Just Sittin' Around

A few months ago, Clay and I bought a play table from one of his co-worker, Paige. She went on and on about how much her little girl loved it. She loved it so much that one day they found that she had taken the top part off and was sitting in the holding area for the lego parts.

We must admit, this toy is a hit with the young crowd. Anytime one of Courtney's friends comes over to play, they head over to this table. Courtney loves to drop the lego parts down the hole and can do this for a long time.

Lately, Courtney has been taking the top table off and just playing with the legos in the holding area. But we've noticed that she's hiking one of her legs up to try and get in the holding area. Since she got her mom's short legs we didn't think she'd ever get the leg up and over so we didn't worry. Boy were we wrong! Yesterday we found her sitting in the lego area and enjoying her new view.

"If I act really cute, maybe they won't mind."

Trying to figure her way out!

In other news, she's officially walking! It's the Frankenstein walk, but she's getting around really well. We took her to the indoor playground at the mall yesterday after lunch and she spent the whole time pushing her stroller around. Clay just looked at me and said, "You know we could have done this at home." He's right. BUT we wouldn't have been able to do people watching at the same time!

Already?!

Every morning before we start reviewing morning work in my class we do "Good Things." I call on 6 students and they tell me something good going on in their life. It's always fun to hear what they're doing and it gives me a chance to know them better.

Anyway....yesterday I was telling my students my good thing for the day (I always say one everyday). I told the kids that Courtney woke up in a GREAT mood since yesterday she was Crabby Courtney. This is a remark from one of my kids:

"Mrs. Harstad, she's becoming a woman."

I know puberty hits kids earlier and earlier...but at the age of one?!

Reflections

It's the eve of Courtney's 1st birthday. I'm still amazed we've kept her alive for a whole year. Seriously, where has the time gone? After her birthday party this past weekend, I began thinking of everything we were doing one year ago. My how times have changed! Here's a list of things I remember:

I remember....

1. Going to the doctor to give Courtney her "eviction" notice on February 8th. For those of you that are going, "Huh?", it means I got my membranes stripped. It doesn't hurt, so stop squencing in pain. I left school early that day with high hopes that my doctor would schedule for me to be induced the following day. I was wrong. However, I just knew I'd go into labor that night. So I went back to school to lay everything out for my sub.

2. Waking up that Friday with no labor pains. Ugh. I was miserable. Everyone as school was amazed to see me that day. I do, however, remember my students all giving me a hug as they left that day. It was so nice to know they cared....even the boys!

3. Waking up Saturday crying and tell Clay I'd accepted the fact that I'd be pregnant for the rest of my life. That I had made it WAY too comfortable for this baby that had decided to never leave.

4. Waking up at 3 AM wondering if indeed my water broke. It had. I woke Clay up who laid with me timing my contractions. Seven minutes apart!

5. Clay's Starsky and Hutch style driving to the hospital. I think of the many highlights for him!

6. Having the IV put in my hand was painful! I can take pain, but man that hurt and Clay said he could see it across my face!

7. Crying over the pain of each contraction until I got drugs.

8. Drugs are GOOD!

9. Taking a nap after the drugs with all my family in the room. Thanks to Mama Hanebutt for checking my stats on the heart monitor. It's great to have a nurse in my "family."

10. The nurse playing with Courtney's hair after she was crowning. Yeah. I don't get it either.

11. The feeling of having a baby come out and put in my arms. I remember looking at Clay, then my mom and sister thinking this is it. I'm a mom. Then I cried.

12. Eating a cheeseburger and peppermint ice cream afterwards.

13. Spending the evening with just me, Clay and Courtney in the hospital.

It's amazing how much you remember about specific moments in your life. Every little detail. Every emotion. Everything that was said and done. It's a day I'll always remember.

Now, here are some things I love about Courtney.

I love....

1. Her sense of humor. She loves to make us laugh and she even laughs at her own jokes. Including fart noises.

2. She's not picky! She'll try anything once and usually likes it. This could be a downfall later on!

3. That she gets all giddy at the sight of her daddy.

4. She still loves to cuddle. I'll never get tired of that.

5. How she lights up when her cousins come in the room. She loves hanging out with them.

6. She already loves jewelry. Gee...wonder where she gets that from?

7. How she loves to look through books. She still loves Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Put Me In the Zoo.

8. She's very observant. Anywhere we go, she loves to watch people and lately she loves to flirt with them too.

9. She's a dancing machine! The girl loves music. If she hears a song during a commercial, during a TV show or in the car, she'll babble and dance along to the beat.

10. She's always up for a good game of "Where's Courtney?" (aka Peek-a-boo).

11. How she loves to be independent. When I drop her off in the morning at my mom's she never crys. She looks at me and waves as if to say, "Get out of here so I can have some fun!"

12. That she's apart of me and Clay and always will be.

Ladybug's First Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Courtney's 1st birthday. She won't officially turn 1 until Tuesday, but we celebrated early. We couldn't have asked for a better party: perfect weather, good food, lots of family and friends and a happy girl! I think she was a little overwhelmed and wasn't all that interested in opening presents. She left that task to me and her cousins!

Here are some pictures of Ladybug's birthday!

Hanging out with her cousin's. FYI, the quilt behind her was made by my BFF, Meredith. She amazes me with her talent!

Cutie Ladybug!

Standing on her own, but still doesn't realize it!

Kelsi and Courtney listening to Clay's words of wisdom. HA! Seriously, we aren't sure what they were concentrating on, but we love this picture!

Cupcake time! The ladybug princess hat was made by her grammie. Isn't it the cutest!

She loves her sweets!

Family picture time!

Thanks to everyone who came over to help us celebrate this milestone! Tuesday (her actual birthday) will just be the three of us. It is a school night, afterall! : )

A Play On Words

Yesterday I gave my class an assignment. They had to write two sentences for every vocabulary word that's associated with our story for the week. No one grumbled since we go over these words at length everyday discussing examples, writing, even acting them out sometimes. Well, this week one of our words was retorted. Yeah, I know. It sounds like another word. Go ahead. Say it out loud.

Yesterday, I was reviewing their work to see if they understood the words. Below are two sentences I got from one of my students.

1. He is retorted.
2. She is not retorted.

How can you not laugh? Someone I work with (I can't remember who. Sorry!) said she must not like boys to accuse them of being "retorted."

The paper is now safely in my "dark days" box in my desk drawer. Whenever I need a good laugh, there it is for me to look at.