It's 10:55 PM and I just finished carving a turkey. LOL! That sounds so funny...but it's true. On the health program that I am on, I am required to eat a LOT of turkey slices. Since last July when I started the program, I have eaten more turkey slices than the average human would most likely eat in a lifetime. I'm seriously thinking that there will come a time in the near future when I will open my mouth to speak and "GOBBLE! GOBBLE!" will come out instead. LOL! It's not even the cheap lunch meat turkey either. I've been eating the really YUMMY Oven Roasted Turkey from Costco. And though I loved the turkey at the beginning, it is really starting to make me gag. And with zero salt in my diet, even the Costco turkey has started tasting way too overly salty to me. Unfortunately, I am still really needing the turkey in my diet....so I had to make some changes. I talked to my health consultant last night and asked if I could have REAL turkey...like THANKSGIVING turkey. And the answer was YES! HALLELUJAH!!! HAPPY DAY! So off we went to buy a turkey in the middle of May! LOL! And OOOOH GOODNESS...my house has smelled like Thanksgiving all evening. Heavenly. And now I have enough REAL and DELISH turkey slices for the rest of the week! YAY!!!
You're probably wondering what any of that has to do with the TITLE of this entry. The answer is..nothing. LOL! Sorry..a little slight meandering from the topic for a moment. This IS my third blog entry today....I'm starting to get a little loopy. But what I really wanted to write about today, was Teacher Appreciation Week. YAY TEACHERS!!!! Kaden and I decided that for Teacher Appreciation Week last week, we wanted to do something nice for his teacher every day of the week. So we decided to do "The 5 Days of Teacher Appreciation Week." Kaden and I sat and thought of some fun ideas and then picked out some fun gifts for his teacher at Utah Idaho Supply & Map World. Oh..my..goodness. Have you ever been to that store? It's like TEACHER PARADISE!!! We spent FOREVER in that store. SO MUCH FUN! But by the end of our trip, we had picked out some really fun things to give to his teacher throughout the course of the week. The first delivery was made by my friend Holly (THANKS HOLLY!) and the others, I put in her cubby each morning. :-) So...without further ado, here are pictures of some of the fun things that we did for Kaden's teacher last week to show her how much we appreciate her.....
And on the last day...the 5th day of "T.A. Week," Kaden and I gave her a book that we had worked on together, called "5 Things I Like About Ms. Calhoun." I made the cover and the rest of the book was written and illustrated by Kaden. Some of the things he said about his teacher are so sweet..and others are so funny. I love that "You teach us not to talk." LOL! So funny. On one of the pages, you will notice that the picture Kaden drew of Ms. Calhoun has ONE black eye. She was in a car accident a while ago and although she wasn't hurt, Kaden said, "I gave Ms. Calhoun a black eye because she was in a car accident." LOL! So funny. Then, I went and had it spiral bound for her.
1. You are nice to us.
2. You let us have centers. (With a picture of the "Kitchen Center.")
3. You let us have recess.
4. You teach us not to talk. (With a picture of Ms. Calhoun teaching Kaden and one of his school buddies. His friend is the one on top with his mouth open and Kaden is on the bottom "not talking." LOL! And if you look closely, you will see the black eye Kaden gave Ms. Calhoun. LOL!)
5. You are pretty. (Kaden drew a picture of Ms. Calhoun in a "pretty outfit." So cute.)
On the last day, along with the cute book that Kaden made, I gave her a recipe block magnet board with silver daisy magnets along with a card expressing our gratitude for being such a great teacher for Kaden. On Tuesday of that week, while I was volunteering in their class, I had the whole class get together for a class photo shoot. So I actually gave her this magnet board with such a CUTE CUTE CUTE 5 x 7 photo of her whole class, with her sitting right in the middle. (For individual privacy reasons, I won't be sharing the photo. It was so cute though!!!) She ended up calling me later in the day just to tell her how much she had enjoyed all of the fun prizes through the week and how she looked forward to checking her cubby every morning. :-) So fun!!! Teachers are so great and have such a lasting impact...and I fear they are very often under-appreciated. It was so much fun for me and for Kaden to do something extra special for a teacher that we think is FANTASTIC!!!!
And now, on to some serious EXCITING-NESS from today!!! This morning marked the official launch of OPERATION: PRINCESS PULL-UPS! That's right....the first day of potty training for Seneca! WOOHOOO! As far as I am concerned....SO FAR (as I am sure it will only get harder as they grow), potty training has been one of the hardest and most emotional trials of parenting. LOL! Oh goodness....potty training Kaden was a nightmare. He wasn't officially potty trained until he was almost 4. And even then, if it were up to him, he would have been completely fine waiting until Kindergarten. LOL! It was so terrible. I tried once and got him potty trained before Seneca was born and then suddenly he became UN-trained and I had to start all over again. I was so emotional and sick while I was pregnant that I finally just gave up and decided that I would wait until after Seneca was born and my hormones were back on track. Kaden and I BOTH had cried WAY too much during the whole process. LOL! Anyway...so considering this history, you can understand why I have been dragging my feet on starting the whole process over again with Seneca. However, with Seneca, she has seriously probably been ready to be potty trained for the past YEAR! With Kaden, he would sit in his dirty diaper until the smell was strong enough for someone to notice and come and change him. LOL! Seneca IMMEDIATELY removes her diaper the SECOND she has dirtied it and either brings it to me or uses its contents to paint the walls, etc. Enough about that. Gross. Continuing on....Seneca is obviously a completely different case and PROVED to be so today...her first day "on the job."
You moms out there KNOW what long days those first potty training days are. You cannot go ANYWHERE. I set the timer EVERY 20 MINUTES all day long...and EVERY 20 MINUTES, we "went potty." (Which explains why I had so much time to blog today. We did nothing but watch the clock and go potty all day. LOL!) And Seneca, ALSO contrary to Kaden (who GROANED and cried every time it was potty time), would hop up and down and all around saying "POTTY TIME! POTTY TIME!" every time the buzzer went off. LOL! And after the first two "potty times," Seneca had her first potty in the toilet. And you moms can also relate to THAT moment. If someone were to have walked in this morning after she went potty, they would have thought we had just won the lottery. Both Kaden and I danced around and clapped, gave Seneca "HIGH FIVES" and "KNUCKS" (knuckles), sang and shouted "HAPPY DAY!" and there was a round of "POTTY TREATS" for everyone!!!!! Oh what a fun thing it is to be a Mom. LOL! How many people can find sincere and absolute JOY at the sound of their baby using a toilet for the first time?! ;-) And cute little Seneca would grin from ear to ear EVERY SINGLE TIME she used the potty today. It was so funny. If she sat still and smiled as wide for my little photo shoots as she did today on the potty, I would have some pretty fabulous shots. LOL!
Potty time was a seriously HAPPY TIME here at the White House today. Oh what a different experience this was from the last....at least so far. YAY!!! And with only 2 accidents all day and 9 successful potties (9...WHOA...that's a lot of times to go potty. Guess she's getting enough liquids! LOL!), it was a fabulous potty day! A very successful DAY 1 of OPERATION: PRINCESS PULL-UPS. Here's to a fabulous first WEEK of happy potty times!
P.S. MANY SUPER TIGHT "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" SQUEEZES TO MY SWEET AND FABULOUS FRIEND LUCY , WHO IS 30 TODAY (the 20th)!!!! I love and miss you so much and hope that your birthday is just as incredible as you are!!!! I shall drink a Lemon Twist in your honor today!!!
Ha! Operation Princess Pull-Ups... What a cute name! We had Operation Buzz Light Year Pull-Ups at our house... :)
Posted by: Delaney Gates | May 20, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Don't forget: you are what you eat (he he)! Good luck with potty training! I LOVED your advice to yourself as a younger girl! I think that I'll have to do that some day!
Posted by: Linda | May 20, 2008 at 11:38 AM
WOW! You have inspired me totally with your teacher appreciation gifts for a week! That is SO awesome.
I am now off to thaw out a turkey too! LOL
HAppy Potty training! I can SO relate to all your experiences with both a boy and a girl. They are SO different in that department. I am just SO happy that it's over for me. I truly empathize with your feelings on it being the worst thing to do. But it looks like you are well on your way with Seneca! Here's to being totally diaper free for her soon!
Posted by: Lynn C. | May 20, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Such fun and simple ideas for teachers!!!
Posted by: aubri | May 22, 2008 at 01:31 PM
girls are SO much easier to potty train then boys!!
I am still waiting for my son to do #2 in the potty. he doesn't seem to care that he has poopy in his pull up. but he will tell me to change his diaper and will actually bring me the diaper and wipes!!
for my daughter i made a chart and let her put a sticker on it every time she used the potty. she LOVED the chart. my son, could care less!
Posted by: traci | May 23, 2008 at 08:14 AM
I just love your teacher gifts! The packaging with the tags rock! I've learned from you that it's all about the presentation and the receivers just love that!
Good Luck with potty training! I hope it's going well for the both of ya!
Posted by: StevieK | May 29, 2008 at 08:17 PM
Alright Heather...you just made me feel like the biggest slacker! You always come up with the cutest things for the teachers. I bet all the teachers pray they get your kids so they can get all the fabulous things you come up with. Seriously, you amaze me!
Posted by: Natalie | May 29, 2008 at 08:22 PM
Oh my gosh, Heather. This is absolutely the best. This is a great way to present a gift every day of the week. I'm sure the teacher loved new gifts for her class too. Did you have some ideas of what to get her ahead of time from a wish list or did you and your son just pick some neat things out?
Posted by: Jen@Sunshine4Teachers | April 05, 2009 at 01:58 PM
I really love your 5 days of teacher appreciation week gift! I plan using your idea for my son's preschool teacher next month! Thanks for the inspiration!
Posted by: Shannon | April 05, 2009 at 09:47 PM
We love your five reasons book and that each one is handwritten by your son. We've included a picture of the book in a post we have scheduled for this week on our blog about Teacher Appreciation. Your are credited and a direct link is provided to this post. We hope this is okay and thank you in advance for sharing with our readers. However, if it is not okay we will remove it immediately, just let us know.
Posted by: The Katies of ABC&123: A Learning Cooperative | May 03, 2010 at 11:05 PM
Do you have or know of a simple Daily poem for what we can recommend to give to the teachers each day during the Teacher appreciation week? I am part of our school PTO as a new board member and wanted some new ideas for suggestions during the week. Thank you:)
Posted by: Jenn | April 19, 2012 at 06:37 PM