Saturday, November 24, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a crazy month. I can't believe Monkey is almost 3 months old now. I've been at work almost a month now and I truly love it. I miss Monkey the whole time, but the staff and students make my job a pleasure. Montessori is a great teaching method and doing it at a charter school is fun. Especially when I get to speak Spanish most of the day. Planning is much more intense but I do it weekly instead of daily. And I love how I get to know my students so much more because they're each working on something different. And I give lessons one on one or with 3 or 4 students instead of the whole class. It's amazing to me to see kids who are normally wound up and don't want to do work suddenly focus and start pushing themselves to learn more.

Monkey is growing so fast! And has now decided he doesn't like sleep. Not sure why but he has fallen into the habit of cat naps over the last few days. I blame the break. He's not used to having us both home this many days. And the poor little one missed some naps yesterday and Thursday. I would have thought that would make him more tired at night but no, it means he wakes up more often. I hope he sleeps well today so that he will sleep tonight. He has started to laugh more and it's adorable! He enjoys making faces at us and seeing our reactions to the things he does. And either he suddenly has more saliva or the teeth will be coming in soon cause he is trying to chew everything and the drool is all over. He really is a cute baby even when we're exhausted and have to hold him constantly cause he won't sleep anywhere else. The thing that amazes me is how fast he is growing. I look at the pictures of when he was in the NICU and I'm amazed at how quickly he has grown. I want him to stay little and cuddly forever.

This Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for our sweet little Monkey and the fact that he's healthy. He loves everyone he meets and is quite the charmer with his giggle and smile. I'm thankful he loves to play and listen to stories. He will listen to any book I read him even if it's just Reader's Digest. Poor daddy was hoping Monkey wouldn't like showtunes and books the way I do but it looks like I'm the winner! He enjoys singing with me to Christmas music and Broadway musicals. However he also loves football and soccer so he's a perfect blend of us both!
Merry Christmas from Baby Monkey :) He loves the hat and booties my mom crocheted. They're perfect for Christmas!

Monkey and Daddy hanging out in bed before we head out for the day. I was busy running around getting myself ready while they snuggled in bed!

His favorite toy is his play gym. He tries to grab the birds and hold onto them.

Eating his elephant rattle. He loves to chew on it and anything else that's hard including my fingers.

Poor Monkey was so exhausted from church that he fells asleep leaning on Daddy.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Back to Work and a hurricane

As of tomorrow, I will have finished 6 days of work. Thanks to Sandy, we had my first two days back off. Nice to be home with Monkey but the wind and rain not so nice. Monday the 29th was his two month and Monkey is growing. I was freaked out about the weather but the dr got us in early. The hardest part about everything was watching him get his shots. I seriously cried as much as he did. Then we made the fun drive home in the wind and rain. My husband texted me making sure we were ok as roads were beginning to close at that point. It was pretty scary but Monkey laughed at it all. Hubby gets home and comes lugging in a ton of water. The guy who said everyone was making a big deal out of nothing went to 5 stores to find water "just in case." Luckily we didn't lose power although several times during the night I was convinced the windows were going to blow off. I was up half the night with all the wind but Monkey and hubby slept through the whole thing. As in, Monkey fell asleep around 10 that night and didn't wake up til almost 6!

Then I got to back to work after it all was over, We're making it work. It's hard though for sure. Grandma and sometimes Grandpa take great care of Monkey and send us pictures while we're at work. Pumping is actually going better now that I'm away from him part of the day. Strange how that works. I cannot believe how fast my little Monkey is growing. He laughs all the time and tries hard to roll over. It's funny watching him get stuck and try to figure out what to do up on his side. He is totally my son and fights sleep. He would rather stay up. The problem with that is, he's also his father's son and wakes up early. He can't do both cause it exhausts us.
For your viewing pleasure!
Here we are on Halloween night. He had fun watching us pass out candy and visited the neighbors so we could get candy!

Passing Hurricane Sandy while snuggled on Daddy!

This is his mad face like when he has to wear a hat!
Luckily teaching at my school isn't nearly as stressful as last year was. I have an incredible team and administration. My assistant is my saving grace (I'm sure she's reading this!) and does so much for our classroom. My students are wonderful and work so hard every day. However the best part of the day is running to my parent's house to see Monkey. He's here right now sound asleep in my lap. I don't care about the people who say we'll spoil him by holding him too much or by responding right away when he cries. He's happy and healthy and that's all that matters. I love this snuggle time while I work on report cards. Speaking of which, no grades which is wonderful!