One Word Wednesday

Sara

A Few Favorites

In addition to the obvious things like Christmas lights, Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and Christmas movies, these are a few of my favorite things right now (some would make excellent Christmas gifts!) ...

"I Will Hold You 'Til You Sleep" by Linda Zuckerman

Some of my mom's friends gave me this book when Sara was born, and I recently had the pleasure of giving a copy to a friend.  The story and the illustrations are beautiful, and I get the cry-ball every time I read it.

the holiday Starbucks cup

It's shallow, but this cup just makes me smile when I'm needing a morning pick-me-up with an extra shot.  'Tis the season to be well-caffeinated. 

"I Won't Let Go" by Rascal Flatts
I just love this song.  It makes the short list of songs that I feel are my anthems for my children.

my new Cyclones Scentsy warmer

Thanks, Jody!  Now even when the Cyclones stink, my house will smell good (ha, ha).

Sophie the Giraffe

This sweet teether is apparently all the rage right now.  When I first saw Sophie, I swore I had seen her before ... a long time ago in a movie.  After wracking my brain, I correctly identified "Three Men and a Baby" as the movie featuring Sophie.  I'm not sure how or why she's made a comeback now, but I can be sure that Santa has been told that Emma wants one of these for Christmas.

Oh, yeah.  And online shopping.
It's saving my you-know-what this year.  I highly recommend zulily.com and etsy.com.  Happy shopping!

thankful

My greatest blessing is my little family.  When Emma was born and Steve rushed from where the nurses had her to where I was lying on the operating table to let me know she was healthy, I immediately felt a huge sense of relief.  Hearing those words when Sara was born was wonderful; hearing them a second time was downright amazing.  In the hours and days that followed Emma's birth, I found myself in awe of the fact that I'd been given two healthy, beautiful girls. This year, I am most thankful for my thriving family, and the feelings of comfort and completeness that surround me when we're together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Catching Up

Just a quick catch-up today.  I meant to do this earlier in the week, but it seems like whenever we have a few extra minutes here or there, we spend them doing a load of laundry or washing bottles.  My outlets - blogging, reading, etc., - have taken a serious backseat since my return to work.  Everything is going really well, but there is definitely truth in the statement that life with two kids is much different than it is with one.

Miraculously, these two kids are both sleeping right now.  While 5:00 pm is not an ideal nap time for Sara, we'll take what we can get.

 A week ago Thursday, Sara's school called because she had a fever.  I went to get her and brought her back to work with me for a while.  Although she was feeling pretty crummy, she colored some excellent patterns on my master schedule board.  Steve ended up keeping her home and taking her to the doctor on Friday.  It would figure that, after having been home for eight weeks with healthy kids, Sara would get sick just after I went back to work.  She recovered over last weekend and is much better now.

A couple of weekends ago we took Christmas pictures with some friends.  They have a nicer camera than we do, so we used it and took turns taking pictures of each other.  It worked out pretty well ... the price was definitely right!  Since then, I've ordered and received our Christmas cards.  They are sitting in the office addressed, stamped, and sealed; now I'm just waiting for it to be a socially acceptable time to send them.  I'll try to make myself wait until December.

When I drove to Target today, many people around the neighborhood were putting up Christmas lights.  It's been a real exercise in restraint on my part, but I always wait until after Thanksgiving to put up Christmas, and I am not going to veer from that this year.  But I am so ready!  Next Friday, decorations are going up and we'll begin watching our usual rotation of Christmas movies.  On the way home last night, Sara was singing along to "Feliz Navidad", and I definitely felt a sense of accomplishment.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, though, I have to mention how much Emma is changing.  She'll be eleven weeks on Monday, and she continues to bring us so much joy.  She is sleeping through most nights, and smiling and cooing a lot.  We've realized that while Emma enjoys being around the family, she also really likes her alone time; she is sometimes happiest just decompressing in her crib, even if she doesn't sleep.  Her teachers at school made a comment about it too.  As she grows and we learn more about who she is going to be, it's fun to pick up on some of these little traits.

Now we're waiting for the ISU/KU game to start.  KU is terrible this year, so we should win by a lot ... which means it's very likely we'll lose.  But since we play West Virginia next week, we have to win tonight in order to make it to a bowl game.  I'm not ready for football season to be over, so the Cyclones better pull through for us tonight!

Book Talk

As I suspected, my reading has slowed considerably. Recently, I've only read book club picks, which may continue to be the case for a while.  Actually, I also read two books for school: this one is great for educators (and I would also recommend it to the Texas legislators who think they know what they are doing when they make decisions about education) and this one is great for anyone and everyone.  But onto what most of you probably came here for ...

Life of Pi has been on my list for years, and I finally read it when it was selected for book club.  Pi's family and their many zoo animals are on a cargo ship headed for North America when the boat sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Pi, the apparent lone survivor, finds his way onto a life boat with a tiger (among other animals) for company.  Although I really enjoyed this survival story, frankly the details at times were just too much for my new-baby-in-the-house brain as I read it in the first couple of weeks after bringing Emma home.  Still, the author tells a magnificent story.  This book has made its way into English curriculum, onto summer reading lists for students, and remains on best seller lists.
In Leah's Wake is the story of your seemingly typical suburban family.  Leah is a high school soccer star, and seems to do just about everything else well, too.  Her younger sister tends to find herself in Leah's shadows, especially as Mom and Dad push Leah toward pursuing college soccer scholarships.  When Leah meets the wrong guy, she jeopardizes soccer, her chances at getting into college, and her family's stability.  While her parents aren't sure where they went wrong, Leah feels justified in choosing her own path.  This book was almost scary for me.  As a mom of two girls and because of my job, I understand that even parents who seem to do all the right things for their kids can be left wondering how their children got so far off course.  It's not just "bad" parents who have "bad" kids; nobody has all of the answers, and that's especially daunting because, for the most part, we all do the best we can.

Our newest pick is The Book Thief.  I'm excited to start reading!  Luckily, because of the holidays, I have until January to finish this one.  And then I'll be up for the pick.  Stay tuned!

Two Months

(ready for game day)

Emma made it through her first week of daycare.  It went well, and I really like her teachers.  Such a relief.  At two months, Emma is much more alert to what's happening around her.  She fixates on windows, ceiling fans, light fixtures, etc., for minutes on end.  She is smiling a lot and cooing, too, especially in response to us.  Emma pays extra close attention to Sara, who is able to hold her attention and make her smile on a regular basis.

"On Wednesdays we wear pink."

This is my tenth year working in a middle school, so I'm well acquainted with the mean girls.  I can spot them clear across the cafeteria.  Mediating with them occasionally is part of my job.  It's to be expected, given that middle school (in my experience and that of many young girls) is brutal ... one of the roughest times, to be sure.  When Sara was born, I thought with dread of the day she'd enter middle school.

Turns out I didn't need to look quite so far down the road.  We're in the trenches now.  There is some major girl drama in my soon-to-be-four-year-old's little life.

Come again?!

I know, that's what I thought, too.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with one of Sara's teachers about conflicts she had started having with a friend ... her best friend.  Her teacher acknowledged that the girls had indeed been picking at each other on a pretty non-stop basis as of late.  She said it was as if they would sit next to each other just to have the opportunity to bicker.  I immediately gave the teacher the go-ahead to keep Sara separated from her friend, and to discipline Sara as necessary if she couldn't be nice.  We had conversations with Sara at home about being nice, and about playing with friends who were also nice to her.  I told Sara that she wasn't allowed to sit next to her friend anymore if they were just going to argue.

Apparently Sara took my talk to heart because earlier this week, as her friend walked into the breakfast room, Sara announced that "my mommy said you can't sit by me" ... or something to that effect.  Great.  That's not exactly what I had in mind, but when I talked to Sara about it later, she was entirely sure that she had followed my directions.  And I guess she had.  Sort of.

I didn't know girl drama was supposed to start so early.  I'm already finding myself walking a fine line between encouraging Sara to stand up for herself and keeping her from being a mean girl.  I want her to be strong and confident, but in a way that is kind and caring - not mean or bossy.  I know this will only get harder before it gets easier (if it ever does at all).  What's a mom to do?

A few years ago, I thought having a baby was hard.  Now I know better.