365 Days of Mommy – DAY 365

Past

It’s done. Mama Bug survived a year of maternity leave and blogging about it. And more importantly, so did Baby Bug, who is no longer a baby! I’m glad I chose to do this for a year. It has served as a fun way to communicate with family and friends near and far, was a good place to reflect on the awesome (and not-so-awesome) moments of having my first baby, and just helped me feel connected with the world during a time that could have been rather isolating. I hope documenting my experiences have helped others, or at least made them feel better about their own. But now it’s time to move on – even WordPress says so – I’ve used up 95% of my allotted blog memory, hah!

Present

Bug is going to daycare for the first time this week (just half days to help him adjust), I’m returning to work for in-service days for the first time in almost 1.5 years, and Daddy Bug is helping out a friend with teaching marching band camp before he goes back to work the following week. We’re busy, busy, busy and the school year hasn’t even technically started. I’m excited to work with my colleagues again, be in my classroom, and do what I love to do, teach science. I’m excited that Bug is going to have new learning opportunities and get to spend more time with kids his age. I’m anxious about all these changes too, of course!

Future

I’ve decided to continue blogging and have started a new blog, Bug Bites. I created a new blog because my blogging style will be different – think monthly posts, mostly photos and quick lists of updates (“bites” about the Bug Family). I hope that those of you who have followed my parenting experiences here will continue to follow them at my new blog! Daycare and working mom topics will rule, I’m sure. One of the big things we’ll be doing in the near future is moving out of my parents’ house, most likely this December. We’ve already started looking at rental options! In the more distant future, we plan on expanding our family and having a second baby (distant, distant, distant). So, there’s a lot to look forward to. 🙂

Goodbye to A Year of Mommy, you have served me well!

Mama Bug Miscellany – DAY 327

Quite a few goings-on this past week and next week and the week after that, keeping us all on our toes!

Work

I’ve spent 2 half days at work, re-organizing my classroom. I don’t really understand why my sub didn’t use the labeled containers of rocks and minerals (I spent forever organizing those especially because I knew I was going out on maternity leave) or why she dumped them out and used them to hold other items when there were lots of new, empty containers to use. Also, I’m not saying my sub took things, but I found it suspicious that I’m missing exactly 3 of each type of item that is missing from my room. Could also be student theft – I mean “product loss”. (Something they don’t tell you when you’re student teaching is that kids lift stuff from your room all the time, and it’s considered normal and to be expected.) Anyhow, I’m happy to be back in my room and prepping for next year. I was finally able to make a to-do list of everything else that needs organization before the teacher in-service days in August.

I’ll be doing a curriculum day with several of my Earth Science ladies on August 1st so I’m doing a little bit of prep for that meeting as well. We’ll be sharing and discussing what we want to do or try for this school year. I have a good idea for a GPS lesson using geocaching! I also want to catch up on what has changed during the year I’ve been out.

I just got an email this morning from the special ed supervisor… I’m co-teaching again this year! But it’s with a teacher I haven’t taught with before (that’s why I got the email, to attend a workshop for people with new or different co-teachers). And no one notified me who my co-teaching partner is! I was able to play detective and think I figured it out, but come on. A heads up would have been nice. Anyhow, I’m excited to be co-teaching again (I wasn’t sure I would be since I was out last year) and happy to be co-teaching with the teacher I think I’ll be with.

Vacation

Daddy Bug, Bug, and I are road tripping to South Carolina to visit Pappy this weekend! We’re doing an overnight to visit friends in Virginia on the way there and other friends in South Carolina before heading back home. Incidentally, it worked out that Mimi, Aunt Lana, Aunt Mandy, and Aunt Mandy’s boyfriend will all be visiting him around the same time. It’s turned into a reunion of sorts. 🙂

So now we’re struggling with what to bring with us and will my car have enough room for it all. The biggest issue is where will Bug be sleeping. We bought him a cot and napping sack (like a sleeping bag) but so far he won’t stay in it during his nap. We’re going to try putting a play pen around it tomorrow and see if he’ll stay in the general vicinity and maybe nap in the cot. If it works we can also use the cot when we go to the shore overnight in August. It will also prep him for napping at daycare.

Visitors

Grandmama, Uncle Chris, and Aunt Rachel will be visiting us for a long weekend, after we return from our road trip. It will be nice because they’ll be around for Daddy Bug’s birthday! We plan to go out for dinner at Iron Hill Brewery and after putting Bug to bed, Grandmama will “monitor the monitor” while the rest of us go out for a little while. I’m coming up with a few kid-friendly activities for us to do the other days they’re here, including possibly going to the zoo, an arboretum, and the Crayola Crayon Factory. Temperature and timing will be a factor, as always, but I think it will be fun for all.

(This post pretty much describes the rest of my summer. Busy! Feels like it’s almost over! EEK!)