So, this week Ethan got sick, and for about 3 or so days was pretty miserable. Since I work now, Ryan was home with him, and I appreciated that he was getting some cuddling time with Ethan, but I also missed being the one to give the love and cuddling when he was sick. This is the first time he has been sick since the seizures last year, so I was very worried the whole time this time around, but he made it through without having any seizures this time. I'm happy that Ethan slept all night last night, and woke up happy and feeling much better. He still doesn't have his appetite back, but I think by tomorrow hopefully he will be back to normal.

I had bought a music cd earlier in the week to try out at naptime so that Ryan would hopefully have an easier time getting Ethan down for naps, and I've fallen in love with this cd. Each night that Ethan has been sick I've put the cd on and it calmed him down enough that he was asleep within seconds. It is amazing the healing power of music, because laying next to him I could feel him relax with the music. So, I Highly recomend buying this cd. It's called Piano Portraits Lullaby featuring Jon Schmidt, Paul Cardall, David Tolk, and Michael R. Hicks.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NmOrQpV5PU This is a link to a promo for it, but it seriously doesn't do it justice. I recognized Jon Schmidt so that's why I picked it when I was looking through music at Walmart, but I was still surprised at how beautiful the arrangments are. I'm thinking I want one for work to play during naptime for my class, or just play as background music throughout the day, because it does have a very peacefull calming effect and it's so beautiful.

My Potted Sycamore Tree Needs A Home...

When the government designed my home town in Washington, which is below the Grand Coulee Dam, it chose a different tree to line each street. My street had Maples, with Chestnuts at one end, another had Walnut trees, and another had those trees with the long bean pods. Fall time was always very beautiful in my town, and there were mountains of leaves for us kids to wade through.

(this pic is of my sister stephanie and rachelle and a neighbors child playing in leaves in our yard)

The prettiest street was the one lined with huge beautiful Sycamores, which the city was always trying to cut down for one reason or another, and the "towns people" always fought. Last summer when I was home I collected some seeds from several different plants and trees that I love in the area, and took a seed pod from the sycamores on that street. I've never grown anything from seeds, other than vegetables, so I didn't really expect the sycamore to grow, but it did. I didn't realize how fast Sycamore trees grow, and I discovered tonight that it has outgrown its pot. The roots are trying to escape out the bottom. I don't have a yard yet to plant it in, so I considered re-potting it in a bigger pot, but that would be a pain to transport when we move. So if anyone wants a fast growing shade tree, which can grow to around 100 ft tall, let me know. The tree will drop a lot of leaves in fall time, so if you detest all forms of yard work than you probably wouldn't want it. The leaves are large, and it also drops seed balls. I've been told that you can mow it up without much problem though. Sycamores also have a mottled looking bark that makes them very beautiful.

(the above pictures of the trees are random ones I found on google).

I wanted to post about several things. First, we have been having really mild summer here in Idaho, It has only been uncomfortably hot for maybe a week total, and the rest of the time has been raining or on the cool side. Today it is actually cold outside, cold enough for a coat! I kind of like it though, not having miserably hot weather.

I really am enjoying my job as a pre school teacher. The hardest part of working is being away from Ethan. It's nice that Ryan is able to watch him, but he has yet to suceed at getting him to take a nap. Therefore Ethan is pretty exhausted by the time I get home from work. It's also hard to get everything else done around the house when I'm gone for a good part of the day. I will figure out how to organize my time better eventually.

I go to work at 12 in the afternoon and work until 6. I've been assigned to the oldest class, which consists mainly of 5-6 year olds. I didn't expect to have my own class so quickly, and it has been a little stressful learning how to deal with 18 or more children, learning their names and corresponding guardians, etc. I really like working there though, and now that I know what age group I will be with (for the most part, except when I'm needed elsewhere) I can start organizing lessons, games and activities for the children. I've found that I work best with the children when I don't have another teacher checking in every couple of seconds or co-teaching with me. I work best when I can discipline and decide activities all on my own, and the children listen to me more when It's just me. When another teacher comes in I find it hard to discipline because as soon as I say anything the other teachers (who feel I'm too quiet) will repeat(yell) whatever I say, and the children end up ignoring me all together and the other teacher ends up being who they listen to. I've decided that I hate yelling all day to get the kids attention, it causes more chaos, and my throat is sore by the end of the day. So, I think I'm going to use a whistle or something of that sort, which seems better than yelling all day at the kids. I wish the class sizes were a lot smaller, it's a lot easier to work with the children when there are only 12 or so of them. When the classes swell to 23 or more it can be quite difficult to keep the chaos down.

drawing

I felt like drawing today, so I looked up some pictures of a friend's boy that I had saved for doing drawings. In school I had learned a method of "mapping" out the body when you begin to do a drawing, where you break down the body into a series of boxes. I understood the concept, and it helped, however I always find it difficult to see the boxes in the body. Instead, I see circles. So I decided today to map out the circles instead, and I was pretty impressed with the finished result. Keep in mind that this is a 5 min drawing, it's completely unfinished and not completely accurate, it is mainly just a way to get an idea of where everything will go. The finished drawing/painting will have clothes on the boy, and he will be playing with a train. A lot of art teachers and artists will push their method of creating a painting/drawing on you as if that is the only way it should be done, however I feel that the best method is different for each person. (This is Brayden, Kimberly... or it will be when it's finished :) ).

Ethans new list

Ethan is doing so well!! He can now say Momma, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, wow, uh-oh, Ally (the dog), Lisa (speech therapist), Pizza, Soda, Puh (please), More, Up, Tractor, Bye Bye, banana, plus a lot of sound effects for animals and vehicles. He has been very eager to learn lately, even if he can't quite get the right sound out he still is trying and I'm very proud of him. He's also really gotten into singing and will attempt to sing along with songs on the tv or even the radio. He doesn't know the words so it ends up sounding like "duh.............duh........" and I think it is really cute. I often hear him singing twinkle twinkle little star which appears to be his favorite song right now, he will make noises to the tune of the song. He really likes to count things and will point to things and make sounds like he is trying to count. He will open his fingers one at a time on his own like he's counting them up to 5. He started counting his fingers all on his own out of nowhere, I just caught him doing it one day and was surprised. We've even been able to finally get him to put up two fingers to say he's two. Tonight he was watching Blues Clues, and they said "second clue" and the guy on the show held up two fingers and Ethan copied him- he's never done that before. He loves trains, and has discovered that I can look up pictures and videos of trains on the internet for him, and he thinks that's the coolest thing ever. I drove up into the driveway from work yesterday to find him on his tricycle and when I got out of the car I heard him clearly say "Momma". It made my day.

Going Back to Work

Today I found out that I got a job as a teacher at a pre-school/day care center. I had interviewed for the position last week, however they hadn't called me back when they said they would, so I assumed that they had found someone else, esp. since I have very few formal qualifications for the position. I am in shock now, and a little panicky. I start tomorrow with training, from noon until 6, and when I am done with the training it will be a 8-6pm full time job. I started thinking about it, and the last time I had a full time normal job was the year before high school.... I've had part time jobs since then, but nothing full time, and all those jobs were pansy jobs, so I'm excited and nervous for this "real" job. I will start out in a "floating" position, helping out in all the classes, wherever they need help, and eventually when they feel I'm ready I could have my own class. I feel this is a really good learning experience ahead of me, and I am proud and thankful that I was able to get a dignified job and not have to resort to some of my back-up plan jobs, because those wouldn't have been very enjoyable (ie conducting phone surveys like I did back in college). Ryan will be home to take care of Ethan, until Ryan finds a job, but we are going to go step by step and see how things go and not worrying about what happens when Ryan gets a job until he does get a job. I've always wanted to be a stay at home mom, so it will be hard to be away from home, however I know it won't be forever. It will help us out financially and eventually I will be able to go back to being a stay at home mom.

For All the Pregnant Ladies Out There

I just found out that the wife of a friend from college is starting her own maternity clothes business called Milan Maternity. I checked out her website and she has some pretty cute clothes. Here is the website for anyone interested in taking a peek: http://www.milanmaternity.com/