Dear Education Career,

You suck.

No love from me,
Tina

Wednesday Night Thoughts

• We had over a foot of snow again this weekend. It was heavy, wet snow that looks nice and pretty again, but after a week of 50 degree weather, is not really what we wanted. Anyhow, Gizmo finally got out in the snow and played. She loves it!
• I found out today that I will be laid off again this year. Let's hope that I get re-hired. Again. It's a pretty crucial year, as I will earn tenure if they re-hire me. Please, please, please district, don't focus on the small amount of money saved by canning me and hiring a new teacher with no experience and advanced degree. Please.
  
• On a side note to that, there is nothing more frustrating than knowing you are working hard and doing a good job, and that it makes no difference when it comes to the hiring and firing, or the dolling out of promotions. Both Mitch and I are seeing that in our jobs. External job searches have commenced.
  
• On another work-related note, my body is SORE and TIRED after having a two-hour rehearsal with my 5th grade band members after school today. Our big concert is tomorrow night, and they are going to do a great job.
  
• What does one who is nine months pregnant wear to a band concert that will not make her look like a tent? If you know, let me know pronto.
  
• For my birthday, Mitch took me to the Oceannaire, a fancy seafood restaurant in Minneapolis. It was delicious. The only bad thing: no wine. Although after this concert tomorrow night, I might just have to do it. The kid's developed enough, right?
  
• Gizmo turned eighteen months old today. When did that happen? I'm sorry that I can't post video to the blog right now - for some reason Mitch's computer won't let it upload correctly. Damn PCs. Look to Facebook for the latest. She has been a champ in her new room, and is doing really well with her potty-training. She's not nearly perfect yet, but she does know how to go in the potty chair, and her favorite part is the "dump!" at the end.
• I am at 36 weeks as of this Friday. Little Helmette will make her appearance shortly! I am beyond large, and people at work keep asking when this kid is showing up. They can't believe I have another whole month to go. They have noticed me slowing down, and comment on it. And I have slowed down. A LOT. This second-time-around-with-a-toddler-and-working thing sucks.
• After reading this post and listening to me rant and rave after I came home from work today, Mitch was glad to see that it wasn't nearly as militant as he feared it might be. Yay me.
  

A Weekend of Firsts for Gizmo, Part Two of a Two-Part Series

This weekend we moved Gizmo out of the nursery and into her new "big girl" room.

Here is her room, from several different angles:




Among the updates to the room include: repair of walls; prime and paint over the tragic green that was the office; new wainscot on the bottom portion of the walls, new windows and coverings (purple gingham curtains aren't quite done yet), new trim and doors, new dresser, new bedding, recycled decorations, and a few new accessories.

And in true girl fashion, a cute guy poster on the back of her door....


Maybe her cousin Punkin can send her a Justin Bieber poster.

One of my favorite parts of the room are the frames filled with her (and others who helped her) art:


It's hard to see what they are, so I took close-ups:


A picture of her hand traced several times by Grama JG,


Her handprint turkey from Thanksgiving - her first piece of artwork, and


A combine drawing by Pa Poke.

A BIG THANK YOU to Pa and Grama Poke and Grama JG and Pomp, who helped transform our office to this beautiful little girl's room. Mitch and I would have never finished it. Never.

Gizmo loves playing in her new room, which was finished when she woke up on Saturday morning. Other than figuring out that she couldn't flop back on her big body pillow with a few head bumps, the transition from nursery to big girl room has been pretty easy.




She could hardly be bothered today to smile for a picture, she was so busy playing with Thor.

Last night she slept in her twin bed without any real problems. She fell asleep immediately, and only woke up a couple of times. We bought a video monitor for her room since she is now two floors below us so that we could see what she was doing, and I'm very glad that we haven't had it from the beginning. What an addicting little device! She's done a great job of staying in the bed, even before and after her nap.

It's official. She's a big girl now. (Tear.) Time to reset the nursery!

A Weekend of Firsts for Gizmo, Part One of a Two-Part Series

It's a big weekend for Gizmo, who is nearing the 18-month mark. She has been blessed with her mom and dad's thick hair, and it has been growing so fast that it was time to get her hair cut for the very first time.

I was cautiously optimistic that she would do a good job, but even so Mitch and I loaded her diaper bag with toys, books, and food. We had prepped her for her hair cut by practicing to sit still while drying her hair after her bath, and had talked for a few days about going to see "Cawi" and getting her hair "cut".

Once we got there, it was like she was a pro. She explored the hair salon, and when Cari was ready for her, she took her hand and let her lead her back to the chair. Once we got the animal cape on her (the worst part), the cutting began.


And yes, we did resort to bribing her with Goldfish crackers. I am convinced this is why she sat so still.


Haircut? Who cares about a haircut when I've got a mouth full of Goldfish!


This picture says, "I'll let this lady cut my hair as long as you keep the Goldfish coming!"


And this one says, "Who cares how my new haircut looks? Why did you take those Goldfish away?"

Gizmo was able to run around and play today without pigtails for the first time in months. She's such a big girl!

Kids Say the Darndest Things, Final Part (or until another kid says something ridiculous)

Two stories from school: (Names have been changed to protect the innocent)

#1:
Flute Student: "Do you want to know what Pete said about you?"

Me: "Sure."

Flute Student: "He said that you look like you're about to pop at any moment!"

Me: "Well, yes, I do look like that, don't I?"

Flute Student: "Yeah, I guess so."


#2:
One of our special ed teachers was telling me about a student that I have who was having a particularly rough day. He was having a meltdown during lunch because he did not get an extra garlic breadstick, and so he was standing on the yellow "X" in her room (his time-out area). She left the room, leaving him, a para, and the occupational therapist in the room. She came back a few minutes later, hoping to find him calmed down, but instead he found him even more agitated and the two teachers laughing hysterically. When she asked what was so funny, they said that his meltdown went from a garlic breadstick to realizing that I was having a baby, and so he was sobbing, "I didn't get a garlic breadstick, and Mrs. Tina is pregnant!" Apparently he had just come to this realization, and thought this was the worst thing in the world. The special ed teacher told him, "Mrs. Tina is not crying about it, so neither are you!"

Moms of Multiple Children, I Need Your Advice

Mitch and I have been looking to purchase a double stroller. Shudder. We were at Babies R Us this weekend getting a few odds and ends and tried the one we've been eyeing, the Chicco Cortina double stroller that would fit our infant car seat.

Babies R Us is currently running a special where if you bring in a piece of baby gear (high chair, stroller, car seat, etc.), you can get 25% off of a new purchase, which would make the cost of this ridiculously expensive stroller a little more manageable.

My question is this - how often did you use a single stroller (the one that you could put the infant seat into) after you had two kids? We currently have two strollers - one that came with our travel system that fits the infant seat, and an umbrella stroller. Could we do without our travel system stroller? Or would we regret trading it in?

Kids Say the Darndest Things, Part II

It's not really a secret that I can have a pretty awful potty mouth. OK, a really bad one. It's not one of my finer qualities, and honestly it's been curbed pretty well in recent years, but nonetheless I can still swear with the best of them when I'm around certain company. (Cin, I'm looking at you.)

Mitch has been warning me to watch my mouth at home, as Gizmo repeats almost everything she hears and sees nowadays, and sure enough, this was the week....

The three of us were sitting at dinner when I dropped a piece of food on the floor. As I reached down to pick it up, I said softly under my breath, "damn....". It's hard to bend over! Anyway, Gizmo repeats, just as softly, "damn....". And there it was. Her first swear word. Mitch just gave me the look of "I told you so!" and texted Cin's husband Tom to let them know what I'd done.

And now I'll be getting out the jar to put a quarter in every time I swear.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Yesterday at work I was feeling pretty crummy. This whole working-until-the-baby-pops-instead-of-napping-three-times-a-day thing sucks.

Anyway, my second graders had just come into class and they were sitting in a circle on the floor. Usually, I sit on the floor with them, but since I was feeling pretty bad, and since it takes me about two minutes to get up off the floor now anyway, I had pulled a chair into the circle to sit on. Immediately one of my students raises his hand, and the following conversation begins:

Student #1: Why are you sitting on a chair?

Me: Because I'm not feeling so well, and it's hard for me to get off the floor nowadays.

Student #1: Why?

Me: Because the baby is getting really big.

(It's here that I should probably mention that Helmette was incredibly active that day, and was squirming around like crazy during this conversation.)

Student #2, who is sitting right to my left: I just saw your shirt move!

All Students: Eyes zoom in on my ever-expanding belly.

Random Students now shouting out: I see, it too! Me too! I saw the shirt move! I saw the baby! Wow! Ew, gross!

(I should also probably mention that by the time the kids starting shouting out, Helmette had piped back down, and the kids saw nothing)

Me, pulling my sweater across my mid-section: Yep, pretty cool, huh? OK, let's move on to....

And luckily, the kids were able to focus once again after the promise of a game at the end of class if they worked hard that day.