Cole's saving plan

Cole has a jar that he keeps his money in. He has around $60 in cash. The bottom of his jar was filled with change. On Saturday I let him take his change to the credit union to cash in. He was so happy on the way when he found out that he has his own account already that I started when he was born. He wanted to see his account when we got there. It was difficult to explain where his account actually was. Once we got to the credit union, I let him pour his change into the machine and watch the total rise on the screen. He had $135! We waited in line and he proudly gave his receipt to the teller to collect his money. Once home he added it to his jar.

Tonight on the way home from the gym. He said that he wanted another jar to start collecting even more money. The reason? He wants to save to adopt a baby brother or sister! Isn't he sweet? Most kids save to buy toys, Cole wants a sibling! Maybe by the time Cole' is an adult he will have enough saved to buy a 1/16 of a kid.

The latest

I haven't posted much lately and I don't even have a good excuse. So here is what is new.

ME:
I have officially lost 35 pounds (or 1 toddler). I have been eating better, but not any crazy dieting and working out. I still workout with my trainer 1 day a week, take a fitness class with him 3 days a week, and add at least 1 other day of cardio on the weekend. I'm feeling better physically and working on mentally. Tonight Cole and I signed up for a "Reindeer Run" in a few weeks, 5K for me and 1K for him.

I only have 3 more days of "total teach" left. These last few weeks have been flying by at warp speed. It has been great. I had my last formal observation by my professor and will now just be wrapping things up. I'm really looking forward to next week. One of the perks of teaching is holidays off! I no longer will have to use vacation time and barter for time off around the holidays. I have Wed-Fri off next week. I can't wait to hang out with Cole, make pies, and shop. What do I miss about BAH? I miss having people know me and care about me and sharing stories and my life with them.

I've been gathering stuff to apply to the local districts. It's a part-time job just applying, but graduation is in December and then I'm a free agent!

COLE:
Fall baseball is officially over. It's a relief, Cole didn't enjoy it too much so therefore neither did I. It's tough on your heart to watch your child struggle to do something. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he still doesn't want to play in the spring.

He wants to try basketball. Everyone says at the YMCA it is a lot of fun and being a shrimpo doesn't matter. He is signed up for winter ball that starts in January.

He is still taking Karate at the gym. It has been 1 year now and he still loves it. This past Saturday he had testing for his next belt. The test lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes. I couldn't believe he could stay that focused for so long. Being quite was the worse thing for him, I think. Afterwards he talked 90 mph. He couldn't talk enough. He should get his new belt in the next few weeks.

He's also taking hip-hop classes now. Isn't that funny? He loves it. He has wanted to take them for awhile. I made him choose between this and the gymnastics class he was already in and he choose hip-hop (I was secretly relieve because being at the gymnastics gym with all the pushy, overeager moms that want to see their daughters be the next Olympians was driving me crazy).

School for Cole? Not so good. His teacher is very strict. She has even rubbed me the wrong way a few times and I am very understanding of teachers (for obvious reasons). He is learning to adjust his behavior to meet her expectations. She has a "zero tolerance" policy, so it has been a little rocky for him. He used to LOVE school, so it is sad to see him becoming frustrated so early on. He has lots of years left. He loves math and science but is struggling with reading and writing. Part of the issue with reading is that they don't get to choose what books they read for the most part, so usually he's bored to tears. As he improves though, hopefully he will get more free choice. He got a "needs improvement" on his handwriting on his report card. And while I'll admit it's not beautiful he already writes neater than three of the boys in my 3rd grade class. We are continuing to supplement at home, so hopefully things will get better for him.

So are you all caught up now?

On My Own

Since yesterday I have been doing my "total teach". For two-weeks we take over the class entirely. Since I have been slowly leading up to this, it hasn't been too much of a change. The major difference is that for the majority of the last few months there have been two adults in a room and now I'm flying solo. Yesterday went really well and everything ran smoothly. Today was good, too but hectic. We had a Veteran's Day celebration and guest speakers in the morning, plus the rain kept us mostly indoors. Then this afternoon in Science, I started science lab rotations which was a lot of prep work for me and took some getting used to for the kids. It was messy and fun, but tiring too! I'm exhausted.

This past few months have literally flown by and I'm sure these next two weeks will be no exception.