What a week!

Maddie is happily checking out the bird. I just love the look of "awe" on her face.

So, this weeks' in-service has been spectacular!

We're doing embedded therapies, incidental teaching, and we're now using the engagement model. The therapies and teaching arent anything new but the engagement model is. I am really looking forward to this year. My teaching partner and I spent the afternoon rearranging the room so that it best utilizes the space for the model we'll be using. I'll take my camera in tomorrow and take some pics, I'm super excited about it. :)

My mother-in-law has been keeping Maddie for me during this week and it seems to have been working out pretty well. The only thing that urks me is that I'm not enjoying coming home and seeing all her "stuff" laying around my house as well as cleaning up after her, i.e., dirty bottles and baby toys. We have a nice little section in the living room for all of Maddie's toys and I just think before you leave someone's home youre to clean up everything that you took out. And, I seriously have a thing about bottles sitting around with an ounce or so of milk in them. I'm sure its just the fact of working at a school where this is never done and just for the idea of cleanliness, bottles are put up when they are finished. Anyway, I did bring up a very touchy subject for me with her this morning. She said her husband, Tony, was coming over with her tomorrow to set up the yard sale stuff. Since he hurt his neck and cant move anything, he'll be watching Maddie, in her stroller, while Sharon sets the stuff up. I had to ask if he was talking nicer to Maddie. I reminded her how he used the words, "it" and "thing" in reference to her and that even though I understood she didnt know what he was saying, it was still very upseting for me to hear him say those things. She said that no, he wasnt using those words any longer, that he liked Maddie now. Can I share something with you? I get physically ill when this man comes in my presence. Will you please pray for me?

On another note, the boys have been away: Jeremy has been at the beach and Austin is hanging out with friends and finishing up papers. I miss them terribly. In Maddie's development, she's really concentrating on objects now and is doing a great job of reaching out to get things...everything actually. :) She cognitively just seems so aware of things...it blows my mind. :) Oh, and Daddy picked her up some cereal today as well as gave her a taste of some peach and then some desert yogurt, which he so got in trouble about the yogurt since it has all kinds of chemicals in it. The peach was alright, but I reminded him that we cant start with sweets or she'll never want veggies. :) He says she wont like the cereal after she's had the peach but I'll be using momma milk, so I'm sure she'll enjoy that. I'll, of course, take some pics of her first meal and will proudly post them soon. :)