Mom’s Stuff:
Well, I just shipped of my National Board portfolio. The National Board is an organization that teachers apply to for certification. As a teacher, having National Board certification is a professional accomplishment. I won’t know if I passed for quite a while, but just shipping off this work was a huge accomplishment. As I went into work today I was thinking about how shipping this portfolio off felt similar to finishing my master’s program a couple of years ago. On one hand, there was less work involved in this portfolio than a master’s, but on the other hand I had to be totally self-motivated to complete this portfolio project. As I was making this comparison I realized something else. I started my master’s program around the same time that I started to get pregnant the first time – and I accepted my master’s diploma while the G-man and a two-month old LP watched. In fact, much of my master’s synthesis was written with LP snoozing either in the infant swing or strapped to my chest while I attempted to type without disturbing his slumber. Similarly, I started this National Board Certification process when the G-man and I were trying for kiddo number two. And when I walked into the post-office today I was actually waddling along, since I ‘m six months pregnant with LP’s little bro or sis. As I reflect on these two professional accomplishments being so closely linked with personal changes, I’m starting to wonder if I always needed some kind of pregnancy project. Something to drive me professionally while I was expanding our family, to help me tie these two parts of my life together. I’m still working on the home-life balance thing, but I’m actually quite ok if my personal version of “nesting” involves research and reflective writing about my instructional practice instead of painting the nursery. And, as the G-man said tonight, who knows? If we ever wanted a third kid, I might have to go for a PhD just to round out the process 🙂
LP’s Stuff:
In the month since I last posted, LP has started to string together two and three-word sentences. These mostly consist of “mama-hep” (translation: mother I would like to “help” you right now, which you will let me do even though I will mostly likely be in the way, because you love me so) and “me-go-bao” (translation: I desire a trip to the park if that can be accommodated at this point) and “ee-nana” (translation: I want to eat that banana damnit!)
LP is also starting to get better at drinking will a regular cup. He will drink water and soymilk pretty well out of a wide-mouthed cup, and he is super proud of himself while he does it. Other than a mishap last night where the experiment of turning the cup upside down went horribly awry, he is doing pretty well with this!
Food Stuff:
Thank god for the G-man. He not only proof-read all of my portfolio entries and put up with my freaking out about this National Board process, but he also manages to pull together a fantastic dinner every night! Last week we had snow chili from “Easy Beans,” Lentils and caramelized onions with rice and chickpea cutlets with piccata sauce (just to name a few). Tonight we picked up burritos after going by the post office, so the G-man made some amazing brownies to celebrate. I LOVE fudgy brownies, and these are best vegan ones I have ever had! He got the recipe from this blog – he made the regular ones, not the gluten-free ones. Sooooo good!
http://ohsheglows.com/2011/10/19/vegan-brownies-two-ways/
Video:
Check out LP having a good ole time with his trains! (His grandpa will be quite proud!)
