The cat's out of the bag

Hubby got home late which means no picture. So… the 21 week update will have to be published later. However; today my little people found out! It’s no great story or anything good like I dreamed about when it was too late (I will get to that story) but at least now they know.

We were doing math {weird time to tell them, I know} and the lesson was about comparing sizes. There were 3 bears on the screen when a student said “It’s like a bear life cycle. A baby one, then it gets bigger and then even bigger to have another baby.”

2^nd student chimed in: “Like Mrs. Snow was a baby and now she is grown-up.”

3^rd student kind of finished #2’s thought process: “Yeah, Mrs. Snow was a baby, then a kid, now a grown up and then she will get a baby and it all starts over.”

With a story like that, I just took it and ran with it saying, “You know what? You’re right! I will get a baby soon.”

They sort of looked at me and then I told them I will be having a baby in July. When I told them, you would have thought they were going to get to keep the baby. They were so excited. “I’m so happy!” Some of them even got up and jumped around a little. A few of the girls were even hugging each other saying, “I’m so excited!” It was really sweet.

Then we took a class vote to see if boy or girl won. It was about even. I told them it’s a girl by showing them Tobie’s Think Pink picture and the girl’s got real excited again. One little boy got upset that Snowflake isn’t going to be a boy.

I was then asked what her name was. I told her for now we are calling her Snowflake because we haven’t decided yet. They laughed when I told them that Mr. Snow suggested ‘Santa Claus’. When they realized Santa Claus was a boy name, one of little girls said, “That’s a boy name. how ‘bout Mrs. Santa Claus?” Other names that were suggested were: Cutie Pie, Ashley, and Sparkle. I told them I would tell Mr. Snow their suggestions.

Before we left for lunch, I overheard some friends playing. One has a baby in her too. I made sure that I sent home a note telling the parents “that we are expecting our first child, a little girl, in July” and that “there has already been talk of them having babies too. I just want you to be aware so you are prepared to answer any questions how you choose.”

They never mentioned it the rest of the day but I am glad they know and was glad to see them excited about it.

On to the dream I had… Last week, my kindergarten friends were in charge of Rise and Shine, our morning assembly. Several of them did memorize their part like I asked but even the ones that didn’t, got up there and spoke clearly in the microphone. Anyways, Thursday night, I dreamed that I had told my kids about Snowflake and then told them to wear pink to school on Friday. In doing this, they would have known Snowflake is a girl before all of the teachers so it would have been how I let the teachers know she is a she. BUT, I dreamed that one night too late.

PS- the friends did a great job at Rise and Shine! They received many compliments on a job well done. 

A little change of plans

While doing calendar time with my kids on Thursday (3/1), my phone rang. I took it out of my pocket just so it would quit ringing and thought I recognized the number. After my kids settled in to working I checked again and was right, I did know the number. It was the doctor’s office. My heart sank. I thought, “Why is the doctor calling me? I am not supposed to see him for 2 more weeks.”

It was a good hour before I could listen to the message and when I did; my heart sank a little more. At first. On the message was the doctor, not a nurse or receptionist. The doctor.

He was calling to tell me he had “looked at the ultrasound pictures. There is one baby in there, doing everything it should. Everything looks great. One small thing is the due date is just a hair later, the 18^th instead of the 12^th.”

Good grief! Talk about freaking a girl out! At my next appointment, I will be telling them to warn the first timers that the doctor will call after looking at the ultrasound pictures.

So, to clear up any confusion, the weekly Snowflake updates will seem a little off late but that is because our due date has changed. July 18th is the new date which means our 21 week update will be on Tuesday, March 6th.

Tobie says...

On Leap Day, Wednesday, February 29^th, 2012, we found out that our little Snowflake is a little girl!

We were scheduled to go in at 7:45 but then got rescheduled for 3:30. When I got to the doctor’s office, Hubby was there waiting. I looked down and saw that he was still wearing his work boots.

I said: You’re going back to work when we’re finished?

Hubby: Um, yeah.

Me:  You mean you don’t want to go buy our little Snowflake something now that we will know if it is a boy or girl?

Hubby: Well, I didn’t say that.

Me: But you’re really going back to work and not shopping?

Hubby: I guess you could have told me you wanted to go shopping afterwards.

So, as I see it, I will have to tell him everything. I just figured we only find out what our first child is one time and maybe he would want to spend the rest of the day with me. Note to self: tell him he will be available in July when Snowflake arrives. J

Anyways, we were called back to our little ultrasound room. I had already been told by Preston’s cousin, who goes to the same doctor, that T, the ultrasound lady, is very dry. She told us what she was going to do and to tell her if there were any pictures we wanted to take home. After about 3 minutes of being in awe, seeing there actually is a human in there, I said, “Would you just take pictures of what you think is cool that parents will want?” So she did. We told her we had been calling the baby Snowflake and she sort of looked at us like, ‘that’s kind of silly,’ so I followed up with, ‘it goes with the last name.’ Then she understood. (See… dry. Other things were said throughout to confirm this but she was also very nice!)

After looking around a bit and explaining some of what we were seeing she said, “Are you looking for a gender today?” We told her we were and of course Snowflake immediately locked the knees together. She asked us if we had any guesses on boy or girl. I told her I had no idea and I never really did because I was afraid to say it was one thing and it turn out to be the other. Neither one of us told her about Hubby’s day of the week theory. She asked what other people thought and I told her several teachers at school thought it was a girl and that our friend’s Magic 8 ball said it was a girl too. Then I told her Robin was curious if the doctor’s Magic 8 ball was as accurate as hers. :)

After poking and wiggling, I was sent to “empty my bladder, wiggle down the hall, jump around and talk to that baby while you’re in there.” I came back and knees were still locked. Then I had to roll to my left, which put my back to the screen. When I rolled, Snowflake rolled with me, which is not what T wanted. Then I had to roll part way to my right (because she still had to have room to move her wand) and that is when she froze the screen, made a little circle on it and said, “And that’s the labia. You’ll see those little ridges the first time you change her diaper.” I looked over at Preston in time to see his eyes welled up at the sight of knowing Snowflake is a little girl. She will be the luckiest girl in the world to have him as a Daddy.

Snowflake's profile

Snowflake's little footprint

To maintain Snowflake's modesty, I won't be posting her girl parts. I've got to start her out right... they are not for sharing.

After the appointment, Hubby went back to work and I headed out shopping. I picked up this cute little outfit for the Daddy.

Shopping had to be quick since we were hosting our friends, Travis and Robin, for American Idol. We had gone shopping the day before for our menu items (hotdogs or tacos) and now had to get cooking. Tacos won! :) We weren't just going to come right out and tell them, “It’s a girl!” we wanted to wait and see if they realized that due to the fact we were having tacos for dinner. Robin was funny though. We did a little small talk before she came out and asked if we knew then she buried her head in her sweatshirt out of excitement of possibly getting to know. When it hit that tacos were the clue, she said, “where’s the cake? (they brought dessert for the night)” and then proceeded to get pink frosting out of her purse.

Later, we had to pause our show for a Skype session with the grandparents. I had asked my dad to go to his parents after choir practice so we could tell them all together.

We sent Nandy and Pa ‘It’s a Girl!’ balloons on Thursday to tell them the news. It was entertaining ordering them because she asked, “Do you want me to put 'Congratulations' on the card?” I said, “No, these are for my grandparents. It is how we are telling them the gender of their great grandchild.” The floral lady was excited about getting to deliver them. She said she had “never done it this way before.” Then I asked her if she would take a picture of them with the balloons and send it to me or I could get it from my grandparents next time I was in Enid (which is what I will have to do). We also Skyped them on Thursday night. Pa said, "He figured it would be a girl since Hubby had {girl} plans to look at the whole time." He said it is some of his "old, old wisdom" so he needed to use it. Silly old man.

Pa promptly sent out a mass email telling people. He sent it to me too. That is when I saw he included my brother, who I was going to Skype that night to tell. Oh well. I still got to tell Claire and Dana without them knowing. Claire offered her some of her baby dresses too. She also suggested the name Jennica because we can't name her Claire "because that's my name!!" and "Tobie is Tobie's name!!"

Friday, I hung Tobie’s Think Pink picture in the lounge for my school friends to find out and Friday after school I made the official announcement to facebook. Now the world knows... except for my little friends at school.

Super Size Nothing!

On the 18th, Hubby drove me to OKC to go to a baby shower for a friend. He dropped me off at the shower and then went to spend time with FIL (his dad). On the way, we stopped for lunch at a McDonald's on the Turner Turnpike. Now I know, most people think it is disgusting... but to me there is just something do good about a plain cheeseburger from McDonald's. I am sure if I knew what was really in it I may not think that but I just don't like to think about where any of my food really comes from. Anyways, we start back down the turnpike when I pull out my fries.

WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!

Yes, that fry thing really was as small as it looks!

I understand that the world of a child is becoming a fatter place but dang people...Why do I have to suffer? McDonald's already offers healthy choices, why do you have to make my fries smaller? It's not my fault if some bratty little kid convinces his/her parents to get fries instead of the healthy option.

If you weren't sure about how I felt about this, please know that I felt robbed. I guess Hubby will have to start super-sizing all of his meals just so I can get some more french fries out of the deal.

President's Day

We took a week to talk about President's Day... who our current President is, who George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were, how you become the President and so on.

Our little craft for the week was to make George or Abe. Here are a few: 

For the actual President's Day, the students were out of school while I, and the rest of the district, were getting professionally developed. I can say that I would have much rather spent the day with my students as none of the meetings I attended had to go to taught me anything. Oh well, maybe next time.

100th Day of School

February 2nd, we celebrated the 100th Day of School. In the afternoon, we had five stations to rotate through.

making trail mix using 100 pieces of food

using paint dobbers to make 100 dots around a star

counting 100 beads and then making it into a necklace

counting 100 legos and then getting to play with them

...and I guess I didn't take a picture of the last station. To be honest, now I don't remember what it was. Huh,, lesson plans came in handy. I was able to pull them up to figure out what it was. The last station was to color a "I'm 100 days smarter" pennant.

The friends in their 100th Day hats

This is a squiggle. It can be done various ways. Today they were given a 100. They had to turn the 100 into a picture and write about it.

"My 100th day squiggle is a valentine's krd."

"My 100th day squiggle is attack spider. It has all kinds of weapons. It has a shield nothing can get through it."

"My 100th day squiggle is a butrfli."

 What would a 5 or 6 year old buy with $100???

My little dinosaur expert

This friend would buy teeth with $100.

This friend would buy cotton balls. Lifetime supply, I guess.

$100 worth of gumballs... this friend needs to make nice with the one buying teeth.

 The kids enjoyed their 100th day of school and so did I... it meant we are on the downhill slide!

Valentine's Day

I know Valentine's Day was weeks ago but I haven't posted about it! (and, I haven't posted about the 100th Day of School either, which was even further back... oops.)

One of my little sweeties brought me this adorable Valentine!

The kids were pretty cute. They kept wishing each other a Happy Valentine's Day all day long. It was like it was the greatest holiday.

I had intended to make these, let them decorate our room for a day or two and then send them home as Valentine presents but Mother Nature had a different idea. Well, maybe not Mother Nature, maybe Superintendent since a snow day was called on the 13th when there really wasn't much snow to speak of. Anyways, it was a little pinterest idea that I got from my friend Jade. She used hers to hang in the window but had the idea to make a mobile out of it. We did... but it was sort of a pain in my butt. If I do it again, it will need some re-thinking. However, they turned out quite cute.

That was Valentine's Day in a nutshell. <3