This town ain't big enough for the two of us...

This job is totally going to cramp my blog writing, I can already tell...

We all seems to be adjusting well. I am really enjoying my work. I only do any one thing for an hour tops so the day is split up nicely. Everything goes by quickly. The kids are great and the school is full of nice, positive, accepting people. Anyway I don't notice how much I miss my lil'uns until I get home and see their faces/cuddle with them.

Cam seems to be enjoying being home with the kids for the most part. He also admits it is making him try to find things to do to help out around the house more. This is all probably a good thing since it looks like I maybe teaching fulltime next year (if I can get my WA certification and someone will hire me that is, Auburn District does have a high school and middle school opening so hopefully the odds are good).

Chelane is stilljust as happy as ever. Someone at church this past Sunday asked me how old she was, when I responded "5 months" (which I think I can safely say now that we are into March) he said "oh so she is still keeping you up at night." That is when I got to thinking, yet again, how blessed I am to have had two really good sleepers. Since I have to deal with any mid-night problems, working could be very hard if she wasn't snoozing for 6-8 hours a night. I am also really blessed to have Uncle Jadon around. He keeps her entertained like it is nobody's business. I don't think I mentioned when she started laughing. I got her to do it really once right around four months and never again. I have tried acting silly, tickling, eating her tummy - you know, all the tricks. But Saturday Jadon was jumping around (or something, I was downstairs) and Chelane was laughing up a storm... I guess I am just not that funny...

I actually find that I have more patience with Dallas after being gone all day and after being at school all day I find I want to do productive activities with him (reading, puzzles, colors, drawing, etc.). We read Go Dog Go tonight and Dallas really got into it (and signed along since I was signing some of the words - he also said "go" a lot). After we were done he was asking for the book again, I don't know why I didn't think of Dr. Seuss books earlier...

Oh, that was another things I was going to mention, I don't think I would have known that March 2nd was the birthday of Dr. Seuss if I wasn't working at an elementary school, but most teachers revolve their whole day around something Seuss-like. With all the rhyming there is a lot to do with "word families" and the longer stories have pretty deep things to talk about. Dr. Seuss sure was one smart cookie.

The Job

This job is wonderful. First off, I get an alloted amount to spend on dental/vision/health insurance before any money is taken out of my pay check. I am able to cover myself and my entire family with vision and dental insurance and get health insurance for myself out of this amount. Second, I am only working through the end of the school year (June 20th-ish) but will continue to get paid through August (not that what I am getting paid would be enough to live on quite yet). Third, I work with a good group of kids and have the opportunity of teaching almost every one of them in a small group setting at some point in the day. Fourth, one of those kids is Amanda, an old friend of Jadon's. My mom knows her mom and all that jazz. Fifth, I get to listen to an average of two chapters of Holes every lunch period. Honestly I could go on and on (and maybe sometime I will, but I need to go to the store with Mom right now). But let's just say I look forward to the day and they go by faster than any job I have had...

Worthless Post...

I really should post about my first day on the job, but I really don't want to right now. So this is me commiting myself to some future post regarding it. Hopefully that will expidite the whole blogging process, but, let's be honest with ourselves, it probably won't help...

Five Months?

Chelane is rapidly approaching her five month mark.


She rolls over. She hasn't mastered back to front, but she twists off her belly to either side with ease and expertise. She has discovered and uses her hands to a level I didn't know was possible for a small baby.* Chelane is also going through the cute stage of making loud, obnoxious, ear splitting, concentration-destroying, cute sounds. I know I have mentioned it before but she is also wearing 6-9 month clothes (and they fit now without drowning her at all).

She is so happy and getting so big but I am worried about her this month. She was born September 30th... so when exactly does she become five months old?...


*my past experience and knowledge is limited to Dallas, who at this age was: rolling, starting to sit up, bouncing for endless hours in his bouncer and had two teeth; but had no interest in sitting still and manipulating objects with his hands

Something New, Something Old...

Dallas has been reacquainted with some favorite pastimes and acquired some new, odd habits since we moved in with Grandma and Grandpa.

First, is being reacquainted with his jumper. We bought this thing when Dallas was barely three months old after I had to endure an hour of church constantly bouncing Dallas, his legs extended, up and down on my lap. The jumper lights up and plays music when you bounce in it and the first time Dallas caused that music to start you would have thought he was in heaven. He used it faithfully (mostly ignoring the activity bar) until he got too big and we had to retire it.

Chelane is now big enough for the jumper and started showing some interest in bouncing up and down, so we fished the box out of the garage. She enjoys the activity bar more than jumping, though. Apparently Dallas recognized his long lost favorite toy and helped himself...



At least it seems to be entertaining Chelane...

We have also decided that Dallas must be related to some sort of hibernating animal. It started with not letting go of a Buzz Lightyear toy, he found in Jadon's room, when going to bed and escalated to wanting every stuffed toy that was upstairs in bed with him. Then it morphed into a random assortment of "stuff" he dug out of drawers in the room he is sleeping in.


In this bed (that he had been sleeping in) are: a stuffed tweety bird, a pocket knife attached to a flint and steel, a clump of embroidery floss, a half finished embroidery project, Chee-chee (Cam's old stuffed monkey), a plastic colored pencil box, and Dallas's photo album...