Toothless Wonder

While that is probably an okay name for the baby-in-progress, this post is actually about my first graders.  One of the best things about switching grade levels and having a full day to teach is the extra time I get to read aloud.  It is the calmest part of the day and it is pure joy to expose students to hearing and responding to good literature.  Right now we are in the middle of Junie B., First Grader: Toothless Wonder by Barbara Park.  (Maybe I was a little loose with the term "good literature", but we just love Junie B.!)

In this story, an older student tells first grader, Junie B. Jones that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy and that it is actually a tooth witch who leaves money for the teeth so she can eat them.  Well, this makes sense to Junie B. because why would the tooth fairy leave money if she wasn't going to use the teeth for anything?  This leads to a "stumper" in which she and her friend Herb try to figure out why the tooth fairy would leave money for teeth.

After reading this section of the book, I asked my first graders if they knew why the tooth fairy leaves money for teeth and I could not resist sharing their priceless responses:

- "Maybe she takes them and remakes them for new babies."
- "She probably collects them."
- "Well, the tooth fairy has a boss who tells her to go get the teeth."
- "I think she turns them into grown-up teeth that grow in later."
- "Maybe she uses them to make her castle home."
- "Her boss actually doesn't have any teeth so she collects them to fill his mouth."

I think first grade might be even better than kindergarten with the creative little thinkers I have in my class this year!

What's in a name?

Yesterday one of my first graders (who I also taught last year in kindergarten and have known for almost a year) told me, "Mrs. Schulz, at home my family calls me by my middle name."  What?!  That was quite the shock after calling him by his first name for so long.  Well, we're working on changing what we call him at school and it's an easy enough fix, but it got me and a colleague talking about funny name stories with former students and I jokingly told her I don't want to name the baby.

While we clearly are going to give our little one a name and we think we have some pretty good ones picked out, it is a bit of a stressful process.  As a teacher, so many names remind me of a particular child I have known and I have experienced some interesting nicknames.  It's also hard and overwhelming to think about what will fit our child for their entire life.  How do people do this??

Well, we have also had some help.  One of the baby's dedicated aunts provided us with a long list of suggestions.  Bless her heart for researching unique names and including the meaning behind each one. 

Who knows what we'll end up with, but you can be sure that baby's teacher will know what to call him or her on the first day of school!

Ultrasound Photos

As promised...

Here is his or her profile - I may be a little biased, but I think the baby is pretty stinkin' cute!

Can you see the tiny foot?  (It's up at the top!)

Quite the miracle - This one not only shows what a cutie I have brewing, but you can also see the spine, heart and stomach!

It's a... baby!

The past week has by far been the best of the pregnancy.  I have been feeling the little peanut move around for a couple of weeks, but we got to experience the first kicks (or punches!) that both Jake and I could feel.  It was amazing to not only see my belly growing, but to also feel the little movements of our babe.  Every time is such a thrill!

I also told my first graders about the pregnancy this week.  Their reactions were pretty funny and some of them decided to share their thoughts about what we should name it.  They were more inclined toward boy names and some of my favorite suggestions were Jesus (as in God's son) and Whoopster.  My other favorite comment was from a little boy as he was leaving for the day.  He gave me a hug goodbye and said, "I hope you have your baby!"  Sorry, buddy, but I hope not (yet)!

Then we were on the way to our 20 week ultrasound.  While we have decided not to find out if it's a boy or girl, it was still exciting to actually see our little bundle!  We had an ultrasound at 12 weeks in order to find the heartbeat and the growth since then is incredible.  We watched in amazement as the clear image of a baby filled the screen.  As the ultrasound technician moved around taking measurements, we were able to see a profile of the face, the heart beating, the stomach and bladder, the spine, bones in the arms and legs, a tiny footprint, the developing brain, and even the umbilical cord pumping blood to our baby.  It was truly amazing.

I brought the pictures to school to share with my first graders and left them there so I will have to post those later!

Journey to the Blogosphere

Several years ago I started following a couple of friend's blogs.  It was so fun to keep up with them even though I didn't see them very often and I thought it might be fun to start my own blog, but I wasn't sure if I'd have enough to say.

Then, one day, Jake called me a gamer.  The term immediately made me imagine a greasy, pimply teenage boy with a headset.  While I am not that, I do enjoy a little tetris, free cell or Sporcle when I am relaxing and I again thought about starting a blog as a more productive way to waste my time.

However, those friends' blogs that I had been following faded away and I thought I missed my window.

Recently, though, there has been a new wave of fun blogs to read from time to time and I was re-motivated.  Plus, we found out that we are expecting a baby and I thought that was a valid reason to share our lives in this venue.

Unfortunately, Jake asked me what the blog would be called and that opened up a whole new can of worms.  Should we stick with something simple like Schulz Family (it was already taken) or pick something based upon a song (but who could find the perfect lyric)?  Then, we came up with Fast Times at Skyline Drive and thought it had a nice ring to it.

So, here it is... a new blog to keep friends and family updated about what is going on in our growing family.  Enjoy!