Preschool

I've been missing in action from the blogging world for some time now. Between teaching preschool, a new church calling, and my running (plus all my daily "Mommy-duties"), I've had to cut some things from my life in order to stay sane! It's amazing how much more time I had in my day/night when I cut T.V., reading, and blogging. I'm feeling that things are getting more manageable now and that I can find a good balance.

Just under a year ago, my sister and I started toying with the idea of teaching a preschool class instead of doing a rotating preschool like we had been doing. A few mothers had approached Ariane with interest, and with time, Ariane convinced me to jump on board. For the past 8 months or so before we started teaching, we have worked feverishly to put together a curriculum and do as much as the planning/preparations as we could so that this new adventure wouldn't take too much time away from our families. We are almost one month into teaching, and I am loving it! Including our boys, we have 9 children that we teach for 6 hours a week. This first month has been a lot of trial and error, but I think we are smoothing out all the wrinkles now and really enjoying it. We have also perfected the art of multi-tasking as we have our two babies' schedules that we work around as well. We rotate teaching the different sections (i.e. circle time, centers, music time, art) while the other person is on baby duty and setting up the next activity. My main motivation for doing this is to provide a quality learning experience for my son where he can also socialize with peers his age. What wouldn't I do for this little boy? I love him so much!

Even though it's not the middle school-age that I was teaching a few years ago, it is so fun to be teaching again!

Bath Time

Carter's first bath with Caleb without his baby bath about 2 weeks ago.

Random

Mr. Chunkers at 5 months

He's a pro at sitting up now, so we figured it's about time we start feeding him in his high chair. In the high chair for the first time. (The Cheerios were more of a way to distract him while I was trying to feed him. He's not quite ready for those yet.)

Such a big boy. He had to go potty during quiet time, so he went by himself and then got dressed again afterwards too. Finding the right holes to put your legs in is tricky though. (Both legs are in one of the leg holes.) You can't tell in the picture, but his pants are on backwards as well. I have no idea how that was comfortable, let alone how he managed to fall asleep.

Caleb loves blueberries, especially if they're frozen. He would eat them all day long if he could. He quickly ate me out of stock of the blueberries that we picked at the Blueberry Farm (I went twice and picked a lot!). I'm afraid his cuticles and skin around the nails are going to permanently be dyed purple!

And finally I feel like I'm back up to speed with my running abilities prior to baby Carter. I ran 9 miles yesterday at a 9-min. mile pace. I have a half marathon in Nov. and my goal is to beat my time of my last race in April of '09. I'm experiencing lots of knee popping this time around as well as the arch of my right foot constantly sore. It feels good to be back in shape again though.

Again?

Caleb has another staph infection. We had to go to the doctor, drain the wound (nightmare), and now we're doing the oral antibiotic, Mupirocin ointment, and bleach baths. He hates the bleach baths, but is doing better about the oral medicine than last time. We already know that Caleb is prone to these (4 of them in 3 years), so the doctor gave us some tips so that we never have to go back in again for this problem (thank you!). Staph lives in your armpits & nose, so if Caleb touches those areas and then touches any wound on his body (like a bug bite), it has the potential to turn into a staph infection. The doctor said as soon as we see any sore on Caleb's body, to automatically start bleach baths to try to nip it in the bud. Cross our fingers that we're done with this problem!

Exploring

Carter is very much into exploring right now. He is at the fun stage where he can focus in on an object and grasp it.

The other day, he was exploring his cousin Gavin.

All babies know the best way to explore is to put the object in your mouth. Gavin wouldn't quite fit! Actually Carter is just loving on Gavin and giving him a big smooch.

And the newest babies on my side of the family all within 5 months. Alexa arrived on 8/9/10.

Carter almost 5 months, Gavin 2 months, and Alex 2 weeks

We Survived!

Caleb had his doctor's appointment this morning. At first, I didn't think it could go any worse. From the moment they called us to the back, Caleb starting kicking and screaming and trying to run away while screaming, "I don't want to!" I'm so glad Matt was there because there was no way I could have handled it on my own while holding Carter. No amount of bribery was working (we had gummy bears with us and the promise of ice cream afterwards). Finally we had the bright idea to have Panda Bear (who was with us) go first in everything so Caleb could see it wasn't scary. That did the trick! Luckily the nurse and doctor were very nice about it. Caleb cried for about a minute after the shot and is limping around the house, but other than that he survived!

Still has a smile for the camera.

Both Caleb and Panda Bear got a sticker and a cool band-aid for being such a great patient (sort of). Caleb was able to help the doctor look in Panda's ears, mouth, nose, and eyes as well as listen to his heart beat.

I'm a Big Boy!

Carter has no interest in rolling over, but he definitely is interested in sitting up. He's not incredibly stable right now, so I have to constantly be next to him in case he falls over, but he's catching on really fast.

And of course if I'm taking pictures of Carter, Caleb has to be in one too!

Caleb is a great big brother. When we practice tummy time so Carter can learn to roll over, Caleb is quick to show him how it's done. "See Carter, like this." Carter can roll onto his side, but I think that he can't get enough momentum to roll all the way over due to his weight! :o) Caleb sat up before rolling over as well.