Expanding Vocabulary

We went for our first family hike over the weekend :)

You're 13 months old now and finally beginning to say words! Forget the typical mama and dada, you skipped that stage, started with animal sounds and now words. There are some words you can say on your own (below) and you try to repeat a lot of things we say.

Quack, Quack - very high pitch "tat, tat"
Dog sound (and any unknown animal) - "woo, woo"
Moo - "boo"
Bear - growling
Bubbles - "bub-buh" or "buh-bo"
Drink - "dink"
Cup - "pup"
Sit - "tit"
Chip - "tit"
Boo! - "bew"
Cat/Kitty/Ozzie/Archie - "ah-ah" like a meow sound, the first one's high, second one's lower
Just within the last couple days you've been calling Ozzie "Izzy"
The letter A - loud and clear on that one when you point to the A on your door
Boat - "bope"
Book - "boop" (sounds like book with an ending p sound)
Diaper - "by-ber"
"Uh oh"
Kick - "key-key-key"
Up - "up"

You learned the sign for bath and you use it when you hear the shower running, or when you want to get in the tub. You also make an "ahh" sound (that you would make after taking a cold drink on a hot day) when she sees any kind of cup/drink. It's amazing how you went from babbling to repeating so quickly! You rarely sign more & please anymore, unless you're prompted/reminded. I definitely want to teach you more signs to help expand your vocabulary even more though. Every month I feel like "is my favorite stage" because you're just growing up into such a smart and fun little girl!

Back to School

I'm sure many of you parents are so excited to get your children back into school whether its for the routine, structure, or just to get them out of the house. ;) What I don't think parents realize is how much work teachers put in before school even begins and especially during the first month. I LOVE my job and I am so happy to say that I am loving my class this year! This is my fourth year of teaching and my first year in third grade, and so far I'm really enjoying the grade level. We're just finishing up our third week of school and it's going by quick. My students are definitely "pleasers" which is nice and also makes them fairly easy to train. The first month is always focused on rituals, routines and expectations to set the tone for the rest of the school year. Its also filled with assessments galore to evaluate your students' needs and decide who needs what skills the most, where to start teaching, etc. It's overwhelming, it can get stressful and redundant, but it's so critical, important and informative. On top of all this, we started in the middle of August in a school with no air conditioning so it has been HOT.

Anyway, I've been busy to say the least. And I also picked up my first chest infection - pretty sure that's record time! Ugh! But it seems like everyone in the school (staff & students) is either sick, has lice, or a combination of the two, lol. I think I'll take my chest infection over lice! So I'm starting my first oral antibiotics this week in hopes to kick this crap out of my lungs quickly.

Anna is back at Grandma's and loving it! Her and her cousin (he's just over 2) play all day together. By the time her and Tim come home, we typically eat dinner, play for a little bit and then she's heading to bed because she's exhausted. I still have to get her up every morning to eat and get ready - poor, sleepy girl - luckily she's able to fall asleep in the car for the hour drive to Grandma's. I'm sure eventually she'll get used to it again. :-)