Things Kids Say

When I listen to my students at school I think it is so funny that kids just say whatever they are thinking. I always say I wish I could write down every funny thing I hear during the day because I always forget when I get home and I'm trying to tell Tim the story. I have had a cough and a pretty bad cold for going on 2 weeks. When I woke up on Monday my eyes were very irritated. I thought great now I have pink eye. So I didn't put on any eye makeup just in case I did have pink eye. When I got to school I went to the nurse to have her check it out. She said it wasn't pink eye and it looked more related to my allergies and being sick. All during the day I heard comments from my students about my face with no make up. Somethings I heard were:
"What happened to your face?" "Are you going to get your old eyes back?" "Are you going to be okay?" When I explained that I just wasn't wearing make-up because I wanted my eyes to get better one kid said, "When will you be able to wear make-up again?"
So I guess my lesson is I better wear make-up everyday so that my students can actually learn and not have to worry about what is wrong with my face all day.

Valentines Weekend

We had a fun Valentines weekend. Kade is feeling much better and enjoyed his first Valentine's Day. Tim got me a plant from Kade so that I would always remember his first Valentine's Day; it was a sweet original idea. Let's just hope I can keep it alive! I love plants, but seem to have bad luck with them. My grandmother took home a fern from our wedding; she has given me two plants she grew from that plant and yes I have managed to kill both of them. So wish me luck with Kade's plant. Saturday night my brother came over to babysit while Tim and I went to the movies. We had not been to the movies since Kade was born so we were pretty excited. We went to see "Taken," but when we got there it was sold out. Since we were there we wanted to see something, so we settled for "Paul Blart: Mall Cop." It was kind of one of those stupid funny movies. We didn't mind though, it was fun just getting to go. Sunday we went to Colin's 4th birthday party. He is my cousin, Tonya's little boy and he was born on Valentine's Day. Kade enjoyed some cake with Daddy. He also liked playing with all the kids and Colin's drumsticks.

Kade and I with my Valentine plant.

Kade and Uncle B.

He loves to eat his shoe!

Looking to see if anyone is watching before he takes off!

Will this week ever end??

This has been a very long week. Last weekend we pretty much hung out around the house, none of us were feeling that well. So I started out the week going to work not feeling that great still. On Tuesday I went to a funeral for a mother of 3 young children. It was the first funeral I have attended since my mom's almost 5 years ago. I really tried to prepare myself to try to stay strong for this special child in my life that I knew needed me to be strong on this day. I tried to think of what I could say to a 6 year old who was going through this horrible time in her life. I started thinking about my mom's funeral and realized how so much of that week seems like such a blur to me. I really only remember certain parts of that week. I guess that is a good thing; because I would rather remember the good memories with my mom. My hope is that this family will remember the good times and not so much of this sad week they are going through and the sad months to come.
On Wednesday morning, Ms. Lynda called to say that she was sick and could not babysit. I stayed home with Kade. He had a very runny nose since Sunday and had been tugging a little at his ears, but he had not really had any fever. I took him to the doctor and he had an ear infection in both ears. Poor little guy! Ear infections had been one of my biggest fears. My cousin Tonya's kids had the hardest time with ear infections and I was so scared for Kade to get one. The doctor gave him an antibiotic and also checked him for the flu. No flu thank goodness!
The doctor's office was packed with so many little sick kids. Last night Kade slept off and on, he kept waking up crying and pulling his ears. I gave him some Motrin to try to help the pain. It is so sad to see him sick. I am home with him again today. He has actually been pretty tough through the whole thing playing and wild as usual. We have had some fun play times the past two days; I have to admit I love being at home with him, I just wish it wasn't because he was sick.
This has been a very long week. I am ready for the weekend and for everyone to be well.

The Boy With The Pink Hand

I decided to try a Valentine craft with Kade. I am not crafty at all, but I had this idea in my head and I really wanted to try it out. I used a red ink pad to stamp his handprint on a Valentine card. He was not thrilled by the craft at all! The worst part was when I tried to get the ink off of his hand, it would not come off. We sat at the sink forever trying to scrub the ink off. The ink pad said washable on the cover, apparently that means washable after many days of scrubbing! So the red ink faded into a nice pretty shade of pink on his little hand. You can tell by the picture that he is not very happy about going to Ms. Lynda's house with this pink hand tomorrow.

Kade's New Hobby

This week Kade started feeding the dog from his high chair. He laughs so hard everytime she jumps up and gets the cheese puffs from his hand. It is pretty funny watching him. I had to put an end to his fun though when he gave the dog a bite and then he took a bite!

Here is his 7 month picture from a few weeks ago. He is growing too fast! You can notice the wrinkled paper, his monthly pictures are getting a little harder to take each month.

Mom Memory

This week at school I was standing in the lunch line with my kids and one kid said, "Mrs. Bailey, Did your mom die?" I was a little shocked, because I don't talk to my students or parents about what happened to my mom. I said, "Who told you that?" Another kid said, "My mom told me that." In my head I was thinking, "okay?." So they proceded to ask a 100 questions like little kids do. "Did she go to the hospital? How did she die? Did she get hurt?" I just said, "She got really sick." They took that answer and went on with getting there lunch. I was like "Whew!" glad that was a good enough answer for them. But just as I answered the wondering kids, I noticed another student behind them. I immediately felt awful for the answer I had just given. The student who was listening in on the whole conversation has a parent who is very very sick. My heart breaks for this child who makes cards for their parent when we have free writing time in class. This child is so young and needs their parent for all the things that life will bring as the child grows. When you pray, please say a prayer for this child and their family. It really makes me thankful for the 21 years I did get with my mom and all the memories we had together.
I thought I would share a memory of my mom. Every year my mom and I would go with the girls of my family to the Kenny Chesney concert. My mom loved Kenny Chesney! We always had so much fun. The year my mom died the concert was at the beginning of June right after my 21st birthday. For my birthday my mom took me shopping for some new clothes. I wanted a new outfit to wear to the concert. Anothing memory of my mom is that we found any excuse to go shopping; we loved to shop! I still can remember that day. I picked out an outfit and then we met my brother for my birthday dinner. Even though the outfit no longer fits, it is still hanging in my closet and probably will forever. I keep this picture on my night stand; it is my mom and I before we went to the concert that year. When I look at the picture I think about the 21 year old girl who had no idea her life would change in just 2 weeks. I am so thankful for all the memories I had with my mom and everything I learned from her.

The Back Row At Church

I have to admit that since Kade was born we have been church slackers. We didn't want to take him to the nursery because we didn't know anyone in the nursery; also I felt guilty about dropping him off in a nursery on the weekend when he goes to a babysitter everyday during the week. We were not really sure if it was "ok" to take your baby into the service, so we have both been really nervous about going to church. Tim and I both agree that it is important for Kade to grow up going to church and that we go as a family. So 7 months later we woke up this morning and tackled our fears.
It was a good morning. Kade woke up happy and we all played for a little while. Then we had breakfast and started getting ready for church. We got to church just on time to a new building that the church just built and we had not been into yet. On the way there we decided we would sit in the back and so we would have easy access to get out if Kade started to get restless. We got there and to our surprise found several families with babies and little kids sitting on the back rows. Never before had we noticed the back row people. We joined the end of a row and Kade was sleeping peacefully. Kade slept through the band playing and woke up at the last song. Tim and I both held our breath not sure what Kade's next move would be. He woke up smiling and Tim took him out of his seat to hold him. He sat so calmly with Tim and listened as the pastor walked out and started speaking.
Then he decided he had a enough of this sitting still and so I gave him a toy. That held his attention for about 2 seconds. He enjoyed smiling at the little girls behind us for awhile. Kade was being very quiet; he played with my necklace and then the toy again. Tim was on the edge of his seat, he gets so nervous and embarressed. I kept whispering it's okay! At the very end of the service Kade wanted down and started to cry a little. That's when Tim noticed that right behind us at the back of the service room there was a "Cry Room." It is a glass room with chairs and you can see into the service and hear. We were so excited; what a great idea! The old building did not have this room. Tim and Kade joined some other restless babies in the "Cry Room" for the rest of the service.
So that was Kade's trip to church; I feel bad that it took 7 months for his parents to get the nerve up to take him. We plan to keep going back, it was not as bad as we had thought. The great thing was that we were just like all those other parents on the back row.