It's a Love Hate Relationship

With Halloween so close it got me thinking about teaching school. I was reminded of the things I loved and hated the most about being a teacher, one being Halloween parties. October was a rather difficult month all around because of parent/teacher conferences and such. Plus, it wasn't the beginning of the year anymore so the review was over and it was time to get into more challenging material. Then to top it off you had Halloween. Here is my list of loves and hates:

Hate:
1. The day after Halloween.
This was always dreadful because the kids were in the most rotten moods. They usually had a sugar crash and were cranky from staying up late the night before. It's best to just take it as an easy going day.

2. Coming up with a last minute Halloween costume 5 year olds would understand.
I never mastered this one. Once I was a mad scientist. The kiddos just liked the crazy hair and didn't know what the test tubes around my neck were. Then I was a girl from the 80's. Again, they were impressed with the hair, and very confused about the rest.

3. School Halloween Carnivals
My school had the student council put together a carnival for the kids. It was a joy for the children and a disaster for the teacher. Keeping track of your class was a nightmare alone, not to mention the sad kids that didn't get a prize or got too scared in the "haunted house".

4. Parent Helpers
Although I am sure many of you are, or once were parent helpers, it is often quite stressful to have parents in the classroom. I am grateful for the parents that helped but it takes a lot of planning to have things ready for them to "help" with.

Love:
1. Singing and teaching fun Halloween songs.
My personal favorites are Witches Brew, Purple People Eater, and freeze dancing to Monster Mash. It is quite hilarious to watch my classes try and sing the words to Purple People Eater!

2. Homemade costumes.
What happened to kids making their own costumes? When I was little part of the fun was to see how other kids created their batman (or whatever) costume. I had a homemade astronaut one year that everyone was mistaking for a robot. The poor little guy was very frustrated.

3. The kids being so surprised when five other little boys from our class were also Power Rangers.
How did they get the same costume as me?


Here alone you can see 4 Power Rangers. Red is by far the coolest!

4. When students came in last year's costume because they either ran out of time or forgot to get a costume.
I had a little boy that was definitely wearing a year old dragon. With shoulders hunched and way too much leg showing he was determined to wear his costume all day.

5. Kids wearing super warm costumes while dancing.
With their bright red cheeks and beads of sweat dripping, they had to stick it out because they didn't bring any clothes to wear under their winter weather costume.

Welp, there you have it. In case you ever plan on being a teacher you now know some things to expect.

Mr. Jack O' Lantern

Mr. Jack O' Lantern is very round and fat! That is part of a Halloween song that we would sing in school.
I thought I better post my "visiting a pumpkin patch" pictures before the season was over. We went to the Scarecrow festival with all the cousins. My cute niece performed a dance and all the kids played in the bounce houses. Olive, well, she slept. But it was fun to be there.



Here is the cute group sans Olive.

They had some mighty large pumpkins to chose from.


I had to prop her up between two big pumpkins but it was worth it.

Here are the babes. Olive's cousin Tommy is 6 months older than her. He is so sweet and gentle to her, like her understands that she is a little baby. You can see him gently stroking her. How adorable is that?

The kid and the cat

I decided it was high time I get a picture of Olive with our other baby: kitty. This was not an easy task. Renegade is the definition of scaredy cat. He is very scared of little bugs outside, thus he is petrified of Olive and usually will not go near her, especially when she is awake and moving. I don't think he has quite figured out what she is. He is probably waiting for when this strange little "creature" will leave. Since Olive can't sit on her own I had to be kinda creative how to get them together. Every time I put him next to her I only a few seconds before he would jump away. He would cry out and spread his legs apart whenever I picked him up to put him back. I had to learn the hard way to close the door and trap him in after he escaped and I had to chase him around the house. This was the best shot I could get, but I think it will suffice. You can't quite tell, but he is definitely bigger than her!

Blessing dress

Here are the pictures of Olive's blessing dress. My mom spent hours making a beautiful dress for her. It turned out so perfect! Scott did a wonderful job giving her a blessing. He also took these amazing pictures. She is lucky to have such a great dad.

Uh oh

I always said I was not going to be one of "those" moms that would take pictures just because their kid was wearing a cute outfit. I have become more accepting of "them". Now I see that it is hard to resist. When your little one looks this adorable you just have to document it! And its not like I don't have the time.

The Binks

At our house we call the pacifier the binks. We have lots of nicknames for things around here. We call bottles the botts, Olive is baby girl, Renegade (our cat) is Kitty (even though there is nothing very kitten-ish about him anymore, he probably weighs 8 or 9 pounds more than Olive.) We call diapers the diaps, and poopy diapers are the stinks.


Back to the point of this post. I currently have a love/hate relationship with the binks. On the one hand I love the binks because Olive loves the binks. She is not really attached to it, but it does sooth and comfort her when we give it to her. The great part is that she is not very particular about which binks she gets, she will suck on anything. Once in her mouth, she will fall asleep in seconds. And the binks is a lifesaver at keeping her occupied if it is feeding time and we can't quite get her food.
Now the down side. Although Olive is good at sucking on a bink, she is horrible at keeping it in her mouth for more than 10 seconds. She apparently is an overly active sucker. This is especially problematic when she wakes up in the night. I will put the binks in her mouth, and it envietably falls out once she is asleep. She wakes up every time it comes out. Or if she is very tired she forgets that the binks is already in her mouth and starts crying. It is quite frustrating. In the delusions of the night I imagine the invention of a strap for the binks that will wrap around her head to prevent it from falling out. I am positive it is unsafe in reality. So, I try to not use this great tool unless nothing else will work. I am hoping though, that as she grows up she will be more skilled at keeping that binks in. Fortunately Olive has been such a great sleeper that we rarely have to put her back to sleep in the middle of the night anymore. She goes 7 hours straight! I guess this post isn't very relavent anymore.

Here is a picture I find hilarious. It says to me "Mom, enough pictures already!" It does showcase her "pensive eyebrows" look that is a classic Olive expression.