Buy ALL the things!

I'm finally getting on my Christmas shopping. I'm terrible about it. I almost always wait until way too late. Even though I live near actual stores now (unlike Kodiak) I still really like online shopping.

This is partly because people go insane around the holidays and I don't want to deal with them. They forget how to drive, and generally only think about themselves (which is ironic since they're shopping for other people).

It's also way more efficient in terms of time, I can jump around from store to store online way faster than I can with real stores. Now I just have to cross my fingers that things get here in time for me to ship them off.

One day I'll start shopping earlier. Maybe.

I did manage to take advantage of Tom's absence and got a couple of presents under the tree while he was gone.

We made it!

Well my class and I survived week one!

My grumpy little friend actually smiled a bit today and sat and ate snack with everyone. And he will respond to questions now too! It's the little things. His poor mom has been feeling terrible because he cries so much when she drops him off, but he really is doing better.

I'm still not 100%, but I am feeling a lot better than yesterday. I think some of it is just exhaustion. I haven't done the math, but I worked a lot of hours this week!

I'm trying to decide if my body will accept Chinese food for dinner because I've been looking forward to it all week. Buddy and I are laying low tonight and probably most of the weekend too. Tom gets back tomorrow night so I have to clean up the clutter created by my work all the time lifestyle.

They got me

The kid germs got me. Luckily whatever is going around seems to be short lived.

My assistant was feeling better and came in this afternoon, just as I was pondering how I was going to lead my class and change diapers while laying on the floor.

My boss would rather let me go home early than not come in tomorrow so I headed home at 3. I bundled up and took a nap on the couch with Buddy and already felt much better when I woke up.

He's now in trouble because he stole my saltine cracker. I'm almost hungry, which I take as a good sign because I haven't been all day.

Go wash your hands and take your vitamins.

Progress

My back is sore from holding kids. I'm out of kid shape.

My crying all day kiddo actually played today and only cried excessively in the afternoon. We're making progress. At snack time he decided he was ready to go and pulled everything out of his cubby. He was unsuccessfully trying to put his hat on when his mom got there. Luckily she's laid back and thought it was funny. There are other parents who would not have reacted well.

I have a really wide range of ages in my class, usually they try to keep them within a few months of each other. I have birthdays from February to December in my room. The parents of the older kids are concerned about this fact and have not hesitated to let me know their displeasure. Never mind that it's only day 3 and we're still getting into the swing of things. One of them has already requested that we have a meeting to discuss their expectations. Their daughter is 2. People need to relax.

My coworkers were dropping like flies today. There's a stomach bug going around. In fact, you should probably go wash your hands. My assistant left around 11 and I had a rotation of random people helping out the rest of the day. I'm really looking forward to when I'm not working 10 hour days.

Oh, and Buddy says hi -

I'm going to be really strong

Today was not as easy as yesterday. And I didn't expect it to be. We had more kiddos and some rough (and never ending) drop offs. We also had a couple of the new kids, one of which cried pretty much the entire day - except when I held him (my arm is so tired). He was happy to eat snack and play with toys as long as I was right there. Baby steps. He'll get used to it.

We still managed to get everything done that we were supposed to do - including art! - so I'm counting that as a win.

We had Nature today, which was a lot of fun. Once a month a woman comes in and brings some animals with her for a little class with the kids. Today we saw a frog, a turtle, a rabbit and some finches. The kids got to touch the animals (except the birds) with one finger (so they'll be gentle). My grumpy little friend even liked it. He really liked the rabbit (or the "hop hop" as one of the girls says).

I got this giant book today to help me with my plan book adventures.

And here's Buddy when I get home.

First day of class!

My alarm was set for 5:30 this morning. I did not enjoy it.

We made it through day one! There were less kids there than we were expecting so that helped a lot. My assistant Katie is awesome - she's been a floater for a while so she knows the ins and outs of the place.

We managed to do everything I had planned, and everyone napped (even the new kids)! It was a first day of class miracle!

My mom is super sweet and had flowers sent to my work for my first day with the class.

It's another bright (dark) and early day tomorrow. There's a new part-time person who will be helping out in the afternoons in a couple weeks. Then I can work normal hours and maybe see some daylight.

Quitter

 In case you were wondering where the name of my blog comes from -

 I'm kind of a quitter.

That sounds bad.

Ok, I'm kind of a try a bunch of things out and not commit to anything-er. Is that any better?

I like trying new things, but I haven't found too many things that I really stick to. I have tried dragon boating, roller derby, welding, bellydance, guitar, various crafty things (knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, sewing) and I'm sure I've forgotten some.

Some things I stick with for a couple weeks and others last longer. Sometimes I come back to them after a while and sometimes I never think about them again.

My friend Tiny (a name I bestowed on her in college) is pretty used to me starting out sentences with, "Ok, so here's the plan." And she always listens, asks questions and gives the impression that she fully believes I will stick with whatever plan it happens to be, even though she knows I probably won't.

I got my "plan of the day" way of doing things from my mom. She used to stand in my doorway when I was getting ready for bed and let me know the plan of the day, sometimes coming back 20 minutes later with a new plan.

Mom and I on one of our many adventures

"Ok, so here's the plan" is also quite fitting now that I'm teaching again. Anyone who has ever tried to plan activities with toddlers knows how quickly your plans have to change sometimes. You may have an amazing circle time planned, but if the kids are having a crazy day, there's no way you will get them to sit down and pay attention.

Plan book madness

Always be ready to make a new plan!