Working hard!

My camera charger is still MIA, so no pic; sorry! Sorry also that it's been so long! School stuff has consumed me. Five weeks until Spring Break!

Claire's new skill is playing peek-a-boo. We've done it to amuse her for a while, but she actually reciprocates now. She covers her face with a blanket or her hands and waits until someone says "Where's Claire?" and then reveals herself with a big grin.

This is part of a broader skill she's making leaps and bounds at: communicating. When we say "No," she [either whimpers or] grins and says "Neh?" When I say, "Claire, what do you have?" (because she always has something in her hand, usually one thing in each, and then she bangs them together), she'll turn and hold out whatever she has. She also has this gesture she makes a lot, but we can't quite figure out: she'll hold her hand out, arm extended toward you, sometimes when she means "Stop" or "No," and sometimes when she seems to mean "Look at me!" When she babbles, she mostly says "Nanana" or "Mamama." She's very close to calling me mama, I think.

In adult news, Jay has been working on their development in Ardmore a lot lately. They have finally poured some footings for some actual houses! Ardmore has a maze of code and permits builders have to navigate, and they're finally through with that mess and on to building.

I am just in survival mode. I have a feeling being a first-year teacher is a lot like writing the first draft of a novel: frustrating, scary, and exhausting, with flashes of brilliance, and their consequential adrenaline rushes that keep you going. For instance, last week, I was teaching Macbeth, finishing up a Holocaust unit with Elie Wiesel's Night, comparing and contrasting two American Gothic short stories, and reading Arthurian legend. Try being an expert in all of that at once! It's overwhelming.