Teacher Mom

I have completed two weeks of teaching during the day and mommying in the evening and night. I have to say that I was terrified of how hard it was going to be, and believe me it has been hard, but it isn’t as difficult as I expected. 

The girls were sick for the first time during my first days at work.  My mom called to tell me she was taking Olive to the Dr. (she had already taken Georgia) and I could hear the girls crying in the background. I cried. Tony was out of town for week one, and is about to leave again (Thank goodness for my awesome mom and for my family letting her keep coming back!).  We are all surviving fussy evenings and staggering around to make bottles at 4AM knowing we have to get up again in two hours to go to work. Our house is a wreck 99% of the time and smells like a combination of spit up and a diaper pail. I go to bed every night at 9:30 with the babies, which is earlier than I’ve ever gone to bed in my life but I am soooo exhausted. We are still eating about 70% take out because I can either cook or eat, but I don’t have two hands free long enough to do both.  I hurry home after work so excited to see my sweet girls, and my heart drops a little when they just stare at me for a few seconds.  Then they usually smile or laugh and I breathe a sigh of relief that they still know me and love me.  It sounds silly but it’s true.  The BabyTV channel is always on, so I catch myself singing the songs all day…even when I’m at work. I’m trying to remember all the things that my work requires (it’s been 5 whole months!) and pick up on all the new stuff.  I’m getting to know 24 sweet little third graders… of whom about 10 acted like crazies for my first three days back.  In order to get out of work and home to the babies faster, I literally work the entire day.  I drink a protein shake for lunch, so I can get more done during that 15 minutes.

You see, I always thought I’d “get to be” a stay-at-home mom, but not only do I have to work for the money, I also really really love what I do. I don't like to call it a job.  My coworkers are some of my best friends.  I get to have a brand new experience everyday, and laugh a lot! I work hard and feel accomplished at 4:00 every day. But best of all, I get to be a positive part of so many kiddos’ lives. A part that might be totally missing from their lives, if it weren’t for a teacher. Being a mom is definitely the most rewarding job out there, but being a teacher is a close second.  I guess I just get to be lucky enough to do both. And it makes it so much easier when I know that the girls are at home (not at a day care) with someone that I trust! Julie is fabulous and the girls love her! :)

And here are a few good quotes from my first two weeks…

Student 1: We found a brown recluse by my apartment.

Student 2: Oh man, my mom would have passed out.

Me: Is she afraid of spiders.

Student 2: Well, she pretends she’s allergic.

“Mrs. Santora, I like your house shoes.”

They were Toms.

Student: So and So is going around saying the word ‘Fenises’.

Me: What? (laughing)

Student: I don’t know what it means, but I just thought you should know about it.

Me: Thank you.

“Oh Virginia, that’s where the Octagon is.”

And here are some of my favorite answers on the Literal and Non-Literal Pretest

You are the apple of my… lunch.

I’m at the end of my…driveway.

Where there is smoke… get a bucket of water and call the fire fighters.

Two is company, but three is a… best friend and someone you don’t even know.

Mister, you are walking on thin… air.

She wears her heart… to the park.

And here are my little sugar babies who steal my heart more and more every day!