Viva Las Vegas?

Well, all I can say is I'm pissed. I have been looking forward to this trip for MONTHS and the day I am set to leave I start to get a tickle in my throat. I fought it to the best of my mental ability. I told myself that it was the change in the weather and that it wouldn't stick around. Unfortunately, here I sit now in this amazing hotel room with an insanely sore throat.

I have had a great time so far, but I just wanted to go all out and I haven't been able to do that. Thursday night when I got here I walked around The Venetian for about twenty minutes and then went to bed. Friday morning I was feeling good (loaded up with Advil and Dayquil). We walked around The Forum shops, had lunch, and played penny slots. After lunch I began to feel that run down sick feeling coming on so I took a nap in hopes that it would refuel (and maybe cure) me before the big Cirque O show. We head to the show and I just feel miserable. The show was amazing of course. The Cirque people are so incredibly talented. Not to mention we had such good seats. The husbands have really outdone themselves with this trip. We head back to the hotel and I just can't get myself to do anything. All my body wants to do is go to bed and my head is telling me to go gamble and have fun. My body won that fight only to wake up at 6:30 am in a lot of pain. When I get sick it never fails. It all goes to my throat. The constant burning and irritation is overwhelming sometimes. BUT, I am trying to get up and just make the best of it today. I mean, I feel stupid being whiny. Seth and I are going to get a massage. We are staying in the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. We went to a show last night that I have wanted to see for years. I just wish I felt better is all.

Seth says this just means we have to come back. Looks that way. Cross your fingers that sometime today my illness turns around and I have one really fun and crazy night!

Getting ready

The days of throwing things in a bag and going out of town are LONG gone. I feel like I have been getting ready all week for a three day weekend. Granted, I am going to Vegas! And guess what? Lila isn't even going. It seems that going out of town, baby in tow or not, is a lot of work. The grandmothers have watched her countless times, but that somehow doesn't seem to cover it. Changes happen so fast and I feel like before I know it there's more information to tell. She has low iron so she is on an iron supplement three times a day. She's starting to eat more "finger foods" instead of pureed foods which requires more on the front end than just heating up a "cube" of frozen homemade baby food. She has major separation issues at times and then at other times she acts like such an independent little girl.

Anyway, I sat down to start to write a very simple set of instructions and of course it turned into a dissertation on the life of a nine month old. I am creating more work for myself which keeps me from doing the laundry I need to pack or actually making the baby food. Throw in planning for a sub on Friday, sucking down vitamins like candy to avoid the strep outbreak in my learning cottage, and dealing with a minor female issue and this has been a doozy of a week. And it's only Tuesday!

BUT, once I get past the woe is me drama I realize that I am going to Vegas for the first time! I am going to the Cirque show O. I am spending much needed one on one with the greatest man alive. AND, I am going to live it up! Of course, leaving LJ is never easy. I just hope she knows that my love of traveling will never come close to my love of hanging out with her....I also hope she knows that one day when she is seeing the world (or just Vegas) that she better call me a million times to tell me how much she loves it.

Picnic on the porch

It's very hard to believe that just a week ago we were trapped in our house after a day and night of snow. Today was such a beautiful day and it really, REALLY made me wish it was full on spring. I didn't even spend much time outside today. Seth and I spent the morning cleaning offices (our second job) and then I went to the mall for a couple hours of me time before Seth leaves for Vegas tomorrow. I came home and around 7:30 pm I began to actually enjoy the warmer weather. Seth built an incredibly large deck off the back of our house, but unfortunately we haven't been able to bite the bullet and buy the furniture we want for it. It is a lot of big, empty space with a few random chairs, a chair swing, and a small fire pit. So, Seth built a fire and grilled dinner while Lila and I sat on a blanket and threw the ball for Molly. Lila's favorite pastime is watching Molly jump around and act like a maniac so you can imagine how much fun they both have with ball throwing time. In true sophisticated redneck style, we then ate our steak sitting on our huge deck in front of a small fire.

Making the rounds

Lila has a cold again! She is like an ever flowing faucet of snot. Her poor little nose is red from wiping, her eyes are runny like she might sneeze any second all day, and she is so very tired. One of the reasons I never liked the idea of daycare was the sheer fact that children in daycare are pretty much never well (from what I hear). Well, I didn't take into account MY job and how I bring home fourteen different sets of germs every day. I have a very small class with only fourteen kids. You can imagine the jealous looks I received today when people realized I had FIVE absent students. Yes, a teeny tiny class is a teacher's dream come true. But not at the expense of sick kids and eventually a sick teacher's baby. I myself haven't gotten sick which is incredibly odd. Maybe the past two years of teaching have really actually boosted my immune system. My class has been passing strep around. One of the other second grade classes has a different kid throwing up in it every day. There are more teachers absent than I have ever seen either because they are sick or their kids are. I go through so much hand sanitizer in my class I am beginning to feel like it is having the opposite effect. Between washing my hands and using sanitizer I feel like they are going to peel away. SO, needless to say, I am beyond ready for summer. Warm weather and no school is the only answer to end the madness.

SIDE NOTE:  I finally changed the header picture! Lila turned 9 months on the 13th. We were sitting around the other day and I just started taking really silly pictures of her. You now get to see the result of that until March 13th. So funny!

Today's Prayer

God grant me the ability to appreciate the hours a day I see my child,

instead of constantly wishing they lasted longer.

Give me the motivation to be a teacher, a mother, and a wife with the maximum effort all three deserve,

but without the frustration of feeling like I fall short too often.

Help others to understand that if I seem tired or cranky it is probably not because of them.

But if it does happen to be because of them they will become aware of it in the most polite way I can muster.

Lastly, and most importantly, show me how to strike a balance that works for everyone....

most of all, me.

Fancy camera

I finally played around with my new fancy camera today. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. I have a difficult time sometimes with things that cost a lot of money. I have this fear that I am going to screw them up within minutes of using them. But, I was successful at my first attempt. I wouldn't say the pictures are anything to get excited about, photographically speaking, but Lila is a good little model! I have been wanting to get some pictures of her sleeping, but I always wind up waking her up. Today we went to visit a friend who has two little girls, ages 4 and 2, who wore her out. Therefore, I hoped today would be the day to get some shots! I have always used sleep sacks when Lila sleeps. That is until about a month ago she outgrew all of the ones we have. I then decided to use a blanket Kim's mom made because it is knitted and has a lot of holes (yes I try to stick to the recommendations quite closely in regards to what goes in the crib...SIDS is a SCARY thing). Lila LOVES this blanket, as you can tell.

Starting to notice me....

Trying to hide...

Ok you have officially woken me up!

Winter Wonderland/My baby is 9 months old

Yesterday 49 out of the 50 states had snow! (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100213/ap_on_re_us/us_united_states_of_snow).

Georgia was no exception. I had visions of sitting Lila in the snow and taking tons of pictures, but I decided that was a little ambitious. So, we settled for a few quick shots of us in the "blizzard" on the back porch. What a beautiful day it was. It almost makes me wish we lived somewhere where it snows more often...almost. The second shot is my sister, Sara, and Lila. It's a little hazy, but I just love it.

On the day of this winter wonderland, my little baby went to her 9 month well checkup. We went in and the weather was clear and dry. We came out and it was snowing like crazy. We ran through the parking lot in the snow to the car and Lila giggled the whole way. People tell you things go by quickly, but I don't think you really know what that means until you have a baby. She is an everyday visual of just how fast things happen. That makes her the most perfect reminder to slow down and enjoy the good stuff. On my fancy new Mac I will be attempting to create a montage of videos of her before her first birthday (I am copying this idea from my friends Toby and Angie over at All About Babies). Some of the videos I have taken of her seem to not be compatible with the Mac, so wish me luck. At any rate, I have also begun to play around with my fancy new camera. Keep an eye out for the 9 month picture I plan to take and put in the header in place of the 8 month one. It won't be nearly as good as the picture Sarah Wise took (http://scwphotography.blogspot.com/) but it will be a start!

Here are a few things I know about my child so far (including what I learned at the pediatrician on Friday):

* She is 29 inches long and a little over 19 pounds.
* She can truly eat anything we eat now except eggs, peanuts/peanut butter, and regular milk.
* She wakes up in the night mostly because she has now fully figured out we are gone and she misses us terribly (separation anxiety). Yes she is teething, but that isn't the culprit apparently. BUT, we have had 3 nights so far of no waking up after letting her cry it out a few times. I think she now knows we will show up in the morning.
* She does things when she is good and ready. I should have known this from the get go due to her desire to stay in the womb. She doesn't want to crawl or really do much more than sit and wiggle. However, we did get her to wave and clap in the same day (today actually)! If I can get her to do either of those again on a video camera, you will see just how exciting it is.
* She continues to be obsessed with our dog and pretty much every other dog she meets. We went to the Beans (http://kbbean.blogspot.com/) Friday night for game night. They have a border collie whose main goal in life is to herd everything and everyone. Lila and I took a seat at their dining room table as he ran circles around us. She laughed and squealed with delight every time he rounded the corner.
* She is the most perfect and wonderful thing I have ever done and I continue to feel like the luckiest mommy around.

Breaking my own rules

The Baby Wise method of parenting has been my method of choice since Lila was born. I nannied/babysat for two families who used Baby Wise and I have never seen such happy and well rested children in my life. I'm not talking about three and four year olds. I'm talking about infants. I would ask the parents what they did and how they got their three month old to sleep through the night and they simply told me to read Baby Wise. I know it isn't for everyone, but I give this method full credit for Lila's amazing sleep habits....up until two weeks ago. I will say I am a more flexible Baby Wise mom. If you don't know anything about it there are two main goals that I relied upon. The first one being to follow the eat/play/sleep cycle. In other words, letting baby go directly to sleep after eating is a no no which can be VERY hard to do when they are little. Second, begin a schedule as early as you can and stick to it. Some people will tell you this isn't possible, but I disagree. I have also read a lot of negative things about trying to schedule a baby. Again, it has worked incredibly well for me and I think Lila is a very well adjusted and happy baby.

So what's the problem you ask? Well, roughly two weeks ago she started waking up in the middle of the night. At first it was just once or twice for about ten minutes and she would go back to sleep on her own. It has now progressed into at least two times a night for extended periods of time each time she wakes up. She is screaming and unhappy and nothing we do fully gets her to go back to sleep. She is starting to get her first tooth so we are assuming this is the issue. So here we are very spoiled by our fabulous sleeper and very unsure of what to do because we haven't had to deal with a baby that wakes up in the night.

I am also not a fan of co-sleeping. There are many various reasons why that I don't need to go into, but we have always agreed that our children will not sleep in our bed. That isn't to say that I haven't taken the occasional nap with her or brought her to our bed in the morning on the weekends. That, to me, isn't co-sleeping. BUT, last night I broke my own rule. It was 3:30 and she had been crying off and on for what seemed like forever. Seth and I had both tried to get her back to sleep and it just wasn't happening. After multiple nights like this where we both go to work the next day miserable and exhausted I turned to him and said I was bringing her to sleep with us because I had to get some sleep. She snuggles her little self up next to me and passes out in three minutes. Hmmmm.....is she manipulating me? Can a nine month old even do that? Did she just need that much security because she didn't feel good? Was she not warm enough? Seriously, parenting is like a sea of questions that no one can ever really answer for sure.

I guess we were due for some serious sleepless nights. I think I just assumed that because we had come this far it wouldn't be an issue. All I know is that last night I caught a glimpse of why parents do co-sleep. I loved having her with me all cuddled up and cozy. It will NOT become a habit, but I'm just saying I can see how the choice could be made.

So cross your fingers that she sleeps all night without a peep...Seth and I are running on empty and it's only Monday.

Glitter in the Air

You could say I have a bit of an obsession with music. Of course, what I become obsessed with doesn't always follow the tastes of others, but I often feel like it should. I do get fairly stuck on a song and play it to death. My sister does the same thing. We listen to the song until it drives us crazy or others around us are begging for mercy. Seth falls victim to this all too often. Last night we went on a date night and I proceeded to play my latest obsession at least three times on the way to the movie. Had he let me, it would have been played more than that. That's why it's an obsession. I can't help it. I turned to him and said, "is this not one of the most amazing songs you have ever heard?". His hesitation and half smile told me we were not hearing the same thing. He said, "yea, it's good.". GOOD? Saying this song is good is like saying girl scout cookies, surprise parties, and snow days are good. Those things aren't just good...they are AMAZING. I love adjectives. I love teaching about adjectives. In my class we call the good ones "juicy words". We actually "kill" the boring words like good, bad, nice, pretty, and fun. My students are no longer allowed to use those words in their writing once they are dead. We create little headstones with the boring word at the top (RIP good) and then we use index cards and find much juicier words to put all over the headstone that could be used instead. This run-on of a tangent is to show that good is just not an appropriate word for anything unless you just really want to say something is just alright. In which case, just say that for goodness sake. Don't tell me this amazing song is just good. It hurts my heart (dramatic, I know).

I may sound a little off my rocker, but I'm ok with that. I wrote a post forever ago titled something like "In love with a woman" and I think it threw some people for a loop. I was never actually in love with Grace Potter, but once I discovered her my obsession with her music began and I just couldn't find another way to express it at the time without being sarcastic and insanely dramatic. Sometimes you just have to go there to get a point across you know? I just love words and lyrics are the perfect format for perfect statements and feelings. 

If I bestow anything upon my daughter I hope that it is my crazy passion for music. I am going to have to gain some patience in this department because there may be a chance that she doesn't love the same music I love. BUT, I have to tell myself that as long as she can truly appreciate it to the fullest extent then all will be well. My dad instilled this obsessive behavior in me from a very early age. We actually have a video (before home video cameras had sound) of me singing and dancing (I think I am 3 or 4) and I catch my reflection in the glass door of the entertainment center. My dad is playing the piano in the background and I ever so carefully walk up and kiss my reflection in the glass. Music made me happy (albeit conceited) at a very young age. To this day, it is sometimes the only thing that that can totally change my mood in a matter of minutes (for the better I mean). So, my plan is to dance and sing in my kitchen while Lila laughs at me until one day she knows the words and can love them with me.

So I went to you tube to try and put a video or even just the song in this post and I cannot seem to figure it out. I have done this many times before but it's not working. I am just going to link it below (very disappointing). Maybe tomorrow I can actually sort it out.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY7luanS150

Holy CRAP Oprah

I try really hard to get home by between 3:30 and 4:00 every day. There aren't a lot of hours in the day on weekdays that I get to see and hang out with Lila and that bothers me constantly. I also love Oprah. While she can be intense, I truly feel that her show is one of the only ones left that is worth watching. Thank God for DVR. Today I disappointed myself immensely and watched Oprah with Lila instead of watching it while she was sleeping. It's been a rough day for Lila, but more on that later. So I figured, Oprah could make us both feel better. WRONG. I learned that I am destined to get diabetes and that it will probably kill me immediately once I get it. A little heavy there Oprah.

Seriously though. If you haven't watched today's Oprah I encourage you to do so. It's very eye opening and educational in regards to statistics concerning diabetes in this country. On that same note, you should also watch the episode concerning deaths caused by people talking/texting on their cell phones while driving. Again, way on the heavy side. However, the statistics will blow your mind. I am sure I have mentioned this before, but teaching how to write or speak persuasively can be very difficult when you are educating seven-year-olds. I wish that these Oprah episodes were appropriate for me to show in my classroom. Oprah's show has single handedly persuaded me to stop drinking diet coke (or sugar at all for that matter) and to never, ever answer my phone or text in the car again.

SIDE NOTE:
Carson came for the first time today. As I've mentioned before, Carson is my friend Katie's baby and my sister will be watching her part time while she is also watching Lila. We believe that Lila is finally teething because she has not been sleeping well at all. She was up at 4 am this morning and really didn't go back to sleep until 6. I, on the other hand, got up with her at 4 and then gave up at 6 and got in the shower while she promptly fell asleep on Seth's arm in our bed (sleep deprived and all it was the cutest thing ever). Lila has been the center of everything for her entire 9 months of life so you can imagine that a new little baby showing up has not been going over well. BUT, she needs to realize she is not the center of the world. Thank goodness Carson is a good sport.

She's a professional

I'm behind on my Real Simple daily thoughts so today's post is jam packed with two that just happen to totally fit me:

"I always cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food." - W.C. Fields

Wait, I would have to cook a lot to be able to even start a phrase with "I always cook...". Whatever. I like to cook. I just suck at it. Wait, maybe it's the wine and not my cooking. Nevermind.

"All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy". - Spike Milligan

Alright so, I hesitated with this one because I am happy. I am incredibly happy actually. BUT, winning the lottery would totally rock.

On an unrelated and funny note, I have a student that is a bit of a struggler. I try really hard to praise him as much as possible, especially when he does well on something he hates. Let's just say motivation isn't his strongest attribute. So I'm doing my best song and dance about something he turned in and he stands there, quite stoic, and simply says "I'm a professional". He then takes his paper and heads back to to his desk. I was stunned. What do you say? What do you do when you have thrown a mini-party for something and the response is so matter of fact and unemotional? So I laughed hysterically in my head and went on about my business. The best advice I have ever been given about being a teacher is to "keep the inner voice in". It's so hard but so necessary. Had I laughed at him out loud he would have felt silly for even listening and responding to my praise. Suddenly, so many situations fit the phrase he coined.

"She's a professional" (Avocado anyone?)