Should you be touching me?

Most people have been very respectful of not touching my belly.  Some people ask for permission, and I look at them with puppy dog eyes and say "I don't really like that..."  and they promptly retract their hand before it makes contact with my stomach.

One person who does NOT ask permission is the dry-cleaner.  Once a week I take in Ryan's dirty work shirts and pick up his clean ones, and for the past 3 weeks, this woman has leaned her entire upper half of her body into my car in order to rub on my belly.  She asks the same thing each week while rubbing it, "How is baby?"  

"He's good," I say. 

"Next week?" she inquires about his due date.

"No, no, no, 6 more weeks."

She finally gets her upper torso out of my car and I start to drive away.  And then she asks the final question, "Boy?"

"Yeah" I say out the window as I'm already 5 feet away.

This encounter has happened 3 weeks in a row.  Same exact scenario.  I thought the allure of rubbing my belly would wear off but apparently the woman has no recollection of me.  Short of making Ryan do the dry cleaning from now on, I think I will be experiencing deja vu for the next 6 weeks.

Getting ready for baby

SNAKES!

Is there such thing as snake season?  Yesterday when Ryan and I were out in our back yard, I saw a snake about 2.5 feet long.  This is the second snake I have seen in this neighborhood in the past 10 days.  I do NOT like it!  I'm scared to go outside of my own house now!  Today I was taking out the trash and a little gecko slithered out of no where and scared the bejeezers out of me.  I'm a prisoner in my own home...

UNCLE MICHAEL came to visit unexpectedly.  I suppose I will not be caught off guard in the future...this is the second year in a row that he has come down to go to the Master's in Augusta.  Only this time he gave us 2 days notice.  While he was here we got a package in the mail from him and Kelly.  They sent us a baby swing!  I wanted to assemble it while he was here so he could see how much I appreciate it, and how cool it is.  Here is the finished product:

Another thing I have been busy working on, is trying things I find on PINTEREST.  We had a potluck at school the other day, and I made fruit shish-kabobs; a slice of kiwi in the center, a blackberry on each side of that, a raspberry on each end of those, and then a strawberry on the each end of the skewer.  It was a lot more work than just making fruit salad and throwing everything in a bowl, but well worth the time since they were fun to eat!

At my Lia Sophia party a couple weeks ago, I tried an appetizer recipe i found on Pinterest.  The website said to make mini french dips, buy a can of croissants, roll them up with roast beef and cheese, bake them in the oven, and then have us jus sauce to dip.  I tweaked it slightly and rolled up salami and provolone instead.  Delish!

My latest creation resulted from my Lia Sophia party.  I earned a ton of free jewelry and have been looking for a way to organize the jewelry I already have, for years.  I've tried jewelry boxes, necklace hangers, fishing lure boxes, etc.  I wasn't satisfied with any of it.  On Pinterest I found something to try... I went to Walmart and bought a bulletin board, some push pins, and some fabric.  I simply wrapped the fabric around the entire bulletin board, and used a staple gun to secure the fabric on the back.  Then I put a bunch of push pins in, hung my jewelry from it, and viola:

Breast feeding

Ryan and I attended "Breast Feeding Couples" on Saturday morning. 

When you walked in, you needed to sign in and grab a baby.  I, of course, being the champion of equal rights that I am, grabbed the black baby doll out of the entire pile of white babies. 

I thought my husband was going to have a heart attack.  "Courtney!  You can't take that doll!"  "YES, I can!"  "No you can't.  Are you serious right how?  What if a black couple comes in and they want the black baby?" 

Being that I do not have to explain myself or defend my actions, I promptly  turned around with the black baby and chose our seats.  It was SO funny how upset Ryan was =)  He really needs to loosen up a little....

Things we learned in the class:

1. The husband is in charge of waste management.
2. When needing to remove the child from the breast, you must stick your finger in his mouth and fish hook him off.
3. The cradle hold, the cross-cradle hold, and the football hold.
4. Babies don't cry - they sing!  And only healthy babies are able to sing, so you should be grateful each time your baby sings!

At the end of class, the instructor made the husbands demonstrate the various breast feeding techniques.  Here is Ryan practicing both the cradle hold and cross-cradle hold at the same time.  He's so cute! =)

Kindergartners are funny!

Natalie:  "Mrs. Traeger?  Is your baby going to be bloody when he comes out?"

Me:  "I think so, but I'm pretty sure they'll give him a bath."

*************

Antwon:  "Your belly - -  is so - -   BIG!"

Me:  "I know honey, I'm pregnant."

Antwon (with big wide eyes):  "You need to go home and rest!"

Me:  "I know!  Can you tell my boss that?"

*************

Natalie (again), comes up to my belly and whispers, 

"Hi Baby.  I hope you have a happy birthday."

***********

Summer:  "Mrs. Traeger, I know there's a baby in your belly, but I don't know how it got there."
Me:  "I don't know either!"

Dean of Students?

I haven't mentioned this to many people, but way back in October they made me the technology teacher for Kindergarten and 5th grade, in addition to my Curriculum Coach position.  At the semester, it changed to Kindergarten and 2nd grade.

A couple weeks ago, however, my principal started having me shadow our Dean of Students.

Today, I got my first opportunity to play Dean all by myself.  Our Dean of Students called me with about 20 minutes left to the school day and said she needed to go deal with some drama in middle school, but that she had a Kindergartener that really needed dealt with today.  She told me since the offense was "sexual in nature" that I need to suspend him for one day.  Here's how that went:

 

Knock, knock, knock.

“I need to see Jacob, please”

Jacob comes out into the hallway and we start walking.

“Your hair is crazy” he says. 

“Your hair’s crazy!” I say, and he immediately runs his hands through his hair.  “No I’m just kidding” I say.

I lead him into my office and tell him to sit down.

Some gold chocolate coins caught his eye instead.  “What are these?” he asks.  I respond with, “That’s candy for students who are really good in the computer lab.  Do you remember last time you were in the computer lab?”  He nods.  “Do you remember spitting on the floor?”  He shakes his head no.  “Well that behavior is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated again.”

“Your desk is really messy.  You need to organize it.”

“Jacob, I hear you misbehaved in the classroom today for Ms.  Daley.  Is that true?”

“No.”

“Really?  Because she said you pulled down your pants and mooned the class.  Do you remember that?”

“No.”  His eyes are wandering all around my office.

“Jacob, I need you to look at me.  Ms. Daley said you pulled your pants down, and since that’s not allowed, she told you to go into time out.  Then you said “no” and started drawing all over the desk.  Do you remember that?”

“No.”

“Really?  What did you draw on the desk with?”

“A marker.”

“A marker?!” I say really dramatically.

“Yeah but it washes off.”

“Why did you do that Jacob?”

“Because I was mad I got put into time out.”

“Do you think if you didn’t pull your pants down, you would’ve been put in time out?”

His eyes are wandering again.

“Jacob, I need you to look at me.”  He still hasn’t sat down.  He is standing at the front of my desk.

“Jacob, do you know what suspension means?”

“No.”

“That means your behavior was sooooooooo inappropriate that you are not allowed to come to school tomorrow.”

“I’m going to come to school tomorrow” he says.

“No, you’re not.  You’re not allowed to come to school tomorrow.  Because you pulled down your pants, and then drew on the desk when Ms. Daley put you in time out, you are not allowed to come to school tomorrow.  So today is Thursday, you can’t come to school on Friday.  But you can come back Monday.”

“I’m coming to school tomorrow.”

“No, you’re not allowed to.  Your behavior was so bad that you are not allowed to come to school tomorrow.  Ms. Robson will call your mom later and tell her.”

“I’ll tell her.”

“Well you can tell her too, but Ms. Robson is also going to call and let her know.”

“I’ll tell her.”

“Well you can tell her too, but Ms. Robson is also going to call and let her know.”

“I’ll tell her.”

“Well you can tell her too, but Ms. Robson is also going to call and let her know.”

 “So Jacob, Jacob look at me.”  He is looking at me but not at my eyes.  “Look into my eyes, Jacob,” I instruct, and he does.  “Why are you suspended tomorrow?”

“What’s suspended?” he asks.  I go over it again.

“Because I pulled down my pants and then drew on the desk.”

“That’s right.  And that behavior will never happen again, right?”

“Right.”

It was so fun - I loved it!!!

Cookies, Celebrity, Crazies

In South Bend, I used to host an annual Christmas cookie exchange.  Now that I am settled here in Georgia, I attempted to start up the tradition again.  I invited about 12 people, but only 2 could come.  So I changed the date and we'll see if I have any more takers.  If not, I get the hint.

On another note, I feel like Paris Hilton walking down the hallway.  No joke, kindergarteners think I walk on water.  If they had cameras, I can assure you they'd be paparazzi.  I literally cannot walk down the hallway without, "Hi Mrs. Traeger, hi Mrs. Traeger, hi Mrs. Traeger, hi Mrs. Traeger. hi Mrs. Traeger...," 18 waves, and 6 hugs.  I need to build in an extra 5 minutes to arrive where ever I need to go.  It is actually really nice!  Most middle schoolers wouldn't say a word to me unless I tripped over one of them.

On a not so positive note, there was a 7 year old girl who went missing on Friday in Canton (Canton is the city my school is in).  She was found severely beaten and sexually abused and thrown in a dumpster on Monday.  Although she didn't go to my school, we are on high alert for a crazy killer.

BUMPY

Ok, my pants do not fit any longer.  Up until this week I had been able to at least zip them up, even if I couldn't button them.  This week - no longer!  I need to go by some maternity work pants!  Here is my 16 week photo: