All grown up

Huxley started solids last week. It was time - he's been acting very interested in food at the table and just seemed ready. The second time around has been easier for me to believe that I can just follow my kid's signals about things. He's ready.

Today, we make carrots. Very exciting.

This time, I had entirely built the baby up to this point - other than 2 ounces of formula, I've provided all the everything to build this:


Which makes me want to go eat some more calcium - look at all those bones!

If the snow would just melt, things would be really awesome. I'm still enjoying teaching a lot and my students are really great. I like talking to adults about things that interest me. I'm actually efficient enough again that I can prep for classes and find a day or two out of each week to work on my papers. I probably work too much (all time between sunday night and thursday morning is either prepping for the next day's class, prepping future classes, or wrangling tired/hungry children. to the extent that Trouble and I barely talk to each other on those days. bad.) . But I like it. And I do have some free time. I finished my advisor's retirement quilt and then promptly forgot to take pictures, for instance.

The boys are also super fun. They're going to be buds, I hope. I'm sure they're going to fight, but Turing is all about helping get Huxley toys to play with and they both laugh when the other one laughs. They're going to gang up on us and we're going to be screwed. Turing is officially into playing pretend which is pretty awesome. It started with pretend objects (ice cream, etc) to put in his play kitchen. Then that things were doing thing "[the] train go[es to] get cookie [for] Turing." And now things can be other things - his sandwich is a train, his blocks are a train. Trains, trains, trains.

Huxley is now all distracted all the time. He will only nurse when laying down in bed because everywhere else is too interesting. This is no good for my pumping because I have terrible letdown on the pump and reasonable letdown when pumping on one side and nursing on the other. No more! His very favorite thing is to stand up with someone holding his hands and make him dance. With Turing. They both just start laughing.

Products

I've been a pretty good consumer lately. By which I mean an economic stimulator - someone send me a medal!

But they've actually been products that make me happy.

For instance, I finally found some cotton tights to wear instead of pantyhose. I even finally found some that are actually mostly cotton (93%) and have not yet given me ingrown toenails or a yeast infection. They do bunch up at my ankle, occasionally, but I can deal with that. Hypothetically, because they're cotton, I can just wash them over and over again. But that requires that I stop banging them into the sharp things under my keyboard drawer on my desk. That is a much more expensive mistake than it would be with nylon tights. Hrm.

I also broke down and bought some of the reusable grocery bags from trader joe's and whole foods. I have other cloth bags at home, but these seemed like they'd be better since they have nice flat bottoms. And they are. They hold a ton of stuff, they're really sturdy, and they are stable. And they cost 99 cents. Best dollar I've spent in a long time. Now I just need to get over the incredibly strong mental block I have about remembering them when I go to the store. Why I can remember my list and not my bag, I do not understand.

I also, finally, bought Turing a play kitchen. And it is awesome! He likes to play with it, I don't mind looking at it, and it is built to last a while. And if Huxley shows any interest in it at all, it will probably be used for the next six years. I was feeling all guilty for spending so much money on it ($400) until I started setting up travel plans for various weddings this summer. If I'm going to spend that much on various weekends, I can feel OK on spending $400 on toys my kids will use for the next six years. Jeez.

3 ring binder

Best use I've had for a 3 ring binder in years: improvised shovel for uncovering car

Prelude to clerkships

The winter storm that happened Wednesday was pretty incredible - I think we got 12 inches in 24 hours - It was kind of a hassle, but pretty, and didn't involve any ice, so, whatever. I drove in to teach my class.

It did involve a lot of wind. This meant it was impossible to keep the sidewalks around campus clear because the snow would just blow back on immediately. This also meant it was nearly impossible to get into my building which is really tall and next to the lake; there is a force field around it which makes it windier and windier the closer you get. At one point, I stopped walking and was pushed backwards on the ice in the parking lot. Awesome.

Class seems to be going well because it wasn't just me who showed up - 9 of 10 of my enrolled students (minus the one from Milwaukee) and 1 auditor all showed up. I've been getting nice comments about how useful the class is and that makes me feel good. Go me.

I then had to trudge over to the hospital for my very first meeting about going back to medical school clerkships. Basically, they sat us all in a room for an hour and told us 1. don't freak out 2. be professional 3. here's how you select things on the internet

My primary response was: for real? you can't just send us a document on how to do this?

Good thing I brought my knitting.

And I know they can't just send out a document because it is that terrible gifted-kid trap where we'd all just skip the directions because we're sure we know how/when/what to do.

And I got to sit in a room with the 140 people who will be my new best friends next year. They are all, like, 12 years old. They all seem so young - they even were throwing paper airplanes. It's amazing. I know I was 12 years old just 5 years ago, too . . .

And I got to watch the faculty, again, try to orient the students to the sort of career they're getting themselves into. It is a career which overrides your personal life. This is natural to me because I grew up in it. But they had to reiterate again and again; this is mandatory. That means you'll be there. Weddings are not an excuse. If you aren't there, you will not graduate. It's your choice, but you won't graduate.

And then I got to pour over my potential schedules for the next year of my life. I have it down to two, which are very different.

I know the schedule doesn't really matter.

Finally!

Hurray!

It's a standardized addendum to publication agreements for authors of journal articles!