Signs of Spring

 It has been a long, cold, snow filled winter here in the north east and I am ready for spring. Mostly I am ready for weather were Little E can play outside. March is always a tricky month around here. I always think we should have turned a corner in the weather department and ma always disappointed when it is still crappy. Some signs that the nice weather will return have been sighted. First the snow melted and we saw our lawn and the curbs for the first time in months! Then we had a few days above 40 degrees! Followed by seeing a flock of Robins singing out side of school! Unfortunately this was trailed closely by my allergies. Although I am not enjoying feeling stuffed up and loosing my voice. We have been taking advantage of the warm temperatures and getting outside. Last weekend we took E to Drumlin farm to walk around and see the animals. It was great., E loved it. She was entranced by the chickens and kept running back to see the pigs and cows. I think what she really enjoyed most though was being able to run free and splash in the puddles. We had a great time and I am so glad we have a membership so we can go back as much as we want this summer. I have a feeling E will be spending a lot of time with these animals this summer. I also figured out that my parenting might be a bit different than other parents. While most of the parents spent their time trying to steer their kids away from the puddles I was actively encouraging E to get right in and get muddy.  Spring in New England...Mud and Snow piles...with the hope that flowers will follow!

What a week!

Nothing big has happened but geez am I glad to have this week over.  The kids are taking a quiz right now so I have a minute to blog.  So what made this week crazy?

• Shazam is in the middle of mid term papers so is working her butt off at the library all the time.
• Shazam is sick and feels like poo.
• Ella is teething.
• Work for me is hell.
• Shazam had a very important interview for her 2nd year internship.
• Shazam hates interviews.
• I had no time this week to get anything done at work because as I mentioned above work is hell.

The good news is that Shazam is making some progress on the papers and she got the internship!!!  This is great news.  She really wanted a hospital placement and she got one at The Brigham.  Not only will this look great on the resume but the program seems really awesome and it seems she will get great experience and the support that seems to be lacking at her current placement.  There are some drawbacks to this placement like the fact that she will need to take public transportation and that I will most likely need to to daycare drop off really early before school and then get to school just as the day starts.  Not ideal but we will make it work and it will put Shazam in a good place for interviewing for a job next year.

On top of teaching a new grade level with curriculum I have never taught but our team this year is "special"  we have lots of special needs and the mean girls.  Our days have been filled with meetings with kids, with parents, with other teachers and counselors this week.  I swear this is the only time this week I have sat at my desk.  At night I have been trying to write quizzes and planning my days.  I just can't seem to catch up.  I was going to go to Maine and visit my cousin this weekend but the weather is going to suck and I really don't want to be trapped in a small non baby proofed house in the rain and sleet all weekend so I am rescheduling.  My mom may still go up.  If she doesn't I think I may be traveling to her house so I can have help with E since Shazam will be at the library all weekend.  As much as it will stink to be separated it will be nice for Shazam to have some peace away from E and her crazy activity.

As for E I hope some teeth pop up soon her hands are in her mouth all the time.  Other than that she is well healed from her lung issues and off all the meds.  Which is good since they made her a crazy person.  The only thing we are still dealing with on that front is that the radiologist who read E's chest x-ray noted that she was osteopenic.  What this means we are still trying to figure out.   When she was at the doctor last week we had lots of blood drawn she wanted to look at her Vitamin D, calcium, phosphate and some other things.  All tests came back normal which is a good sign.  The doctor spoke with a pediatric radiologist at Children's who thought this might be because it was not a pediatric radiologist reading the xray.  She has a call into the pediatric endocrinologist to see what our next steps are.  One probable cause is her prematurity.  It seems that bones calcify in the third trimester which E missed most of so it would make sense that her bones would be not as calcified and dense.  What this means we don't know yet.  It may be that her bones are typical of a 20 month old 30 weeker.  It may be that all she needs is some calcium and vitamin D supplements.  It may means she needs to see the endocrinologist to figure it out.  The doctor is on top of it so I am just waiting to see what the deal is and not freaking out (which I am not and I am very proud of!)  Oh prematurity you are a gift that seems to keep on giving!  So now I need to run and figure out if I can send one of my classes to another lunch period since we have a class split by lunch and a quiz which does not mix well.   It is always something.