Sun, Sand , and Smiles

Scarlett and I have been enjoying every minute of the beach so far! The weather has been perfect--the sun shining and the water perfectly blue and refreshing. Scarlett was a little afraid of the waves at first, but has now begun to enjoy them. She mostly wants to play in the pool with her cool cousin Layla and eat sand. I am trying to be cool and not freak out when the sand reaches the lips. Today, while Scarlett napped on the beach, I rode around in the kayak with my sister Margie and thought about what an amazing time this has been already. You won't find me getting anything accomplished, but you will definitely see a big smile on my face.
Now if we could only get her daddy here!.....

The race is on...

Recently Scarlett has been babbling with consonants. This results in sounds that verge on sounding like words. Now we know that it is a coincidence when these do actually come out sounding like words, but still there seems to be a little bit of a competition beginning...
When Scarlett starts chatting, I am sure to throw in a bunch of "Mama" sounds and am Bob-Doling it (you know, refering to myself in the third person all the time). I have noticed that Nate has amped up his game and gives her a lot of "Dada" sounds.
Considering that Mama is harder to say, this will make the victory even sweeter when we hear Mama first!!
Here are some of her first babbling (excuse the grunts--nature called!)

Just hilarious

I have recently begun to hate everything on television (which is great, since I have no time to watch it!) Now there are a few things that I look forward to every week: American Idol (sorry, I can't help it!) Project Runway (makes me wish I could sew) and The Office. A couple of weeks ago, though I stumbled upon this gem of a show that originated on the BBC and now has an American counterpart. It is called Creature Comforts and takes real interviews and adds in claymation. I love this!

Growth

This week in my garden, my green beans reached more than half-way up the trellis, the tomatoes opened a few yellow blossoms and the cucumbers leaves are enormous! My little babies that I put in as seed are now growing even closer to a delicious salad. I even ate a little lettuce that I grew myself for lunch! Of course the cat dug up half of my hollyhocks and my lilacs look like they are not long for this world, but that's fine--they can't all be victories, right?
I have to take the same perspective with my students. With just a few days left, the temptation to be naughty is just too much for a few of them. My patience runs thin as I try to cram in the last few nuggets of knowledge before they burst out of the door and into their summer vacation. I just focus on the ones who I can look at and know that I made a difference in their lives, they ones who got something out of all of the hard work that we put in this year. And the others--well, I will just tell myself that they are acting out because they are thinking about how much they will miss me. Yeah, that's it.

FRIDAY!!

Three more days and I can put away my chalk and forget my code for the Xerox machine for the whole summer!! What a year it has been. I have learned very much from my students this year--I only hope they have also learned from me!! So many of them have had to deal with issues that I can't even imagine. So many of them I will never forget, not just the naughty ones but the thoughtful, helpful and full-of- promise ones too. Even the annoying ones that say your name 84 times in 86 minutes. I am sure that they will come and visit me next year, and I know my inbox will be full of cryptic e-mails that have abbreviations I have no hope of actually decoding. LOL. And the summer is just long enough that by next fall I will actually be a little excited to set up my classroom and learn 100 new names and start the whole process over again.
This year I took on role of "working mother." My principal has been so supportive with working part-time that I think I was able to strike a great balance. I feel very proud of my work this year, at home and at school. Leaving Scarlett has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do--but I just treasure the moments we do have and revel in her smiles.
And in the blink of an eye it will be summer vacation and I will make a conscious effort to have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is. And I will not attend a single meeting, supervise a detention, sharpen a pencil or distribute a hall pass for weeks on end. It will be Scarlett and I--adventure girls--wohoo! (Oh and Nate of course, when he's not working...)

Play dates

Yesterday Scarlett had a playdate with her two buds Connor and Peyton. And yes, I admit that these are often more for the adults than the children....but fun was had by all and Connor discovered his inner rockstar!

Cousins

One advantage of having a large family is that there is always someone to play with. On Sunday, we celebrated Kelly's graduation and Scarlett got to hang out with her cousins Layla and Aysha. Scarlett loved laughing at her cool older cousins crawl and walk all over. This seemed to instill in her a wanderlust. She laughed and smiled at her and even practiced her own little method of travel (I call it the "inchworm"). She has been working on this move, and has used it to get herself out of her car seat and closer to her favorite toy--the cat. While she seems elated at this newfound ability to get somewhere other than where she is, I have come to realize that I am going to be chasing her around soon! That seems like fun now... At least I have a little more time--right now her locomotion is still pretty easy to keep up with. She will just arch her back and push off with her feet and slide upside down. She generally runs in to something before she gets too far. Today during nap she scooted herself all the way in the corner of the crib, it was so cute that I had a good laugh, although Scarlett thought it a little less funny that I did. Hopefully she does not do this tonight and will be sound asleep until morning...

maybe I'm simple...

What is the saying...children and fools are easily amused? Well count me in!
No matter how many times I see his facial expressions, I have to laugh out loud. I love all of these commercials, but this one makes me laugh just thinking about it. I am not afraid to admit that I am practically frothing at the idea of a show based on these commercials!