11 Months!

Parker is 11 months old!!  What?!

His accomplishments this month include:

• Climbing up the stairs.
• Three more top teeth have popped through.. and two more are coming in both on top and bottom.  I'm going to miss his gummy smile!
• Being moved up to the next class at daycare.
• Walking a lot around furniture, while holding on.
• Clapping.
• I'm packing up all the 12 month clothes!
• Did I mention before that it was hard to change his diaper/put his clothes on?  It's virtually impossible now!
• He loves to open/close drawers and doors.
• He LOVES the dishwasher.  If we have it open, he speed-crawls over to it and plays with it.
• He also loves the refrigerator.  More speed-crawling occurs when he hears it open.
• I heard him say "mama" once, and he does say "dada".  He said "uh!" once, in terms of "uh oh!".

Parker heading to BBQ on the grill.

Getting some loving from his biggest sis!

Can you tell they're related?

Trying to get a shot of his teeth!

Check out my little chunkster!

Rockin' the double chin.

Strollin' with middle sis.

Whoops and Okra

Random title, huh?  I was tiredly updating my blog's look last night and I somehow reposted that Parker is 7 months old.  Don't worry, he is not regressing in age.  I just can't delete it, otherwise it'll be gone!

Oh, and remember how I said we weren't having luck with our okra plant?  I lied.  We all of a sudden have a ton of okra growing.  Woohoo!

7 months!

Parker is 7 months old!!

As always, he has had a very exciting month, full of growth, milestones, and adventures.  His accomplishments include:

• Getting even better at sitting up!  He sits up for a while now.  He's still not totally trustworthy to be on his own, so we like to sit him on soft places, like the middle of the bed. 
• Eating puffs.
• His little bottom teeth are so about to pop through!!  Poor little guy, you can tell he's in pain.
• He is very in-tune to things around him.  If the TV is on, he will sit up in his chair, arch his back, and turn his head to look at it. 
• Celebrating his first Easter!
• He gets the biggest kick out of his sisters.  And vice versa.  They will do something and he will crack up, and then they'll keep doing it over and over again to hear him laugh.
• First trip to Tennessee!
• He can hold his bottle, but he's usually pretty lazy and prefers not to.  Boys.
• He's wearing 9 month clothes, but I've washed his 12 month summer clothes to go ahead and start putting on him.  They're a little big... but not by a lot!
• He isn't crawling, but he somehow moves.  This boy will start out laying in one position, facing one direction, and then a few minutes later, he will be in a competely different place.
• Swinging for the first time.

Recent Pics

Here are some pics from the last week!

Sydney's play day at Savannah's house.

Raegan's b-day party!

Parker loved the water!

Future softball star?

 

Please excuse her underwear showing.  We are playing softball, redneck-style.

Taylor pushing McNair.

Dinner out!  (this is so rare lately for us!)

Here comes trouble.

 

 

Updates

Alright!  I feel like once school is in session, all my fun little extracurricular things (a.k.a. talking on the phone, blogging, having a life) are gone. ;)  Ok, not really.  Actually, we've been really busy lately- the challenge is finding the time to fit everything in!  Here are some updates:

Last weekend, Stephen and I went with some friends to the Goo Goo Dolls/Matchbox 20 concert.  It was great!!  Two of my favorite songs of all time (Iris by Goo Goo Dolls- all time fave- and Long Day by Matchbox 20) were played.  It was a great time.

Sydney and Raegan having a pseudo-sleepover that ended when the grown-ups got home.

Stephen took Monday off and he and Sydney went to White Water!  I don't have any pictures of their adventure, but they had a BLAST.  I was jealous, having to actually work while they got to do something fun.  I guess I see how Stephen probably felt this summer. :/

Today, we worked at our church for a few hours this morning, helping with the landscaping since all this rain has made a mess of everything.  Sydney left church with her friend, Savannah, and is playing at her house all day.  Tonight, we're going to Raegan's birthday party at a water park. 

On a random note, remember when we planted our garden back in June?  It has been going CRAZY lately!  I know it's because of all this rain.  We had to have an intervention with our crazily sprouting tomato plants- we had to add more wire to contain it from growing onto the other bushes, and we had to tie them to our little fence to hold them up straight.  It is insane.  We get about 10-15 ripe tomatoes a day.  Our green beans are growing like crazy, too!  We just started picking those, and are trying to save them up to have enough for a couple nights' dinner for all of us.  Our little green bell peppers are growing.  No luck from the okra plant yet, though one has grown gigantically tall.  It is so fun just going to the backyard and grabbing some fresh veggies!  I'm looking forward to starting earlier next year and planting new things.

Today's harvest.

Our 2 little bell peppers.

The massive okra plant.

Our mess of a garden!



The girls and Parker have adjusted to going back to school full-time.  All three of them are moving up to the next class this Wednesday, when school officially starts here.  All three have coughs (boo) so I'm trying to stay on top of that to make them feel better.  Stephen is going to be traveling a bunch in the next few months, including a trip to HAWAII (jealous!).  Busy times, but life is good!



I survived...

the first full week of school!  I've been really tired every night this week, but things are actually going really well!  Not to jinx anything, but the kids have been pretty good; we are moving along with the curriculum; I'm building relationships and am happy to teach some really wonderful kids.  Now, I realize we are only in week one and that things can change... but let's hope it sticks like this for a while!

One both good and bad thing are the hours I have to work.  I don't have to be at work until 8:30 (hello sleeping in!) but I don't get off until 4:30.  And, for all you teachers out there, you know you never leave at 4:30.  At least, not for the first few weeks.  So, by the time I get the kids, get home, eat dinner, bathe everybody... it's pushing 8:00!  Parker usually goes down at 7:15ish.  So, we may have to look at shifting their sleeping hours back a bit.  But, it is verrrrry nice in the morning, not being so rushed (like I did when I had to report at 7:00 AM when I taught elementary!) and actually being able to get things done in the morning.

Here are some pictures of the happenings during the first week of school!

Me and Ebony on the first day of school.  We go back 9 years together at CMS.

Our 8th grade math team planning.  Our county is all about "tweeting" (a WHOLE new world to me) and we're supposed to take pictures of all that we do.  This was one tweet by my co-worker.

Using our new curriculum- what the kids have done.  I have a color for each class, and they write down vocab words they don't know.  As they learn them, we move them over to the "Words we know" side. 

Here goes week 2!

Back in session!

School with the kids officially started yesterday, though I've already been mandatorily "back" for 2 weeks now.  I had 3 days of textbook/curriculum training, 2 days of new teacher orientation, a day "off" (last Monday, which wasn't really a day off since I worked the whole day), Tuesday through Thursday as pre-planning, and Friday as the first day of school. 

My biggest stress was getting my room set up and ready.  Once that was done, then I realized that I probably should figure out what to do when the kids actually get there.  I definitely could've used more than 3 pre-planning days, but I got it done.  At least, I got the important things done. 

Here are some pictures of my room:

A little sign I made.

I was also interviewed by the local paper as a "new" teacher to the county.

Thursday night, we had open house.  I have to admit I had some difficulty breathing right before it.  I was so nervous.  I've never started the year off with a homeroom, I haven't been in the classroom in 2 years, and I haven't been around 8th graders in 3.  All of that adds up to some nerves for me.  But... it was great!!  I got to meet most of my homeroom, I had to pronounce my last name at least 60 times, I got to meet some nice parents... it was great.  I left feeling good, but anxious about the next morning.

To summarize Friday... It was GREAT!  I couldn't have asked for a better start!  I was mentally prepared, I had enough things for the kiddos to do, I was surprisingly organized.  The kids were good- definitely have some talkers or some who I'll keep my eye on- but, they were awesome for the first day!  Here's a little activity I did:

I had 4 sheets on the board, each with a fill in the blank or question on it.  Each kid got to answer the question/statement on a sticky note.  

Math is important because... (almost everyone said something like "We use it everyday in life".

Our classroom should be ___ everyday.  Most answers were either fun, clean, or quiet.

What will Mrs. K need to do to help you this year?  I got a wide variety of answers- some as simple as "nothing" (those confident kiddos!) and others very detailed.

My goal for math this year is _____.  Most were either to get an A or to pass the CRCT in math. 

I was definitely EXHAUSTED at the end of the day and I went to bed at 8:45.  Today, I am much more energized, feeling good... but now I need to figure out all the plans for next week!  There's no turning back now!