you have her beat in others. 


Who will win the walking contest??  That is yet to be decided.  LB was using the walker pretty regularly at 10 months, but you've only recently started to use it at almost 12 months. Point to Layla.  She started walking at 15 months.  Time to get to it.


Love,
Mommy




Friday, July 27, 2012

Mommy's School

Dear Kiddos,


I think the week before teachers return to school should be called "Take Your Children to Work Week".  You'd think that the 5 days before kids show up would be enough time to set-up a classroom, but that thinking is beyond wrong.  Way beyond wrong.  Pre-planning week is usually filled with meetings, professional development, registration, chatting, and lunches out because we never get to do that.  Therefore teachers usually go to school ahead of time to have everything ready to go. And they usually bring their kids. It's "Take Your Children to Work Week".  Someone should really make that official.


Our TYCWW started on Monday.  In the 3 hours we were in "Mommy's Boom" I was able to place all the furniture around the room.  We are always told, nah, nagged, to not drag the furniture on the freshly polished floors.  We are told to wait for a custodian to come by with a dolly. In my 8, now 9, years of teaching, I've never seen a custodian with a dolly or seen a teacher wait.  Teachers drag the furniture.  I did it and I'll do it again next year.  Those floors are going to get messed up anyway.  Deal with it.


Tuesday was mainly unpacking.  My room has wooden lockers and I stuffed each and every locker with teacher junk at the end of school last year.  Again, we stayed at school for about 3 hours.  


You both were exceptionally good.  I made sure to have plenty of snacks and I let you play with my classroom things.  It's amazing how pencil cups and chairs and things like that can entertain two small children.  The only problem happened on Tuesday.  I was talking with another teacher when I heard Layla cry out, "Pip-pops wet"!  Layla had an accident.


I let you skip school on Wednesday to go play with your friends at the splash park.  I can't believe I let you cut class on TYCWW! I should feel ashamed. :)


On Thursday you got the day off again to stay with Omi and Poppi! Skipping twice in one week?! Shameful. . . . but I went to school and got so much done. My companion that day was my hot glue gun.  That's another thing we are nagged about - don't use hot glue on the walls.  I don't care. I do it anyway. It's really the only thing that let's you stick stuff to concrete walls without it peeling off before Labor Day. 


We went back to school on Friday.  We didn't stay long since I had only had a few things to do.  But I did remember to take my camera.  I had to capture TYCWW!  I love how excited Nono was to sit in the chairs and how LB played peek-a-boo in the lockers.  











Love,
Mommy