~ The Healds ~: September 2010

Well school has started and we are back in the swing of things! Summer ending and school starting has been very bitter sweet. This was the first summer Josh and I both didn’t work. Josh not teaching summer school and me not tutoring allowed us to have 2 ½ months at home with Hannah. It was awesome!! Sleeping in, hanging out with friends & family, tons of traveling, and so on....

At the end of last school year Josh found out he got the transfer he requested to Rincon Valley Middle school. He's very excited about this change. He is now teaching with one of his closest friends and has already begun coaching his first sport of the season. He was offered an extra 20% teaching position, which he accepted and now has 6 periods of 7th grade history. As of the start of the summer I had planned on working 80%, mainly so that I could have some time home with Hannah, but also partly due to the fact none of the full time openings in my district were at my previous school (Evergreen). A week and a half before school started however, I got a phone call from my former Evergreen principal asking me to come in for an interview for a 6th grade position. (Rohnert Park closed one of it’s middle schools and brought 6th grade back down to the elementary school level). I received a phone call later that day & was offered the position. :) I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach with some of my closest friends and be back at EV (the students and families there are incredible!). However, at the same time there was a huge part of me that was so bummed I wasn’t going to have 1 day at home with Hannah each week.

Overall the transition back to work has been better than I imagined. I teach an amazing group of 6th graders (an age group I never thought I’d have the opportunity to work with). My 6th grade teaching team is awesome! We have leveled our students for Math (currently I’m teaching the highest leveled group), we also have them rotate for Science, S.S. and Writing (I’m teaching Science this trimester). Allowing the students to switch classes for part of each day makes the days fly by! I love it! We are taking them on a 1 week overnight in the Spring and I can't wait.

Hannah did really well starting back at daycare with Stacey. Stacey watches only teacher’s children and all of the children she takes care of happen to be children of close friends of ours. It is so neat that Hannah spends all day with kids that she also sees outside of daycare. Hannah also started a (pre)pre-school program with the big kids (2-3year olds) at Stacey's. When we come to pick her up she is so excited to show us the project she created that day. Each month has a theme and she also focuses on a color, shape and letters for each month as well. It is so great!

More new things with Hannah:

~ At her recent doctor's appointment she weighed in at 25 lbs & is a healthy little girl

~ She continues to be a good eater (keeping my fingers crossed this doesn’t change) :)

~ At 17 months old she has begun going on the potty (This came as a complete shock to us! We had not even talked about the potty with her. After daycare one day she asked us to go potty and led me to the toilet. I proceeded to take off her diaper and humor her by letting her sit on the toilet and to our surprise after a few seconds she began to pee and then proudly said “Yeah!!” It was so darn cute! That evening she also pooped on the potty. :) At this point we aren’t going to potty train her, but just allow her to go when she wants…which she is also doing at daycare. If this interest continues we’ll start some real potty training in the near future.)

~ She still takes two naps a day and sleeps 11-12 hours a night…so happy we still have such a great sleeper!!

~ She is very into her stuffed animals and baby dolls these days…feeding them in their highchair, pushing them in the stroller and even changing their diaper :)

~ She had her first official “Time Out” last weekend for pulling the outlet plug out of the socket after I had warned her twice. I set her against the wall for her timeout and she immediately laid her head on the ground and sobbed. I know I shouldn’t have laughed, but her dramatic response was almost comical. After maybe 45 seconds I told she could get up and come see me. On the ground where she had laid her head was a little puddle of drool and tears. :)

~ She has begun to say soooo many more words and tries to imitate everything we say. She also still loves to read. She reads in the car, grabs a book at home & sits down with it on her own and of course loves mom and dad reading to her before bed at night.

She continues to be a happy girl who loves her family, friends and pets. :) She is at such a fun age right now! We are enjoying every minute with her.

Since it has been awhile since I've posted on here, I have quite a few pictures to share...

Dancing with her friend Gavin at Auntie Nicole and Uncle Shaun's wedding