Not the best week

This past week was not my favorite. Here is the bullet-point edition:

• Over the break, an alumnus of our school AND a current student at our school were killed in two separate accidents, so the mood (understandably) was very low all week. I didn't know either student, but one class of mine was particularly close to the boy who was the current student, and on Monday, I pretty much let them sit and grieve. (The accident had taken place the night before, so the shock was still new.) I'm not sure if that was the appropriate course of action, but they were in no shape to do anything productive.
• My students wrote essays on The Sc@rlet Letter this week. It never ceases to amaze me how much my students don't know about writing when they are in the 11th grade. The process was exhausting.
  
• Amelia has had two BAD tantrums this week that had us both in tears. Nothing like feeling powerless against a two-year-old.
• I had a parent send me an email with "attitude" when I gave her kid a zero for plagiarism. It really didn't bother me that much because the case is pretty much cut-and-dried, but still...it really gripes me when parents get 'tude with teachers.

Now we did have some excitement this week. Tuesday evening, in a series of events that will completely lose their humor when I try to relate them here (totally one of those "you had to be there moments," we gave my parents quite the show via Skype/webcam when a bird flew in the house. Amelia immediately scrambled in my lap and kept pointing at the ceiling shouting, "Bird! Bird!" Darryl chased it with first an umbrella and then a fishnet (he succeeded with the net), and afterward, she continued to talk about the bird. Every day she has mentioned it: "Bird? Outside?"

And today, we tackled a big feat: two birthday parties in one day. This morning we to a party for Anslee, one of Amelia's daycare friends, at an indoor play place that was very cool. It didn't have the bouncy jumpy inflatables, but instead had things like dress-up clothes, musical instruments, a splash area with bubbles, and the like. Very cool. Two hours after that one ended, we went to one at Chuck E. Cheese. I won't tell you what Darryl said about that place when we got back in the car, but I'll just say that both of us thought that place was INSANE. There were about ten parties going on, and there were kids everywhere. And then a big rat (Chuck himself) was thrown into the mix. But as I pointed out to Darryl, the birthday boy seemed to have a blast, and I guess that is the point, right?

We were exhausted after all the birthday fun, and I've tried to will myself to grade essays. I've gotten a few done, but I'm going to really have to get in the grading zone tomorrow. (Once I get in the zone, I'm pretty productive...it's the getting in the zone that's the hard part.)

To conclude this post, I'm going to show you two photos from today that are important to me because they prove that Amelia does have a little bit of me in her.

Here's Exhibit A: Amelia playing the piano and singing her ABCs.

Here's Exhibit B: Amelia does NOT like to get stuff on her hands, especially dirt or food particles. Neither do I. :) Notice how she is picking up the toy with the very tips of her fingers...that's exactly how I would do it.