It's November....

I know, two posts in a row. Starting a crazy trend here. My ivillage pregnancy calendar has this to say about today:

"Bloated. If your blood pressure is normal, and you don't have protein in your urine, your puffy face, hands, legs, and feet are probably normal.
Tired. If you are working, you probably keep a secret calendar in your desk that counts the days, hours, and minutes until your maternity leave starts. "

Not bloated (knock on wood). Tired. Well, duh! What's this about a secret calendar? Who keeps those? According to the ticker I just created, it is just 1 month, 3 weeks, and 1 day until my last day of work. Or 7 weeks and 4 days. It depends on the ticker. But, who's counting?

I'm hungry. Baby Bugger must be going through a growth spurt. I can't get enough to eat. Even with the heartburn and nausea (which has made a remarkable 3rd trimester return -- lucky me), I still can't get enough to eat.

I'm almost afraid to mention that we've gone an amazing 5 entire days without a report from daycare about biting. However, I expect this to change soon since Miss Nicole (the teacher I love at my daughter's daycare) is leaving. Her last day is Friday. She's starting back to school in January and is taking a little time to be with her family. The nerve. Can't she stay through December 23rd?

I did meet her replacement. Elizabeth. I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Our first meeting wasn't encouraging.

It was the day after I got to her daycare and the kids (and their teachers) were on the playground. My daughter was on the tire swing (her favorite place to be). She was about to start swinging when Andrew (the child she "targets" with her biting) came up and put his foot in. He wanted to swing too. I didn't know if the kids often share the swing, so I was watching to see what happened. There were 2 teachers at the other end of the playground chit-chatting. My daughter tells Andrew no and to stop. This was something we discussed as important with the director. She needed to learn to use her words and as she got better about it, the biting would get better. That only works if the teachers are paying attention. If I hadn't walked up, and Andrew had persisted in getting in the swing, well, there would have been a biting incident. So, it was averted. While I was signing her out on the clipboard that her teacher handed me, the teacher was still chit-chatting with the other teacher. Neither of them noticed when my daughter walked to the baby gate to get into the classroom waiting for me. And neither of them noticed the other little boy who walked up next to her. Right next to her. In her personal space. Again, telling him to move and trying to move away from him got her nowhere, so she finally hit him. Both teachers were smart enough not to say anything to my child. That would have started a fight. I am a non-confrontational person (despite the things I think in my head and would love to say aloud), but mess with my child, and I will start a confrontation. I decided not to do anything (as far as speaking with the director), but I was not happy. I wrote everything down and documented all I saw so that it can be addressed if the director sees the need to meet again. At least I can defend my daughter. She's trying. She's only 2.

The next day, I met Elizabeth. I got there, and my daughter was playing in the dirt (near the swings). The 3 teachers were again at the other end of the playground watching the 4 kids in that vicinity. Not a good start. My daughter's other teacher, Jessica, saw me and came to give me the sign out sheet and a note from Nicole explaining why she was leaving. Seriously, I almost cried. Must be the hormones. She told me that Nicole's replacement was sitting under the tree. I walked down to meet her. Now, someone please tell me if I'm being unreasonable or if I was just raised differently than Elizabeth. She was sitting on the edge of a table (easy to get up or down). As I walked toward her to shake her hand (my hand was extended), she just waved and said, "I'm Elizabeth." Is that how you would greet someone you were meeting? She doesn't have to gush about how great she thinks my child is (although that would be a great meeting), but is it too much to ask that she stand up? Or shake my hand? I know that some people don't really shake hands for various reasons, so I'm willing to let that one go, but stand up, it's nice to meet you, something? I can't base my entire judgement of Elizabeth on one incident, but first impressions are important. It left me feeling awkward.

Elizabeth has been in the class learning the ropes for about a week now, and I haven't decided about her yet. Jessica seems nice enough, but she tends to notice only what is in front of her, so if she's playing with one child, all the others are free to do what they want (which is fine if the one child is my child). I don't want the biting to start back up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. I hope I didn't jinx myself by writing about it.