Time just slips by, recently. Whole weeks just - poof. I'm active and accomplishing some things and spending time with all the boys, but suddenly it was Thanksgiving and now, suddenly, it is solstice. Soon, it will be the new year and then classes will start.
Then I will be very aware of time, I'm sure. Counting down lectures! If I stay on track for the next month, I think I'll have 50% of my lectures ready before classes start (there are 60 total that I have to give). This isn't to say that I won't need to refresh and tweak them a bit, but I'll have done all the background readings and have some slides ready. Then it will just be a race to get the other 50% done before I need them and while dealing with grading and office hours and all that business . . . how bad can it be? I guess we'll find out!
I don't need to decide this week, but I do need to decide soon if I want to try to teach these classes again in two years. I need to prime the people who would decide to hire me again that I would be around. And I need to set up my third year of medical school, which determines if I will be free to teach. I have a fair number of credits going into the fourth year, so I might be able to force it all in. Or I could spend that time just hanging with the family. I mean, totally writing stuff up for publication.
The options in organizing the rest of my life range from "easy":
Third year: 40 weeks of school in 52 weeks
Fourth year: 30 weeks of school in 40(?) weeks
To the crazy:
Third year: 44 weeks of school in 52 weeks
Early fourth year: 22 weeks of school in 25 weeks, and applications and interviews
End of fourth year: teach a class or two with maybe 4ish weeks of school for me in there (a perfect time for student presentations and guest lecturers . . .)
The crazy does look crazy - but the money for teaching would be a nice cushion to have around later. And if teaching isn't too crazy, then the end of fourth year might be really nice. I could always "just" teach one class instead of two.
But it is hard to reconcile with the idea of how sad it will be to not see my boys very often with the idea that I would want to add more work to my schedule. I have been feeling, already, that they are growing up too fast. Huxley is reaching for toys and blowing raspberries. He likes to practice sitting up. He will never again be that quiet, observing baby-lump. I am not going to have another baby-lump around. The end of that stage of our lives.
Turing has been cuddling again, more, which is a nice reversal. I was worried, since Huxley is not much of a cuddler, that I was going to miss out entirely on cuddling soon enough. Turing was all about laying and sleeping on us when he was littler. He's been too busy for cuddling, since he's a busy 2-year-old, but seems to want it again after napping. It is nice.
Huxley's favorite thing is to lay on the floor and babble at you. He is also super active - you get his diaper off and he just wiggle, wiggle, wiggles and kicks like a pilates instructor. He watches very intently and he loves to listen to music. He'll be quiet as long as I want to play piano, which is always longer than Turing wants me to play.
He's also into a nuk, which Turing never really took to. And he barely spits up at all, unlike Turing who needed a clothing change three times a day - Hence, I feel like I'm making as much milk as he needs, even though he is as big as Turing was. Huxley also makes some amazing burps for being so small - and they come so easily. He has virtually no cradle cap and no eczema (thankfully) where Turing's scalp was entirely cracked.
Turing has been doing some awesome things, too. He'll pat my back when I give him a hug. He's talking, talking, talking - my favorite phrase is "come on!" which he says when he gets frustrated with something. Let's just hope it takes a while for him to fully mimic his dad who says, "come on you piece of shit!" Turing is big into tunnels at the moment. And harassing the cats. And trains, trains, trains. And making cookies. And making rice (with the measuring cup!) And lining things up (play dough, blocks, orange sections, cars, whatever).
Soon enough, Turing will be lining things up and Huxley will be messing up his lines and all hell will break loose. Soon! I hope it is fun.
