Busy, Busy, Busy!

Life has gotten very busy lately. It's hard to believe that it's been about a month since I posted anything. Time goes by so quickly these days.

I had fall break the second week in October. It was so nice to be able to stay at home with Isaac for a whole week! We did all kinds of things. We traveled to Savannah so I could go to the doctor and eat lunch with my mom and grandpa. We took walks at the park, played at the house, and read stories. That weekend, we took Isaac to Mrs. Rosie's house for a fall festival. We dressed him up like Superman, and he looked so cute! She invited a bunch of her friends who have small children and had all kinds of games for the kids. Mr. Mike even did a hayride, and Isaac really enjoyed it. He normally nurses in the afternoon, but he was having so much fun that he forgot all about it. We went to my mom's later for her birthday party, and he slept the whole way there.

After the week of fall break, I took my students to Jekyll Island for their study trip. We were gone from Wednesday morning until Friday evening. Isaac is still nursing, so I didn't feel like I could be away from him overnight yet. So Wes brought Isaac down on Wednesday night. There wasn't an extra room for us to stay in at the 4-H Center, so we stayed at the Days Inn just two miles away. That was good and bad at the same time. It was good because we had more privacy, and I was able to take a nice, long shower and sleep in a comfortable bed. It was bad, though, because I had to be at the 4-H Center by 7:30 in the morning, and I couldn't leave until the students were settled in for the night. That was at about 10:15, so that made for a very long day. The students had classes and breaks in between. I didn't really get a break though, because in between their classes I was changing dirty diapers and feeding my baby. So needless to say, I was exhausted when we got home on Friday night. All in all, it was a good trip though, so I was thankful for that.

We went to Jekyll last weekend too - this time for a writing retreat. This was something I did of my own volition, through the Georgia Southern Writing Project. We could work on anything we wanted the whole weekend. I chose to work on rewriting my 7th graders' Washington, D.C. booklet. I didn't get done as much as I wanted, but I still made good progress. I hope to be finished with the booklet in a couple weeks. In between writing sessions, we had some good family time. It was very relaxing, and welcomed after such a busy week the week before.

This week, I've been wide open with work. This election year has definitely been historic to say the least, and I couldn't miss this opportunity to teach my students about the election process. For the last couple of weeks, I've been teaching my students about the elections, campaigning, the duties of President, etc. On Tuesday, we held a school-wide mock election. For the remainder of the week, I've been busy trying to get papers graded. Progress reports go out next week. I can't help but find myself wondering how we're already almost halfway through the school year.

Isaac is growing so much too. He's maintained his weight for the last few weeks, but he's really filling out his 12 month outfits now. Last Sunday, after we got back from Jekyll, he crawled for the first time. That was exciting! I was afraid I was going to miss that first, since I'm working full-time. He'd been crawling backwards for a few weeks, and he'd rocked back and forth on his knees like he was getting ready to go forward. Then just like that, he started crawling forward.

Isaac is also pulling up on things. He can pull himself up to standing when his crib rail is all the way up. I'm guessing it's just a matter of time before he starts taking some steps. I hear some people say they can't wait until their children start walking, but I can. I already keep a close eye on him, but I'll have to watch him like a hawk when he can walk. Just thinking about all the stuff he can get into scares me. But, everyone has to do it sometime.

Isaac hasn't said any new words lately. Now, he mainly says "mama," "dada," and "bye-bye." It seems like he knows what the words mean too. He says mama and dada discriminately, and he says bye-bye when someone is leaving.

He will be nine months old on the 24th, and that means just a few short months until he's one year old. I'm already thinking about the party. I've been thinking about it for a couple months, but I haven't made any firm decisions on what we're going to do yet. I know he won't remember much of it, but I still want to make it a special day.