Life at BELL has settled down somewhat. I still have my momentary, "Why in the world am I doing this?" thoughts and I still think the program needs some serious organizational help, but all in all, I'm enjoying it more. After the holidays, they combined the 5th and 6th grade classes (because the 5th graders didn't have a certified teacher in their room.) This has proved to be a bit difficult, mostly because the grades are following two different curriculum, so it's basically resulted in me working with the 5th graders and the teacher in the room taking on the 6th graders. It works OK, but I don't think any of the kids are getting the full benefit of how the program is supposed to work. But, I'm actually kind of enjoying my 5th graders. They're trouble-makers, but the kind of trouble-makers that think they're much worse than they actually are. So far, this mostly means that they do things like when I ask them to write stories using new vocabulary words, they write them about each other and how one of them throws like a girl, or something to that effect. Or they tell each other to shut up and then they say, "Ohhhh, you said the s-word."
One of my favorite boys in this class (we'll call him "T") apparently told his mother that the kids don't really do anything at BELL, so the first day he got moved over to my room, she stopped in and said that she was thinking about pulling him out since they weren't doing anything. I explained that he had just been moved into this room and he'd been working on stuff that day. She decided to keep him in for awhile and see how it goes. So since then, I've been on "T" reminding him to do his work, stay on task, etc so that he can't tell his mom he's not doing anything. On Tuesday, he finally looked up at me and said, "Man, Ms. D, you're on me like a tattoo." I've been using that phrase ever since.
Life at home is good too. Lily is still constantly entertaining me. Some recent comments that have made me laugh have been:
- Yesterday we were playing "horsey" and she fell off my back. I asked if she was OK and she jumped up and yelled, "I'm TUFF!"
- When I was gone one evening last week, she went over to Irie to pet her and said, "Don't worry, Irie. Your mommy be home soon."
- She also calls me Miss Ingrid about half the time which I find hysterical. It's like she needs that identifier, but she hasn't figured out "Aunt" yet. She also has completely mastered saying Ingrid correctly now.
- And also how she picks up key words/phrases from the TV. She'll be seeming to pay no attention to the TV, but as she's playing, she'll suddenly repeat something that was just said and keep on going. It can result in some pretty funny commentary.
As I'm becoming a little more concerned over what comes next (work, where to live, etc), I'm still greatly enjoying my time in Baltimore. Whether it's Duckpin bowling, volleyball, happy hours after work, or trips to uniquely Baltimore places - I'm keeping busy and thoroughly enjoying getting to know people here. And still finding time to plan a few day get-away with Sarah and Allyson for early March.
Irie has become increasingly spoiled and has progressed from being fine with being left in her crate to being ok when left in the basement, to being ok with being left in my room alone at night to now insisting that she be with people at all times. This has created some issues since she's a total pain when she decides that she doesn't want to be alone. It remains to be seen how this will work out, but one thing is for sure, Irie has certainly adopted Carl and Kathleen as "her people".
And, yes, everything is going great with Ryan. I'm not sure how I found such a sweet boy, but I'm glad I did. :-)
And that, my friends, is the extent of my random recall for today.
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