Baby's First Halloween

We had an exciting first Halloween. A couple days ago we carved pumpkins. We ended up with 2 Jack O Lanterns and one Yankee pumpkin to match Caden's costume. Tonight we decided not to go Trick or Treatin, seems like there is something wrong with parents that take their kids trickortreating before they can even eat candy. We went and visited with Niki and all of Caden's cousins instead. They were cute and nicely posed for our picture session. Then we went and hung out with Mackenzie, Caden's lil' girlfriend. To top it off we came home and did another picture session with our carved pumpkins. Caden is a trooper but is tired now. So am I, off to bed. Check out our new pics.

All I Ever Wanted to Know about Dieting I Learned at Work

I have learned so much about Weight Watchers, dress sizes, plus sizes, counting carbs, fat grams, and points this year at work that I wont ever have to watch Oprah again.

Not that I'm opposed to learning, Im just not so sure dieting should be the number one topic on a high school campus. Not even moaning about administration overtakes diettalk for the #1 spot. Now what kind of school is this?

In addition to dieting I was lucky enough to listen to teachers booking travel plans over the phone, getting tickets to hear a political speech, and planning their party/outing tonight. What I didnt hear was one teacher calling students and discussing how they can do help them do better in their courses in the 2nd quarter. hmmm,

Yes, I know, Im whining. This is a HS after all.

The Last 2 Weeks

Well, it has certainly been a busy 11 days since the last time I updated. Sorry about holding out on you but, well, instead of excuses let me just tell you what has been going on.

Last week I was shocked when a fellow teacher I work with, who is also one of my closer friends from work, gave me a scholarship of 500$. The schooling for the Masters is going to cost a couple thousand a semester and mixed with the shortage of money from Sarah's maternity leave, we are going to be really running on empty for the rest of this year, and maybe next year too. Larry and me have talked about this issue and he is well aware of our financial concerns. In the card he gave us he told Sarah and me how much he admired us and that he was making a wise investment. It was one of the most generous and unexpected gifts I have ever received and was left speechless when I opened up the card on my way home from work. Wow, people amaze me sometimes

We went to a wedding for my closest friend Orlando. He married the beautiful Kayla in a wonderful ceremony on the Delta King in Sacramento. Caden was a dream baby for the road trip and the wedding. He looked cute in his tie, white shirt, and Chuck Taylor's. It was Caden's first road trip and on the way we got to see Grandma Donna, Mel, Keegan, Lilly and family in Carson City.












Momma and Caden went to pick out his first pumpkin today. We didnt buy that ginormous one. You know what is really fitting/gross about living in Vegas. You get your pumpkins from a casino too. Yep, the pumpkin patch is in the parking lot of a major casino. haah








Okay, so Caden is being really cool right now. He has been laughing tons, even at daddy's jokes.
He is super strong, he stands up pretty well and even takes little steps with daddy's prodding. He is trying to talk a lot but nothing sounds like anything we understand in our language. He grabs at everything and can even hold things for a few seconds.


Thats it for now. As always, for posterity:
Largest evacuation in California history due to the 14 or so fires burning in So.Cal. San Diego is getting the worst of it, again.
Red Sox are up 1-0 in the World Series and just tore the Rockies apart today. Josh Beckett is unhittable in the post season.
Night!

Week 10 Update

It's been a crazy week. At least it seems that way. I sat down to start this update and couldn't think of one thing that happened, its all such a blur. Such is life with a newborn, fussy wussy. Let me take that back, he hasn't been that fussy this week. He has been pretty congenial as a matter of fact. So, lets recount the week since my last update.

Mandy and Kate came from Massachusetts to visit Sarah. Mandy was Sarah's childhood pen pal but they haven't seen each other in 17 years. They brought gifts from the Pilgrim State which happened to include a Red Sox outfit for Caden. Now, being a Yankee fan, I had to take a moment to accept their generous gift even though my instinct was to light it on fire. j/k

Segue. Caden is going to be a Yankee for Halloween. Yes, I know they lost in the playoffs. No, I'm not a fair-weather fan. He has the jersey, the hat, and some cute white Converse Chuck Miller All Stars that my Aunt Tracy gave us to top off the outfit.

By now you know the umbilical cord is gone, but the implications are tremendous. First off, he got to take his first real bath in 10 weeks. He is finally clean, which is a relief for me because he was really stinking up this house. haha

I got accepted into the Masters of Educational Technology program at Boise State. They are a leading Edtech school and offer an online program so I don't have to move to Boise or pay out of state fees. I'm very excited and will start in January.

We went over to Gary and Annette's to visit Sarah's Uncle Charlie (forgot to bring the camera so waiting on Annette for pics). Caden got to meet his great uncle and soon to be great Aunt Janice.

I found out a recent article I wrote for Techlearning will be published in the spring. They are a big educational technology magazine (e-Zine).

I presented at my school's annual parents symposium in front of a group of 35 parents. It went very well. Caden and Sarah came and watched and we received a lot of positive feedback. For me it was more of a preparation for the Virtual School Symposium that I'm presenting at in early November which could have up to a couple hundred people attending my session.

Caden is talking a lot. Most of his words are incomprehensible, much like his daddy's.

All and all, its been a great week. Click here to see the most recent pics.

For posterity and dating this moment, go Rockies, I hope you kill the Red Sox in the world series. I hope Lindsay Lohan is fully recovered from her addiction as she leaves her 2 month stay at a Utah drug rehab, the world is definitely a better place with her back in it ;)
Another school shooting happened, this time in Cleveland.
The Raiders are in first place and have already matched the amount of wins they had all last year in 4 weeks of playing. Go one-eyes!

Motivating Student Creativity Article

cross posted at http://thisteacherrants.blogspot.com/

I've written an article that will be posted in the Techlearning E-Zine in the spring. It's a short piece with 2 central themes. The first theme is the idea of options. It's important that teachers provide students with options for completing assignments. Of course this isn't practical for all assignments since we are often trying to teach them something with the method of assessment. However, most assignments in secondary education are essays and traditional objective based assessments. Communication and information in the beloved 'real world' isn't based on those methods anymore. Essays certainly play a role but not the central role in communicating ideas in the Web 2.0 world that our kids occupy. Which is my segue to the 2nd theme, using Web 2.0 tools in my courses. In other words, allowing students to use project based tools that are valid to the world they live in will promote creativity, motivation, and 21st century literacy.http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhsgv8zv_15sdkhcm

Umbilical Cord

Bye, Bye Stumpy

Well its official, his umbilical cord stump has fallen off! Finally. The doctors had us a little worried, but its all good now. The docs early on told us to put alcohol on his cord after every diaper change, so we did, religiously. Then two months later when the ugly thing was still on there the pediatrician said stop putting alcohol on because it might be killing the good bacteria that eats the dead cord away (that was 10 days ago). Then our next consult was with the pediatric surgeon who told us that he didn't want to remove the cord but we should be putting alcohol on there once a day. 3 days later and the cord issue is over. Hopefully.

I put a few new pics on Flickr if you want to see some from this week.

If you want to see what he looks like without the cord, scroll down a little. But don't go too far unless you want to be grossed out. Click on the pic for a better look.





















Okay, if you are strong stomached and want to see the close up, scroll down. Click on it if you dare.