Week 3 with Students and I have a new friend

Sunday was full of teaching and meetings. I am not really sure when I will do the job I was hired for, but no one seems super concerned right now so I think I will just go with it. 

From this photo you can see how interesting I am keeping the grade 1 students. Are my lessons engaging, you ask? You be the judge!

In my defense, this little girl WAS sitting right in front of my desk as I was playing an English game with them on the Promethean board. She must have had information overload and slipped into a horizontal position. Bless her!

Rugby practice, baths, supper and bed were on the agenda for the kids Sunday after school. Our Sundays and Wednesdays will get a bit busier starting next week as Jack will start basketball practice. He is so excited and so am I. His Pop and Uncle Russ will be pleased. On Sunday he will go to basketball at 3:30 and then straight to rugby practice at 5 pm. I think he will need a snack in the car on the way to the Rugby Club. He is more than likely going to be easy to put to bed on Sunday evenings. 

Monday, Jack brought home his reading folder. We have homework this year! He has been placed in a level A book, which is where a normal Kindergarten student should be. He is reading 3 and 4 word sentences with little trouble. There are some phonics rules he is still learning, but now that I teach grade 1 and he is in grade 1, we should be fine. However, when he was reading his 'challenge' book ( a level B book), I looked at him one time and said, 'Really? Is that what you think that word is? How about you actually look at all the letters?' To which Stuart replied,'Maybe you should be more patient with him.  They really didn't think about it when they put you teaching in grade 1, did they?'  Exactly my point!  Fortunately, Jack gets me and wasn't scarred too much. 

Tuesday it was more meetings at school and me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I am not even really sure of my job description. This may be a very long school year. 

I did go and help out with an unruly boy's class. It seems when our boys are spoken to as a group they are very strong and, what I will refer to as, confident. However, when they are held back for an inappropriate action and just stared at, they crumble like a flakey donut. It is quite rewarding to know they actually do have a conscience. Our grade 5 boys have one class that is stacked with all of the 'challenge' kids. We just continue to be consistent and hopefully that will pay off. 

When I got home from the gym, I was greeted by Jack who informed me Millie would not be going to rugby practice that evening. When I further investigated, I was given the information that Millie had just puked. Lovely! She was sitting on Stuart's lap with just her underpants on. Poor dear!

I put my things away and then returned to the living room. When I got in there I saw Millie motion to her mouth, she began to cry, and then Stuart grabbed the bowl he had pulled out for her, and she barfed. Ick!  Once Miss Janet left she must have told Andrew that Millie was sick. Andrew called Stuart to tell him Millie's teacher told him, when he dropped her off for school, many students had been sick this week. That explains things. 

She must have been well enough to do this at school. It's her first official school paper. 

Millie perked up a bit after her barfing episode, so she bathed and got her jammies on. Stuart went out to get her Sprite. She sipped on that for a while, just after Stuart and Jack left for rugby practice. About 10 minutes later she started crying and barfed. At least we know her signal for 'I'm gonna barf' is crying. That's convenient. 

I had given her Tylenol and expected to see some of that in the bowl, but it must have already done its job. Thank goodness. Around 5:30 pm she fell asleep on my lap. I took her into her room for the evening, which I knew was not the case. 

Around 8 pm she came into the living room asking for some water. I knew she drank too much in the time she was sitting on my lap. About 5 minutes later... You guessed it. Barf!  It was all water, which makes it easier to handle. She got most of it in the bowl, but the blanket had to be sent to the wash. She fell asleep on my lap, once again, so I took her to her bed. 

I knew that the likelihood of her wetting her bed when she was sick was an almost for sure thing. So, forgetting that fact, I didn't put a pull-up on her. Needless to say at 4 am she came crying into my room announcing she had pee peed in her bed. We have a protective cover just under her sheet so I knew I would have to take the sheet and mattress cover (the one with the plastic on the backside) off and just pop them into the washer. 

When I had cleaned her up and put her in my bed, I headed to take care of her bed. What I found was nothing short of a miracle. She had scooted so close to the wall that she had peed down the side of her bed, wall, and into the shoe bucket underneath her bed. Quite a talented little lady we have. Naturally the protective mattress cover did not protect and I had to take off the zipped bag that goes over her IKEA mattress. Oh, and it can't go in the dryer. Really?

After digging the shoes out of her shoe bucket and realizing that amazingly not one pair of shoes got wet, I washed the bucket in their shower and decided to get ready for the day. After all my alarm was due to sound in about 15 minutes anyway, and a small three year old was snuggled all cozy on my side of the bed. As you can guess, she did not go to school on Wednesday. Thank goodness for Miss Janet being at our house all day.

Millie was feeling better when I got home and we thought she was on the mend. but when we went to the pool on Thursday, as we were walking into the dressing room she started crying. It was the cry that meant 'I am going to throw up'. When we got by the sinks she gave back the lunch of Nutella sandwich and pears I had packed her that morning. Ick!

We have determined that maybe she has sinus drainage, because after the barfing she is totally fine. And she was fine for the rest of the week. Strange indeed!

Thursday evening, after Millie's barfing, the kids and Stuart went to Zacher to hang out with Wade, Scott and their kids. I went to Cathy's to see some of the teachers at my previous school. I do miss my old school. We just chatted and ate for hours. It brightened my mood for sure. 

 

Friday morning we got up and got ready for the big party, Jack's 6th birthday party. Can't believe he is 6, or will be on the 22nd. These past six years have flown by. 

We had his party at the bowling alley at Fun City, in Bawadi Mall. He invited a few kids from his class, but mostly kids we hang out with on a regular basis. He had so much fun, and I think the others did as well. Naturally he got some really cool gifts and has already had his light sabers put on the refrigerator three times since Friday. He doesn't like it when Stuart and I start to defeat the dark side, so he goes a little postal. 

The theme was Spider-Man and our friend Bob made this awesome cake. The two boys next to Jack are his best mates, Louie and Henry. Louis is about six months younger the Jack and Henry is 3 years older than Jack. And he is bigger than both of them. 

Bowling was a hit. 

Friday, late afternoon, we hit the pool and then headed up to the club for the rugby match between the Al Ain Amblers 1st team and the Al Ain Amblers 2nd team, which is Atuart's team. Stuart's team got killed and he played the entire game. After the game there was a BBQ and I committed to play full contact rugby with the women's team. What? You read that right. I have decided that I like to play sports of any kind and really need motivation to get back into shape. I will post the bruises after my first training this Monday evening. 

At the BBQ they had the awards for the teams that played. Each award they give out comes with a beer. Anyone who plays but doesn't drink can designate a token drinker. Stuart always gets the unwanted beer, not surprising. 

We got home around 10 and the kids were asleep. I know it will be hard to believe, but the kids didn't bathe on Thursday or Friday. Stinky kids are not my favorite. 

Saturday morning we got up early, thanks to Millie announcing it was morning and time to get up. We hit the grocery store for a few provisions for the week. 

Then we went to the pool where we were nearly the only ones there. It was nice to have just a day with the four of us. We ate lunch at the club, then headed home to bathe those dirty kids. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching movies, playing with new toys, writing 'thank you' notes, and generally relaxing in order to gear up for the week. 

The kids were fed and in bed by half past six. We enjoyed potato soup that had been in the crock pot, cooking, all day long. Um, I made it. Having Miss Janet here has afforded me time to cook. I have always said I hated cooking. What I think now is that I actually like to cook, just never liked to do it when I had other house chores to do. But now that Miss Janet does EVERYTHING for us, I have time to cook. And I'm not bad at it, just ask Stuart. 

 

Two more weeks and then we are off for the Eid holiday, which is marked on the calendar as having 3 days off. However, rumor has it that we will get the entire week off of work. Time will tell if that's true. We will probably find out the day before the holiday. That is very common, and expected, here. Gotta love it!