Baking with Zooey

The weather was actually cold this weekend, so it was a perfect time to make cookies! My friend, Laurie- an awesome cook, made me so happy awhile back when she posted her cookie recipe, so Zooey and I decided to try it out.

With not a lot of counter space and Zooey wanting to be in the middle of the action, we mixed our cookies on the floor.

Zooey's stirring was a bit flingy.

Zooey sneaking raisins from the batter. Stir a little...snack a lot.

Yummy success!

Even though I miss a really cold snowy day, a Florida winter has a few perks. There are tons of awesome, blue sky, sunny, warmish days that are perfect for picnics and hikes, as evidenced below:

Affirmation

I teach for a lot of reasons. I love kids, but also, I love to watch kids learn new things and make connections, and I love being a facilitator of that process.

It's a lot of work and I don't always feel like I'm cut out for it. I get anxious and frustrated when I am unsure of the job that I am doing. That usually leads to me thinking of the others jobs that maybe I should have chosen as careers.

As my students trickled into class the other day, I was running around setting out various supplies that we would need throughout the day. I was feeling stressed and needing affirmation that I'm actually good at what I do.

At that moment, I feel a student hugging my leg. "Good morning, Camille. Please unpack and start your morning work," I said, not looking up from my preparations.

"Mrs. Shepherd, I love you more than rainbows," was her reply.

'Yep,' I thought to myself. I'm right where I need to be.

Adventures in Teaching, Volume 1 - The Gerbil

First Graders provide an infinite amount of entertainment. Sometimes it makes me laugh and other times, well... I'll laugh later. I can plan lessons all I want to, but the truth is, I never know what might happen in my classroom.

Here's an example that I think captures perfectly the adventurous job of teaching:

On Tuesday this week, I called my students to our meeting area to start the day. I noticed a little girl fiddling with something in her lap that clearly she didn't want me to see. I gave my usual warning. "(Student), I see that you have a toy in your lap, if you don't want me to take it up, you should go put it in your backpack. If I see it out again, it goes in my 'June drawer'(where you won't get it back until June)."

I held my hand out to her. "I'm happy to take it up now, if you think it's going to distract you from learning today."

"Noooo, Mrs. Shepherd, I'll put it away." And off she ran to put whatever she had safe in her backpack.

On Wednesday, while the kids were at lunch, I received an email from a mom, which included a 'PS' telling me that her daughter had informed her that the Tuesday student had brought her gerbil to school yesterday and planned to do the same today. She wasn't sure if she meant a stuffed animal or not.

I chuckled to myself, thinking "Yeah, right." But a quick flash back to the day before, and how urgent she was to put her toy away without me seeing it, plus hearing scurrying in the cubbies and thinking that I should talk to the custodian and I decided to check her backpack.

Nervously, I unzipped her backpack, only to find a ton of junk - old work, multiple silly hats, crayons, gloves and a zippered pencil pouch. I thought of breathing a sigh of relief but looked again at the zipper pouch. "Please, no." , but yes. I unzipped it just enough for a terrified gerbil (who looked much more like a rat with a 5 inch tail!) to shove his head through and try to escape. The next moments are a blur of me shoving him back in, zipping it up, jumping up and down and running to my friend's classroom next door.

After finding a better container for the pet, I tried to compassionately yet sternly explain to the little girl the hideousness of her decisions. From an 'animal rights perspective(two days in a zipper pouch with no food, water, or air)' to a 'school is for learning perspective'. She sobbingly explained that her friend wanted to see her gerbil, to which I replied, "If my friend wants to see my horse, does that make it okay to zip him up in my backpack and sneak him to school? A picture of your gerbil would have been a much better choice.

Therefore, despite my lesson plans, animal ethics replaced subtraction that day. Like I said, an infinite amount of entertainment.

Still Here

I’ve totally been MIA for the past few weeks as so much has been going on. For starters, I began a new job and am officially back in the classroom teaching(where I belong). Due to some changes in my research job, I was on a serious job hunt and scored a 1^st grade position at a wonderful school in town. Not long after being hired that 1^st grade position became a Kindergarten/1^st grade combination class, which is a little trickier, but still proving to be a lot of fun(and work). I totally forgot how much work goes into teaching. Needless to say, the first two weeks of school have been exciting and exhausting, but still affirming.

Secondly, we moved into a cute little rental house around the corner from where we were living – the weekend before I started the above mentioned new job – might I add. It was a bit impulsive, but increasingly worth it. We passed our new home while out for a morning stroll and about three weeks later were moving in. It was the huge East facing window in the living room that did it for me and built in bookcases that did it for Josh (who needed more convincing when the projected budget was done.)

Zooey is loving his new space to roam, looking out all the windows! and his very own bedroom. It was his momma, actually, who had a harder time with him liking his own bedroom.

With the new house comes Zooey’s first steps! Momma and Daddy are experiencing a new feeling of joy when this little man pulls himself upright and with a huge smile and giggles as he timidly steps/runs into our arms. It’s my new favorite thing.

And then there’s the trip to the Emergency room that we are still somewhat recovering from. Zooey had a terrible bout with croup Thursday night, which resulted in two breathing treatments, steroids and a near admittance into the hospital. After sitting up in a very uncomfortable and freezing room from 1:30am -7:30am the doctor reluctantly sent us home under strict orders to watch an listen for any change in his breathing, in which, we were to come straight back. Have you ever heard of “resting strider”? It apparently is a hardcore type of croup that Zooey had that has the power to make a confident doctor listen several times to a baby’s breathing and even then scratch his head a bit before making his decision. He’s is better now, but I never ever want to hear that barking cough or sucking wind sound come from my child again.

So now that we’ve had an extremely eventful month, I’m hoping for a quieter settling in at our new home (if I can get some of these boxes out of the way) and a welcoming of fall – my favorite. Which in Florida has to begin in my mind as I stare out the window, hopefully knitting, and imagine cooler temperature – that in reality won’t be here until November.

Family Adventure

I wanted (finally) share some pictures of a family adventure to the mountains in Colorado that we took two months ago. I know, I know, I'm a terrible blogger. Our trip was to Fort Collins, CO and then on to Seattle, but along the way we took a detour.

Josh and I ache for the mountains. When we decided to take a trip to CO, I immediately starting devising plans that involved sleeping as close to outside as we could without freezing the baby. So, we rented a yurt. A what? you say. A yurt is a tent like structure with thicker walls. Ours was complete with a bed, couch, wood burning stove and an outhouse nearby. That's right - no electricity - or were you gasping at the mention of an outhouse? I said it was an adventure.

We were two hours up into the mountains, so needless to say, there was SNOW! And lots of it. We are Floridians now, so we miss crunchy walks through fresh snow.

Although he had the perfect bear suit, thanks to hand-me-downs from friends, Zooey was not too excited about making a snow angel.

With no electricity comes a pretty early bedtime, resulting in a certain tiny person waking up with the sun. We took a morning tromp through the snow at about 6 am.

If there was a perfume called "Wood Burning Stove" for women - I might consider it. Or maybe just the air freshener. It's such a cozy smell. There should be at least an aromatherapy candle out there called, "Cozy" or "Snuggle" or "Pajama Pants" or "Put Another Log on the Fire". (That last one is really for my family, who will know what song to began singing.)

We hiked, talked, snuggled, enjoyed the quiet of literally being in the middle of nowhere, made terrible tasting coffee in a percolator, froze our buns off in the outhouse and melted snow to wash our dishes.

It was perfect. A sweet reminder of all that the mountains have to offer. It was just what we wanted.

Update

Now that I've had some time to calm down a bit and become more rational, I'll give an update. Sadly, Zooey has, in fact, weaned himself. I say sadly, because it's hard for me to accept that my little baby, who is one year tomorrow, is making his own decision to pull away a bit from his mama, but also, sadly, because he wasn't quite making it through the night without nursing. Nor, has he master his reasoning skills enough for me to explain to him that nursing all night will be a hard habit to break.

I've gotten some great words of encouragement friends/other mamas and talked to my two favorite lactation consultants, who told me just what I needed to hear. That it was "okay" for him to do this. That I should feel successful and celebrate his independence. (whew. Breathe, relax the shoulders and release the tension cramping in my back.) It's rare that a baby self weans before 1, but it does happen(apparently). I was thinking that I had done something wrong, bad parent, life scarring, etc...

Josh has been incredible. I pump once a day to provide a night bottle, say "Good Night" and then Josh takes it from there, and I don't know what to do with myself. And actually, seeing how my own 'drying up' process has been a breeze so far, it's clear to me now that Zooey's been more accepting of his growing up process for a while as evidenced by my lower milk production and his increased love of table food.


I would totally keep nursing him to sleep and whenever he woke up, but when he's sleepy and I pick him up he seems conflicted with what is habit and what he wants. He dives to nurse, but then yanks away resulting in horribly confused screaming.


I was prepared for a gradual happier weaning process, but in just one week of following Zooey's cues he has stopped nursing and not looked back, except for a very sweet half nurse one morning, I'm pretty sure he did that for his mama, and one time when he was so upset it was a last resort. He also cut a bottle out from his daily three at daycare and welcomes cups of whole milk instead. Ahhh, my baby is so grown up!

So, having spent a lot of time the past couple of days remembering his beautiful birth and first year, I welcome the growth, independence and changes to come in year 2.

Happy Birthday Zooey! Mama loves you!
-Kelly