This Is Why I'm Not a Professional Blogger...

I have a hard time consistently updating here.  Especially when things are as busy as they have been. 

After my sister's wedding, things did not slow down. The Thanksgiving holiday came quickly.  We were supposed to travel to Pittsburgh this year.  Unfortunately, on Wednesday afternoon, Jacob's school called to say that he had a fever.  And it all went downhill from there.  Our poor little buddy was really not feeling well, so we decided to cancel our visit and stay home so he could be more comfortable. 

Our sick little buddy, sleeping off a fever.

Erik's parents brought dinner over from Erik's aunt and uncle.  So we did have some Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving.  And then my parents came down on Friday with what was essentially our portions of dinner up there, plus leftovers.  And pie.  Lots of pie.  It actually all worked out for the best.  I got to do some Black Friday shopping with my friend Emily.  She brought me some strawberry pretzel fantasticness from her mom.  And then my mom and I were able to go out Saturday and do some Christmas shopping.  Now that Jacob is a little bit older, Christmas shopping is a lot of fun.  She and I could probably have bought Toys-R-Us out of their Little People, Duplo, and wooden train set collections.  But we refrained.  Although it's taking a lot of will-power on my part not to go back. (#tryingnottospoilmychild)  I just remember how much I loved my Little People, and building with blocks and things. 

That Sunday we went to get our Christmas tree.  Jacob was feeling better by then, but he was very mommy clingy all weekend.  I ended up carrying him for the majority of the tree excursion, though he did walk around a little bit.  We found our tree rather quickly this year, and there wasn't much debate over whether it was the perfect tree or not.  It just was. 

Our tree -- before adding ornaments

Jacob seems to love the tree.  Every day when we come home from school, he goes right over to it, says "Tee?  Tee?" and gives a little "oooooooo" when we plug in the lights.  He and I set up his Little People nativity set, and he'll wander over there periodically to play with "mama," "dada," and "beebee."  

Playing under the tree

This holiday season has been a lot of fun with Jacob.  He's at an age when everything is so exciting.  We drove around some neighborhoods tonight to look at lights and hearing his "ooooo" every time he saw something was priceless.  I can't wait for Christmas morning.

 

Also during the Thanksgiving weekend, I had to finalize plans for an observation that I was going to have in one of my classes on Monday.  The lesson went really well, and I was really happy with how it turned out, even though a bunch of the kids didn't do the reading assignment that was needed.  But we worked our way through things anyway.  I got some great feedback from my department chair, assistant principal, and principal.  I was super nervous going into the lesson, so I'm glad that it turned out to be successful.  Now I'm trying to find a way to get ahead of myself at work, but I haven't quite figured that out yet. I try to get things done during my planning period, but after teaching straight through three classes, more of that time is used to decompress and sort things out than to actually plan. So I end up sketching out plans before and after school, then editing PowerPoints the night before I teach a lesson. I'd really like to change that. Maybe have all of my PowerPoints done early in the week? I don't know. At least I have the next few weeks of lessons "planned" -- so I know what I'm doing. I just need to set things up. And grade. But I always need to grade.

 

Jacob is now pretty much back to his normal silly self and feeling better.  He's talking a lot more these days, repeating things we say in his own way, and he's getting really good at identifying letters, numbers, and colors.  His teachers are so happy with his progress.  I love when he runs around the house and comes at me, hugs my leg and says "Oh mama!"  He really is such a little character now -- with such a huge personality.