Worms and Ladybugs

Nick often benefits from many of the lessons I'm preparing for my elementary school students. I think this year my tax write-offs for things I bought for students will be especially peculiar. For two weeks I had 1,500 ladybugs and nearly 100 worms in my refrigerator. I sometimes think I have the weirdest (and the coolest) job in the world.

Right now, I'm teaching a summer school program with an ecological focus, and my students and I even put in a school garden. It's been hard work and a lot of research. Nick loves previewing the video clips and shopping for supplies with me. Oh, and playing with the ladybugs. That, too.

Since I'm creating the lessons and projects from scratch, I try to teach Nick some of what I'm working on with my K-5 students. My philosophy of teaching relies on realia, which just means using real stuff to teach whenever possible. This works just as well for teaching Nick. Last week I let him release a bucket of worms and several hundred ladybugs into our vegetable garden. It was really cool to see how excited he got at those little critters.

The ladybugs were indeed a bit freaky when they crawled around en masse, but Nick loved touching them and learning about their bodies.

I even taught him the insect song we sing at school.

"Head and thorax, abdomen, abdomen,
Head and thorax, abdomen, abdomen,
six legs, two antennae, compound eyes,
don't forget the ones with wings, ones with wings!

We were really surprised to find many ladybugs still hanging out on the plants this weekend, especially on my tomato plants. I had thought many of them would fly away, but my tomatoes must have had lots of aphids.

This week, I'm going to be bringing home some of the books I read with my students about gardens and wildlife.

Poor Henry. He'll have to wait until he's a little older to join us on our science adventures. I'm too afraid he'd have eaten the worms and ladybugs. Actually, I'm pretty sure Henry would have done just that.

Does toddler chasing count as exercise?

Because if so, I can count hundreds of minutes each week as a workout. Chasing Nick as he runs towards the garbage can. . . Following him to figure out why he's crying. . . Racing him to see who can get to my cell phone first. . . Running to stop him from abusing the cat. Then he'll do something funny and cute, like breaking into dance in the middle of the living room. (see above)

They say that a toddler's brain is twice as active as an adult's, and I believe it! Nicholas is incredibly curious, zips around from one thing to another, and is constantly on the lookout for trouble. Plus, he's fast. I do believe he's skipped straight from barely walking to outright running. He can do squats, fast pushups, near somersaults, and sprints. I read once about a study where they took football players who were in excellent shape and had them mirror the every move of toddlers. I believe by noon every one of those football players was dead tired. Perhaps the toddler plan will be the next big diet and exercise book. "Throw half of your food off the table, but eat whatevery you want. Put rice into your ears, throw toys down the stairs, and make every step a run. Soon you'll be as slim as can be! It's the toddler diet!"

Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the toddler's need to explore. I've even read studies about how kids can be negatively impacted if they aren't allowed to explore their environment and have new experiences.  It's very seldom that I get frustrated with the force of nature that is my son. Usually I just sigh in defeat or laugh at the absurdity of things. Nicholas is like a tornado lately, though. Greg and I try to let him play with anything that isn't dangerous, so long as we're keeping an eye on him.

We try to pick our battles. The plastic straw he's playing with above? Fine. The butter knives he was trying to snitch from the dishwasher while Greg was cleaning up dinner? NOT fine. That's why he's stomping out of the kitchen in the picture below.

I borrowed Grandma Toni's camera today while she was visiting. It was so nice to take pictures of Nick again. My camera is still at the Nikon repair shop. Hopefully I'll eventually get it back in one piece. I keep trying to take pictures with my cell phone, but Nick won't stay still long enough and they all turn blurry. I guess that's the point, though. Nick won't stay still. At least not until bedtime. Then he's out.

Wordless Wednesday

Wistfully Remembering Vacation

I am going to talk about the day we took my dad and stepmom to Brookfield Zoo. It was last week, back in the days of blissful summer vacation.

Here we are in front of the fountain. Nick was fascinated by the mechanical dinosaurs. Why do they have mechanical dinosaurs at the zoo? Why, to confuse little children, of course. "I want to see the elephants and the lions and the dinosaurs," one little girl exclaimed at the entrance. I'm not sure what their motivation is, but it sure gets the kids excited.

Here Nick is checking out the alligator and all of the birds in the swamp. I think he really liked seeing the different animals. It is very cool to see him respond to what he's seeing and hearing. As he gets bigger, he responds to things in different, more mature ways.






Here his grandma and grandpa are holding Nick at the butterfly gardens. The one at Brookfield Zoo was gorgeous, but I think there were more butterflies at Reiman Gardens. Nick was happy to see both. He is a first grandchild, so he gets to go lots of places with his four grandmas, three grandpas, and two great-grandmas.

I feel really lucky to have so much family wanting to spend time with Nick and cuddle him. They say that children grow up and reflect all the love that they were given; I believe Nick will have a lot of love to share.

Nick is petting, er, slapping, the goat. I'm not sure what kind of prozac they give these goats, but they sure were mellow. This poor goat even seemed to like Nick's manhandling. (Or would you call it babyhandling?)

One thing that I'm loving about being a mom is noticing how babies learn things. I know Nicholas so well that I pretty much notice as he's learning something new. Take today, for example: Nick is trying to learn how to pull up. I had him sitting in the baby cage while I made him dinner, and I was watching him pull his body up. He hadn't figured out what to do with his legs yet, so he would just hang there. But then he got an idea, and his face lit up. A lightbulb shined above his head and everything. Suddenly, he turned one leg underneath him. He tried to turn the other one, but couldn't. Still, he was able to pull pretty far on one knee and one foot.

Monday was my first day back to work, and school officially started today. I'm excited about the school year, and optimisic as well. I have a classroom with windows this year, and the sunlight coming in just makes me feel happy. I bought all these plants, so our room looks very homey. I also work with the friendliest people, so going to work is enjoyable. But boy, am I tired. I actually think I might go to bed early.

I'm trying really hard to stay on track with my healthy eating, working out, and blog posts. Nick was sick earlier this week and is still pretty crabby, but I'm very proud of how much I've still managed to accomplish. I worked out twice at the YMCA this week, did two Pilates Band workouts, and even turned down the sweets table at work yesterday. (Our PTA had a whole table of homemade goodies, and I never say no. But yesterday, I did.) Tomorrow I will try to do another Pilates workout. It has to stop hurting so bad at some point. I'm pretty sure I'll never look like the toned ladies in the video, though.