From Hippie To Businessman

For some time now, Luke has been rocking what I affectionately call dirty hippie hair. Hair-wise, he was a late bloomer. There was no way we could've taken him for his first haircut at a year because, well, he didn't have a whole lot to cut. Even at a year and a half, but then all of a sudden, he was like a Chia Pet. His hair just grew, grew, grew. It curled over his ears, it curled down his neck, and I liked it. I loved my boy with his tousled long hair, but I hated constantly correcting strangers who called him a girl, and I hated the way it tangled in the back.

So off we went to Locks of Fun, where he got to sit in a super cool fighter jet.

He was a perfect angel during the hair cut, but somehow in the span of thirty minutes he morphed from my little hippie baby to a little boy.

And as you can see, he lost his hair, but he did not lose his inability to stand still.

I'll Show You Cranky

What I hate most about teaching while pregnant is that it completely enables the kids. I'm sure you were expecting me to say that I hate having to be on my feet or that I hate having to give so much energy, when I really have so little to give. But no, I hate how they excuse anything wrong they do by saying that I'm pregnant, thus I am cranky and hormonal.

The kids haven't yet asked me if I'm pregnant, but they know. They've asked nearly every other teacher they have, all of whom keep imploring them to just ask me. I'm a little surprised because 8th graders don't usually show this much tact! Yesterday, the question was posed to their Orchestra teacher, with the add-in, "Well, we think she's pregnant because she's getting bigger... and she's really cranky."

See, I wasn't cranky. BUT NOW I AM. When I was pregnant with Luke, I had a student tell his mom that he failed silent reading because I was pregnant and hormonal. REALLY? I fail to see how my hormones stopped him from reading, unless they formed some sort of force field around his book. Once I get past the first trimester, I'm really good about keeping my hormones in check, so I know I'm not any stricter than usual. I will fully admit that I run a tight ship. Kids don't talk out of turn in my room, and they know that they can't get away with much--but that attitude toward classroom management has nothing to do with pregnancy (and a lot with me just normally being a bitchy person!). However, any time the kids do something wrong or out of turn, they completely feel like they can excuse themselves from any blame, simply because they've learned that pregnancy makes women cranky.

And THAT? Yeah, that makes me cranky.

My Cupcake Bump

Today was a good day. I went to bed last night, ridiculously happy for a friend. I woke up this morning STILL ridiculously happy for that friend. Don't you love that? Today was pajama day at work, which meant that I got to wear my cupcake pajamas, complete with matching slippers. AND my students were taking the ACT until 11 this morning, so I had nothing to do until then. As such, my team and I ordered a calorie-laden breakfast from Schoop's. So not only did I get to hang out and do nothing in my pajamas, I got to hang out and do nothing in my pajamas while eating blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and a side of hash browns. Oh, it was GOOD.

I mostly failed at bump shots tonight because my camera batteries were dead. I had to use the webcam on my computer, which is decent... except for when you're moving while it's trying to take a photo. And because my favorite little cupcake decided he needed to be in the pictures, I was moving. A LOT.

You can't see my stomach at all, but I like this one.


16 weeks! 4 months. How the hell did that happen? I'm not a math teacher, but doesn't that make me almost halfway through this whole thing? Doesn't seem possible, but I'm feeling little flutters daily and loving it.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

I have a love/hate relationship with my blog name. On one hand, I love the name because it's so me. When I started back to work after Luke was born, a co-worker expressed her admiration that I was able to teach all day, then go home and take care of Luke. I quipped that I was a school teacher by day, but I was a superhero at night. I added in that if she ever stopped by unannounced, she'd see that my Kryptonite was totally housework.

On the other hand, I kind of hate because it's SO long. I like to be concise. I tell my students to keep titles short and to the point, yet look at me. If I ever wanted to switch over to a URL, my title is way too long, unless I want to be in the running for longest URL EVER, which I don't so much. But yet, I can't THINK of another title or even another way to describe what's me because I have so much of myself in this title. Sure, I am a total makeup junkie, but I'm not sure how to turn that into a title. And I don't really blog about makeup much (but I should start because I freaking love makeup and sparkles and lipgloss is my life).

So, what do I do? Keep it? Change it? If you give me a totally awesome idea for a totally awesome name, I will forever love you and do something fabulous for you. Because right now, between pregnancy and this lovely head cold (courtesy of my students), I've got about two braincells going. And on two braincells, all you're going to get out of me is babbling about how I like sparkly lipgloss. (And I do. I don't care what magazines say about age appropriate makeup, EVERYone needs at least one sparkly lipgloss.) Help a girl out!

My Preciousssssssssss

As per Beth's suggestion, I made out with the Geek Squad guy, but not TOO fiercely because it *did* take them two long weeks to reunite me with my pretty, pretty pink laptop.

Bumped

Due to my complete ineptitude, I forgot that I am STILL laptopless, so no bump yesterday.



I saw my midwife yesterday, and I am free to lift Luke and resume other "activities" (wink wink, nudge nudge). When I told her I went to the ER, she admonished me for not calling her first and told me I was being ridiculous for worrying about bothering her on a Sunday night. But she said that she completely understood my being freaked out over it. Anyway, she couldn't pick up the heartbeat because apparently I have a stupid placenta that was blocking the baby. We got another ultrasound, and the baby was trying SO HARD to show us what was in between its legs. As such, we spent a lot of time looking at the baby's feet, which Luke thought was the neatest thing EVER.

So, life is good, and I promise to talk about something other than babies SOON, because I am boring. And I know I'm SO boring!

Ups and Downs

Life lately has been up and down. I think I'd like a nice happy middle. Can that be arranged?

Ups: Due to the beyond cold weather, Shane and I both had no school on Thursday and Friday. I also had no school yesterday because of MLK day. Friday night, I got to meet Christy (who is hilarious and crazy and omg I love her) and spend time with these totally fun, awesome girls. Through different circumstances, most of my friends from high school, college, and beyond have moved away in the last year (hopefully not all wanting to get away from me, ha!), and I can only hang out with work people SO MUCH before I want to hurt someone, it's been nice--really nice--to make some new friends. And! I did makeup Friday night. Weddings have been slow lately, and I've really missed doing makeup. It helps that I had some seriously hot faces to work on, of course.
Also on Friday, Shane made one of my favorite desserts, a hazelnut chocolate brownie cake with homemade Grand Marnier whipped cream. It is gooey and delicious. He also made it on Sunday, so my tastebuds have been happy!

Downs:
I wish I could just leave the down section blank. I've had a lot of parent issues at work lately. I'm not entirely sure why, but in the seven days back, I've had to deal with four parent issues. All of them were totally HUH? issues, but two parents went straight to my principal, who thankfully had my (our, as two of the issues were with teachers aside from me) back every step of the way.
And this one that I don't even write about, but I have to write about because I am still on edge. Sunday night, I was watching Desperate Housewives and cleaning when I noticed that I was bleeding. With Luke and with this one, I had bleeding early on, but early enough that it was considered implantation or irritation bleeding. I've never bled in the second trimester, so I was panicked. I called my friend Tammy, and she and her boyfriend immediately headed over to stay with Luke (he was already in bed). We ended up spending three hours in the ER, during which time three nurses made me feel like I was an idiot for coming in as they repeatedly pointed out that I wasn't GUSHING blood. Thanks. Finally we got back to see the doctor, and after a brief moment of embarrassment that involved me having to display my not at all shaven legs in a gown, he did an ultrasound. Baby is perfect. Heartrate was 160, and he/she was moving ALL over. Bsaed on that, the doctor said the bleeding was probably just a fluke, but I'm on light rest (no strenuous activity, I can't pick up Luke, etc.) until my midwife clears me.

I still feel a little out of sorts about it. Every little twinge worries me. The bleeding has stopped, thankfully, but I was so scared. I'm fairly certain everyone in the ER thought I was there for meth withdrawal, because I just could not sit still, but seeing my little baby kicking, rubbing his/her eyes helped, obviously. I'm just hoping that the down section keeps getting smaller, because right now? I'm beyond tired.

Bump Day!

Sorry for the quality, but I can't plug my digital camera in at work, so cell phone picture it is.



14 weeks! Second trimester!

Purely Hypothetical, Of Course....

If your child came home and said, "My friend said that my teacher is quitting in February because she said she hates all of her students," would you:
A) Tell your child that that obviously sounds like a rumor, and you're certain it's not true. Perhaps suggest that instead of listening to rumors, she just ask her teacher.
OR
B) Keep your child home from school, then call the principal and ask if he knows that one of his teachers is quitting because she hates her students, and tell him that your child was too distraught to come to school today.



(For those wondering, I would choose A. The parent of which I am HYPOTHETICALLY speaking, chose B.)

Simple Life

Here I am, blogging illegally at school (PLEASE DON'T FIRE ME). Why, you might ask? Thursday night, when I was out for this fabulous girl's birthday, Luke went all fists of fury on my precious pink laptop. In the process, he rendered four keys unusable. Could itbe the x, z, q, and semi-colon keys? No, no, he of course broke the c, d, e, and 3 keys. Now, I could probably live without the 3, but those other keys? Kind of important! Saturday morning, I made a painstaking attempt to write an email by copying and pasting c, d, and e, but it took a ridicously long time and apparently made Beth think something was wrong with HER computer, due to all the different sized letters. Awesome, right? So it was off to Best Buy, where they apparently don't have key fixing parts, thus I am laptopless for two to four BUSINESS weeks.

I feel a little lost. I can check some blogs at work and gmail, but no facebook or twitter. What this is teaching me is that it's time to upgrade to a phone that has a web browser. But yet though I miss the hell out of my pink laptop, I can't help but feel a little unfettered. I usually go on the computer in the morning before work and in the evening, after Luke is in bed. Instead, I'm playing Mario Kart, taking baths, and READING. I have no new books, so I'm re-reading Harry Potter and loving it. I'm even, gasp, cleaning! That's not to say that I won't excitedly be catching up on facebook and twitter when my laptop is back in my hands, but right now? I'm kind of lovin' it.

Random note #1: My students are listening to MLK Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. Every year, I'm amazed at how beautifully written and inspiring this speech is. If you haven't listened to it recently, please do so.

Random note #2: This totally awesome mama is heading back to work today. Can you drop in and share your words of wisdom? Or tell her you're thinking of her? Or just tell her that she rocks?

Random note #3: Had a parent meeting with a dad who made me cry last week. When his wife started crying this morning, I got up and handed her a box of tissues. I wanted to say, "When YOU made me cry last week, no one gave me Kleenex." Sometimes it's painful to be the bigger person!

Bump Day

Since Wednesday is commonly known as Hump Day (which is what got me into this in the first place--oh yeah, I went there!), I thought I'd tweak it into Bump Day. With Luke, I was fairly consistent about taking belly pictures, and I want to be this time as well.

At 13 weeks, my stomach has suddenly popped onto the scene. I started showing early with Luke (early enough that my midwife did an ultrasound to make sure that I didn't have more than one hanging out in there). I don't feel big yet, not like I did with Luke, because I know how much bigger this thing is gonna get. And I can't wait! (Remind me of that statement in July when I'm all, GET OUTTTTTTTTTT, I FEEL LIKE JABBA THE HUTT!)

O Captain, My Captain

My friend Julie visited this weekend. Life is always better when Julie is around because Julie feels like home. Julie is uncontrollable laughter, ridiculous jokes, and warm chocolate chip cookies. Julie is my friend because when I suggest bagels for breakfast and follow it up by saying, "You're Jewish, don't your people like bagels?" she laughs like it's the funniest thing ever, instead of rolling her eyes and saying, YEAH THAT ONE'S BEEN DONE BEFORE, ERIN. Julie is my friend because she went to OXFORD, and that means I can impress people by saying, "Yeah, my friend Julie, you know, the one who went to Oxford?"

Mostly Julie is my friend because when I met her, I felt wonder at the fact that we hadn't already been friends for years. I met Julie my sophomore year of college in a lame Education course. The professor made us take something out of our bags/purses and say why it represented us, then we had to pair up with someone of similar interests. I rolled my eyes at the assignment, but ended up holding up a JD Salinger book and said it represented me because Shane bought it for me on our first date and because I loved to read. Julie sat by me because she also loved reading, and we quickly bonded over our mutual love of Dead Poet's Society and our mutual dislike of the ditzy sorority girls in our class. We had two classes in one day, with a two hour break between, and I sometimes made Julie come to my dorm room, otherwise I would fall asleep and miss the later class. One afternoon, my mom called and Julie caught a one-sided conversation that I knew made her curious. I got off the phone and poured my heart out to someone I barely knew. I told her that I'd been raped a few months prior, and that I was transferring home at semester because I couldn't handle being three hours away while healing from a trauma and while dealing with a court trial. Most people would shy away from someone with that much baggage, but Julie didn't. She listened and hugged and really let me pour my heart out, much more than a lot of people were able. And before I left to head for home, she wrote me one of the most beautiful letters I have ever received. She addressed it to O Captain, My Captain, and shortly after, she became my Tuwanda. Major respect to anyone who can name those two movie references!

And so we stayed friends, despite it all. When I went home and went through emotional and mental hell, Julie was always there. No matter how far apart we've been, no matter if there's an ocean separating us, Julie is always there. Even though I mostly fail at answering my phone or returning calls, Julie still puts up with me.
Julie and me (and Chris!), back when we were young and innocent (okay, mostly just young).


Julie and me yesterday. Please forgive my lack of makeup, pajamas, and unshowered self. Oh, and that messy little corner of the living room. Tornado Luke had just torn through it.

Strike A Pose

After my embarrassing moment post from yesterday, I had a few requests for pictorial (and video, but you definitely aren't seeing that!) evidence of my super sweet drunk vogue-ing skills. So in honor of all those who drank last night, and in honor of the fact that it'll be a long, long time before I drink mass quantities, I present to you "Drunk Erin vogue-ing with a man she'd never met before."



Now before you judge my vogue skills, I'd like you to notice that I'm clearly leaning on my new friend, thus unable to stand up straight, let alone vogue properly.

So for 2009, I want you all to remember that sometimes you just need to let go and vogue with a stranger.