Best. Day. Ever

This past Saturday was probably one of the best days ever. We managed to cram a whole lot of summer into just one day- probably because it was the first day that actually felt like summer.

Aliza and I started with a morning walk, where I finally visited a cute little local coffee shop and discovered they have delicious iced chai tea lattes. Aliza fell asleep during the walk so I parked her in her stroller outside and settled on the grass with a book. She only slept for fifteen minutes once we got home but I'll take fifteen minutes of uninterrupted reading- and in the sun no less!- any time these days.

Once she woke up we headed over to our local Y for swimming lessons. Aliza has gotten over her initial terror and now thoroughly enjoys the pool. Russ took videos, so I'll have to post one later so you can see the little fish she is becoming.

After swim lessons we ate lunch and then headed outside to (finally!) play with some of her fun presents she got for her birthday. Here she is with her water table:

Look! No hands! Daddy put together her special chair from Aunt Cindy, and Aliza had fun exploring it, and even sitting on it:

Next we played catch:

Finally we headed over to her Little Tykes play house:

Aliza, much like my third graders, likes to try to climb up the slide.

And we ended back at the water table for some more splashing:

After a change of clothes and a nice long nap, we headed over to our neighbor's for pizza and then to our local fireworks. It was the first time we had gone to the fireworks in our town and it ended up being quite the expedition. We had to park several blocks away and load up Aliza in the stroller then walk to a huge open field, passing vendors selling all the usual paraphernalia before settling down, a good hour and a half before the fireworks were to start, on our grassy spot. Aliza handled the fireworks like a champ, she whimpered a bit when they first started but then pointed and stared and even said "Boom!" a few times. Russ and I marveled at what an amazing little girl we had, and what suburban residents we had become.

It was a perfect summer day.....

Foot!!!

Here's Aliza, making her Mommy and Daddy laugh as she discovers her foot:

First swim lesson!

Aliza had her first swim lesson Saturday. I spent the whole week telling her all about it, eagerly anticipating getting her dressed in one of her many adorable bathing suits, watching her splash in the pool....of course, the way I pictured it wasn't exactly how it turned out. Well, parts of it were. Here she is, all dressed and ready to go and just as cute as I thought she'd be in her little bathing suit:

Can you tell that she already looks a bit unhappy? Yup. She woke up Saturday morning a bit stuffy and clingy and wasn't too happy to be put into her bathing suit. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that she has about four teeth pushing through right now. We got in the water together, Aliza and mommy, and she started screaming immediately. She also started chewing on my shoulder, and I have bite marks from her little teeth gnawing away.

I tried tempting her with some of the pool toys, but she was not to be distracted, and continued to cry....about fifteen minutes into it she finally started getting used to the water. And then she got splashed in the face.

Which of course, set her off again. Twenty minutes into a thirty minute swim lesson, Aliza finally decided to start pointing and playing a bit.

I'm hoping next week she is a little more used to the water, and able to enjoy it a bit more....

I'd have a green thumb if I didn't have an animal problem

You know those gorgeous veggies I spent a weekend planting in my garden? Well, my friendly neighborhood woodchuck has eaten half of them!

Almost all my lettuce is gone- he left behind three lone heads, which I'm convinced he'll come back for later. The cucumbers are mere stalks. And the artichoke plant my dad gave me that I hadn't gotten around to planting yet is eaten down to nubs. He even attacked my herbs! He ate my cilantro and parsley! All that's left are my carrots, buried safe beneath the ground. (At least I think they are left, so far there is no sign of them.) My arugula (just sprouting now), my pepper plants and my tomatoes.

My Dad was talking to me about a humane trap to catch the woodchuck family (probably because there are many times when I've yelled at him for trapping helpless little squirrels that like to eat his bird food). And I considered it for a bit. I mean, I would like my veggies to actually grow so we could eat them. But I just don't have the heart, not even to use a humane trap. The way I figure it, I'm putting out a free buffet, who am I to take a woodchuck away from its home for helping himself to that buffet? Plus, I kind of like that I have a family of woodchucks living in my yard. It's kind of fun watching them scurry away when I open the door. It will be even more fun when Aliza sees them, points and yells "woodchuck!" the way Russ and I do when we see them.

I guess that leaves us: woodchuck: 1 The educators: 0

Visiting mommy at work

Last week Aliza came to visit me at school....it was so wonderful to see her in the middle of the day, and incredibly difficult to say goodbye to her. She got to meet so many of my colleagues and friends, but not everyone, and I spent the rest of the day explaining to people who heard she was here that she got a little fussy and had to go home. She also got to meet the special education teacher that I work closely with and who used to work with birth to 3 year olds. She confirmed what I already knew, Aliza is, in fact, one smart cookie and incredibly verbal for her age.She also got to meet my students and, even though I am sure they were beyond excited they managed to hang on to their excitement and be incredibly sweet with her. By the end she was tired and a bit fussy, which, of course, is when we decided to take a picture!

Rainbows and butterflies?

"It's not always rainbows and butterflies, it's compromise that moves us along."

Russ and I were walking around our neighborhood with Aliza recently, chatting away....I'm not even sure what the conversation was exactly, although it probably had something to do with how to raise Aliza. As teachers we are both provided with many examples- both positive and negative- of choices parents make for their children. At the end of the conversation Russ commented on the fact that we see eye to eye. My reply? We see eye to eye on many things in our life together.

As I thought about this conversation later the truth in that statement hit me. I can remember, when I first met Russ, how easy it was. There were no games or gimmicks or silly analyzing of what he meant when he said xyz. It just was. We just were. I remember, when I first met him, how all of a sudden all of my past relationships almost seemed like a waste of time. Not that I regretted any of them, of course not, but that they were so clearly not right for me because Russ was so different, and being with Russ was so different.

Now, today, with a one year old and a career that keeps both of us rather busy, I have to say that thank god being with him is as easy as it was. Because if being with him was difficult, then there's no way we'd make it. Marriage is tough. This is something I am learning. Once you get over the rainbows and the butterflies. Once you do the big things together- the engagement, the marriage, the first house, first car.....first child.....well, what you are left with is the ordinary every day stuff. The way he'll turn on your tea pot for you on a weekend when he hears you waking up, the laundry that you fold carefully for him because you know he won't do it, the way he'll rub your back when he knows it is more sore than normal, the meals you cook that you know he'll like, the fact that he knows you hate it when cabinets are left open so he'll close them for you.....and then there are the other things: the empty soda cans that are left around the house, the way he still doesn't know how to put the garbage bag in the can so that when you go to throw something away the bag drops to the bottom, the shoes that I leave scattered over the floor so that he trips over them in the morning when he is trying to get dressed, the clothes he leaves at the foot of our bed, the way I steal the sheets when I'm cold at night.....there are those things too. It is these ordinary things that make up a life together. It is one ordinary day after another that mark the chapters of our lives....
......and it is a blessing to have these ordinary days with a man who is easy to be with.....

Weekend firsts

Aliza experienced some firsts this weekend; her first experience with (real) sand and her first taste of ice cream. Here she is checking out the sand:Her Gramps brought her some ocean water to play with and she sure had fun splashing in it:

See? LOTS of fun:

Yum! Ice cream!
It was a fun day!

Changes

A couple of weeks ago I finally put away my pumping back pack. I had been pumping at work all along, committed to nursing and feeding Aliza primarily mommy milk for the full year. But I hit a stretch were things just weren't coming out. I would pump and get 1/2 an ounce, or an ounce, and it was getting uncomfortable. I figured my body was telling me something so I eliminated that pumping only somewhat reluctantly, because more time at work when you teach 20 kids is never a bad thing. We were down to just nursing in the morning and at night.....it took me a little while to put away the back pack though. I was happy to have more time in my work day but putting the back pack away felt a little like closing a chapter of Aliza's life as a baby. No more mommy milk, on to regular cow's milk soon.....it's a transition out of babyhood and into infancy and I had to get used to it before I could put away the back pack.

Right before her one year check up with the pediatrician I also eliminated the morning nursing. I thought I was ready to get rid of both morning and night but now that the moment has arrived to do so, I realized I'm not quite ready. I think I will be soon, because teeth HURT, but she is still my little baby girl and I like the cozy quiet time at night in the dark with lullabies playing and a warm baby snuggled close.

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My tough student is in Europe until the third to last day of school. Let me rephrase that; my tough parent is in Europe. I can not even begin to express what a difference this is making in my day. Suddenly, I have time. I am (finally) feeling like the teacher I used to be; the one that had her plans set, her copies made and her homework corrected every day. I also have more energy at the end of the day so that I am not practically falling asleep while watching Aliza play at night. And my students! The atmosphere in my class is so incredibly different. They are looser, more relaxed. We are having fun and working hard and it feels great.
The family is returning just in time for a marathon parent meeting that I am dreading. The last full Friday I get to be with my students and instead I have to sit in a meeting with a parent who tells me I'm the best teacher he's ever seen to my face and then submits a report that calls my classroom toxic. It's not where I want to be. Not even a little. But at least, it will be my last meeting with this parent.

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Aliza is changing almost daily. I mean, she always was, but the changes are more noticeable now. Things like new teeth appearing in her upper and lower gums and new words being said.... it is astonishing to me and I feel like I want to savor every single second because she changes so fast. After watching my two cute nieces at swim lessons, I decided to sign Aliza and I up for lessons also. I checked out our local Y and they have classes starting at the beginning of June. I'm going to call and register her on Monday. This feels like a big girl thing; to take swimming lessons....I admit, I kind of can't wait to see her in her little bathing suit (thanks to her Nonna and her GramS she has several adorable ones) splashing in the big pool!

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We have 17 more days until summer. Every weekend I think "soon I get to spend EVERY day at home with Aliza....." I am counting down more than ever this year.....

How does your garden grow?

This past weekend I spent some much needed time in the garden....it's been neglected for quite some time now, seeing as how at this point last year I was mom to a newborn with little time for gardening. I think I planted a few tomato plants last year and that was about all I had the time or energy for. Saturday morning, Aliza and I headed to our local Agway and bought all sorts of veggies and seeds and manure and soil....even some new garden gloves and a trowel! Just the motivation I needed to get to work.....So, I walked outside and was greeted with this sight:

Pretty scary, right? That green patch? Right in the middle there? That's actually some mint that has grown wild, right in the middle of my garden. I got to work weeding while Aliza sat and played here:

After a little while she got tired of sitting, so we took a break and went for a swing:

She does love her swing!

After the swing ride, I decided to go back to hoeing and Aliza decided to come and help me: Of course, Aliza's version of help is to crawl in the dirt and pick up rocks. Which she then either handed to me, or tried to eat:

My productivity has seriously declined at this point. But, I did manage to finish hoeing by the end of Day 1:

No more weeds (but I did leave the mint!), ground all turned up and ready for the manure and soil I bought. And the veggies.

Day 2 dawned cloudy and thundering but it eventually cleared enough that I managed to get outside. I mixed in the manure and the soil and got to work planting.....things were moving considerably quicker today seeing as how Aliza was napping. However, mid way through my planting, I realized that my friendly neighborhood woodchuck would have free access to my yummy veggies since we had taken the fence down. So, I decided to stop after planting some tomato plants:What you can't see in this picture (because they are buried beneath the ground, hopefully germinating away) are carrot seeds and arugula seeds. Here is where I admit that I'm about 75% enthusiasm, 20% sweat and 5% knowledge when it comes to gardening. I have no idea if my carrots and arugula will grow, but I figured I'd give it a shot.....Hey, if I can manage to make grass grow in the ugly brown spots in our lawn, I should be able to make some veggies grow. See? You can barely even SEE the brown spots (totally bragging here, I'm pretty excited about my new grass):

I also planted some herbs that I'm rather excited about:

From left to right that's parsley, rosemary, thyme (no idea that came back every year, this is last year's thyme!) cilantro, basil and a cherry tomato plant. I LOVE fresh herbs and if I had my way, I'd have them year round.

Day 3 (ahhh, how I love three day weekends!) was once again sunny so I got to work relatively early in the morning. Russ had planned to mow and then put the fence back up so I decided my veggies would be safe. Aliza was "helping" me again, this time by flinging dirt around:

With Aliza's help I did manage to finish planting....lettuce, peppers, and cucumbers! Voila! Instant garden:

Birthday wishes

Aliza's first birthday party was a happy event....we ended up being indoors because the threat of rain seemed imminent (even though it did not actually rain), but other than that the day was absolutely perfect.

Lots of people that love Aliza to pieces came: Her grandparents: Nonna and Grosspapa, Grams and Gramps, her Aunts and Uncles: Auntie Tina and Uncle Greg and Auntie Beth and Uncle Scott, her great Grams, her favorite cousins: Cousin Juliette and Cousin Cosette, and her mommy's dear friend, Auntie Nessa and Uncle Rob. We all crowded around the two tables we had set up in our cozy house:

Aliza had the seat of honor:

After she ate, Aliza decided it was time to open presents:

Which one first?

Then, of course, she wanted to play a bit with her new toys:But we finally decided it was time for cake:

She didn't like her birthday hat as much as her mommy did:

Hmmm.....I'm not sure about this stuff, maybe I'll play with it a bit:OK, everyone else is eating it, I'll give it a try:

Wait! This stuff is yummy! Mommy, get me more!

Finally, we headed outside to play with some more of her new toys. Her Daddy and Uncle Greg and Uncle Scott and Gramps worked hard to put her new toys together:

Happy 1st Birthday!