The First Day Jitters!

So, in 3rd grade at the beginning of year in our Reading textbook called, "The First Day Jitters." It is about a person who will not get out of bed on the first day of school. This person refuses and comes up with every excuse not to get out of bed on the first day. Well, at the end of the book, it turns out that the person is actually a teacher! This shocks the kids so much in my class. They can't believe a teacher wouldn't want to get out of bed. Well, I was that teacher today...

I didn't want to wake up at 5:30 a.m., but I rolled out of bed anyway. I got ready, left the house around 6:40, and on the way to school I was thinking about how I wasn't ready to go back to work yet. It's weird because all summer I actually missed work. I missed getting "ready" every day, my morning coffee at 6:30 a.m., and having a plan for the day. I was anxious to come back to work because I needed adult time again, and I felt like I would be a better mommy if I wasn't with Ava all day. Well, this week has been long and busy for me! I have missed Ava so much and today I just didn't want to meet my kids yet. I thought I would feel excited and great about a new class, but I found myself missing my last year's class.=(

Needless to say, I have a great class this year! I have a few that are already on my nerves, but most of them are very good kids! They are cute as can be and want to hug me all the time. Third graders are so different than fourth and fifth graders...I love it!

My biggest challenge it seems with be with a student who has Mitochrondrial Disease. I have an assistant with him who is great, but he is challenging. He is mentally retarded and has tendency of autism. He made clacking noises and shouted out some this morning, but he didn't do it for long periods of time. He will usually only spend an hour in my classroom, but today he was here the whole time. He did better than we thought. Mrs. Wilkerson, my assistant, is amazing. When she wasn't tending to him, she was working on everything else. She passed out papers, organized my supplies, and ran errands for me. I am so thankful for her!

That's all for now, I better get my desk organized now!

Updates on Ava=)

This is a picture of Ava and her friend, Judson at church. They are so cute together! They share food, share toys, and even try and go potty together! It's really fun watching them interact. Amanda, Judson's mommy, always takes great pictures of them on Sundays. Here's just a few she took.

Ava is growing up so fast! This summer, she learned to use the potty! She is doing great with telling us and going. She still has accidents every now and then if she is really invovled in playing or in something she's watching on T.V. Last night Paul was reading her a book around 8:00p.m. right before she took a bath and while they are sitting there, she just peed on him! He was so upset, but he stayed calm and ran up stairs to get her some clean panties. Of course, she wanted "the Elmo ones" like always.

She has learned most of her colors and even counted 1-13 the other day pointing at people in a book she likes. It was really precious! She also likes reading this "little" book that I used to have in my room, it's a quote book about love, and she calls it her Bible. She was looking at it the other day and said "God's Word" and I said, "Ava what is 'God's word'?" and she said, "The Bible." I just stood there with my mouth open! I couldn't believe she said that. Her new school Lighthouse Christian is very serious when it comes to the Bible and scriptures. I thought that was really neat!