And then there were 5

So, Myka now has 5 teeth!! She was a bit crabby a few days ago, and we thought -- more teeth really? She just got 2! Then the next morning, there were 2 more, bringing the grand total to 5! I am hoping she is done for now, teething is no fun, especially when you get multiple teeth at a time!!
Christmas was great! She really liked the wrapping, and played with the paper just as much as the toys!! We went over to my mom's for Christmas and spent the day eating yummy food and watching movies :)
I finally got to see Twilight with Nat -- it is a great movie! Not as good as the book of course, but a very good rendition i think -- i can't wait to see the sequel!
I can hardly believe it is already the second week of break. I have really enjoyed spending time with Myka during the week, one of the perks of being a teacher!
Happy New Year!!!
p.s. Christmas day pics are posted on the picasa site!

Christmas Eve


Christmas day at home



Christmas day at grandma's

Santa pics :)

Ok, so here is the best pic of Myka with Santa today -- it was great fun!! (there are a few more on the Picasa site)

Also, she has 2 more teeth, one more on the bottom and one on the top (three total now!)
If you want an actual copy of the Santa pic, let me know what size and we will get it printed out and sent!

Merry Christmas!!!

erin

the cutest baby EVER -- again :)

Ok, so I think we quite possibly have the cutest baby ever!! (see below)

When I first took the picture, i was sad that her eyes were closed, but the more I look at the pic, the better i think it really is!!

We attempted to go see Santa today, but the line was WAY too long, so we are going to go tomorrow and wait in the line (hoping it will be less crazy tomorrow -- wish us luck!) Will send out or post pics with Santa soon! (just updated the picasa site with more pics too!)

General News

So, the new house is great!!! We are not completely unpacked yet, but on our way there. Myka is in her own room and has been since right after Thanksgiving -- she is such a big girl now :) She is up on all fours regularly and rocking back and forth, she will be crawling soon.

And in other big news -- she has a spot at the daycare at Metro Tech!!! She will start on Monday. While I am sad to leave the center she is at, they really are wonderful, it will be so very very nice to have her just downstairs from me (my room this year is in the same building as the daycare)! And, I know a good majority of the students who are in the daycare program, so that is good too :)

They are closed when we are not in school, but they are open in June if I happen to get or want a summer school job :)
The only hitch is that while she is in the infant I have to race down there to pick her up as they want all infants picked up by 3:45 and I am not done teaching until 3:25, I will just have to use my time more wisely while I am here!

I can't believe it is almost Christmas already, don't have any shopping done, and the tree isn't up yet, but it will be this weekend (hopefully anyway!) And someday I will find the time to see the Twilight movie!!!! I can't believe I haven't seen it yet -- maybe over break!

Happy Holidays all -- hope everyone is well :) love to all!! Erin, mike and myka

85th percentile baby!!

So, Mykaela now is 18 lbs 14oz and 27.5 in long -- that is the 85% all around -- not bad for a baby who started in the single digits the day after we took her home!!! She got 5 shots yesterday, but today you can't even tell where they were administered. The nurse was amazing, i thought she had only done 1 shot in her leg, when she had actually already given her all 4 (she also got the flu vaccine in her arm). So, she went home covered in band-aids!

We are moving up to stage 2 foods, and she is going to be crawling before we know it! She consistently gets 1 leg under her, and occasionally gets both and she has started the bouncing baby thing that most do before the start actually crawling -- i am sure she will be cruising all around at Christmas, just in time for the tree :)

Now we just have to pack up and move this weekend and get all settled before or probably during thanksgiving break!! I can't believe the holidays are already almost here!! Time flies when you're having fun :)

Moving again

So, I didn't want to post anything until we knew where we were going, but we are moving :)

The people we are renting from are losing their house, and so we have to find somewhere to go. Long, crappy story that i don't even want to go into!

And it is soon -- we are moving this weekend. We thought we had a house, but they decided to keep it in the family, so this past weekend we were scrambling to find a new place, and actually i think the new place is better than the old one. AND, it is a lease purchase, so that is good too!!!

It is a 3 bed/2 bath with a 2 car carport -- so we are loosing the garage, but it is OK, there is a workroom in the backyard, and if we wanted to enclose the carport at some point it would be really easy to do so . . . . .

The best part (i think) is that we can do whatever we want to the walls and such in the house -- so no more white walls for us!!!!! it may be around Christmas break when we actually have time to paint and such, but at least we can :)

So, i will e-mail people with new contact info -- if i haven't sent you a message by next week, let me know and i will get you the info!! :)

love to all!

Erin



p.s. Myka goes in for her well-baby visit today, will post info about her checkup soon :)

first non-well baby appt

So, we took Myka to her first "sick" doctors appointment on Saturday. She had a pretty wicked cold with a bad cough and so we figured getting her checked out was best. Her lungs and ears were clear, and no real fever to speak of so they didn't give her any antibiotics, but it was good to check just the same. AND, she now tips the scales at 18 pounds :)
my growing baby girl!!!

she goes in for shots and a well-baby visit next Wednesday.

Oh, and remember how I was switching to Biology -- well, I have now switched back to Physical Science. Long story short, the other teacher came back and I was given my old classroom back and she got the new clean one. Am I happy about it?? Not really, but not a lot can be done at this point, so why stress (at least that is what I keep telling myself!)

Well, bell just rang -- back to teaching :)
love to all!!

Halloween

Our Halloween was pretty uneventful. Myka's bedtime is about 7:30 -- 8:00 and she is a routine baby, and gets really crabby if we keep her up . . . . and my mom's household had the stomach flu, so we stayed away from there!!

So, we put her in her costume took pictures and went to bed!

Next year will be more exciting I am sure -- we posted pics on picasaweb (also check out the video's album -- i finally got that before bath video posted) :)

here is my favorite although you really can't tell that she is a bat, but the look is priceless!!!

new teaching assignment

Ok, so a week ago friday at about 3, my dept chair came and asked if I wanted to switch classrooms and classes.

Brief backstory -- one of our teachers is having issues getting her visa renewed (she is from India) and hasn't been at school since the first week. The students have had different subs since then.

I have a student teacher, so he would still teach my physical science classes, and once he is done with his student teaching requirements he will take over those classes.

So, last weekend on Saturday my mom and sister Andrea went with Myka and I to the classroom to clean (oh did it need it!!) and get things ready. The week flew by, and it really has been great! I am enjoying Biology and Sophomores, and according to their reflection on the week, they are enjoying the class now too :)

So, that is the update on me -- we shall see what week 2 of bio brings us!
hope all is well with everyone :)

love,
erin

Strong Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

frustrations & happiness

OK, so I have come to the time of the year for frustrations. I am not sure how this always happens, but it always seems to come around.
I just don't know how my students have gotten as far as they have with this horrible lack of skills. It is just such a tremendous disservice to them. I am honestly worried about how they are going to become productive members of society. It is not just the students in AZ either, while on the whole the students in CO were a bit higher in their knowledge levels, I was also dealing with mainly sophomores there, and here I have all freshmen.
so the question becomes -- what to do??
My decision has been to move on and hope that they will get the basic knowledge as we keep going through other labs. (But then there is always that little voice inside my head that says they really won't get the concepts if they don't have basic math and measurement skills).
it truly is a dilemma -- do we hold those students back to get the concepts, but with little to no parent support, are they really going to be able progress? What happens when we have a middle school full of 18 year olds??? UGH! I just have to remember that I am helping some and can't possibly help all (although i feel like i am dying trying!). I think that a lot of this frustration is from the subject matter as well -- physical science isn't nearly as interesting as Biology (i know some would argue, but that is my opinion). So, because that is my opinion I don't have the enthusiasm that I should.

On the happy side, Myka is the most amazing baby ever!! she giggles and laughs and is going to be crawling before we know it!! Time to baby proof the house :) I have a video that we took last night (with our little camera) and will try to post it tonight. she is giggling and playing with Mike before bath time. It is the cutest thing ever!! She is in her "Halloween prison" outfit today (will post pics of that today too hopefully) it is orange and white striped - too cute!!!

Now if I could only figure out how to not be frustrated with school -- life would be great! Just take a deep breath and keep moving forward right???

Love to all!
Erin

yummy, yummy food!!!

So, we are working on solid foods, and at first Myka was not sure she liked it -- but today, she took the spoon right from me and here are some way too cute pics of her with it :)

No longer a preemie!

So, we took Mykaela to her 4 month appt (at almost 5 months, but who is counting) on Thursday, and she weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs 13 oz and is now 24.5 inches long!!! that is the 75th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height, i would say she is definitely no longer a preemie!!!
she is almost out of her car seat length-wise anyway.
I am doing better at adding pics regularly to the picasa web site and here is a pic from yesterday in her ISU outfit :)

I found the sepia option on our camera :)
We are heading up to Utah this weekend to visit the family. Mike's grandparents (and a few others in the family)haven't seen her yet, and we finally found the time to get up there! It will be a quick trip, but we are looking forward to it!

Myka has found her voice

And she really loves to hear herself talk :)
Some days (like the one in the video) are louder than others!
All is well, Mike got a job at Buddy Stubs in Phoenix, starts on Monday, we are excited that he got a job in the motorcycle field!
I am plugging away teaching -- Myka is in daycare, and we are just waiting and hoping that a spot will open up at the daycare at Metro tech soon!!
Love,
Erin, Mike and Myka
p.s. check the picasa web site often, trying to be better at uploading pics!!

Update

so it has been awhile sooooo... Erin is teaching back at Metro Tech Myka is going to daycare Erin is going through guilt of leaving Mykaela and putting her there (i think it is cute Erin is such a good mom)
Me I am still looking for a real job, I am working at the nightclub but am not liking it. I have apps in at all the shops and some at places I really don't want to work at but we are starting to run short on funds so I can't be picky and will take the first offer I get regretting that I choose to go to MMI and not to a real collage I feel more at home in AZ but feel like a idiot for leaving Colorado and freedom without more experience .
We are trying to get to Utah asap but with looking for a job and not knowing what is going on from day to day is frustrating me more and more. hopefully by the end of Sept.

picasa albums

ok, so I finally put all of our pics on-line on a picasa website.
It is picasaweb.google.com/mmestrong
it is way easier to upload them there than on a blog post :)
now hopefully we can keep both updated!!
erin

back in phoenix

So, we are somewhat settled into the new house. It is nice to be home. We got a wonderful monsoon storm a few days ago. Myka is starting to really smile and react and talk to us. She is always making some sort of noise even when she is sleeping (mike says she is definately my daughter) Here are a few new pics :)

hope all is well!!

EMM

couldn't fit them all into one

so here are some more pics -- couldn't fit them all into one post :)

time to take pics

so i realized that we hadn't taken a whole lot of pics over the past couple of weeks. Been a little busy with packing (thanks dena for getting me started) and just taking care of the wonderful baby. so here are some pics from today -- as new as you can get :) notice the double chin -- she is definately growing!!!!

newest pics

well, so myka and i surprised my mom and showed up for Nat's graduation. it was great! We were only there a short time, so we didn't have time to see anyone other than family, but we will be back for good in a month, so we will be able to make the rounds then. here are some pics from the trip and then back home :)

more pics

went to myka's first docs appt today. she is perfect and gaining weight! here are some more pics :)

erin

here is our myka

here are pics of Mykaela Astrid Strong

hospital part 2

ok, so after less than 48 hours, we are back in the hospital. went in for the normal weekly visit this morning and the doc said, you are going to the hospital. My protein levels jumped from a trace amount to 3.5 g (high is considered 300 mg). So, long story short we are here til we deliver, which should be sometime early Saturday
exciting stuff!! can't hardly wait

hospital visit

So we got to go to the hospital yesterday afternoon. Don't worry it is a false alarm.

Basically because I am on bedrest and at risk for developing pre-eclampsia, headaches are pretty serious. Yesterday i got a headache that was bad enough that my vision blurred to the point that I really couldn't see. Not fun, really don't want to do that again. Called the doc and she said get to the hospital as soon as you can. Again, probably not a good sign. So, off to the hospital we went, and got on the monitors and all that. They took blood to check enzyme levels to see if I have developed pre-eclampsia, and everything came back normal.

Mykaela was fine, they monitored her for the entire time we were there. My blood pressure is still a bit high even if I am laying down now. So, I have my scheduled appt on Friday and we will see where it goes from there.

At my last appt, my ob basically said if everything stays status-quo, then we will induce on 5/12 -- 5/13. Again, with the hospital visit yesterday, we will see what my appt entails tomorrow :)

myka 3-D ultrasound video

here is the link to the video of the 3-D ultrasound. Thanks chad for your help!!!!!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=32565615

3-D pics

Here are some of the 3-D ultrasound pics :)