What a weekend!

Biggest and most wonderful news first - I'm an aunt again!  My sister, Katie, had our newest nephew, Michael Ryan, this morning.  My sister is a real trouper and did a fantastic job!  Let's just say that her labor and delivery story makes me happy that I had a scheduled c-section with Ian. :)  Anyway, Michael is absolutely adorable.  I mean, really, really adorable.  And I'm completely unbiased, really.  See for yourself:

Really, isn't he beautiful?? My dad is the one holding him - the parents are up there helping out for a little while.  We get to meet him in May and I can't wait.  I told Ian he was now a big cousin (he has 2 older cousins) and he just looked at me like, what's a cousin?  He'll figure it out eventually.  So happy for Sean and Katie though - that is one lucky little boy because I know they'll be fabulous parents.

So that was the high point of the weekend.  Yesterday, I went to a regional conference and two of my graduate students presented their research.  One of them won second place for M.S. talks.  Woo hoo!  Overall, our university won 5 out of the 12 awards that we qualified for.  Go us!! The conference was a little disorganized, to say the least, but I thought our students did very well.  And there was a cool taxonomy talk about sea anemones and pom pom crabs.  Pretty neat stuff.  Ian stayed home with Dave.

Ian's started doing the cutest thing lately.  He pretends to talk on the phone.  He might pick up an actual handset (old one that he plays with) or it might be a remote to a stereo or a TV.  He's working on saying hello - it usually comes out as "eyo".  So cute.  He's also started saying "uh-oh" and for some reason thinks it's hilarious.  He's just a fun little guy most of the time (hey, he is a baby after all - there are grouchy days).

So, a very eventful weekend.  Time to start thinking about what I need to do tomorrow.  Good night!

A really great afternoon

This evening, the tennis teams from ESU played.  Since Dave and I have, combined, taught a good majority of the tennis teams, we decided to go.  Doubles started at 4:30.  We picked up Ian (who apparently had a good day and does, in fact, suffer from baba withdrawal), picked up some dinner, and headed to the local high school for the matches.  Definitely saw some great playing!  Great weather, Ian had chicken so all was right with the world, and we got to see some good tennis.  Probably the highlight of the evening, though, other than saying hi to the students, was meeting their friends and the mom of one of the students.  The friends were students that neither of us had had.  Once they realized who we were they all said they were excited to meet us and that they'd heard a lot about us and Ian.  Good things.  And they sounded like they meant it.  One must've said that it was nice to meet us three times.  Meeting the mom of one of the players was so cool.  She sought us out, introduced herself, and then told me that I was her daughter's favorite college professor, she absolutely loved my class, etc.  So cool.  I try really hard to be a good prof, and it's really, really nice to hear that I'm successful.  I was able to honestly tell her that her daughter  (who was one of my favorite students) was going to make an awesome nurse.  So I left with warm fuzzies. :)  What a nice pick-me-up.

Ian had fun playing in the grass:

I asked him if I could get a smile - this was his response:

Not even kidding - he turned around.  Maybe he knows he's on my blog regularly?  Anyway, the sun provided a really cool photo op:

Shadow Family!

Happy Friday everyone!

A tale of two Ians...

Dave picked up Ian this afternoon and when they got home, I asked if he'd been a good boy.  Dave said that he'd been Mr. Crabbypants all day.  He ate baby food for lunch because the lunch Sarah offered him the first time went flying.  Let me pause for a minute and say that as bad as I feel that Ian gave Sarah a hard time today, it is kind of a relief to know that ours is not the only kitchen floor that has seen Ian's I'm-not-eating-that-and-you-can't-make-me wrath.  In a strange, perverse way, I feel better knowing that sometimes even the Baby-Whisperer can't please Mr. Picky.  Anyway, I thought if he'd been a grouch all day, we were in for it tonight.  But no - apparently Oscar was only a grouch earlier.  Wonder if it had something to do with him giving up his daytime babas?  Do they make a baba patch for those days in withdrawal?  He grabbed the bottle tonight like he was dying and didn't let go until he was finished.  I will add that he can drink from a sippy and is in no danger of milk deprivation.  Anyway, we had a really nice time playing:

We shot this video.  You'll have to click because I couldn't get the linking-thingy in blogger to work correctly.  In sort of an ironic twist, the object that is making him laugh so hard is one of the rings from the set Sarah, Ben, and the kids got him for his birthday.  Dave twirling the ring with the rattles and then dropping was hilarious.  I dare you to watch it and not crack a smile. :)  Hopefully, though, Ian is back to his full-time happy, smiley self tomorrow.

Other than that, not much to report.  About halfway through finalizing my lab manual.  A fun lunch with some great friends.  I was going to swim, but had an insulin reaction right before I was about to leave, so I decided against it.  I'll hit the gym tomorrow morning.  So for now, good night. :)

I need a helmet

It's really a wonder that I've made it through life with no brain damage.  Really.  Yesterday I had an awesome swim - a did a mile (1650 yards) in about 40 minutes - not too shabby!  I was about halfway through, my goggles were foggy, and I was backstroking.  I was spotting by counting the fans in the upper wall to my right - after 4 fans there's a pipe.  You turn over when you see the pipe and you're a few strokes away from the side wall.  Unless you miss seeing the pipe, think some random thing on the wall is the pipe, and turn just in time to smack into the wall with your forehead.  Cursing optional.

Today I ran intervals on the treadmill, since I can't do the pool.  I got control of one of the TVs and I decided to watch 19 Kids and Counting.  Which was awesome, except the TV was slightly to my left.  Every time I did a running interval, I ran to the left.  Which resulting in me falling off the treadmill several times.  Fortunately, I managed to catch myself before I was completely off and get back on ever so gracefully.  Stuff like this is even more awesome when one of your current students works at the gym.  "Oh yeah, that's my professor running sideways off the treadmill."  Awesome.

Today was good, though.  Lecture was awesome, meetings went well, a long day, but it was good.  By the time I got out of my faculty meeting, it was 5:30, I'd been having an insulin reaction for about 20 minutes, and Ian was hungry.  So we wound up at KFC.  I think they were having an off night - worst chicken ever!  Oh well, there were no dishes to do afterwards, so that was awesome.

BTW, the baked amish oatmeal?  Not bad.  A little on the tough side - I think when they say soak the oats, they mean it!

Now I'm watching Extreme Couponing and I'm headed to bed soon.  Good night!

A milestone - Ian's first temper tantrum!

I am a bad mommy.  Dave is a bad Daddy.  Well, maybe not bad, but for awhile this evening we were NOT Ian's favorite people.

Before that, a quick recap of my Monday.  No workout - I was going to, but then I realized it was dark and cold outside - snooze button won.  I'm probably going swimming tomorrow with a goal of 1600 yards.  One of my best friends and favorite person in the world, Kevin, is coming in 2 weeks to give a seminar and to visit.  I'm trying to organize a potluck lunch for him so he can meet the grad students.  We'll see how that goes.  Class went well.  So all in all, a pretty good Monday.

Then I picked up Ian.  And all was good...until the fish sticks.  Yes, I, evil mommy extraordinaire, did not serve CHICKEN.  We tried baked fish sticks.  Ian - 1.  Fish sticks - 0.  He not only spit them out, he started crying.  Needless to say, I caved in a NY minute and made him chicken.  Dave went to the store for milk and yogurt and Ian tried to "help" me unload the dishwasher.  And by help, I mean quasi-destroy.  He wound up in his jumper - aka baby jail - while I finished the dishes.  He had a little tantrum, but then settled down and played with the toys...until Dave returned.  Then he had a BIG meltdown.  I'm sure it translated to something like "Look where Mommy put me and all I was trying to do was help and she's mean and you'd never do anything like this!"  Or something to that effect.  After about 10 minutes of inconsolable crying (Dave got him out of baby jail), he calmed down and started playing by the front window.  All was good until he started to reach for the picture frames on the entertainment center.  We told him no (he knows he's not supposed to touch) and that unleashed another round of tears.  Oh yes, we're horrible.  Tears lasted until bathtime a few minutes later, and thankfully we managed to get the bath right.  And he got his baba.  And he went to bed peacefully - whew!

Trying something new for breakfast tomorrow - Baked Amish Oatmeal.  I followed this recipe, with a couple of substitutions.  Instead of the butter, I used 1/3 cup applesauce, instead of 3/4 cup brown sugar, I used 1/2c Splenda and about 1/4c brown sugar.  I didn't soak it overnight - I baked it right away.  Oh yeah, and pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it is.  So far, it smells good!

Seeing God in the spaghetti

It's been a good weekend.  We didn't really do much, but the weather has been really nice, although at the moment it's storming and hailing.  But the weekend has been nice.  We went to church Saturday night, and Ian wasn't in the mood.  So wrestling with him was fun, but not too bad.  Our priest had an interesting message - we should be sharing more about how God has worked in our lives.  But he specifically said that we didn't have to ring doorbells or shout it in the streets - it could be as simple as acknowledging God in our own houses.  So I thought a lot about that.  I privately acknowledge God all the time, but I rarely talk about it.  I guess I consider religion private.  But I thought I'd write a post about it, so fair warning - religious discussion to follow - don't read if that kind of thing pisses you off.

Really, if you don't want to read, it's ok.

I've always, from the time I could remember, believed in God.  I've always believed that everything, good or bad, happens for a reason.  But here is absolute proof that God exists in my world.

I can't even begin to describe how strongly I feel that Ian was sent from God to be our child.  We were told by 2 different docs years ago that I would probably never get pregnant without using fertility drugs.  That led to a lot of discussion because we didn't want to risk a multiple pregnancy with my diabetes.  We looked into adoption, twice.  We finally felt like we'd give it the old college try without drugs, actually while we were taking adoption classes here.  And I got pregnant with Ian pretty quickly.  Again, I think it was meant to be.  I had a great pregnancy.  Good diabetes control, Ian was as healthy as a horse, and I went to a LOT of doctors appointments, but I considered that a bonus - I'm friends with people (my OB and her nurses) now and wouldn't have gotten to know as well had I not had to go as often.  I got to see him every week, sometimes twice a week with ultrasounds toward the end.  Who else gets to do that??  I had a retinal hemorrhage in my left eye when I was 10 weeks pregnant with him.  I couldn't see out of that eye for about 3 months.  Going blind is seriously one of my biggest fears in life, but I felt this overwhelming sense of peace and calm and the feeling that everything would be ok when it happened.  Again - God.  I met my fantastic retinologist and now I have check-ups with him regularly, which will really keep me on top of the retinopathy earlier in life than I probably would have been.  How awesome is it that God puts the right people in our path?  Ian is happy and completely healthy, and is a truly great child - he sleeps through the night (I know, be jealous) and has the sunniest disposition.  I know that he's so healthy because of my hard work during my pregnancy, but I also know that I didn't get the strength to work that hard from anywhere but God.

So, probably one of the only religious posts that you'll ever read here, but church just got me thinking.  I've also thought about agnosticism lately.  I don't understand it.  If you're not sure that there is a God, why not just go ahead and believe?  If you're wrong, you've had a life believing in someone bigger than yourself, of believing in an afterlife, and a life of believing that you were created with a purpose.  If you're wrong, then, well, you get a big dirt nap at the end, but you still had a pretty nice life.  I do realize that my POV does come from a life as a believer, and I really do believe to each his own, especially when it comes to religion.  Again, just my random thoughts tonight.

The pics, BTW, were taken tonight when Ian fed himself spaghetti for the first time.  So funny! Well, time to prepare for tomorrow.

A note about the blog name...

When I named the blog One Bite at a Time, Dave wondered if I was going to become a food blogger.  Nope, although you will see the occasional recipe.  No, this is my life philosophy.  Comes from my mom.

When I was working on my Ph.D., it hit me one day how MUCH there is to do (I think I was in my second year).  I was really freaking out about the prospective of writing a proposal, writing papers, taking oral and written comps, writing a dissertation, giving seminars.  You get the picture.  When I talked to my mom that night she said, "How do you eat an elephant?  You just take it one bite at a time."  And that attitude has served me well for the past 6 or so years.  Don't get me wrong, I still freak out.  Like my whole first semester as a new faculty member.  I was sure that any day the department chair was going to come in my office and explain that I wasn't really supposed to be here - that they really meant to hire someone else. I planned experiments where I could do the whole thing myself, because I wasn't sure anyone would want to work for me.  And then I'd remind myself that I was here.  Take it one bite at a time.  I will probably have mini-freak-outs until I get tenure, but this philosophy really has helped.  Thanks, Mom. :)

Time to sip my light hard lemonade, smell my Sun and Sand candle, and imagine myself in Florida for a little while.  Happy Friday (and April Fools' Day - my prank was fabulous)