And it begins.....

Today I declare day 1 of weaning Caitlin. I decided I needed a scope and sequence for this undertaking as I work better with a plan versus fly by the seat of my pants. After much thought, and help from friends, family, and books, I have a plan....or at least a vision of a plan. I will begin this adventure (as I did tonight) by omitting all nursing during the day and replace it with sippy cups of breastmilk. I chose these feedings to begin with because I think Caitlin will miss these and notice the lack of these the least. It actually worked tonight too!!! She was all ready to nurse and was trying very hard to position herself better. Instead of giving into her adorable self, I gave her a sippy cup of milk and she gulped it up no problem! Then I thought for sure she'd still want to nurse after that, but she didn't even try! The whole thing didn't even phase her! Another detail of my plan includes rocking her back to sleep when she wakes up for the first time around 11pm. This, I'm not too sure of. I tried it last night and it worked pretty well, so we'll see how it goes tonight. I'm not in too big of a hurry to start eliminating night time feedings since I'm just starting to replace her day time nursing.

This all means that my breast pump and I will becoming even closer than before....oh joy! However, I have already given Caitlin combo bottles of breastmilk and formula and she doesn't seem to mind a bit.....so, if my pump and I can't continue a loving and caring relationship, I know Caitlin will be just fine with formula and I'm not a bad mom because of it. :)

Wish us luck!

Everywhere except the ceiling!

It was straight to the shower after dinner! Lasagna was everywhere! Even in the creases of her ear!

The Land of the Living

It's good to feel human again. I still feel a bit under the weather, but after an afternoon nap, I'm feeling even better....thank goodness!

Ugh!

I feel like crap, to put it simply. I was seriously hoping I'd feel better by the end of today, but I've given up. Tomorrow is goodie day at my school and I think I might miss it. If I feel like this tomorrow morning, I think I'm going to have to stay home again. My body is so fatigued and every bone in my face hurts. I can barely hear anything and what I do hear, I can't remember 5 minutes later! My fingers hurt, so I'm gonna go. :{

Under the Weather

Apparently, my body is not adjusting well to my 30's...hahaha! Today around 1pm, I realized I really didn't feel well and it was a struggle to keep my body upright. I have a bit of a sore throat and I'm just really fatigued. In fact, I'm not sure if I'm going to go to work tomorrow. Caitlin is being super adorable and talkative, so that makes things a lot better. We had pesto tonight for dinner and I cut up the linguine into tiny pieces and gave her her own bowl.....and she went crazy for it! I thought she would like it because of the strong flavor, but I didn't think she'd get that wild! I love it when she tries new foods!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I've done it. I hit my 30's today....and I'm starting to except it with the support of my husband and my wonderful family and friends. Thank you. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes and flowers! I love them! Although, poor Dennis. His allergies went completely crazy and I ended up putting one bouquet in Caitlin's closet....it will go with me to work tomorrow where I can admire it all day :)

We had a pretty typical day with shopping at Target and Costco. Dennis and Caitlin got me a "The White Queen" by Philipa Gregory and a coated, heat resistant (rainbow colored) whisk....both which I really wanted! I made sweet and sour chicken for dinner that was super yummy and had two different cakes for dessert! One was a mini boston creme cake we picked up yesterday and the other was a 7lb chocolate cake from Costco.....one of my favorites!!!! Mmmmmmm!!!! Too bad I don't have a taste-a-blog, you'd all love it too! I plan on getting Caitlin's lunch ready for tomorrow and then start my new book!!!

Flowers my daddy and mom Chi-Sai sent me.

Flowers my baby brother and family sent me.

The last hours....

These are the last hours of my 20's. Tomorrow I move to a new box....my 30's. I am spending it eating freshly popped kettle corn (not microwave) on the couch with Dennis. We were going to watch a PPV movie, but found out that our receiver is broken and will need to be replaced. It's not going to happen though. In order to replace it, we would loose everything we have recorded on it. It's too high of a price to pay to be able to watch Dish on Demand movies.....so it'll stay broken.

As it is a beginning of a new decade for me, it is also the beginning of new adventures for Caitlin. She started off the morning by helping daddy put away the dishes in the dishwasher. Then we went the North Country Fair and farmer's market. Caitlin enjoyed two different bands play along with all the people watching. She had her first ice cream cone (thanks to daddy) and she ended up grabbing a fist full of it....twice! Thank goodness we were outside! Tonight she tried halibut for the first time and loved it! Dennis also made her her first fort out of the couch cushions. It was so cute watching her bring toys from the outside world into her fort....pictures to come soon.

Bye bye 20's! I will miss you.

Uh, did today really happen?

I still look forward to my Fridays (even though I don't have them off anymore) because I get to stay in the same room all day with the same group of kids. However, it kinda back fired today and I felt I was trapped in with them! We had beautiful, super sunny weather and they must have all had a bowl full of sugar and a triple shot espresso for breakfast! I think we only got 1 page of math done even though we had worked on in for 45 minutes! It was a whirl of a day with crazy behavior and then at the end of the school day I wondered if I had imagined in all. Thank goodness my sister sent me flowers (in the shape of a cupcake!) and balloons around lunch time....which completely made my day. I think it was that delivery which got me through the day. Thanks Brenda!

Enough is Enough

I've decided I need to quite complaining about my school schedule and just embrace it. If I do that, it'll make my life (and those lives around me) much nicer. So on my way home I tried to think of the positives.

1) I can spend more time with Caitlin every morning and afternoon, rather than just one full day.
2) Caitlin LOVES going to daycare, so she probably likes going the extra day a week.
3) I have more time in the afternoon to get things done before places close.
4) I have more time to make dinners rather than rushing around to cook them at 5pm.

So, enough is enough. From this day forth I will try not to complain about my schedule again. I will make the best of it!

Caitlin is mastering the art of putting "things" into containers. Today she decided to help me put the excess pasta that was on her plate, back into a baby food jar. Then she helped pick up her bath toys by putting them in a cup. It was so adorable, we filmed it on our big camera...twice!

Our Foodie

Caitlin is quickly deciding that baby food is for babies and she is no longer a baby. I have been dreading the day that daycare said she just wouldn't eat her jarred food and today was that day! I knew it would be soon, but I wasn't expecting today! For at least the past few weeks, she's only been wanting finger foods for dinner. We can maybe squeeze in a jar of baby food if we're lucky. What she really wants is too feed herself, no matter how inefficient she is at times. But she practically hyperventilates when she sees string cheese or an avocado so it's hard to resist her feeding herself. So tonight I was rummaging through the house like a madwoman looking for stuff to send to daycare she could eat herself and not end up like the pictures above. I settled on yogurt (which thankfully she still devours), string cheese, pancakes (this is new), and pasta mixed with salsa. I hope this can satisfy her palate tomorrow.....I'd hate to have all the other daycare children covered in Caitlin's avocado, banana, and squash slime.

Look what I can do!

I think Caitlin has climbed up on everything in the house now. She'd never tried to pull herself up on her cubicle before, but I had moved a monkey up to the top shelf and I think she wanted it back. Thank goodness we anchored the shelf to the wall!


Yesterday when I came home from grocery shopping I walked in to find Caitlin like this on her daddy's lap. It was the funniest thing!

Evolution

Caitlin's army crawl is evolving into a full on regular crawl! She just started testing the waters on Sunday and it seems like each day she tries it a little more. I'm sure that by the end of this weekend, she'll be motoring around the house on all fours at least half of the time.

Currently, she's either working on some new teeth or (cringe) getting sick. She came home from daycare with a fever and she had thrown up earlier in the day. Once the Tylenol kicked in, she seemed to perk up. I even got her cracking up a few times. If she has a good night, she'll go to daycare. Otherwise, I'll stay home with her for a half day and then Dennis will take over so I can attend some meetings and then Back to School Night.

Wish us luck!

Uh oh!

Yesterday I walked in to find Caitlin standing up in her crib! Apparently, she didn't want to take a nap. Now I'm just waiting for the day she crawls out of her crib! I keep telling myself she's too young to do it now....but no matter how much I try and reassure myself, I'm totally nervous and kinda freaking out about it!

Now that Caitlin is perfecting the art of pulling herself up on EVERYTHING, she's trying to figure out how to get back down. This baffles her and she winds up blowing raspberries (like now) or fussing....unless she falls and then come the crocodile tears (daddy doesn't have a chance with those :) But I'm sure any day now she'll figure it out as she becomes braver and braver. It's all very excited but those days where she laid around like a little sack of potatoes, came in handy.

Caitlin 10 Month Photo

Here she is! Ten months and 1 day old! I have a head cold so Dennis and her have been playing all morning. She's getting more mobile every day and I know she'll be walking before we know it!

I survived!

I'm not sure how, but I did survive today. It really wasn't that bad and I knew they'd have a hard time listening since it was the first week of school and it was my first day with them, but WOW! At one point before lunch I realized, "I have absolutely no control here." They were just talking and talking and really didn't seem to notice I was there or that we were trying to finish a math assignment. But thanks to my handy dandy bell and some stretching we made it to lunch without anyone going wacko! After lunch seemed to go much smoother even during our art project. It's so funny how you can give directions to them, they repeat it....twice....and they still don't follow them! This just cracks me up! So while I was cutting more paper because they felt like cutting anything and everything, I spilled a HUGE bowl of colored chip markers. There were at least 200 in the bowl and they spilled all over the inside of the cupboard! I just let it go and none of the kids seemed to even know it happened.....I think they were to busy with their scissors! Although, I did get everything done that I planned! I am looking forward to next Friday and I'm telling myself it's okay if I don't have control of them every second. I mean, after all, they're only 5 and 6!

Oh, so Caitlin had to take a super late afternoon nap today. She was being super clingy and just wanted to nurse, but not really. She was super squirmy and would latch on and then detach about a half dozen times in a minute. So I just put her in her crib and about 10 seconds later, she was sleeping! Dennis had to wake her up an hour later (at 6pm) to avoid a bedtime fiasco later, and oh boy, she did NOT like that idea...AT ALL. Dennis was finally able to distract her with cheerios! She went to bed about 45 minutes later than normal and I really hope she sleeps well tonight!

P.S.---Caitlin's 10 months old today!!!!!! I should have a panda bear picture tomorrow.

1st day in 1st grade

Tomorrow is my first day teaching in my first grade class! This afternoon I realized my nervousness was being replaced with excitement....finally! I pretty much have everything ready to go tomorrow I just need to make a overhead and a prediction chart. I just hope I remember to do everything that I planned!

I made it a few hours at work until I had to tuck my hair behind my ears. It didn't look as good today as it did yesterday. Plus, it got a bit wet after I took a shower and those pieces decided they wanted to flip out. Normally this is what I would want, but today I'd hoped it wouldn't. Oh, well.

I'm off to eat an Oreo and play my addiction....Bejeweled Blitz!

New Do

For those of you who haven't seen it on Facebook, or received it via email, I have a new do! I got my hair done today at a new place and it's different from what I normally get. For one, the girl flat ironed it and it's not as short as I usually go. Plus, it is super textured. I showed her a picture of Reese Witherspoon's hair circa Sweet Home Alabama (that my friend Dyani forwarded me) and the girl new just what I was talking about. The real test is how is it going to look once I wash it! I'm thinking of not washing it tomorrow so I can wear it into work this way. We'll see though. If I look like a birds nest when I get up, I don't think it'll happen.

Surprise! A 7th tooth!

Dennis discovered Caitlin had a 7th tooth while playing around with her this evening. He noticed her upper gums were a little bloody and on further inspection, discovered a 7th tooth just breaking through!!!! I can't believe she has seven already!!!! Oh, and she decided today was the day she was going to pull herself up to the couch. It all happened while I was eating breakfast on the couch and she really wanted to get up with me (although, it was probably the remote control that spurred it, but I'm still gonna think it was me :).

The second day of school ended up with me in CELDT training from 12:30-4:00. This year's training was extremely important as we discovered we will be testing our EL K-1 kids in Reading and Writing. It will definitely be interesting! Tomorrow I need to finalize my Title 1 schedule and go over my plans for Friday.....my very first day teaching 1st grade!!!! I hope to accomplish a lot tomorrow.....and if I remember my coffee cup, I think I can do it.