Dancin' Dora Days

We finally took Leah to Paramount's Carowinds! They have a section called Nickelodeon Central (Nick is where Dora, Blue's Clues, and Diego are created) with lots of rides and shows for young kids. We went on the carousel, Dora's train ride and the Lazy Town Sporticopters. We tried to go on Boots' Balloon Race but someone had gotten sick on it. Maybe that was a hint that a 17 month old should not be on that ride. :) Anyway, there was a show called Dora's Sing-Along Adventure and Leah LOVED it! She was a little wary at first, but then she started responding and dancing. She would sit on her bottom and bounce her legs. At the end of the show they did the chicken dance. Leah really tried to keep up but of course she couldn't. It was so cute to watch her shake her bottom and flap her arms. I will post a picture as soon as I upload them.

On another note, Rhiannon West (a good friend) will be starting a job share with me on November 1st. I will watch her son, Ty (almost 8 months) in the mornings from 7:30-11:20. She will come home and I will leave and work from 11:40-3:30. We live 5 minutes from work. She will watch Leah in the afternoons. I am hoping it works out and it is easy to switch at lunchtime. I will let you know this weekend how it went.

Another week in the Gallers household...

This picture was taken at the Aw Shucks Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch. We went this past weekend. There was a general store with snacks, a hayride, a hay bale "maze" for the kids to climb, two corn mazes, a pumpkin patch, and a mini-log cabin. The kids had so much fun running, climbing, and rocking in chairs on the porch of the cabin. In between the two corn mazes there was a path through the woods. Along the path was an outhouse looking building. We stopped to take pictures and this was one of Leah peeking out of the hole in the door.

Yesterday was my first day at work. It was a teacher workday, so I didn't meet my students yet. But the person who had my job before me kind of left things in a disarray. Things were incomplete and disorganized. So I spent yesterday organizing and finishing. Today will be the day I meet some of the kids (I have different ones on different days) and get to know what they are capable of. I have 5th-9th graders. It will be interesting and fun to work with these older kids, Maybe it will push me to work with them when I go back full-time one day.

Just a word to tell you how amazing my daughter is. :) Today she was talking about bananas. The conversation went like this:

Leah: Nanas?

Me: No baby, there are no more bananas.

Leah: Daddy?

Me: Yes, Daddy ate all the bananas.

Leah: Mommy eat?

Me: Yes, sometimes Mommy eats bananas too.

Leah: Mommy eat nanas.

Three word sentence!!!! The kid is brilliant! She is getting to know colors a little too. She can pick blue out anywhere (just like her momma). The other colors get called out randomly until she lands on the right one. If I say "One," she will say "Two, Tee." She can climb up the 3 ft wall with holes in it at the playground with minimal help (we remind her to look at her feet and put them in the holes). She interacts with the TV now, saying yes, no, map, and backpack to Dora when they ask the kids to call it out. I love watching her do and say things everyday because you never know what will come out of her mouth. Those of you who haven't seen her in a while, wait til you do! You will not believe how much of a little girl she is now.

P.S. Right as I finished this entry, Leah said "Poo poo?" (I think everything is a question) I put her on the potty and we read her monkey book. I couldn't see anything in the potty while she was sitting on it, but when she got up, I saw she had peed! She apparently knew something was going on down there. :)

A day to remember

When Leah woke up from her nap, she said "Poo Poo?" So I thought she had pooped and I took her to change her diaper. Her diaper was clean and I was about to put it back on when I noticed she was starting to go to the bathroom. We ran downstairs and I put her on her potty. She didn't really want to stay there, but we read Eight Silly Monkeys and by the end, she had POOPED on the POTTY! I took a picture of the actual poop too (such a first time mommy). This picture was taken after everything was all over. She had been running around while I looked for the camera. I asked her to sit back on the potty and say cheese and she did. It showed a little too much for comfort so I blurred out the inappropriate areas. :)

My baby is so big now!

Various & sundry items

This past week I did not follow Weight Watchers at all. I just ate what I wanted when I wanted. At the weigh-in today I was nervous, I thought for sure I gained 5 lbs. Only 0.4! I am back on the horse as of today so I can keep losing and meet my goal before Christmas.

In other news, I had a job interview on Monday at a charter school called Union Academy. I know you are thinking, job? I thought she was staying home with the baby. Well, all my thoughts on that are in a previous post if you are interested. AND we just had to lower the price on our FL house (yet again) another 30K. So money will be tight for a bit. Anyway, the position was described to me as a full-time 5th grade english teacher in a middle school setting, which would be really fun because I loved teaching middle school. I spoke with the assistant principal on the phone and she asked several times, "Are you sure you are interested in coming back to work?" I convinced her and we set up the interview. Over the weekend, Mike and I got to talking about me working again and I got really sad about it. I really DON'T want to work full-time and leave Leah all the time, especially now that she would know I was gone. I don't want all the stress and pressure of that kind of position. So I called the AP before the interview and said all of these things, but also said I am still looking for possible part-time/subbing work. She said to come in anyway.

SO I go to the interview. They really liked me. They even entertained the possibility of splitting the position so that I would only have to work half-days. During the interview they brought in a lady who is in charge of the Exceptional Children department (EC). She needs people to co-teach in classrooms to help those with learning disabilities and also possibly pull small groups. She is willing to take part-time or full-time.

In the end they found someone to take the full-time 5th grade position, but they still want to talk to me about the EC position. I haven't discussed it with the EC coordinator yet, but I think it might be fun. She had said I could kind of set my own schedule. I am looking forward to hearing from her.

That has been my crazy life this past week. We had a wonderful weekend, playing in the cul-de-sac, laying by the fire, going shopping, etc. Mike got to spend lots of quality time with Leah and allowed me to do my own thing quite a bit. I LOVE my husband! :)

Update: I have a job! I took that EC job from 10:45-2 everyday. Leah will either stay with Laurie or my other neighbor Kim. I love the hours and I love that everyday will not be the same AND that there are NO sub plans to write when you are out! I start October 18th (Wed) and I do three days of shadowing/learning before I officially have to deal with kids on the following Monday (23rd). So there you have it. The best of both worlds, as long as the job works out and I enjoy it. Keep your fingers crossed!

Next on ER...

So this weekend has been an adventure, so to speak. As you all may or may not know, Laurie is pregnant (due in MAY). Long story short, she has a history of blood clots. She went on vacation last week and spent many hours on buses and planes. She noticed pain in her leg that seemed to move around. I suggested it may be a blood clot and we were off to the ER Friday night at about 7pm. Got home at midnight. It was a clot but they said superficial. So she is watching it now and back on her blood thinners. First night of fun.

On to the next story. A few days ago Leah's left eye was had yellow/greeney goop coming out of it non-stop. Then she started coughing at night. She threw up a bunch of mucus one night. Had a low grade fever at night for a few nights. Then yesterday (Saturday) the other eye started gooping and she was complaining about her ear. We noticed a yellow crust around the opening of her ear. Of course I started researching and came up with ruptured eardrum. So I took her to the urgent care clinic (Mike finished watching the Gator game). Turns out to be a sinus infection. No ear infection. So we have meds now and hopefully she will be better soon. She slept well last night after we finally got home at almost 9pm. We shall see.

That was my fun with sickness weekend. It HAS been very nice cold weather here and rainy too. We had a fire going in the fireplace ALL day yesterday, which was so cozy. The rain is kinda nice too, makes you want to cuddle up. I hope all of you Floridians get to cuddle up sometime this winter!

The Halfway Point

Just a quick note to tell you all that I have lost a total of 12 lbs, reaching halfway to my 25 lb goal. I can't believe with the weekend I had, that I lost any at all. But I think with all the exercising, something has to give and that is FAT! :) Thanks to all of you out there giving me support every week. It's nice to hear the encouragement.

On another note, congratulations to Nikki for her completed triathalon. I am so proud of her.

Reunion Weekend

We had such a good time this weekend in Tennessee. One of my very good friends in high school, Lynn (Sparrow) D'Amico was our hostess. We stayed with her, her husband Kris, and their 4 month old son Holland. Friday night we went to the homecoming football game for our high school. It was strange to be in the same place we have been so many times, but feel so out of place there. I saw many people I had not seen for 12 years (I moved away after sophomore year). As cool as that was, after doing the catching up bit, we really didn't have anything to say to each other. Thank goodness for Leah, she provided lots of topics of conversation. :) After the game, we went home and Lynn and I drank wine til the wee hours and gossiped about everyone.

The next day began with a lovely breakfast in downtown Franklin. We walked there from the D'Amico's house (only a half mile). Then we stopped at the toy store to get Leah something new. After that, the guys watched the babies while Lynn & I went shopping for snacks and jewelry. People arrived at about 4pm for Lynn & Kris's pre-party. That was really fun because it was just people I knew. Kris made margaritas and cosmos to get things started. One of my ex-boyfriends was there and is about to be a father himself. That was an interesting conversation. :) After a brief bout with shyness, Leah ran around and begged for snacks. That evening we put Leah to bed (Lynn's parents stayed with Leah & Holland) and headed over to the reunion. It was held at The Factory. That part was okay; again I didn't know what to say to many of the people there. We ditched the reunion after about a hour and a half or so and met up some people at a pool hall/bar/restuarant called Beethoven's. We stayed there until about 1am drinking and visiting with friends. Mike really got to know my ex-boyfriend, David, who he compared to Cha-nan-da-ler Bong (from friends). It was a riot.

That night Leah woke up when we got home. We were sleeping in the same room as her. She stood up and said "Mama? Dada?" and cried until we put her in our bed, where she proceeded to thrash around til 6am. Mike was the best husband ever and took her out to play so I could sleep til 8:30. We all laid around til naptime, then we all (I do mean all) napped. Once we got dressed, we headed over to Monell's (a family style dining restaurant) in the old, old jail. It was so yummy! We ate: (no WW for me this weekend!) fried chicken, pork loin, mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn pudding, cucumber salad, bean salad, cole slaw, chocolate pie, and sweet tea. I was in southern cooking heaven! After a late lunch, we proceeded to Lynn's friend's parents farm to take pictures with pumpkins and see their house (some of which was built in the 1790's). Then on the the airport.

Leah was great on the plane. She colored with her Color Wonder Markers, watched Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go on DVD, and snacked. We are glad to be home, but really loved Franklin. It has the ideal situation for us. The downtown is quaint and full of shops, restaurants and bars. Within 10 minutes of downtown is any restaurant you could want and a huge mall area. We would like to find that in NC.