At Home in the Mountains

Some of you haven't had a chance to see Maddy in a while and so haven't gotten to see how she's developing physically as well as verbally and mentally. This video is a little long but shows a lot of the stuff that she is doing right now. She is so cute, it's well worth the minute and a half or two that it takes to view the video. Enjoy!

So my first week of teaching is under my belt. I have a Wednesday evening class that is 2.5 hours long and a Thursday morning class that is 1.25 hours long and requires the students to do online sessions as well. I was extremely nervous as I headed to class last night. My Wed. class is very small. I only have 5 students; therefore I only get 5/7 pay. While I'm disappointed about that, I am thankful that they didn't just cancel the class and move everyone into another session. I need the practice! Last night I arrived on campus about 30 minutes early to make copies and get my self situated in class, including getting the smart classroom computer thingy up and running so that I could use some power point slides and have them look at they syllabus online as well as watch a short video about how not to write a paper. All of this I had set up about 10 minutes before it was time to start. My first student came in and we chit chatted for a bit. Then another student poked her head in ...

tomorrow at 5:15. Tomorrow I will give my first English lesson as a teacher. Yikes! Nervous. Check. Prepared. Check. Excited. Check. I'm just praying that I can get through the butterflies, make a good first impression, and connect with my students. I don't really care if my students think I'm the coolest teacher in the world. I'm an adjunct. That's pretty much not going to happen. But I do hope that I can impress on them the importance of learning how to read and write for college and make class somewhat enjoyable and profitable. The classes I hated the most in my college career were ones that I felt were a complete waste of time. I also hope that I can avoid the mistakes of teachers I have severely disliked: too much personal information, seemingly arbitrary grading practices, disorganization, apathy, etc. I'm very interested to see what the semester brings and am looking forward to learning about teaching as I teach as well as relearning some things about rea...

 A few more pics from our time at Brad and Cindy's. Maddy loved Bethany's bumbo. She sat in it constantly while we were there. The funniest thing was when she ate baking soda in Bethany's room so I made her bring the bumbo into the kitchen where we were playing cards. Next thing I knew Maddy had taken off. I looked down the hall just in time to see her scoot-booking it into Bethany's room with the bumbo on her lap. It was one of the funniest sights I've ever seen in my life. I was laughing so hard I was crying. She sat the bumbo in the middle of Bethany's floor, pulled a graham cracker out, and started leisurely eating the graham cracker while looking around at the pictures on Bethany's walls. Priceless.  Shoulder ride!  Being silly with Ramen noodles.  Bethany looks like a little cherub baby after her bath.  Strong girl!  Excited about another walk.  Bethany helping her mom play canasta. Christmas Part III  It finally turned nasty and s...

Bethany and Aaron relaxing of boppy pillows  Get ready for picture overload. On Sunday we went back over the mountain to Denver. There were some predictions that it would be snowing over Vail Pass so we were a little worried but the roads were perfect the whole way and our newly repaired car did great. We arrived at Brad and Cindy's around 4 and got to spend a relaxing Sunday afternoon watching the rest of the Bronco game. They won...not that it mattered. Bethany had grown so much. She had progressed from the newborn I met in October to a chubby cheeked baby who loved to smile, laugh, be propped in a sitting position, and practice standing up. The girl did not want to sit down! If she could get someone to hold her in the standing position, trying to bend her to get her to sit down again was like trying to bend a steel beam. She is a strong girl! This pic gives a false impression. Mostly Maddy tired to take toys away from Bethany instead of sharing them with her I love Aun...

So I'm interrupting the Christmas posts to give an update. Maddy went to see the endocrinologist yesterday. I was really nervous and already kind of mad about the appointment. (Basically I was prepared to tell the guy to go jump off a cliff in no uncertain terms.) Well when we got to the appointment we gave him some information we'd printed off about growth in arthrogryposis kids. Maddy had grown quite a bit lengthwise since she last saw him and was staying pretty close to the growth curve on that and her head size is on the chart still. The doctors concern with her weight in the beginning was that she would stop growing tall as well as head size after awhile but that hasn't happened, so our pediatrician is finally starting to relax about her weight a bit. Anyway, it was so weird because the endocrinologist almost acted like we were hypochondriacs for being in his office. Last time he was suggesting we make a decision about growth hormones. This time he was talking about ho...

 Just a few more great pics from our Christmas on the Western Slope. This is Maddy making sugar cookies at Grandma Kim's. She had a blast. She especially loves pouring on the sprinkles.  The finished product.  This is a picture of us packed into Gram's car after our Isuzu broke down.