this back to work stuff is really cutting into my blogging time. There's lots going on, teaching grad 7 and a little bit of grade 6, the drama that goes along with that, and trust me, there is drama. I was actually a little suprised to find out that there is drama at every grade level. I have duty outside with the primary (k, 1, 2) kids twice a week and it's mostly swing pushing and shoe tying and door opening so they can go pee, but there's a lot of "I wanted to play with Ashley and Carson told Ashley not to play with me because he said I was mean to him yesterday and but I WASN'T mean to him yesterday and but Ashley won't play with me!" and then tears and then me trying to explain that it's not really fun to play with people who don't want to play with you anyway, so why not find something else to do? The grad 6/7 drama is much more direct, girls being bitchy and boys being jerks and wanting to beat each other up type stuff. The usual, you know.
Today the little girl decided she knew how to get out of her crib. She does, sort of, but not really, so her escape was really a matter (I think, I wasn't in there at the time) of her getting a leg up and over and then falling over the rail. It was quite a thump, and I briefly thought, oh, she's thrown her water cup out again (she throws it really hard, and the first couple of times I heard it I thought she had actually jumped out of bed), but then I thought wait, she doesn't have her water cup, so I went in and sure enough, baby's on the floor. I scooped her up, but she was already pretty ticked off at having been put in bed in the first place (naps are for suckers, right?) so she took a few minutes to calm down. le sigh. The boy continues to be generally charming and wonderful, but every now and then I do get the distinct urge to throw him out a window. Or at the very least lock him or myself in a room so that I can escape the crying and whining. I know it's payback, I was a whiny child, but that makes it no less irritating. I'm waiting for the logic to kick in so that when I say things like "if you ____ then _____" and then he does that thing so I do my thing he doesn't completely lose it, or he might even be able to regularly make the decision NOT to do the thing in the first place...but as I've mentioned I'm a teacher, and I'm not seeing a lot of logic and / or planning in any of the students I teach, so I'm not really hopeful it'll happen any time soon. Joys of parenting, yo!
We're in the midst of the whole H1N1 thing, we have a couple of cases at school, so a significant portion of parents are keeping their kids home so they'll be safe. Which would make sense if I thought for a minute that they were also keeping them out of like, WalMart, convenience stores, Sobey's, and all the other places where their kids are about 158 times more likely to catch something than at school, where we're all cleaned and disinfected and looked after in a semi-responsible way. Anyway. It makes teaching easier, except that the 1/4 - 1/3 of my class that is missing won't have learned any of this stuff, which is a giant pain in the ass. We're having a flu shot clinic at school on Wednesday afternoon, and I'm interested to see what that's going to do to the school. I'm really quite annoyed that I can't get the shot myself. I'm also annoyed that like, police officers and PRISONERS are annoyed that they can't get the shot, when people like teachers and pharmacists who are far, FAR more exposed to dirt, germs, and viruses than the average joe, are not being put in any "priority group". Miss Baby girl has to go this weekend and get part 2 of her shot, but apparently Mr Little Man doesn't need a 2nd dose. Let's hope that the powers that be have made that decision based on real data, not just based on the fact that they need more vaccine and don't have enough to give our little people their required part 2.
We went to Bangor for Thanksgiving weekend and did the bulk of our Christmas shopping for the kids, which is excellent. We have a closet now, a large closet under the stairs, that very much resembles Santa's freaking workshop, but it's all good. We went down with friends of ours, and took their van, and every inch of non-seating space was absolutely filled with stuff on the drive back. It was like a game of tetris trying to get everything in there, and in such a way that any abrupt stops or turns would not lead to someone's untimely demise. Death by play kitchen. Tragic. I have to stop buying things though. Having started so early is great, but now I keep seeing things and being like, one more thing, one more little toy, oh, look at that! wouldn't the baby / the boy just LOVE that? le sigh.
As a sidebar, I'm looking for a good book to tell the boy the story of why we actually have Christmas in the first place. We've told him, but he loves to read books, so if we had a good book that would be even better.
I bought the new mario Wii game, and should really either be playing that or going to bed, so I'm going to go maybe flip a coin and decide.