How about some more daycare drama?

Things at Ellie's school had been going so well for the past several months. She was always happy about being dropped off, her teachers loved her, and I was only getting positive reports. But then they informed me that it was time to move her out of the Transition class and into the 3 year old class. Ellie's two best friends had already moved up and I was excited for her to rejoin them. Another bonus was that my tuition would go down by $50 a month. So, last week they moved her up. It did not go well. Every time I went in to pick her up, the teacher was always barking orders at the kids.
"Close your mouths! Absolutely no talking!"
"Sit on your bottoms right now!"
And the tone was very harsh. Maybe it came across more harsh because English is her second language, but we all know how I feel about tone of voice with toddlers. Ellie started resisting going to school and begging to go back to her old teacher's class. I would say in a bright voice, "But don't you want to be in the big girls' class with Hannah and Caitlyn?" "No,' she would always reply, "I want Ms. Yumi's class. Ms. Yumi loves me." Ellie also started telling Tom and I to "shut our mouths" and to "stop talking." You can guess how much we loved that.

So, once again I found myself in the uncomfortable position of talking to the director about a teacher. I know they just love me there. The end result? I got her moved back down to her old class for the remaining two months of school. Yeah, she will be the oldest kid in her class and I will still have to shell out that extra $50, but it was totally worth it to see how happy she was when I picked her up today.

In the closet

Ellie is a big tease. Seriously. Even when she was tiny, she always liked for us to tease her. We would do things like hand her a toy and then snatch it away again. You know, stuff that would make the normal toddler cry. This was hilarious to her. And she has always like to tease us, too. So, last night I was in my closet looking for something to wear to work (can't fit into my pants, but maternity pants are too big...don't get me started). Anyway, Ellie was on my bed watching TV and the next thing I know, she is shutting the closet door on me. Then, I hear her getting her little stool by the sink and pushing it in front of the closet door. She climbs up on the stool and turns out the light! My almost 3 year old has just locked me in the closet...in the dark! She is giggling maniacally, I am talking her evil laugh. I laugh and ask her to open the door. She just laughs harder. I can't push it open because I don't want to knock her off the stool onto the hard tile floor. So I start yelling for Tom to come rescue me. Ellie takes off, still giggling like crazy, and hides under my covers. Later, when Tom is putting her to bed, he asks her if she locked Mommy in the closet. She just laughs and laughs. The kid cracks me up.

Excuse me while I vomit

Thanks to everyone for all your well wishes on my last post. We are pretty excited around here (Tom, too, despite his initial reaction). Since this is also my journal, I will be documenting lots of boring pregnancy stuff along with Ellie's antics. So far, all I have to really document is how freaking sick and tired I have been for the past 5 weeks. Seriously. My students caught on that I was pregnant a long time ago due to a few unfortunate incidents in class. Just the thought of food makes me gag and that just kills me because I LOVE food! Ok, enough whining. I really am so grateful to be pregnant again because it is something I have been wanting for a long time. Tom and I went for my first ultrasound last week and it was so awesome to see the little blob squirming about. Ellie is excited, too. She told her teachers at daycare that "mommy has a baby in her tummy" when I was only 5 weeks along. She is as bad about keeping secrets as I am!

Breaking the news

When I found out I was pregnant with Ellie, I was too excited to think of clever ways to break the news to Tom. Instead, I went running into the bathroom where he was showering, yanked backed the curtain, and started screaming, “I’m pregnant! I’m pregnant!” I’m poised like that.

Flash forward to last August when I found out I was pregnant again. This time I was going to do it right. Well, right for an un-crafty person like myself. I took a black magic marker and scrawled “Big Sister” on one of Ellie’s tank tops. Then I tried to capture it on camera. Tom walked in while I was trying to get Ellie to face forward and show me her shirt. He joined in on the coaxing. “Ellie, show mommy your shirt. Look at Mommy!” I waited for him to actually read the shirt and catch on, but he just continued trying to help me. Finally, in exasperation, I said, “Read her shirt.”
“Big Sister?”
“Yep.”
“Big Sister? I don’t get it. What does that mean?”
“What do you think it means?”
“I don’t know. Are you pregnant?”
Good thing he’s cute.
Unfortunately, that pregnancy was not meant to be so the pictures were never able to be used until now.

Flash forward again to Friday the 13th, the day before Valentine’s Day. Tom is going to be at a track meet all day Saturday so he brings me home roses. I give him my card which gets set on the counter and never opened. I want him to open that dang card because I have written something pretty special in there, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise by telling him to open it. Probably best that he didn’t because my hormones were flying that night and we got in an argument. Saturday night, he came home and was so exhausted that he promptly fell asleep on the couch. I couldn’t take it anymore. “Read your card!” He dragged himself off the couch to open the card. At the very bottom of the card, in small print, I wrote, “P.S. I’m pregnant!” Tom managed the energy to give me a hug and a kiss before collapsing back on the couch in exhaustion. Like I said, good thing he’s cute.

Weekend recap

Friday and Saturday at my parents' house was just what I needed. As soon as I arrived, Ellie, my mom, and I went for a walk. There is a park a few blocks away. The park is wild. Dedicated in 1921, everything is metal. Let me tell you, metal slides don't work in the hot, Texas sun. There is also this ancient teeter totter that has, you guessed it, metal saddles on each end. We stuck to the swings and tried not to make eye contact with the 5 homeless men hanging around. I love my parents' neighborhood. They live in the historic district and there are some really amazing, old mansions. But just walk a couple blocks over and you are in a more sketchy area. After our trip to the old park, we decided to go swimming. The water was probably too cold for my sick child, but she did not want to get out! This was the only time I remembered to take out my camera for pictures. Oh, Stephanie, my mom has a city garden like you....check out those tomato plants in the pots!
Saturday, I woke up to my mom making pancakes. Then we went shopping for earrings. My dad was off on a 61 mile bike ride, but when he got back we went to the Spindletop Museum. It is like this really interesting replica of the town when they had an oil gusher. Ellie managed to palm a few antique checkers pieces before we realized what she was carrying. She also kept slipping under those ropes that you are not supposed to cross. Every building had a sign on it that said "Watch your children" at the bottom. I am sure they loved Ellie.

Ellie was pretty whiny all weekend. I don't know what her deal was, but it was kind of annoying. I don't know if it was because she just wasn't feeling well or because she was out of her routine or what. However, she has really surprised me about taking her breathing treatments. She has to sit with the mask on her face for 10 minutes and I thought for sure that it would be a struggle. But she just sits and patiently endures it. I think it helps that she knows she gets a treat at the end.

I am really not ready to return to school tomorrow. My house is still a disaster despite my plans to get it cleaned and organized over the break. Oh well, summer is just a couple months away!

Spring Break Day 4

Tom took Ellie to the doctor today. She has an ear infection (doesn't she always?) and "breathing issues." So, she now has to do Nebulizer treatments every 4 hours and take an antibiotic. Good times. The thing with Ellie is that she is still happy and playful even when sick.

Tom has a track meets all day Friday and Saturday so Ellie and I are going to take off for Beaumont to visit my parents. I love being at my mom's house, it is so peaceful and relaxing. A perfect way to end our Spring Break.

Spring Break Day 3: Held up by illness

Today was supposed to be a date day for Tom and I. We dropped Ellie off at school this morning and then went to breakfast at La Madeleine. After breakfast, we had an appointment that took waaay longer than planned. Afterwards, we were going to go to a matinee, but chose instead to go home for a nap. Our nap was cut short, however, by a call from Ellie's school. It seems she had a fever of 103.4 and had thrown up. Now she is snuggled up on my bed, happy as can be, but I can't help worrying. Also, I had all these plans about us going to the Rodeo tomorrow. Ellie had a blast last year and I have been really looking forward to taking her again this year. One of my students even gave us free admission tickets and a fun pass for the carnival. Dare I dose her with Tylenol and take her anyway? Her doctor appointment is scheduled for 8:30am Friday morning.

Update: Rodeo trip cancelled and doctor's appointment moved to this afternoon.

Spring Break Day 2: Houston Arboretum

First off, I cannot say "Arboretum" for the life of me. My friend Stephanie suggested we take our kiddos on a nature walk at the Houston Arbo...whatever. What a hidden treasure! Ellie and I arrived early and Ellie had so much fun in the little Discovery Room. Then, when Steph and the Tate-man arrived, we hit the trails.Good thing we had Ellie to guide us. Ellie kept wanting to rub Tate's soft little face. Luckily, he is such a laid back guy that he didn't seem to mind. I can't believe I have never been to the Arboretum before. They have miles of peaceful walking trails. Of course, Ellie was tired and cranky from waking up at 5:30 and didn't let us walk as far as we would have liked. We finished our little trip with a picnic and headed back home for some much needed naps!

Oh, my awesome sister in law emailed me her pics from yesterday so I updated my post. But she wrote a much cuter version of our adventure over on her own blog.

Spring Break Day 1: ROUS edition

Today is the first official day of Spring Break. I woke up early this morning and dropped Ellie off at school for 2 hours so I could go get my teeth cleaned and my car inspected. After getting all the annoying stuff taken care of, I picked Ellie up and we headed to the best park ever! We met up with my mom, Sabrina, Kolby, and Olivia. It was such a beautiful day for a picnic at the park. The kids had lots of fun playing on the activity sets and feeding the animals. What kind of animals you ask? Oh, just your standard geese, ducks, and ROUS's. Yes, they had a ton of nutria at this park and they looked so much like the rodent in Princess Bride! I had this crazy fear that one would leap onto Ellie and bite her shoulder. Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures, all I had was my cell phone camera. Luckily Sabrina took better pictures than I did and shared.

Someone didn't take a nap at school today

Go Western Day!

Today was Go Western Day at Ellie's school. I had so much fun picking out her outfit. I even made the effort to do her hair, something I rarely bother with for daycare (the beauty of the bob cut).

I can't help but compare to last year's Go Western Day picture. My baby has grown so much! Sniff.

I heart Zac

One of the many benefits to having older cousins is the hand-me-downs. I was recently going through a bag of clothes from Rosie and came across a shirt so awesome that I jumped up to show it to Tom. Ellie snatched the shirt out of my hands and said, "That's mine. Don't take it. I gotta put it on." After putting on her new shirt, she looked down at her belly and asked, "Who's that?"
"That is Zac. He's cute."
"Like my Daddy."
"Yes, Ellie, just like your Daddy."

A new baby and other random bits

Tom's sister had her first baby today! A sweet little boy who weighed in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces. Both mother and baby are doing great. I feel like motherhood is the best thing that ever happened to me and I am always so excited when others join the "club." There is nothing quite like that rush of unconditional love you feel for your child. Plus, I think motherhood makes you a better person, teaches you to be more selfless. All right, enough of all that....congrats, Tara!!!

I feel like I don't have much to write about these days. I mean, Ellie is as adorable as ever, but I can't say that she is doing anything really interesting, or funny, or amazing (well, everything she does is interesting, funny, and amazing, but probably not to anyone other than her parents).

School today was kind of funny. I was showing White Fang to my Reading class and we got to the part in the movie where the old man runs into the forest after his dog and gets eaten by a pack of wolves. My students were all yelling, "White people are so stupid! Only a white person would do something so dumb..." Then one of my students remembered and piped up, "Hey, Mrs. K. is white!" But another kid quickly responded, "Nah, Mrs. K. is cool. She's not really white." So there you have it...I am not really white.