What we've been up to

I have to tell you. When you have a baby who does not sleep through the night, who wakes up 3-4 times a night, you have to take sleep when you can get it. This, my blogger friends, is why I have not been writing much in the last week or so. It dawned on me that if I go to sleep earlier, I'd sleep more. What a revelation! I also knew this was the only way I was going to get better from my cold turned sinus infection.  I also realized that an added benefit of me going to sleep earlier was that Cole slept longer. I think this is why he slept longer. I can't be sure. He could just be sleeping more because he's getting older (10 months - boy did I miss the boat on that post!). Anyway, I had to choose between blogging, grading, and sleeping. And as my usual struggle, if I stayed up late for any reason, it was because I needed to get work done. I love to blog. But it has to take a back seat when I have lesson plans to make, and essays and projects to grade. I also took on an added project (pen-pals with students in Africa) and had to read their letters before giving them to my students. I thought this would be a no-brainer, as the other teacher was supposed to have read them. It turned out he didn't read them thoroughly enough and I have to censor certain things. More work for me. I hope it will be worth it in the end and that my students will appreciate and learn from their pen pals.

Even though I'm not writing as often as I'd like I continue to think up posts in my head at night, but when I finally do sit down to write them, I draw a blank.

So this post will be a random collection of ideas, thoughts, feelings, complaints, and updates.

The three things I dislike most about my job:
1. Cafeteria Duty (the other day I had to write up a student for calling a staff member a whore
2. Grading (as an English teacher grading takes on epic proportions when you assign an essay)
3. My dusty dirty classroom (I don't think the custodial staff regularly cleans my floors)

The three things I love most about my job
1. Teaching
2. When students are passionate about the books they read (even if they hate the books, I'm still excited, because they are reading!)
3. Reading my students' writing (but not grading it)

Mommy fails:
1. Two nights in a row I turned on the overhead shower and not the hand held shower head. Guess who got blasted with water right in the face. You got it. Cole was so upset the second night it happened that he cried until I took him out of the tub.
2. I wasn't completely paying attention to Cole as he wandered over to our bedroom garbage pail and took a fistful of lint from the dryer vent and put it directly into his mouth. He turned around with this gray glob of dust, lint, and cat fur in his mouth. Talk about blech. I promptly took it out and made a mental note to empty the garbage pail more often!

On the breastfeeding front:
All was going alright until Thursday when I was so busy at work that I only pumped once. I failed to notice my output was lower than usual because of a clogged duct, and NOT because Cole nursed right before I left for work.  Thankfully, as I predicted, Cole is a nursing champion and got rid of the blister/duct combo when I got home from work Friday.

Cole is also a champion sleep fighter. He has been winning the battle with the day care teachers over his afternoon nap. There are days when I arrive to pick him up and he's only slept a half hour in the morning. If we're lucky, a half hour in the afternoon. He wakes up easily in the crib, so one of the teachers often lets him sleep on her. That's when he takes his longer naps. Back to the sleep fighting champion. He thrashes his head, kicks his legs, talks, grabs at things. If he's in the crib, he pushes himself up to a crawl, then to a stand. No matter how tired he is, he still tries to stay awake. After all, there's so much to do and see, why sleep?

On the this-only-happens-in-the-Hudson-Valley front:
I got rear- ended on the way home from work Friday. I was actually on my way to a consultation for an extraction/dental implant (more on that another time). I never made it to my appointment because this woman, on her speedy way to pick up her daughter at school, rammed into the back of my car when I was stopped in traffic. She claimed she slid into me (it was raining) just after informing me she had to leave to go pick up her daughter. I started to argue with her, but the 911 operator advised me against it and told me to get her plate number. Which I did. Only I needn't. Her plate was still attached to my car when the state police arrived. And because I reported that she was leaving the scene, every troop car on patrol came by to find out what happened. They all wanted to get in on the action. It turned out to be not so dramatic. She had gone to the elementary school down the road and the first trooper on the scene went over there to retrieve her when I told him where she said she was going. She had said to me, "I'll be there if you need me."  All in all, I have whiplash, but no broken bones, and the back of my car is bashed in pretty good. We'll need a new bumper and they'll need to fix the trunk well, which was broken. The one thing I'm thankful for? That it happened near work and not near home, where I could have possibly had Cole in the car.

Over the past few weekends we've had lots of nice visits from family. Here are some fun pics!

Cole and Grandma play with the wooden spoon, Cole's new favorite morning toy.

Cole and Grandpa Bill

Cole and Aunt Lauren

Uncle Ad and Grandpa Bill with guess who standing on Aunt Lauren

Here is Cole and Papa Joe at a New Paltz coffeehouse. This is Cole's curious face.