A wish for my son

Last week I experienced a phone call from a parent that really rattled my bones.  Let me set the stage:

My fifth graders switch rooms for their math classes- I have 30 kids, some that are mine for homeroom and some that come from two other classes.  It was the end of a particularity trying lesson, the kids were rambunctious, my two tough kids were completely out of control, even my good kids were out of sorts.  Near the end of the 2 hour block with them I was WAY over fifth graders and way over teaching math. "J" who is normally sweet little boy, had received one too many warnings for the day.  He and another boy had goofed off every time I turned my back.  I had had it and gave them their first "strike." J began muttering under his breath something directed at me but clearly didn't want me to hear.

Let me insert a side note here- 5th graders in the spring are basically no fun to be around.  They are hormonal, self centered, flirting, giggling, smelly, sweaty, gossiping, loud bundles of annoying.  They would much rather be on the playground, milling around, setting their friends up to "go out" with someone than be in math class.  My team and I have started to crack the whip on disrespect.  If you are disrespectful to your teacher, you go to the office and call home, no questions asked,  99.99% of the time, this happens and the student apologizes to us.  A few weeks ago I received an amazing letter from a little girl who's mom had her write one to me, a boy in my class and the music teacher, who were all affected by her disrespect. This is not how things happened on this day...

J headed down to the office to call home.  He couldn't have been on the phone with his mom for more than a few seconds when she demanded to be connected with me.  My phone rang and if I had only known what was coming, I would have never answered the call.  She spent the next two minutes telling me that I singled out her son and how dare I call him out and humiliate him in front of the class.  Not once did she ask for my side of the story.  Not once did she allow me to talk.  And to top it off- she hung up on me before I had a moment to do either of these.

Not only did she undermine my authority, but she taught her son that he can continue to be disrespectful to teachers and not have to take responsibility for his actions.  She taught him that he can be rude to a teacher and all will be okay because his mom will "take care of it."

Porter- my wish for you...
May you always be kind to everyone: friends, parents, strangers, and most of all, your teachers.
May you hold doors open for everyone, not just women with strollers and old people.
May you say thank you and please and excuse me.
May you tell people what you feel in a way that is respectful and sincere.
May you chose your battles carefully.
May you listen when people talk to you.
May you think before you act.
May you admit your mistakes.
My you make eye contact when talking to others.

Love, Mommy

I'm glad to see you have already mastered please and thank you, sweet boy.  <3

Mama- Momma- MOMMY!

Porter is figuring out this whole speaking thing and it is just blowing my mind!  He now says "words" back to me when I ask him to say them and many of them actually-sorta-maybe sound like that word.  My favorite is "beanbag."  It comes out something like "bebe" but I know exactly what he's talking about.  I ask him to say a lot of words and he always tries to spit out something that he thinks resembles the word.  It's interesting- I have felt like he's been taking off when it comes to language over the past week and look at this!  Below is how many words kids say on average at certain months:

12 months- 3 words
15 months- 14 words
16 months- 40 words
18 months- 68 words
23 months- 200 words

Porter turned 16 months this week and it all makes perfect sense.  He's not at 40 words, but for a kid that listens to Spanish for 40 hours a week, I'd say he's off to a great start.  I keep meaning to ask Irma what words he says in Spanish.  Certainly, if he has 20 or so in English, he has to have just as many in Spanish.

New words:
Ball, duck, beanbag, banana (no longer nana) and mouth

New sounds-
Gorilla, duck, train, and car

New signs-
Please (adorable)

My newest favorite word is officially Mommy.  Daniel and I refer to each other as Mama and Dada and I'm not quite sure where he picked up Mommy and Daddy but he likes to say them often and he likes to say them loud!  He has realized that yelling them in his crib usually pull at our heart strings and can't resist but to go in to get him. He also just likes to yell them intermittently during his play- maybe he likes hearing them as much as we do, maybe he just wants to check that we're still in the room with out looking up.  Who knows, but I swear, my heart will melt forever whenever I hear his little voice say Mommy. <3

We have a walker! AND we have a runner!

It look Porter 14 1/2 months to figure it out but we officially have a toddler! It's amazing how just before my very eyes my baby transformed into not a baby anymore.  In my arms he feels like a baby but when I see pictures of him, he looks so much like a little boy-it's crazy.

Daniel and I had been waiting for Porter's first steps for several months.  We must have said, "He's so close to walking, " about 900 times.  One afternoon after school the three of us were in the back room and Porter was cruising the furniture, per usual, and just like that he let go and stood for several seconds.  I put my arms out and BOOM he walked right to me! We both squealed with delight and he let our a huge belly laugh because we were so excited for him.  The best part was he did it over and over and over again!

Walking isn't the only big change we have seen in Porter over the past few weeks.  The kid is a walking, talking, signing ball of energy.

Words he can say:

Mama/Mommy

Dada/Daddy

Irma

hi

up/down

opie (open- this is my favorite word he says, after Mama, of course)

agua (water)

appa (apple)

woof woof (for all dogs)

ni ni (night night)

bye bye

eye

doggie

Animal sounds:

woof woof

moooo

oooh ooooh (monkey)

who who (owl)

elephant sound (I have no idea how to spell this!)

sssssss (snake)

Words he can sign:

more

all finished

milk

book

help

hot

eat

Words we're working on- jump, egg, dance, music, cheese, wait, please, thank you

Body parts he knows and Spanish and English:

head

ears

mouth

tongue

teeth

belly/belly button

eyes

and my favorite, "Donde esta Porter?" (Where is Porter?)  He points to himself with a huge grin. :)

Ahhh! Reading back over this makes me so joyful.  Being with him is incredibly entertaining.  I can't believe how many times I told Newborn Porter to never grow up, and now that I have a communicating little boy, I realize how sorta boring a tiny baby is. (Did I just admit that out loud??) I mean seriously- look at how stinking cute he is!

Putting on our shoes- his newest obsession

In other news- my new year resolution this year was to participate in a little competition called 2015 in 2015.  Running 2015 miles in the year 2015.  My two amazing running buddies (that I trained with for the October Rock and Roll 1/2) and I joined as a team and pledged to run 56 miles each, per month.  What an amazing motivating pledge it has been.  Not only do I run when I really don't want to- but I FINALLY inspired Daniel to start running.  (I say finally, because when I started training in July, he said that he would like to run with me.)  This took 7 months but he did finally buy a new pair of shoes and we run together (with P and Eazy) a few times a week.  

2015 is a group of 17,000 people around the world, that are all competing in various groups to conquer this challenge.  Some people are running solo (running 6 miles a day), some are in groups, some are walking, many are recovering from having surgeries, others are starting over after having a baby.  Some people only count runs (that's me), others are counting all their walking during the day plus any running they do for exercise, and everyone is totally excited about participating.  There is a FB group that we all belong and the amount of love and support for running and for each other is amazing.  

I meet my girls every Saturday morning at 7:30 and we usually run anywhere from 6-8 miles together and ALWAYS take a picture. :)  We talk kids, life, jobs, houses, husbands, food, and about our week. We ran into two women the other week on the Highline Canal who told us that they have run together every Saturday morning for the past 6 years.  Running away, we decided that that wanted to be us!  I LOVE love love the anticipation of Saturday mornings and meeting up with my running mamas.  157  miles down, 515 to go!   

Another 1/2 under my belt! Conquer the Damn 13.1