Back to the Grind...

Well - it's been a week since I posted, mostly because I don't get much uninterupted time when I'm at home. I know I could do it once Genni went to bed, but by then I just want to stare at a book or the Tv and not think anymore - so here I am at my desk at school with an empty quiet room...there are some nice things about being back to work.

Well the quick rundown of last week was - Eric working on set, Genni and I getting some quality time, I got to go paint some of the set when Grandma came over, and I did a gig with the Williamsport Symphony and spent my first ever night away from my child. It was nice to see my friends, but since we always talk way too late and I didn't go to bed till 1AM, I can't say I really used the opportunity to catch up on sleep. Eric did say that Genni handled it well (of course I spent a few days prepping her for it). I can definately say now that my child is potty trained - she hasn't had any accidents and only wears a diaper while sleeping. She is so proud of herself! She has taken to cheering us on when we use the bathroom as well - "are you peeing daddy?, good job!" Haha, how cute.

I'm sure there were more interesting stories from last week, but I can't think of them right now. Only 3 weeks till the musical is over - nice and scary at the same time. Our wonderful director has not YET gotten a choreographer for the dance number - 3 weeks away!! 2 1/2 really!!! So that means my next task is to figure out how to do the charleston and put together a dance number. I did some research and practiced some - the problem is the whole ankle thing with the charleston....my ankles are not the strongest and I already twisted them once while doing it - I have to really concentrate in order to not do it again. My plan is to teach some of the girls with dance experience some of the basic steps tonight so that while they are backstage waiting to go on they can be showing others. Well, back to the grind.....:)

Potty Trained!

I hesitate to do this post, I don't want to jinx myself, but I am so excited! I think Genni is potty trained! Not only that, but she did so well at the concert last night. She whispered and seemed to really understand she needed to be quiet. I'm not saying there weren't forgetful moments, but she really seemed to get it. How exciting! She really is getting to be a big girl. It is a bittersweet moment - we are so proud of them when they accomplish something new, but it's a little bit sad cause you miss the little baby they used to be - and you look ahead to how much bigger they will get someday. Ah motherhood - I'm ready for another little one - remind me that I said that when I start complaining about morning sickness and nursing all the time and lack of sleep...I wanted this remember, no sympathy when I complain:).

The day is half over and I'm getting my hair cut tonight:) and break is almost here. I'm looking forward to sleep! I also told Eric to just not expect me home till after my 5:30 haircut, and we just got paid - so I'm going shopping! Really it's just for more underwear for Genni, but I can't remember the last time I was in a store by myself with time to spend - even if it's just Walmart. I am nixing any job scare conversation from our discussions this week, we are going to enjoy our vacation and relax so we'll be fresh for the 3 week musical crunch before the show starts. If I don't get to blogging it's because I'm too busy relaxing :) (I hope)

Crash....

Oh it's such a chore to get up in the morning after working 14 hour days....the only thing that got me out of bed this morning was saying "well, when Genni was an infant and I had to nurse her all the time during the night it was worse, so I can handle this". I did happen to trick my child into a good mood this morning though. I woke her up saying "do you want to come downstairs with me and let Wallace out?" - yay! no fussing over getting dressed. She even went in the potty this morning! She has been doing remarkably well, she made it all day yesterday, even through practice. Till the very end and we were waiting for Eric so we could go home - it was really late and I think she was just tired. She says "I'm peeing....Dora's sad." Hahaha, she has Dora underwear, so Dora is sad when she gets wet. It's so darn cute. "I won't make Dora sad anymore" "Ok hunny, just tell us if you need to go OK?" We couldn't have done it without Laurelyn's patience during the day. Now I have to go out and buy her more underwear this weekend cause we don't have enough for her to wear - but I don't have to buy big boxes of diapers for awhile!

Speaking of babies - no don't get excited - we were just talking last night about the whole job situation, and saying maybe it was good I wasn't pregnant yet. At any rate my stress levels wouldn't be good for it at the moment. haha - you watch, now I'll get pregnant:).

Well, Eric has a dress rehearsal tonight for the Prism concert so I get to go home after rehearsal, thank goodness! I want to cook a meal and eat it at a table instead of at his office. There's also the whole dishes and launrdy thing to attend to - and it's been days since Genni has played with her toys at home - or taken a bath for that matter. Then tomorrow night is rehearsal and the concert, so meals will be sketchy yet again. I wish we could just eat out, I had planned on going to the Central that night, but what am I supposed to get Genni to eat? Do I grill the waitress about all the ingrediants they used in her meal or just pray and deal with the consequences later? Yeah it would be wonderful for her to have a red splotchy face for the concert - hhhhhh.

Well break is almost here - I'm getting my haircut this weekend...short...taking the plunge...I'm tired of waiting for it to fit in a ponytail. Besides, it's not so curly anymore so it keeps taking longer to do my hair the longer it gets. I'm also getting it highlighted for the first time since Genni was born! Looking forward to that.

Well - school, meeting, get Genni, rehearsal, crash - not neccesarily in that order....

Food Allergies and Other Stresses

Well let's start with the easy thing - we're still trying to figure out Genni's food allergy. Some things are better with the no milk, but last night we had a milk free meal and her face got all red and blotchy after she ate it. It's quite frustrating. I mean it's not like it's life threatening - but it looks bad and is itchy for her, and people are always like "did you know her face is all red?" "yeah - I don't know why yet, we're trying to figure it out". After last night we suspect soy - but it is certainly not scientific. I'll just keep up the food diary and see what happens. It is very helpful that Wegman's has the ingrediants list for all of their products online.

So Corning has to make a lot of changes in order to make it's budget for next year with all the state aid cuts - lots of teachers are nervous. We hear they are cutting some music positions and we don't kow how many, so we will just feel much better after February 25th. They are supposed to let everyone know by then who is still hired for next year. At least we don't have to wait till the end of the year. It looks like my job is safe for next year at least (that's what I hear, hope to know more soon) - but it was in the newspaper about the state possibly making smaller schools merge whether they want to or not to save the state money. If that happens I'm not sure what will happen. If I can stay here 5 years I will get some of my student loan $ forgiven, so that is the plan unless something better comes along. I didn't realize the economy would effect us in this way, and I'm hesitant to change jobs anytime soon because the last hire is the first fire if they cut positions. I'd rather get tenure and move up the line so I feel secure, even if it's not where I want to be forever. I was talking to Eric's mom last night about it and she said "well at least you didn't get that position at Northside" - even if I had gotten the job at East I would have been below Eric on the list and we both could have been cut. I guess things work out for the best sometimes. Who knew?

Well the musical is getting closer - only a few weeks left of rehearsal. I feel like they have the big picture but the details are very sloppy. Here's hoping that it keeps getting better. I think in the end it's going to be an amazing show.

I'm so looking forward to break, I'm going to sleep in every day! Well probably not, but at least some of the time. I hate getting up in the morning, and my daughter is the crankiest kid ever when I wake her up. She cries from the moment I move her, and most of the time that she is getting dressed too. Then once we get downstairs she's fine. I think we'll change the routine tomorrow and she can come down and let the dog out with me. It means she has to get up sooner, but maybe I'll trick her into a good mood.

Well - back to school....busy Tuesday! school-meeting-lessons-rehearsal-crash.....

Memorizing Genius

So it started with her finishing the end of rhymes in songs during the summer - and now she basically recites all her books as I read them! She can do the first two pages of Horton without a pause and then fills in most of the words after that. She likes when I sing her "the Christopher Robin Song" which has absolutely no catchy chorus or repeating lines like most primary songs - and she sings almost the whole thing with me. She'll be playing with her toys and I hear her talking/singing and it's almost always some words to a book or song. I'm sure this is all normal development for a 2 year old and not at all out of the ordinary - but for now I'm going to think of her as my little memorizing genius:).

Musical Child

Well the week is half over, and the weekend full of...nothing:) is up ahead. It's a good thing cause my house is terrible. Genni keeps saying everytime we get home, "this is a mess!", haha, yes it is hunny. So on Monday Eric had to go to the county meeting and get his and my music for All County Band and Grandma has choir on Mondays - which means Genni came to musical rehearsal with me. I figured she'd be OK, she comes to choir with me sometimes and she's fine. She'll walk around and play with her toys, watch sometimes, stand next to me while I work. She actually only tries to talk to me when it doesn't look like I'm busy so she's a pretty perceptive child, or I'm just lucky most of the time. Her two big temptations at musical rehearsal are - the drum set (Eric must have jazz band in there sometimes) - she likes to step on the high hat and the bass drum pedal - and the keyboard. Only occasionaly, thank goodness, she will come up next to me and start playing the piano while I'm playing. Haha, since it's an electric piano though, I turned it off on her a few times and she was very confused, "what happened to the sound mommy?" "I turned it off hunny", "no! don't turn it off on me!". It really is interesting though watching her with the kids from the musical. They keep an eye on her when they aren't on stage, and I even saw a couple of the boys reading her Thomas book to her when I turned around to check on her. How cute! I talked to her before rehearsal about not getting up on stage and she seems to have actually listened. Isn't it amazing - I can't imagine her not understanding me and talking to me like she does, but it wasn't that long go that she couldn't. Time flies. At the end of rehearsal she says - "I sang mommy! I sang with everyone!" I don't doubt it. She will either grow up loving music and theater - or hating it cause she was involved in it since birth! Let's hope she loves it....

It's Over

The weekend and Solo Fest are both over - I'm a much calmer person than I was a few days ago. I mean I still have the typical worries - school, musical, money, child - but at least one more thing is off my list. That and I went grocery shopping for the week and spent less than $100 - always my goal, but sometimes unreasonable. Unfortunately since my child seems oddly resistent to potty training I'll probably have to buy diapers sometime this week. but anyway. Life as usual for us, busy busy busy, this week it's just play rehearsal and choir - Eric has to go to the county meeting tonight so Genni is coming with me to rehearsal, not sure how that will go over, but at least I'll be with her for the evening. Maybe my savior and awesome pianist Claire will be there tonight and I won't have to play the piano too much.

So I have discovered that my child must be awfully loud. At the party last night there were 3 other kids (well 4 counting Dean). One was Graham, who she is used to playing with, but the other two were new to her. Now keep in mind all of the children were 3, she is at least 6 months behind most of them. But at any rate, the one you always hear is mine, the one always coming to complain that so and so wouldn't let her play with Thomas is mine, the one getting the most disciplining is mine - I felt like "that parent" hahaha. Mine is the one causing all the trouble. Lets hope I can chalk it up to her being the youngest and she'll be better adjusted to playing in groups as she gets older. I can't honestly say I wish she were more shy - I love her excitement for everything and her lack of fear in diving in and getting involved (although I wonder if it would have been different if she wasn't already used to the house, toys, and one of her playmates). I guess I just worry too much - someday I'll be that parent that doesn't worry about what other people think when they see how my kid acts, and doesn't imagine them judging me and my parenting skills....well probably I won't but at least I'll care a little less when I'm used to it right? But seriously, this being my first child, I had no idea that my child was this loud compared to others. To us, Genni is just Genni - why would it be any different? We love her just the way she is:)