Bad Hair Day

Ada's hair on a good day...Ada's hair on a bad day, fresh from bed (she did not want me to take this picture)And after I have tried to do something with it. Bless her heart, her hair reacts strongly to whatever the weather is doing. I think it's going to be a pony tail day.

By the way, if you look closely in the picture above, you will see a big knot on Ada's head. This happened yesterday when I was out of the room, so I am not sure what happened. Ada keeps some sort of knot or bruise or cut on her. It's a side effect of running, jumping, and climbing 24-7. By the way, before the knot on her head, Ada had already fallen and hurt her mouth badly enough that blood was involved. Really, it's a weekly occurence.

Tutoring, tutoring, tutoring

I have just finished tutoring for the night, and I am exhausted, but Scott is not home yet, (He is watching NFL with some guy friends) and it is pointless for me to try to go to sleep without him here. I can't do it.

So...I blog.

I haven't blogged in a few days because I haven't had the energy to think of what to say. Ada is back, thank goodness, but she is a double-edged sword in that she is one big ball of energy that never stops. On top of that, she is super attached to me these days. I am guessing she senses that something is a-changing around here, and she doesn't want to give up her mama. Every time Scott tries to help her with anything--juice, bath, diapers, bed time, etc, she says very adamantly, "no, daddy, it's mommy's turn." Ya'll, it's always my turn. And this little girl of mine that normally demands to walk everywhere now wants to be carried by me. She knows that's something's coming. She has to.

Well, on top of motherhood, I have tutoring every night. And I am so thankful for the tutoring because it allows me to stay at home with Ada while bringing in a tiny bit of income every week, and let's face it, I love all things education. Truly, I loved teaching. Other than wife and mom, I was certainly created to teach. But I will eagerly give up the tutoring after Christmas as I anticipate John's arrival. I am tired, you know?

Here is my schedule each week.

On Mondays from 4:30-5:30, I tutor a middle school girl, who I will refer to as B. Middle School B. is a delight to tutor because she is a great student. She just needs a little extra help here and there. So every week, we study whatever she has coming up that week, and I help her with whatever questions she has. You know, spelling, history, simple algebra. It's an easy hour, she is polite and works super hard.

Then from 6:00-7:00, I tutor a seven year old boy, J. Seven year old J. is a math student, who is struggling BIG TIME with his multiplication tables. It's a sad situation because he has great grades in all of his other subjects, but he is failing math. And I am his tutor. Crazy, right? We are drilling, drilling, drilling the multiplication tables, and then we spend a bit of time working on longer multiplication and division. In the mean time, he continues to skip half of the problems on his tests just because he doesn't feel like doing them. So much so, that I have promised him his favorite candy any time that he leaves no problems blank on his test. He is a funny little guy, and he always makes me laugh, as he often tells me that his brain is broken. He also always has great excuses for why he didn't bring his math homework home again. It's an uphill battle with this little guy. But he is slowly learning his multiplication--he almost knows through his fours, and he has a few sets that he can fly through in less than ten seconds. We make a really big deal about that because I think much of the problem is lack of confidence.

So, that's Mondays and Wednesdays--Middle School B. and Seven year old J.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I tutor seven year old G. She's a tough one. Though she is seven, I often find myself saying the same things to her that I say to Ada--don't throw the pen across the room, don't write on yourself, look in my eyes, etc. etc. When I first started tutoring G., she could barely read at all. Getting through one page of a simple "learn-to-read" book usually involved tears on G's part. However, she now reads first grade level books on her own, and we even recently read a Beverly Cleary book together--her reading one page to my two pages. I thought we would never see progress with G, but all of a sudden she is improving in leaps and bounds. We still have really good days and really bad days, but it is exciting to see the improvement she has made. We are now working on writing, which is super tough. Getting through a two sentence answer to a question usually ends in tears, but I am not discouraged when I remember where we started with her reading.

As with anything that I do, I get very emotionally attached to my students. I just don't know how to do things in a detached way. Though I loved teaching, it always left me emotionally exhausted. I had nothing left to give at the end of the day. Tutoring has that same effect on me on a much smaller scale. I want to see progress. I want the students to feel confident. I want them to understand the joy of learning and discovery. And all of these feelings leave me with the potential for exhaustion every single night.

But, I only have another month until I give it up for a while. I will turn all of this energy to Ada and John.

By the way, I also tutor online, which is why I am just finishing for the night. But it is much less exhausting as I am sitting at home talking to a computer, so my emotions are not nearly as involved. In fact, we are looking into buying me a lap top so that perhaps online tutoring will be all I do after John is born. We'll see.

So there's a glimpse into this other part of my life other than the mothering and homemaking and such.

Back to Scottsboro, I go

I am headed to Scottsboro tomorrow morning to pick up my stinker of a girl.

I don't think I could stand one more day away from her. I feel a bit lost when she is not here. I have talked to her on the phone every day that she has been gone, but I am ready for a big hug and some quality cuddling. It has been nice to rest, rest, rest, though, and I have enjoyed lots of quality time with Scott. I am well aware that soon, very soon, we will be moving into the newborn days where we will often be parenting and sleeping and eating in shifts, so I appreciate quality time more than ever. I also now know that the newborn stage is fleeting. It won't, in fact, be that way for the rest of our lives. (No one could convince me otherwise after Ada was born. I was sure that Scott and I would never again find the time to talk or eat or even breathe.)

Good news, by the way, I got the all clear on the glucose test, so no follow up tests and no diabetes. Woo-hoo. One step closer to having this baby.

I am feeling oh-so-pregnant today. I noticed as I was tutoring tonight that I can no longer comfortably cross my legs. My stomach is simply too big. And my poor bladder. I need to move into the bathroom because I spend so much time in there. In between tutoring sessions tonight, I had to run into a gas station. I needed gasoline and a pick-me-up snack and diet coke (my energy was rapidly dropping). The gas station attendant was an older man from India, I think. He asked me how much longer I had, and I told him. He smiled very kindly at me, and he said with a strong accent, "this is a hard time, isn't it?" Something about the way he smiled at me and asked that question just made my night. He then said, "but at least it's not summer." Something tells me that he is married with children. He seemed to understand pregnancy so well, and his kindness absolutely touched my heart.

Anyway...I have nothing much to say tonight, except that our house feels extremely quiet and empty without Ada here. We need that little girl back.

A bit more from Scottsboro

I am about to head out to begin my nightly tutoring, which I can't believe I don't blog about more. It consumes so much of my time, and yet I never mention it here on the blog. Hmmm...maybe I will write about my students some time.

Anyway, I am very tired because I have been running around all day doing things I can't typically do with Ada in tow. I spent most of the day at the local outlet malls because I had a 20% off coupon (thanks, Jessica). I also wanted to walk the length of the mall twice. It's an absolutely beautiful fall day, and with third trimester closing in and the weight gain actually in control (unlike my first pregnancy), I would like to keep it that way. So, I decided to walk. And walk I did. All while searching for inexpensive fall clothes for Ada. No luck in that department, but at least I was out in the sunshine getting some exercise.

Then I headed to Target for the same reason--fall dresses for Ada. There is a dress I have my eye on, but I am waiting for it to go on sale as it inevitably will, so I didn't purchase it today. All of that to say, my feet are hurting, my body is tired from carrying this little baby around, but there is still much left to do before the day is done.

In the mean time, I wanted to share a few more pictures from this past weekend that my sister, Sarah took. I am very envious of her camera. We soon will be purchasing a new point and shoot. We have to get one before John is born. Any suggestions?

And now for Halloween

First of all, I went to the doctor today for the glucose test. I am crossing my fingers that everything comes back clear. I had no problems with Ada's pregnancy, so I don't anticipate any diabetes. Did you see Ann's comment that she got to eat candy bars and drink coke in place of that syrupy drink? I am jealous. Everything else looked good--my stomach measures just as it should, I continue to steadily gain weight;), and the heartbeat was perfect.

I was also given the papers for my birth plan and hospital pre-registration. Filling all of that out made me so excited and eager for February. It was nice to confidently fill out my birth plan. When I was filling out the plan for Ada, I called Ann on almost every question. This time, I zipped through that thing, marking answers with no question about how I want things to go on birth day. A few questions did make me laugh, like this one, "do I want to view the placenta after it comes out?" Um, no thank you. Really. Scott was with me, and we were making all kinds of jokes about that. I also asked Scott if it makes me a bad mom if I want them to clean John up before they hand him to me. Another pregnant girl sitting nearby joined in our conversation, assuring me that she wants her baby cleaned up first. It did make me feel better. Anyway...I am eager to meet this little boy. And I was telling Scott tonight that lately I feel very content and thankful to be at this stage in life--stay at home mom, doing nothing much other than hanging out at home, etc. etc. This is a new contentment for me, and I am thankful to be feeling this way. Ada is with my mom for a few days while I finish up a few more projects around the house, so Scott and I took advantage and headed into the city tonight. As we were driving through down town, headed back towards home, I realized that I didn't feel the usual nostalgia for our first year of marriage spent in midtown. I was okay to be driving away from the city to our little suburb. Thank you, Lord for these new feelings.

Anyway...I really wanted to blog about Halloween and our little Raggedy Ann. At first Ada was unsure about all of it, but when she realized that by knocking on a door and saying "trick-or-treat" she got candy, she quickly warmed up to the holiday. We went to Scottsboro because trick-or-treating is still a big deal on my parents' street. While Ann, Sarah, and I took the kids to the different houses, the rest of the family sat in the driveway handing out candy. It was quite the "block party." See for yourself.

It was a success!! And of course, the next day was the shower (another reason we spent Halloween in Scottsboro). Okay, I am so very tired, so I am headed to bed. Happy Halloween, many days after the fact.

Celebrating John

Ann (and mom and Kate and Sarah? not sure of the hostesses), hosted a small (tiny) shower for me and John this past Sunday afternoon. She called it a small gathering rather than a shower since it's the second baby. It was mostly just family--my mom, sisters, and aunt Mary Ann--though Ashley Owens Turnbull (along with Kate) and Mary Bratton also joined us.

We had coffee

cookies

and cheese strawsI ate my weight in cookies and cheese straws. They were so yummy. And I stuck a bag of leftovers in my purse for later.

I received two precious, precious outfits from Mary Bratton. It doesn't get much cuter, right?

I also received this cute, homemade wipes case from Ann. As you can see, I love it. (you can't tell, but John's name is on it in white)

And I am fully stocked with all the necessities--diapers, wipes, bibs, onesies, etc.

It is so much fun to see all the blue. And Scott didn't even mind the smocked outfits since they are size three months. I am not sure at what age he will put his foot down, but I will get away with it as long as I can. I also have a few Feltman Brothers outfits already hanging in the closet.

Tomorrow won't be as fun when I head to the doctor for the dreaded glucose test. I hate drinking that stuff. I'll be back later with a full Halloween report.

Much to Say

I have much to blog about-- a weekend in Scottsboro spent celebrating Halloween and the birth of John. But right now I am tired and headed to bed.

I just wanted to stop and say hello since I haven't blogged since Wednesday.

I'll leave you with these three. Ada loves her cousins. Can you tell?