If you didn't know...

life is beginning a new chapter in the Call household. The year 2014 is only a few months in and a lot has happened in the everyday lives of our little family. Take a step back with me into the past few months for me to describe what has happened, what is currently happening, and what will begin happening in the next few months. 2014 is shaping up to be the most growing our family has had to do, yet!

At the beginning of the year, we had the opportunity to spend sometime down in a state that neither Matt nor I had been to. Florida. My father and step-mom have made this humidity ridden state their home and boy did we love it! We spent a whole week with my family. We saw plenty of animal life and experienced the beauty that excess water does to vegetation. Let me just tell you, it is a heck of a lot different than here in desert land Utah. When the week was up it was incredibly hard to leave. But, we put are big girl/boy panties on and came back to the real world which meant the start of some really challenging weeks ahead.

To start off, the beginning of January meant the beginning of my 55 day journey through Student Teaching in a 1st grade class. Student Teaching was the last "hoorah" I had to complete, alongside my senior project, before I could graduate and go into the real world. My classroom consisted of 24 kids who were hip height, all of which had different levels of interest, reading scores, math high and lows, and personalities from all walks of life. Student Teaching pushed me past my breaking point and times, granted I was between 25-37 weeks pregnant during the whole ordeal. Yes, I was pregnant.
Call me crazy, call me insane, ask me "how I did it" as many times as you want and I'll always say, "It's what I had to do, so I did it"
Was it hard? Yes.
Was it exhausting? Was it ever.
Was it worth it? I can describe how helpful and enlightening the experience was.
Was it what I expected? Not in the slightest.

See, kids have a way of acting differently when you become the authoritative figure. They try and figure out through a twist of games they play, just how far they can push you and how hard you'll push back. It took me almost halfway through my student teaching to realize that I was the one in charge and that I needed to demand/teach that respect should be given when I am the teaching. I also had to remind myself that these kids are 6 and 7 years old and I was the one teaching them the virtues and facts of life. Such as, not pushing other people, or pulling on people's clothes, saying "Excuse me" when they fart or burp, no pushing in line, saying a genuine sorry when they did something wrong, not touching themselves or others where they shouldn't be touched, and not starting a fight but learning how to deal with it and avoid having them. There was a lot to teach but I found that the more prepared I was the happier I was and the happier the kids were. (Oh, and substitutes are the worst things for your kids, it throws the scheduling and everything you have built as their teacher, off.)---Basically, when I have my own classroom I can never be sick.

4 Months Old

Mr. Lawrence is now 4 months old! He officially turned 4 months old on June 27th but I haven't had a moment to sit down and right this post about him. Finally I have a little bit of time (which means I'm putting off cleaning and writing this blog post instead)

At 4 months he:

- Giggles when he sees himself in the mirror

-Talks and talks and talks

-Loves his owl Socrates 

-Is eating 6oz each time we feed him

-Smiles all the time

-Is starting to teeter but always gets stuck on his arms which trying to turn over

-knows how to push off his arm to push himself back to his back, which is his favorite place

-love to cuddle and coo's softly when I hold him close to my chest to lull him to sleep

-loves music, especially show tunes, a boy after my own heart

- has been getting progressively louder and louder with his voice to the point of exhaustion

- is 12lbs, 11oz (quite a jump from his birth weight of 6lbs, 3oz) 

-Loves the ladies and will give a smile to anyone who smiles to him

-loves car rides and will fall asleep almost immediately 

-has almost gotten rid of his binkie and has become confident with ripping it out of his mouth with his tiny hand...hasn't figured out how to put it back yet

-will talk for 30-40 straight with emotions between frustration. happiness, and just giggling

- cries only when he is extremely tired, hungry, or poop filled

-recognizes mommy and daddy (what a treat that is to see him light up when he sees you) 

-loves getting his clothes changed!! He is so funny. I try and get one of his arms caught in the sleeves and just let him struggle a bit, he thinks it is the funniest thing. I guess onesies are a close second to a baby straight jacket. Haha.