The big news!

As you all know, I finished my MAT in education in October, after Mateo was born. I was planning on returning to teaching in September of this coming school year, and started filling out my applications for Beaverton and Portland in January. Beaverton actually starts hiring bilingual teachers in February (early, but that is how they can actually secure teachers), so I thought I would work on my application.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from the district that they are looking to hire someone right now for a third/fourth grade classroom, and could I go to an interview today? (I actually haven't even finished my application yet, but they didn't seem to care.)

Today, I went to the interview, and it turned out they were looking for someone for a kindergarten classroom . . . a little bit different from a 3/4th grade split. . . and they wanted to hire someone by the end of this week. I just got a call this afternoon that I have the job (provided that I complete my application)!

Obviously, I can't start teaching as soon as they want me to, for a number of reasons. We're taking a fabulous vacation to Cancun with Alayna's parents next week. And, I have my tutoring students from tutoring. Most of my clients' parents knew that I was looking for teaching jobs for next year, but I didn't expect it to be this soon! I need to figure out how I can find them other people to work with

I am someone excited by the situation, but also a bit concerned.

Pros:

• I enjoy teaching in Spanish, and this is a bilingual placement.
• The school sounds wonderful. They are focused on reading, using research, really look at student data, and have cooperative planning times.
• I would probably be able to move to a different grade next year, if I wanted to do that. They basically guaranteed that I could move to a different grade, and said that there might also be opportunities working as a literacy coach, in Spanish. (Wow!)
  
• I would be earning significantly more money than I do as a tutor, which would be great with Alayna staying home with Mateo, and having a child.
  
• The school is just 20 minutes away from the house, and I actually enjoy driving because I like singing in the car and that helps me relax.
• The principal seemed wonderful and positive.
• I like the idea of working with a challenging (skill-wise) group of children, who are falling behind. In some way there will be less pressure on me because I'll be taking them in the middle of the year.
  

Cons:

• I would miss being with Mateo and Alayna during the day.
• My schedule would be way less flexible, and I would be working significantly more hours.
• I've never taught kindergarten on my own, and am a bit concerned about teaching children that age. Will I be able to manage them?
  

So, it is a big, huge change, but I think I will take the job!

Big stuff

We've had a momentous couple of days here at Casa Two Girls and One Boy. First of all, Mateo and I tagged along for Sacha's haircut yesterday (which looks very cute, by the way) and Mateo got his first little trim. I don't know if it counts as his first haircut, because his hair is falling out all over our house and he will probably soon be bald, so his first real haircut will probably come after all his hair falls out, grows back in, and then gets long enough to need a cut.

However, this was the first time scissors had ever touched his hair and he took it quite well. He squirmed like crazy, which is his job as a baby, and the hair cutter (barber? hair attendant?) admirably managed to trim around the ears and on the back of his neck.

Interestingly, Sacha and I had very different reactions afterwards. I had been pushing for us to get Mateo's hair trimmed for awhile and she had been more reluctant to do it so soon...and after we left the hair place, Sacha ended up feeling like it wasn't as traumatic as she had expected while I felt sad and like I wished I hadn't rushed us into it after all. I guess this whole being a parent thing is just one long learning process, eh? Anyway, Sacha and his mommy are both looking very cute. Here's a photo of them with their new dos:


Also, Mateo turns 12 weeks old today. Amazing. He celebrated by tipping our bathroom scale at nearly 15 pounds! Admittedly, the scale is always high for him by about a half a pound, but still - he's a big boy! Here he is in an adorable outfit his Apa and Manuel sent him:


We're coming up to the anniversary of the time last year when a tiny clump of cells implanted into my uterus and we embarked on this incredible journey. At the time, we had been trying for six months and were starting to feel very uncertain about when or if a pregnancy would happen. What a difference a year makes, eh?



And, last but certainly not least, Sacha has some exciting news to share. I'll let her tell you all about it later, so as not to ruin the surprise! However, it did involve her running out the door this morning looking like this:

We love lesbian families!

We've been having a mellow weekend, due to my plugged duct (which finally un-plugged itself lasst night, thank goodness!) in addition to both of us feeling a bit tired and like we're fighting something off. But, we did drag ourselves out of the house this afternoon to go to a meeting of this new lesbian families group that we've heard about. It's called PLOP, which stands for Pregnant/Parenting Lesbians of Portland. We heard about it through another blog that I was reading and have been trying to go to a meeting for months.

It was awesome! We were a little bit shy at first but warmed up pretty quickly. We met some really nice people, including a couple with baby sons close to Mateo's age. We also met some families with older babies and toddlers and got to see a bit of what we're in for in a few months! We were both so happy to meet some other families similar to ours. We think this will be great for us and for Mateo as he gets older. We're already looking forward to going back next month!

Thrush

You may remember that I had thrush back at the end of November. Well, I still seem to have it. Yes, all these approximately 8 weeks later. I am so frustrated. I have been taking fluconazole (brand name Diflucan) for 8 weeks. It's the medicine that you get for a vaginal yeast infection and you're supposed to take just one or two...but I've taken probably 60 at this point. I get so worried about taking it for so long, even though the doctor insists that it's safe for me and for Mateo. She also keeps saying that there hasn't been much long-term research on it, because it's so new, and that freaks me out. I'm afraid that in 10 years, I'll regret taking so much of it. But, it seems to be either this or stop breastfeeding him. I'm not ready to do that yet....but I do feel like it won't take much to push me in that direction at this point.

I really thought everything was better and I was going to go off the meds tomorrow. Then, last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and my boobs were killing me. As it turned out, I have a plugged duct in one of them (another extremely fun thing), but the whole thing reminded me that the burning feeling that I can't get rid of (a symptom of yeast) is still there. And that brought me back to feeling like I don't know what to do. This is bringing up all sorts of irrational fears, like that the diflucan will eat up my and Mateo's livers, that he will have some sort of long-term damage from getting it through my milk, that it's really not worth it to breast feed him with this stuff in my system. My more rational side says that the doctor thinks it's safe and she probably knows what she's talking about, and that neither Mateo or I is showing any kind of adverse effects from taking it.

I also feel really frustrated with my body. I have always healed slowly from things, but this is just ridiculous. Also, for the first time, my slow healing is affecting someone other than myself. I really love breastfeeding Mateo and I hate that this is making it painful.

I guess I don't have too much of a point to this rant! I just wanted to vent and I thought it might make me feel better. I'm just going to focus on resolving my plugged duct (ow!) and getting through the weekend and then on Monday I'll reevaluate.

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In the good news category, Mateo is becoming a champion afternoon napper! Putting him down in our bed instead of his co-sleeper and taking a nap along with him just seem to help him conk out. Right now, instead of his normal evening screaming session, he is happily babbling to Sacha and playing a fun game of stand-up/sit-down!

Also, I keep forgetting to mention that he's had a couple of firsts recently. He started really laughing for the first time a couple of mornings ago. He's done lots of little laughs, but these were full-on shrieks of delight. It was so cute. We got some of it on video and I'm trying to figure out how to post it. Also, he's started bringing his hands together sometimes, which is supposed to be some sort of developmental milestone. Go Mateo!

Aprendiendo español

As we have mentioned earlier, Alayna and I would like to be able to talk in Spanish with Mateo, and so we are both working on improving our skills. Alayna is taking a Spanish class at the local community college, which I think is going well.

I've been wanting to take a Spanish class that focuses on grammar, but hadn't been able to find anything. And then I found out that you can have tutoring using a webcam via the internet! So, I started taking lessons from Guatemala at a place called SpeakShop. It's pretty amazing. I had my third lesson today, and I am learning so much.

I feel really high tech talking on a headphone and using a webcam to take Spanish lessons. But, this has also opened up more possibilities . . . like we can now talk with the webcam to Zenaido:) I think that I going to be wonderful when Mateo gets a little older. Anyway, I am excited about the webcam and Skype. What an amazing thing the internet is.

Snow day at 11 weeks

Mateo decided to celebrate his 11-week birthday by ordering up a big day of snow! It wasn't his first snow, but it was his first substantial one and it pretty much shut down Portland for the day. We woke up yesterday morning and I pulled back the curtains while Sacha went to change the little guy's diaper....and what did I see but a world blanketed in white. It was a great surprise and we had lots of fun.

We had a wonderful snow day together - we had a cozy morning inside, which we spent mostly by putting up plastic sheeting over our freezing cold single-pane windows, and then had an outdoor adventure in the afternoon. We bundled up ourselves and the kiddo and walked down to Mississippi Ave to get a video and visit our favorite coffee shop.

Here's Mateo looking wide-eyed at all that white stuff everywhere:



We also had a couple of nice interactions with our neighbors - something about all being stuck in the same situation seems to lead to this - with one of them spontaneously bringing us pastries in the morning and another family stopping to chat on their way home in the afternoon. All in all, it was a great day!

Also, a few more recent photos of our favorite model :)

Here he is helping mommy eat dessert:

Taking a nap with mama:

And hanging out in the Moby:

Happy Sunday

We have had such a nice day in freezing cold Portland! (It was 28 degrees this morning when we went out for a walk.) After celebrating Sacha's actual birthday in California, we had a birthday party for her here this afternoon. It was our first attempt at having a gathering since Mateo came on the scene, and it was fabulous. We had a great group of friends and relatives come over, eat cake, hang out, play with babies and celebrate! Although we didn't take any pictures:(, we had a wonderful time. Three couples from our birth class came to the party, and tons of other friends that we have made in the last 3 years we've been living in Portland. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful community.