String theory

I suppose all new moms are worried about their babies safety. I know I spent and amazing amount of time worrying about dropping him and falling. The worst nightmere for me is waking up to find the baby dead. So in an effort to make his life safer I read lots and lots of books on SIDS and crib safety. Very confusing. Sleep with your child...don't sleep with your child. After taking in all of that information everyday object suddenly became SCARY. Blankets! AHHHHH! Stuffed animals!! Pillows!! So many things ended up being dangerous that we found ourselves sleeping with no blankets or pillows in a semi lit room.

Gabe found my fear rather mystifying, and finally started making fun of me. Everytime I would Ban a new dangerous item from the bedroom or house he would say, "Let me guess...this is the number one cause of infant deaths." My pediatrician laughed at me when I told him that I had stopped giving the vitamins with iron because the label said, "Overdoes on iron is the number one cause of deaths in infants." I mean what's an overdose?? an hour on the internet did not give me the answer.

Well...when putting together the new crib, I decided to read the warning labels. ( gabe didn't hide them fast enough) And what do you know...I found a new dangerous object STRING!! There were no fewer than FOUR warnings about strings being a number 1 cause of death in infants. And now I see String EVERYWHERE. Do you know how hard it is to get rid of string!! And what size of string? Does color or texture make a difference. There is litttle research on the subject on the web.

Gabe is in complete DENIAL about the danger of string. But I want to assure everyone that I will be vigilant against this new danger. I will be a cadet of the STRING POLICE. Emory is safe from this deadly household item.

HI HO HI HO....It's off to work I go.

Despite the overwhelming change in my pass-times recently, and the loss of sleep, it has still been my best teaching year ever.

I am very positive about the work I am doing right now and am enjoying being with the kids. I spent the weekend making a new teaching calendar. I never could find one that was right at the stores. My new calendar is color coded, has inspirational quotes on every page, and plenty of planning space for my projects.

The new project I am planning at the moment is wonderful. I'm working with the English teacher and we are having the kids write a play that follows the idea of the atom from Democrites to the present day. Once we're done writing and editing, the kids are going to produce and perform the play for parents and other students. At the moment I am at the COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED part of the project. But I'm sure it will come together (A team)

Today we are decomposing sugar using Sulfuric Acid. A wonderful dramatic lab on the properties of compounds. In the picture above you can see my new calendar, wonderful wonderful pump, and my lactation tea. Everything you need for a good day.

Standing time

Gabe and Emory were having some fun moments this weekend. He loves to stand on us. I tried to capture them on film, but Emory was so excited he kept moving. Still this gives you an idea of how active he is during the day.

After a hard morning of standing, he likes to cuddle with Daddy best.

BED SAGA

You will remember from last weeks post that we had decided to move the crib into the bedroom and put it by the bed. ha ha ha ha ha. While moving three bookshelves out of the bedroom, turning the kingsize bed, and vacuming up an amazing amount of feathers....I managed to break the old crib. I walked into the nursery to get the vacume and ran into the crib. CRACK. Gabe said, "what was that?" I replied..."hmmm...nothing???" For some reasson Gabe did not believe me. After checking, we realized I had broken the plastic connectors. So we go to Babies R us to buy a crib only to be told that the wait time for the crib is 3 to 22 WEEKS. Back home we decided to order one online and found a lovely little mini crib. Here is Emory trying out the new bed.

Emory and I needed a little reassurance about this big change so we tried playing in the crib and practiced sleeping in the crib. I am much better at practicing to sleep Emory's eyes are WIDE OPEN.

The big night finally comes. Gabe has his weekly poker party on Sat, so Emory and I have a bath, cuddle, and bunk down for the night. Our bed time is 8:15 PM. He was really tired and immediately started to suck his thumb. He went to sleep and everything was fine. He slept for about two hours and then woke up very angry and upset. In the end I guess it is a work in progress.

Baby matchmaker

Name: Emerson Darwin Pless

Nicknames: Emory; Buddy; Private Snowball

Age: 4 months

Height: 25.5 inches

Weight: 16 lbs 3 oz

Skills: Standing, Spitting, Reaching, Bouncing, smiling, laughing

Likes: Baths, car rides, nursing, eating, snacking, music

Dislikes: ear exams, vitamins, sleeping through the night

Career aspirations: Diaper tester, leader at a nudist colony

Spring Training should be starting soon and we can't wait!

His bib says it ALL!

Unbelievable

Today at work I had one of those AHHA moments that makes you reevaluate your life. My students were researching scientists for a biography project so I had lots of time to think about learning and teaching. I was having this AWESOME day...the kind where you can feel your brain expanding with all the ideas. At the end of the day I stopped off in another teacher's room to pick my milk up from the fridge and heard something completely unbelievable to me. This teacher was complaining about being asked to take on a leadership position. It wasn't a time or work issue....it was about refusing to get involved in the planning of learning. She said, "I've been hired to do a job and that's what I'm going to do and that's it." I personally don't know how she can say she is doing her job when all she does is assign readings from the book, scream at her students and give stupid tests that don't measure learning. It ended up terrifying me. I'm not the best teacher in the school...but I work really hard at it and totally love getting better. This teacher doesn't want to get better, experience new things, or increase learning. NO WONDER KIDS HATE SCHOOL!!! It makes me very fearful of sending Emory to public schools. Is that a strange thing for a public school teacher to say? On the other hand I don't think private schools are great either. So now I'm looking into Montisorri schools. Thankfully he is four months old and working on learning the skill of napping :) The end of my rant is that if you have kids in school or will ever have kids in school....make sure you advocate for them and know what's going on. There are a lot of mean bullies out there mascarading as teachers.

Check out this cutie that will graduate in 2024! Red Sox bull pen here I come!

SUN!!!

After what seems like months of winter, darkness, cold, and snow, we have had a few days of sun in a row. It is making a large dent in the two feet of snow on the ground. Of course
we now have lots of mud but...one issue at a time. Gabe and I took advantage of the sunny day with a trip to the park. I thought Emory would really like the baby swing but he was very uneasy about the experience. He did like swinging with us and we also got a family picture. It is so wonderful to be outside again! I'm sure we have a few more snowstorms coming next week but this weekend has helped my overall opinion of the world.

Shilah came to visit us last night as Aimee and Shanti went out to dinner. She had a great time playing with Emory in his exersaucer. She would push the buttons to start the music and then dance for him! Here she is with one foot up showing Emory how to Boogy!

Presidents' Day

I am in the middle of my perfect weekend! A couple weeks ago aggravated by too much to do and too much time away from the baby I decided to have a perfect weekend. I have three days off and Friday was a teacher inservice. During this weekend I am working on projects at home. We cleaned the upstairs and organized buddy's clothes. Gabe painted the downstairs bathroom for me (see picture) This is going to be the new space that Emory and I will share. (You can see his toy holder that is shaped like a frog in the mirror)

Our next chore is to reorganize the bedroom. Besides all of this we got to see Shilah, play poker and watch many many episodes of Babylon 5.

Sleep

Sleep is very important to us! I don't know when Gabe sneaked in and snapped this picture of me and Emory sleeping, but I think you can see you seriously we work on this issue together.

Another funny thing about this picture is that you can see the spit cloth in the background. This is an essential piece of equipment when sleeping with Emory. He actually leaves a slime trail during the night. You can see how he started off in the middle of the bed and gradually worms his way closer and closer to me. I try to move away from him and by morning I am on the edge of the bed and he is taking up the middle half of a king size bed! Today we are going to try something that Aimee and Shanti had good success with and that is tieing the crib to the bed so that he is with us but also in his own space.

Even as Emory gets bigger, he still is very comfortable in his baby sling with mommy.

We recently got Emory an Exersaucer so that he can have some fun while hanging out. He is able to handle the fun for about 10 minutes at a time before he becomes over stimulated, but he does enjoy it.

Clouds cover the sun
Cold comes without end
Ice chokes the ground
When will Spring Begin?



With two months of snow on the ground it has been an especially awful winter! Emory and I are enjoying the one day this week we get to spend together. ( I had an all day class on Saturday) Later, we are going to go to my Dad's where Gabe will play in the weekly poker tournement and I will watch a movie.

As best we can tell; Emory's favorite thing outside of eating is taking a bath. He is a little "deer in the headlights" for this picture, but normally he enjoys his bath time very much! He kicks and floats and smiles and laughs. Very cute.

that's right, milk built this body....And Emory is trying to get it from mommy any way possible!

Look how big our little boy is getting! He can almost sit up on his own (as long as there is something to prop him up against).

My friend Ursi had her baby yesterday! Here is Elena Krentz looking very beautiful with her mother!

I spent the whole night dreaming about when Emory was a tiny newborn. There are certainly times when I miss that tiny little person, but last night he slept 7 hours, so I think I like the slightly larger person he is becoming as well!

Congratulations to Ursi and Kevin!

While at the palatial hotel, we took Emory swimming. He had a good time, but the water was a little chilly so he only swam for about 10 min. The stupid camera decided to focus on the water instead of the baby. (This might have been user error) Still he seemed to really like it. I think I'll look into taking a swimming class with him this summer.





After swimming we wrapped him up in towels and took a dip in the hot tube. Emory was having none of that though and we got about 30 seconds in the jacuzzi until he started squalling for his dinner. He is starting to make sounds that are a little more appealing than the squalls I am used to. He is also laughing a lot and blerting to us in conversations.

One of the best parts about our trip was being able to see my granmother and show her Emory. We visited her in Salem and brought her some flowers, but as soon as she saw the baby she said, "Well shoot, I'd rather have that little baby than any old flowers." Grandma has three other great grand children, one of whom started college this year!






We had a great visit and she assured me that she could tell that his eyes were going to be brown and that he was also going to be very smart.










Salem, Indiana is one of the most beautiful places on earth. (Except perhaps in the summer when it is 100 degrees and 98% humidity!) My family has had a farm there for many years (since the early 1800's.) I always get a little sad when I go back because it reminds me of so many wonderful times gone by. It seems strange that Emory will never be able to have Christmas on the farm, or take a walk with the cows. However nostalgic I feel though, I don't think I'm ready to leave Colorado. Emory will just have to grow up with mountains in the backyard instead.

I got to see my wonderful Friends Katy and Elizabeth while in town. Unfortunately, I did not get to see Ursi because she was nine months pregnant.
Emory also made a new friend. This is Margaret, Katy's beautiful little girl.

In Indiana we stayed at the very posh Holiday Inn Express. We didn't get into town until 2 in the morning and we were all wiped out after a day of working and travelling. Emory did not sleep on the plane until the very end so he was zonked. Here he is crashed out on the bed.





The next morning Emory and I got up early to have a bath. This is one of his favorite activites. He loves to kick and kick in the water and throws back his head to dunk himself in the water. He also likes to be naked afterward! Here he and Gabe chill out on the bed while we get ready for breakfast.

We spent a long weekend in Indiana and got to see Emory's Great Grand Mother and lots of Andreas friends. Here is Emory sporting his ultra cute and functional Indiana University Outfit.

Little Emory is dressed for success...as a duck. Check out his very cute shoes to go with his hat!