diarrhea

diarrhea is never good, but baby diarrhea is probably the worst thing ever. we were wondering if the kids would catch the stomach bug that we had last week...and it seems that although they didn't get a full blown case of it, it did affect them a little bit.

brynna usually has doodoos that are like little marbles. very hard balls that are incredibly stinky, cuz even ONE of those little balls permeates the air with stinkiness.

her bout with diarrhea consisted of one regular consistency (not hard as rock) poop.

caleb had three diarrhea diapers, and his was yellow, soupy, almost watery yuckiness. the first one consisted of some solids, like popcorn husk thingies, then the next two were just watery. it was kind of nutts cuz the second one, i heard him make a wet fart, and sure enough, watery doods had squirted from his butt.

the rest of the day has been fine, though, and he's acting like his normal self and eating and drinking okay, so hopefully that's the end of their bout with the stomach bug.

sibling rivalry

from the moment we brought brynna home, caleb has been extremely loving to her. he'll hug her spontaneously, cuddle next to her, kiss her and tell her he loves her. brynna often pushes his face away, squirms, or runs away.

in the beginning, when brynna would bother caleb and tak away a toy he was playing with, he'd just move on to something else. she could basically get away with anything...

not anymore. caleb's obsession with trucks is enormous. if he's playing with a bunch of trucks, he'll usually offer one to bryn if she comes and bothers him. if she isn't content with that one truck, though, and tries to get more, he'll get upset and take them back from her or grab her arm roughly or push her away. brynna, being the bully that she is, often fights back or screams loudly.

today, for the first time ever, we saw the rumblings of future fights. brynna was trying to mess up caleb's trucks and he wasn't having it...so he pushed her away, and she came back at him, growling and aiming to bite him on the shoulder. dave got to her before she got her teeth in, but if he hadn't, i'm sure she would have bit him and he would have hit her.

gosh. it will be interesting to see how their relationship progresses as they get older.

i dunno why...

i dunno why i let myself get pissed off by other people's laziness and apathy. every time we have a dance and i'm assigned to the dance floor, it blows my mind how people think that monitoring the dance floor means standing on the side, or better yet, sitting on the side, doing jack shit. you know, if peeps going be okay with 7th and 8th graders grinding themselves on each other, then make the damn policy that that shit's okay and let everybody stand on the side doing jack crap. but that shit ain't okay, and these same damn lazy asses who sitting on the side would probably raise hell if they saw pics or video of their kid doing the same damn thing and they would say, why aren't the teachers watching the kids and monitoring their behavior. shit, do i like walking through the sweaty stinkness of kids and pulling their asses off the dance floor for grinding each other...no. but is that better than letting them do that shit, then having pics of it on fb and elsewhere and the public getting all futless for our lack of supervision of their kids...yea. i'm venting, then i'm gonna take a deep breath and be done with it...cuz i can't change how f'n lazy peeps are.

stomach pains

so last week wednesday i thought i had a major case of gas from eating chili and drinking soda.

thursday i thought i was pregnant cuz i was nauseous and tired. (i am NOT. for sure.)

friday i didn't know what the hell was wrong with me...but i had a sneaking suspicion it was more than just something i ate.

saturday i felt better...until the evening when my stomach started getting nutts again.

sunday i was down again.

today i started feeling better...and hopefully it stays this way.

dave is also not so good. his started friday night.

having stomach issues sucks butt. beyond just the going to the bathroom (mine was just doots, dave had doots and vomiting), it's just an overwhelming feeling of yuckiness and exhaustion that nothing can cure. then, after a while, you feel super hungry, but whatever you eat forces you to the bathroom again.

i've subsisted on a diet of chicken noodle soup, crackers, and ginger ale...and today i just couldn't take it anymore. ate some hot/sour soup that made me feel like crap. all i could think of all day was fries smothered with brown gravy. ate some fries for dinner (hehe, couldn't take it any longer), and so far, so good.

tomorrow we have field trip and we gotta walk our butts to the theaters...yay.

i just pray the little ones and my mom don't get whatever we had...

feeling like crap

yesterday at lunch i ate leftovers...chili...which was probably super stupid cuz from the night before i already knew it upset my stomach.

after lunch was over i headed back to my super duper hot and stuffy classroom. i immediately felt crappy. my stomach was sore, i was getting those crazy sweats, and i felt like i might pass out or barf or both. went to the bathroom and took a crap, but that didn't help. went back to the bathroom and dry heaved some, then felt even worse. by the end of the day, i knew i had to go home. luckily it was fac meeting, which i was excused from, and dave drove me straight home and then came back to school by himself.

i went to bed...and took a nap for a good three hours. my stomach was still sore, but i felt a little bit better. ate some tofu soup for dinner, took some tums, then had sore stomach and cramps and diarrhea for the rest of the night.

this morning i felt better. so far (it's 1030) i haven't had any diet coke and only ate crackers. i'm scared to eat or drink more and then feel like crap again. i'm starting to have that feeling like i can't focus, though, so i know i need to put some food in me. blech. we'll see how the rest of the day goes.

end of the year-itis

i'm soooooo dang tired. my back is sore. i got heartburn. i just wanna go sleep. got some bk 4 assignments to grade, but i don't wanna do it tonight. i wanna read my book and sleep. i got end-of-the-year-itis. bad. good thing only get two more instructional days. oh wait, today is tuesday. three more. sheesh.

gotta watch what i say

so caleb has been exhibiting signs of being a little punk. he's been throwing rager fits about random things...not wanting to go with his grandparents after church, not wanting change his diaper, not wanting to put on a shirt when we're about to go out...

today's fit was about putting on his shirt. we were going to eat dinner at ramen-ya, so as we're about to leave, we tell him to put on his shirt. he throws a fit. a throw-myself-on-the-ground screaming kind of fit. i let him get into the car without his shirt on. we get to the restaurant and we tell him he has to put his shirt on. he refuses. now at this point, i could have wrestled him to the ground and put his shirt on, but i kinda didn't want to get arrested for child abuse. so we go inside, where i figure he might agree to now put his shirt on. no luck. he tells me, loudly and in the i'm-about-to-freak-out-in-front-of-all-these-people voice, "NO. TOO HOT." really...it's too hot for your moke butt to put on a shirt? how freakin' embarrassing.

so he eats dinner without his shirt on.

as we're eating, dave proceeds to spill his whole cup of water on the table. i say, "good job." caleb says, loudly and repeatedly, "good job, daddy. good job, daddy." OMG. sheesh. i gotta watch what i say.

all i ask...

for mother's day is a good night's rest...so it's 8:37 now, and imma go brush my teeth and get in bed, and pray that both kids sleep through the night.

pretty sure it's not gonna happen, seeing as how bryn still gets up and caleb went sleep this evening with no dinner or bocha cuz he never take one nap today...

still, i can hope...

latework

i've had a lot of interesting conversations and thoughts recently about why kids are the way they are, and what we as teachers are supposed to do to help them. with the recent news regarding upping instructional minutes and reading the comment strand on a recent article, i have many, many thoughts on this...and many, many things i'm still trying to work out for myself.

last week i was pissed beyond belief at the fact that 40 of 101 students turned in their book assignment, which i had assigned a week prior and given them class time to work on. i laid into my last class, using words like "pathetic" and telling them that they were "setting up life habits." many looked remorseful, but not many had the assignment to turn in the following day. however, after our study hall day yesterday, all but six of my missing assignments have been turned in. i had to hound them, put up a list of names on the board so all the students would know who the delinquent students were, and use our in school full day of study hall in order to get it from them, but they did the work and for the most part, it wasn't just shirty, rushed work.

so am i coddling my students by allowing them to turn it in late? am i teaching them bad habits by making them do it even if it's late? it pisses me off to no end that these kids can't do their work on time, and i'll bitch and moan to the moon, but when i really sit down and think about it, there's no way i'd ever succumb to the no latework policy. it's against my belief system. it's against my understanding of what kids at this age, and kids with these kinds of family lives, need.

it's easy to say, "damn these kids and damn their parents. if they no care, i no care either." it's much, much harder, to make yourself care and push the students to do their work. i have a hard time caring about some of my kids, and i lose my patience daily with them. but i didn't get into teaching to fail kids. i didn't get into teaching to wield my power over them. i didn't get into teaching thinking that everybody came from the same kind of place/background i did. i've seen kids whose parents don't give a rip still succeed, and i've seen kids whose parents do everything possible for them still fail. i've seen many, many kids with shitty home lives who struggle everyday and don't give a rip about my work...but they'll do it if they know that i give a shit about them.

so what's my point? i don't really know. more posts to come on this touchy subject.