Back to school.....

Back to school/work, back to blogging, back to waking up early, back to house duties piling up.....if you can't already tell, this is a tough time of year for me. On top of going back to work after being off all summer with the boys, I'm starting at a new school this year so that is even more stressful b/c I don't know what to expect. For the past 6 years I have taught at Ellendale Elementary School in Bartlett. I taught K-2 resource students in a huge classroom that was all mine. I had a lot of time to myself since I did not have a full-time assistant and only had 3-4 students per hour. I made the decision this year to try to get something closer to home since I couldn't picture taking the boys to Bartlett to go to elementary school in a few short years. I interviewed at Sycamore Elementary and Riverdale in Germantown. I got the job at Riverdale and was really happy since I had such a good experience there with my interview and I've heard nothing but wonderful things about the school. The assistant principal is a former SPED teacher and supervisor, which I have found is extremely important when you are a SPED teacher and need someone who understands the world of special education, since it is very different from regular ed. If no one in administration has ever taught special ed, you will find yourself either training them on how things should be done, or taking orders that don't make a lick of sense.....neither of which is very effective for you or your students. Anyway, I loved all 3 administrators at Riverdale so I was very happy when they offered me the position. I will be teaching 6th and 7th grade Reading and Math in a co-teaching environment. Co-teaching is new to me, but I think I will really like it. I will be traveling to the regular ed classrooms and helping the regular ed teacher with making sure all students (not only the "special ed" kids, but the regular ed ones who are having difficulties as well) are learning the material. It will be very different from what I've been doing, but like I said, I really think I will enjoy it.

With all of that being said, I am still super happy about starting at a new school (one that I can actually picture the boys going to) but I am also very nervous about meeting everyone's expectations and, of course, not too happy about leaving the boys. This has been the best summer we've had for sure. Every summer has had its ups and downs, but I have enjoyed being with the boys more than ever this year. So let's talk about what they're doing these days so you can get a picture of what we do each day:

~ they just got this big boy bedding (75% off at Target! Score!) which they LOVE - they will tell you what each ball is called and what color it is every night before they go to bed :)

We are holding off on switching to toddler beds b/c their cribs convert to more of a day bed instead of a toddler bed and we really don't see the sense in removing only one side of the crib since the boys are not potty trained yet (more on that later)

~ they eat pretty much everything and will quickly tell you if they don't like something. The only thing that has changed w/their eating habits lately is we use condiments now (mustard, ketchup, jelly, syrup, etc.) to make things taste better. They used to eat stuff without the condiments, but now they want ketchup with everything!

~ they *just* got to the point where they will sit and watch about 20 minutes of a movie nice and quietly in their baseball chairs :) I have looked forward to this day for so long! Judge me if you must, but 20 minutes of peace and quiet while watching Shrek is a God-send if you ask me.

~ their favorite things to play are trains (while wearing conductor hats), puzzles, mega blocks, coloring, basketball or baseball, and flash cards. They will hold up a card and say "color is that?" then we say "What color is that?" and then they tell us what color is on the flash card! It is too cute - they just started doing it one day and sometimes they will even ask each other. One day I heard L say "color is that?" and P said "red" and then L said "no....orange" Hahahaha!!!!!!

~ they still nap 2 hours every afternoon

~ they still sleep 12 hours every night

~ they communicate using 3-4 word phrases, can easily tell you want they want or need, what hurts, what's wrong, and they talk to each other and make each other laugh but still not as much as I thought they would. They play together, but not yet to the point where they keep each other entertained. They really don't ever play the same thing at the same time - one will play trains while the other is doing a puzzle or one will play with blocks while the other one looks at a book. Fine by me, just not quite "friends" yet if you know what I mean. They have actually just started coming to me and saying "play trains?" or "draw?" to get me to play with them

~ I painted this cute little chalkboard for them and they love to draw on it

It probably needs some type of border or something, but it will do for now.

~ I am constantly refereeing fights between the 2 of them. They love each other, I'm sure, but they drive each other nuts more than anything at this age. They are always fighting over toys. I hate to say it but it's 90% Landon taking a toy from Peyton. Peyton is sneaky though - he will walk by Landon and just casually push him down. Sorry, but it makes me laugh. Landon is so much stronger than Peyton (built completely different) so I'm glad Peyton at least somewhat sticks up for himself.

More to come, but I wanted to at least give a quick update. I will definitely be continuing the blog - I love looking back and reading old posts that I've printed out and I hope someday the boys (or their wives) will enjoy reading what I've written.

Love you all!