School is out!!!!!

NO more school!
NO more books!
NO more students' dirty looks!!!!

YEA!!!!!!!!!!

I new member of the family!

I can't believe how long it has been since I've Blogged. Hopefully, when school is out I will be able to Blog more. Things have beeing going very well for us. The most exciting thing going on with us is the adoption of our new dog "Mutly". She is a golden retriever / border collie mix. I'd have to say she looks more like a collie, but has some red highlights you can see when she is out in the sun. We got her from the Golden Retriever Freedom Rescue on Memorial Day. She has done really well with the transition. She does great with William. She tries to give him lots of doggie kisses and every time he giggles! William calls her "cat", so we keep working on "dog"! hehehe It is really nice to have a 4 legged friend again.






William is great. He is just walking everywhere. Still no new words. He pretty much says "cat" and "ut oh". He has a Dr's appointment next week to check his growth. At his 12 month appointment, he was only like at 10% of height, so hopefully he has gotten a little taller. The pedi said that he was a little concerned with his growth, so I guess we will see what is up. I know his feet are growing. We need to go out and get him some new shoes. I bet we will need to get him a size 5! My little man is getting so big!








Benjamin is doing fine. He has been working 4 - 10hour shifts to be able to watch the baby on Mondays, but he will be going back to a regular 5 day work week when I am out of school. He is looking forward to getting back to that schedule. We can sleep in a hour longer (if the baby lets us) and then he will get home an hour earlier.



As for me, I only have 4 more days of work! WooHoo!!!!!! The end is finally in sight. It is very strange because I will not be back next year, so I am packing everything. I am excited and sad too. When I go back to teaching after being a SAHM, I will not go back to my school (unless my principal leaves - but that is a long story not for this Blog). It is going to be a hard transition for myself. I will be teaching 8 technology classes this summer for teachers. It will be nice to have a class of students who want to be there. I am ready for the end of the school year. Last year I was out of school at the end of January with pre-term labor! I didn't have to deal with the end of school! I have to admit, there won't be much learning (or teaching) this week. It will be a fast week, and then I will finally be an offical Stay At Home Mom! YEA!!!!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

And to all the other Mommies out there! It has been a very nice day so far. William was a good boy and slept all night - YEA, I woke to a gift bag from Kay Jewelers (which is always a good sign). Inside was a beautiful Sapphire ring! Then, Ben went out to get us breakfast. It was a wonderful morning. Then, the rest of the day was a regular Sunday consisting of laundry, dishes and taking care of William. We did manage to go out a little for a quick trip to the park.

It is amazing only 14 short months ago, I was not a mother. I had always wanted to be one, but I hadn't yet experienced the fullness and joy of actual motherhood. It is amazing how a woman's perspective changes when she becomes a mother. Now, my needs are second, not first anymore. I wake up thinking of someone other than myself. My heart aches for those women who still struggle with becoming a mother. Even to this day because of our fertility struggles, Mother's Day does kinda put in ache in my heart for all the Mother's Days I was not a mother and desperately trying to become one. I can't believe how incredibly blessed we are that our treatment worked. Everyday my little boy seems to amaze me even more; like the little things, a not-asked-for hug or a smile when I walk into the room. I love being a mom. It is the greatest job I have ever had!

We have a WALKER!!!

No More Day-Care!

In previous posts, I have mentioned that I haven't been really happy with our day-care, and finally I have hit my limit. There are several things that I have had issues with, but the last ones were too much: one day they didn't feed him breakfast and the huge one is that the teacher in the morning ignores him. William suffers from separation anxiety, so when I drop him off he always cries. Yes, that is completely normal, and I expect it. It isn't easy for me to hear him cry, but I know since he only goes to day-care one day a week that it is expected. However, not once has the teacher ever tried to console William when I leave. He stands there, just crying his eyes out, without a loving word or hug from the teacher. That was totally unacceptable to me, so I called the day-care to make an appointment to discuss it. The man I talked to, Gus, was such a jerk on the phone. To summarize the conversation, he basically said that William is having separation anxiety since he only goes to day-care once a week (um, yes I know that) and that with so many kids, sometimes they just have to cry if all their physical needs are being met (like not hungry, hurt, wet, etc). Oh, and that they are bending over backwards for us since they take him one day a week and lose money the other 4 since they can't have a full-time position. He wasn't listening to me at all. I just wanted the teacher to pay attention to William and try to comfort him a little when he is upset. The thing that really irked me was at the end of the conversation he told me that he would ask the teacher to be, "more politically correct" with me. WHAT? I could care less about me! I care about my son's emotional needs not just his physical! How could you just let a baby cry without even a caring word? So, I sent a certified letter on Thursday, saying their services were terminated. Mom and Benjamin will take turns taking the next 5 Tuesdays off and then I will be off for summer. I can't take off because I am out of days and when I take off it costs us $230! I am so glad to be done with that stupid day-care (where I, myself, caught hand, foot, mouth disease a few months ago!). Ugh!

William is doing pretty well, other than his sleeping. He went from a really good sleeper, to not so good. Maybe even terrible! He wakes up almost every night about 12am crying, and then we can't get him back to sleep for 2 hours! It really took a toll on me this week. It is almost like it was when we brought him home from the hospital, but then I wasn't working full-time. Last night, he did sleep longer, and I am feeling better, but he needs a lot more nights in a row so Mommy and Daddy can get to feel like humans again! Still no walking yet. His favorite thing to do now is spit out water when he drinks from his sippy. Oh, great fun! ;-) He now has 5 teeth and the 6th one has just popped through the gums a bit today. Summer can't some soon enough. I can't wait until I am officially a stay-at-home-mom!!

Here is a funny picture of William's first taste of pickle. It was taken with my phone, so the quality isn't as good. I don't think he enjoyed it much. What do you think?

I now have a 13 month old!

Awww, my little (well, not so little anymore) 13 month old. He is the best! He still isn't walking, but he cruises around the entire house, almost like he is doing laps. He finally got his 3rd tooth. It just poked through the gums yesterday, and the 3 next too it are knocking on the door! We have his 12 month dr's appointment Monday. I know, we are a little late. Between the ear infections and the ear surgery itself, we had to cancel his 12 month appointment 2 times! Hopefully, we won't have to cancel again. We need to make sure he keeps up on his immunizations. There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about immunizations and autism. It scares me a little to do the immunizations, but I am hoping everything will work out ok. I have lots of food questions for the dr, and hopefully will get some good info about switching from a bottle to the sippy. He does great with juice or water in the sippy, but still just doesn't want milk in it! I tried to get a video clip of William doing all his tricks, but the quality is pretty bad (goes in and out of focus) but I'll post it here anyway.




Benjamin and I are fine. Benjamin has been working very hard cleaning out and moving all our games in the basement for installation of carpet. With our tax return this year, we decided to carpet the basement. Not only will it be nice for us, but it will also add value to the house if we have to sell. For those of you who have seen our basement with the 9 pinball games, crane game, pusher game, asteroids game, bowling game, juke box, Space Duel game, pool table, Foosball table, treadmill, entertainment center, and futon - he worked his little tail off! I can't wait until we get it installed! Of course, then he has to move all that stuff back! Ouch. I am fine. Spring break went way too fast, and spring fever has hit my classroom. We have a lot of field trips coming up, so hopefully that will be fun. We are looking into getting another dog! I've been heart broken since the death of Dusty, but it just hasn't been the right time to get another dog. I have put in an application with a retriever rescue, and they are going to do a home visit tomorrow! Hopefully, they can match us with a great dog. I'd like to get a puppy, so maybe we can aim for June when I am home. It might be a challenge to have a puppy and a toddler, but I am up for it!

William's Surgery

William had his Ear Tube surgery on March25th. He did really well and his recovery is going well too. We started the day early getting to the hospital at 6:00am. With no bottle or any food after midnight, William did really well. We thought he'd be pretty cranky with no food. They called us back, got him in a cute purple gown, and took his vitals. While we waited in the back for them to get us, Pastor Butch joined us and we had some down time. The nurse came and gave the baby some relaxing medicine about a half hour before the surgery, and if a baby could be drunk, that is what William was acting like. I'd have to say, he was relaxed! At 7:30am, they came to get us. I got on the bed with the baby, and they wheeled us down the hall for his induction (putting him to sleep for the surgery) while Benjamin and Pastor Butch walked with us. Benjamin and I got to go with him in the induction room, and got to hold his hand during the whole thing. There were about 8 medical people in there, and all of them were saying how cute William is. Even while they were putting the little mask on him, he was full of smiles. Once he was asleep, we left to let the dr do his thing. We waited in the room right outside the induction room, and about 15 minutes later the dr came out and said William did well. He told us William had infections in both ears, and that with the swelling from the infection, they might bleed a little. They took William to the recovery room, and we said good-bye to Pastor Butch and went back the the surgery waiting room. About 2 minutes after we got to the waiting room, the nurse called us and I was allowed to go back to see William. When I got there, the baby was crying and had just started to come out of his sleep. I held him and rocked him, but he continued to cry. I was getting a little nervous. After about 10 minutes, they took us from the recovery room to back to where we were before they took us to the surgery. Benjamin was able to come back too. William was still crying, and I was still pretty nervous that something was wrong. Benjamin said he was probably hungry (it was about 8:30am by then) and with the nurse's approval, we gave William a bottle. Well, that must have been it, because after the bottle, he calmed down - even to the point that he fell asleep. We let him sleep for about 15 minutes, and the nurse gave us our instructions and said we could leave. We put his jammies back on him (didn't even wake him up) and headed home. Once we got home, William woke up and even had a bite to eat. By the afternoon, he was going so great that if you didn't know he had surgery earlier in the morning, you'd never know. Now, 4 days later, he is doing great. We have a follow up appointment on the 8th. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers! Hopefully, these tubes will be the best thing and he won't get anymore darn ear infections! Here are a couple pictures I took with my cell phone while at the hospital...

Cuddling with Mommy before the surgery.

Cuddling with Daddy after the surgery.

Asleep after his bottle after the surgery.

Asleep in the car on the way home.