5 Months Old!

Our bundle of joy!He's been working hard this weekend trying to turn over. Check out his progress. He can turn to the side, and cross his leg over, but he can't quite get past that point.



Today marks 5 months for little BooBear. We are hoping to get a family portrait soon, you know, while he still looks like a baby and not a toddler. I emailed a photographer I know of, but I guess she doesn't check the email on her website, is not interested (which could be stated very shortly in a responding email), or is taking time off. /shrug. So, maybe we will have to go to some place in the mall or /shudder Walm@rt. Here's the thing. My family went to Sears a few times for family portraits when I was a teen, and there is one where the bluish tinted grey background and lighting made me look like my hair was frosted blue in the front. I look like I have the hair of a comic book heroine. I am going to be the only dark haired person in this family portrait as it is, plus the natural curly hair...and yeah, cheap lighting would be very bad for me. Anyone actually used the photo place at Walm@rt or have some place else to recommend? I know there are some specialty places here in town that do babies and children, but I'm not looking for a photo of BooBear in a flowerpot. I would love to get a family portrait and a few poses of BooBear.

Vaccinated

Not BooBear, but Werty and I. We finally went and got our H1N1 shots like good citizens. The school district threw a wellness fair this afternoon and there were a limited number of shots available. Earlier in the season, we didn't get them because we couldn't wait in line for hours in the freezing cold with a baby and then we were sick with colds. I'm glad that BooBear is still too young for the shot - with all the other vaccines he gets, I would rather wait before adding another one - especially one that is so new. If it's still going around next year, then we will probably have him get one.

New Pics of BooBear

I have to make a correction from earlier - he's 75 percentile in head, 85 percentile in height. I will also add that he is getting big so FAST! Other parents always said that, and now I understand why. His feet are now longer than my longest finger. I think I will soon have to buy new socks for him...again. Methinks he is going to be tall.

He has discovered the fun toys attached to his swing. He is also practicing sitting up and sometimes likes to watch the floor move by leaning over the side or the front. Here he is leaning on the toy, taking a breather from working those 'sitting forward' muscles.

Om nom nom. He figured out how to suck on the spinning ball.



I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille. :P I think this pic is about to become my new desktop picture at work.

First Week of 2nd Semester

Good thing it was only a 4 day week! I am exhausted! For the first time, I think my 8th period will be better than my 7th period. 8th period is half SpEd and half regular ed, and so far everyday one student has given me attitude. They are welcome to sign up for another class... Anyway, I have a few returning students who didn't pass my class last year. Kind of strange, but it's nice because I already know their names.

We had a new infusion of exchange students, and the beginning ESL class has grown to fill all the desks. We give them a test/evaluation and they all scored really low - as in they can't speak any English - but most of them are demanding to be moved up to a higher class. I gave one permission today, with the condition that I am moving him back if he can't cut it. What's the problem with that you ask? If they all moved up to the Advanced class, they would increase that class by 50%, meaning that 1/3 of the class would be falling behind. In a a class that struggles and is lower than any other Advanced class I have taught, having 1/3 of the class dragging down the pace of the class is a disservice for the other students who earned there spot in the class by learning English for the last 2-4 years. We received a letter from one of the host parents requesting the change to a higher class. The poor girl couldn't put two English words together - there's no way we are having her move up to writing persuasive essays! So, I might have upset host parents dropping by next week to see me...fun, huh?

Sharpies Banned

Why was he chewing on the end of a very large sharpie? Why does he chew on the end of EVERYTHING? Why do teenage boys do these stupid things? We will never know. The last few minutes of first period I am showing the students a youtube photo montage for MLK day of the Dion song "Abraham, Martin and John." The song starts, and these two boys are bent over looking at the floor. Intending to tell them to pay attention, I walk over to see one boy with his hands to his mouth and face, hands covered in black ink. Not a small amount of ink, it was enough ink to cover both his hands. The rest of the ink is all over the desk and splattered on the rug. The new rug. The school just remodeled this wing a year and a half ago. The largest spot is 2-3 inches in diameter, with lots of half inch and quarter inch splatters in an 18-24 inch radius. The marker exploded in his teeth. I tell the boy to go the bathroom and clean up. I tell the other boy to clean the desk with a chlorox wipe. "Why me?" he asks. I pick up the leaking marker from the rug and head to the trash can. The first boy who caused the accident, "No, teacher, don't throw it away!" You have to be kidding me. No clue and no regret, even though he ruined my rug. I had him later during the last period of the day. You know what he was doing? Chewing on the end of a ball point pen. Yeah.

Also - I forgot to mention that BooBear is 85th percentile in head circumference. What can I say? He is his father's child. Werty wears an XXXL helmet size - any larger and you have to special order. :P

Freudian Boots

This morning when the first two IB students arrived to class, two girls, they called each other by the first letters of their names, "Hey D." "Hey E." etc. Then one of them complimented the other on her boots. Not hearing them clearly, I heard "D...mumble...my boobs." "What did you say?" I asked with a shocked expression. "I was talking about my boots." "What?" "My boots." "Oh, I heard something else." "Teacher! What did you think I said? I didn't say that!" Color me embarrassed. Chalk this one up to the fact that as a breastfeeding mother, there are more conversations at home about breasts these days.

4 Month Check-Up

BooBear is doing well. He is 50 percentile in weight and 85 percentile in height. 14 lbs 12.5 oz, 26.5 inches long. He got his vaccines, which naturally made him really tired. Instead of going to sleep at 3am, he went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 3am. At least for Werty's sake, he went back to sleep at 5:30am.

Cheating Epidemic

Urgh! The end of the term is upon us and students are getting ready to take my final for Government class. Meanwhile I am trying to get caught up on grading. A big thanks to Gloria for doing most of the grading for my ESL classes! Grading has been depressing lately. I have to add notations to students zero grade explaining that there will be no credit received due to the fact that the student copied off another student. I don't care who copied who. A second violation and you get an automatic F in the class. Says so in my disclosure. There was an assignment the week before break where TEN students out of 40 copied off each other. Same halfway completed misspelled answers. Sad thing is about 3 of those had already copied before. So far I haven't failed them, but maybe a letter home to the parents is in order. One girl is having a hard week with her little brother in the hospital and all. And I have her in three different periods, can you imagine the headache that can cause? Grrr. Then today I corrected an assignment for my other Government class that only about half the class did, even though I let them work on it in pairs. Four students, i.e. two groups, had the same half baked incomplete sentence answers. Good thing for them they are not repeat offenders. I am thinking that next semester I will have a parent, student, teacher contract already written so that they have to get a parent signature showing that a parent was notified of their first violation and the chance for an automatic failure. I think that would cover the legal requirements, so that I could fail them if they did it again. I have given my students a little slack because I was gone the first month of the year and all, so it took them a little longer to figure out what they can and cannot do. But cheating, along with all forms of dishonesty, is the WORST thing you can do and cannot be tolerated in my book. As a teacher I see this getting worse and worse like an epidemic. Students often don't think that they have done anything wrong - they have no concept that doing the work is supposed to help them actually learn something. What's the point in learning and understanding information in a world of googling? Are we going to see a dearth of intelligent conversation now that we are inundated with so much information, many of it non essential to our survival or salvation? Grrr.

Photographic Evidence

They're free! My toes are free! How I have missed you!


Proof of his latest toe sucking accomplishment! Om nom nom

Holding on to Daddy's hair.

Teenage Boys

I suggested to a failing student today that he complete one of the extra credit projects to bring up his grade. It's an easy 2 page research paper on a landmark supreme court case. I showed where the list of court cases were in the textbook that he could chose from. About 10 minutes later with an overly innocent smile on his face, "Teacher, I want to do this case. But I'm not sure exactly what it is saying here." So I read the textbook summary of the case. A case about "sex discrimination." I explain that the court ruled that you are not allowed to hire someone over another person based on their gender. In the case Reed v. Reed, they wanted a male to fill an administrator position instead of a female. I explained this to the student. His face fell. "Oh. Let me look again," he says as he takes the textbook back. "You don't want to do that case?" "No."

Can you guess why? In my mind I was smiling amusedly, but keeping my poker face. A case about sex discrimination...he was hoping to research some titillating sex scandal or sexual orientation case that he could joke about...but in this case the word "sex" referred to gender. Never mind teacher.

Cute Games We Play

Ddonn asked me the other day what cute thing BooBear was doing these days. Being able to spend more time with him in the morning during break allowed me to hone in on one of his daily games. He likes to play keep away with us whenever we are dressing or undressing him - unless he is upset and crying. The game goes like this - as soon as he realizes that you are trying to put on a sleeve, he will stuff his hand in his mouth and grin. When you have his arm half way down the sleeve, he will again stuff his hand and the fabric in his mouth and laugh. You let him win for a moment, then you resume the dressing process. Once you have his arm through the sleeve, he doesn't want that hand anymore, he wants to other one - the one you want to put in his other sleeve. And we repeat the ritual. Again, he doesn't want his hands now that he is dressed. You play along, and he is thrilled. Recognizing he is trying to play a game with us takes some of the frustration out of the fact that he is slowing down the process.

BooBear's succes for the day: he got his whole big toe in his mouth today during his bath. Good thing I had cleaned his feet first. He had been able to get his little toes in there before, and his sock, but FINALLY he got the big toe. He was pleased. Until he peed in the tub and accidentally shot himself in the eyes. Yeah. Poor kid scared himself. I laughed so loud I scared him too. Probably stung too. And he will probably be mortified someday if he ever learns that I shared this story with the world.

Learn Turkish

My Spanish speaking students asked my Turkish student the week before break how to say "I love you" in Turkish, and I am passing it on to you. Seni seviyorum. If you resolved to learn something new each day this year, there is your new thing for today. :D

Jane Eyre

On New Years Eve we just stayed at home with a sick baby. He got to try infant tylen0l for the first time. When we went out for Chinese food at Werty's favorite restaurant for his birthday a few days ago, I had mentioned to Rena that my sister had given me the new Jane Eyre dvd for Christmas (Thanks Sis!) , knowing that Jane Eyre is Rena's favorite story. Rena came over and watched all 3.5 hours of Jane Eyre goodness with me. She went home to her husband before the New Year, and we waited the last hour or so until midnight. Then we toasted with some apple cider. I even gave BooBear a drop of cider on my finger to taste. Then we stayed up with BooBear for a couple more hours until he finally went to sleep.

Today I decided to check my work email on a whim. And there was an email from one of my IB students asking for a letter of recommendation...for his college application that is due tomorrow. Man, he is really lucky...or has been praying. So, I wrote him a letter tonight and email him back. Sooo lucky. I usually don't check my work email over the break. And this is the first he has mentioned anything to me about wanting me to write a letter for him. Most students give you about a week's notice.