Friday evening at the park

The iBaby is feeling much better.  Went to Sarah's this morning at about 10, and I picked him up at 4:30 as usual.  His appetite is coming back, too.  Of course, dinner involved chicken, but last night he felt so bad he wouldn't even touch that, so tonight was a definite improvement.  After dinner, Dave decided to mow the lawn - it was long.  Not whip-out-a-bushhog-bad, but definitely looking shaggy.  I decided that since Ian was feeling good and the weather was PERFECT (75, low humidity, windy, sunny) that we'd go to the park.

We didn't go to Peter Pan Park - I thought it would probably be crowded with every other person with small children.  Instead, we went to a little park by our church.  Swings, a slide, a merry-go-round, and see-saws.  Simple, but it had what we needed.  First we did some swinging.

I shot this video. Yeah, I won't win awards for my camera work. :)  But who cares - he's adorable.

 And then we tried the slide.  He's never been on a slide before.  I put him on it about half way up (it was a tall slide) and held him while he slid down.  That wasn't fun - he thought it was scary.  So we tried it again, only this time from the top with Mommy holding him.  That was good - he was clinging to me at the top and laughing when we got to the bottom.  All I could think was how cool is it that he needs me to slide with him - I know it won't be long before we go to a playground and he's running all over by himself.

We also checked out the merry-go-round.  He thought that was pretty cool - I held him on my lap and used 1 foot to push us.  I think he's ready for the gravitron. :)

Finally, we swung on the "big kid" swings with him in my arms.  The sun was setting, it was windy but in a good way, and Ian just laid his head on my shoulder and put his arms around my neck.  We probably did that for 10 minutes.  It literally brought tears to my eyes.  I'm so NOT a crier, but it was just such a sweet moment.  All I could think about was how lucky I am to have this wonderful little person in my life.  What an awesome night.  We finished by running by DQ and picking up a shake for Dave, who was hard at work taming the lawn.

Finally, a note about the royal wedding.  Oh yeah, I watched it.  Not live, but it's been replaying all day, so I think I've seen the whole thing through bits and pieces.  And I've seen so many comments on FB about how sick people are of it, how we should be focusing on the tornado victims and not a silly wedding, we have our priorities wrong, Americans are worshipping disgusting displays of wealth, etc.  Here is my take:  I watched it.  I enjoyed watching it.  I enjoyed seeing the dresses, how happy everyone looked, I was interested in the ceremony.  And you know what?  It brightened my day.  Did it make me forget the damage in a town that I love or the friends that have suffered because of the tornado?  No, not for a second.  Would I have been incredibly disappointed if this wedding wasn't full of fancy dresses and outlandish hats and men in tuxedos?  Frankly, yes.  I like believing in the fairy tale.  I want to believe that people can marry for love and not obligation and that marriage can be taken seriously.  And it was damned happier than listening to one more report about wars, rising gas prices, politics, or disasters.  Sorry if that makes me shallow, but I like believing in fairy tales.  There's plenty of time to dwell on everything that's wrong in the world, can't we take a day to think about what's right with it?

Week in review

Man, this week has been a mixed bag!  Apologies for not writing sooner - it's one of those weeks where it seems like everything and nothing is going on.  We have 2 weeks left in the semester.  It is exactly 1 week until my birthday.  Time flies.  So...the week in review.

Monday we found out that Dave will not be the interim chair of his department.  Major bummer in some ways, not a major bummer in others.  We were looking at this as a move towards his permanency, but he had a great talk with the Dean, and it appears that he is going nowhere soon.  Which is a very good thing.  We've spent the past 9 months on a real emotional rollercoaster, not knowing because of a lot of things, whether Dave would have a job next year or not.  So, to have someone high up be so optimistic about the future is a nice feeling.

Tuesday, I picked out my birthday present from Dave and Ian.  It might be here in time for my birthday too. It's a beach cruiser, retro-style bike.  Pics to come when it gets here.  I'm super excited!

Wednesday, tornados ripped apart a town Dave and I called home for 8 years.  I made some of my best friends ever there, got my Ph.D. there.  We'd seen tornados while we were there, but nothing this bad.  Thank God almost everyone I know that still lives there is ok.  So far, no one I know is dead or severely injured.  Friends have house and vehicle damage, but no loss of life.  I can't get in touch with the people from a vet clinic that I volunteered at - their clinic was in the vicinity of the hit and all of them were like family.  They were the inspiration for this blog url - they used to call me the Rodent Scholar.  So say a prayer for them and for everyone down there.

This video was shot from University Mall

It's so hard to go on Facebook or to watch videos like this without getting choked up.  Without thinking, wow, I used to eat at Full Moon BBQ, I went to that CVS, Kevin and I would get "scientific doughnuts" from Krispy Kreme when we were stressed.  And I know T-town will rally and rebuild.  And I know the power will come back on.  And I know it could've been much worse and people I know could've been killed.  But it's still so weird and sad to watch the national news and see a place that you lived featured as the top story for such a terrible reason.

Today the I-man didn't feel so great.  Poor baby - he ran a fever all day unless we gave him Tylenol and was generally snotty and miserable.  But even that wasn't entirely bad.  We cuddled a lot, which was really nice.  Granted, I was definitely wishing he felt better, but it was nice just sitting in the rocking chair with nothing more to do than stroke his hair and rock him.

So, whew - what a rollercoaster ride this week!

Happy Easter

What a great Easter.  It's probably the nicest one we've had in a long time - better explain that one.  We normally don't do much for Easter.  I mean, before Ian, Dave and I went to church and sometimes I'd fix lunch for us or something, but that was really about it.  Last year was our first Easter with Ian and my whole family was here.  Definitely nice to have the family around, but Ian was about 6 weeks old and I felt like a completely overwhelmed zombie.  So I enjoyed last Easter, but I didn't REALLY enjoy it.

This year was just really fun.  Yesterday we went to Brent and Stephanie's and hung out with great friends all afternoon.  The kids dyed Easter eggs (great bunch of kids!).  Ian did great even sans afternoon nap.  Just a very fun, relaxed afternoon.  We came home, fed Ian (who was so tired that he barely ate dinner), and got ready for church.  Our sitter came a little before 8, and Dave and I headed over to Sacred Heart.  I normally don't go to vigil services because they are L-O-N-G.  Like, we got there about a half hour early and the service was 2.5 hours.  LONG.  And in the middle of the night, and I like to go to bed like an old person.  But last night was special, for a couple of reasons.  The first, and most important, was that Dave was baptized and joined the Catholic church.  It was a decision that he made last summer when we baptized Ian and made a commitment to raise him Catholic.  We just thought that it was important for him to join as a family thing.  And he'd been going forever, so why not become an official, card-carrying member, secret handshake and everything?

I have to say, I'm so proud of him.  He not only went through RCIA (no short process), but they do full immersion baptisms here.  I think that would've been my dealbreaker, had it been me.  No way would I climb into the Holy Horse Trough in front of a few hundred people!  But he did!  Everything went really well, and it was totally worth 2.5 hours of church to see that.   The second reason is that all of the friends that we'd spent the afternoon with came.  They sat in the pew behind us and it was just really fun having people we actually knew to sit with.  And I have to admit, it was nice to go to church and not try to get seats in the back pew, spending the whole service digging through a diaper bag looking for the bottle/sippy/snack bag/quiet toy...you get the picture. :)

This Easter was also special because last year we didn't really have the Easter bunny come to our house.  Ian was 6 weeks old - what was the point?  This year, the Easter bunny didn't deliver candy, but she managed to find the largest bunny known to man.  Ok, to Emporia.  His name is Bob.  Bob the Bunny.  The Easter bunny didn't want Bob to get dirty during transport, so she used 2 big bags.  Kinda looks like Bob arrived in a body bag.

To appreciate how big Bob is, here is Bob next to me:

Ian with Bob - I can't tell whether he liked him or was terrified of him.

We had Easter lunch at our friends Jami and Kim's house.  Kim was Dave's godfather.  We almost got him the Godfather movie as a thank you, but decided to take them out to a nice dinner in the future as a thank you instead.  Lunch was delicious - ham, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, all the good stuff.  Ian had their stairs (we have none) in about 5 minutes and when he wasn't climbing them, he was playing with their kids' Easter loot.  Their youngest, Jake, was so sweet with Ian.  He was on the stairs with me when Ian was climbing and told me that he would tell Ian how to climb down too, but he didn't speak baby language any more.  He also let Ian chew on his dinosaur ball shooter.

Yeah, next year the goal is to visit the Easter Bunny at the mall and actually have some nice Easter pics of the fam.  Baby steps. :)  I hope everyone has had a great weekend!

I want your reality

So, tonight I decided to check my usual scientific websites like UsMagazine.com and I just about spit out my Diet Dr. Pepper when I saw this headline Kirstie Alley: I'm almost a size 6!.  I LOVE Kirstie.  She's funny, talented, and isn't afraid to make fun of herself.  I've loved watching her on DWTS.  But seriously, a size 6?? I want some Hollywood clothes!

I saw a really interesting talk today about pregnancy.  Actually, it was about the evolution of the bump and how it's now ok to display.  And ok to photograph.  Great pics from history too.  The presenter was a grad student in psychology and also a professional photographer.  Really interesting to know how much retouching is done on both celebrities and "normal" people.  I always kinda figured that magazines airbrushed the crap out of those glowing, pregnant, half-naked celebrities.  Having now been pregnant myself, I had to believe it was airbrushing because the alternative was that I had the worst looking pregnant belly in the entire history of mankind.  She had an interesting point though - she routinely retouches pregnancy photos at her clients' requests because there is pressure to have the perfect cute, round, stretch mark-free belly.  You can't even be natural while you're pregnant. I completely relate to this and now I'm a little sad that I didn't capture more of my pregnancy with Ian.  I did want belly pics - NOT to put on the internet, but just as a little reminder to Dave and I of what I looked like during my pregnancy.  But I did see those pictures of celebrities who magically gain 60lbs with no stretch marks and that cute round shape and then I'd look at the mirror and see nothing but flaws.  Ian was frank breech and when they delivered him, we were told that he was sitting like a frog on top of my pelvis.  As in, not one part of him down at all to give me a cute round beach ball.  Nope, I bulged out and flattened, like some giant turtle wearing its shell backwards.  Stretch marks?  No cream on earth would've stopped those.  And then there was the PUPPP.  Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy.  Remember chickenpox?  Kinda similar in look and in itch.  I itched all over for about 4 months.  Awesome.  But if I'd known I could have some fabulous pics of myself that in no way resembled reality?  Heck yeah, sign me up.  Maybe next time. :)

Anyway, it was a cool talk and I went to other cool stuff today - it was Research and Creativity Day.  My students presented their work and did well.  The day started out with a lot of little morning frustrations, but by afternoon things had brightened up a lot.  Good snacks during the awards ceremony also helped (I could eat my weight in cocktail weenies with BBQ sauce).  A colleague and friend of mine and I had a cocktail weenie discussion - he wasn't a huge fan and had never heard of putting grape jelly and BBQ sauce together when you're making them in a crockpot.  I didn't know that was such a southern thing, but you know, I'm a girl who loves her processed meat products. :)  Tomorrow is Friday - yahoo!  Not too much on the books yet, so hopefully it will be a quiet day at work so I can get a lot done.  The end (of the semester) is coming soon!

What a (half) week!

Geez, I can't believe it's only Wednesday.  I think we should fast-forward to Friday.  Mentally, I think I was there Monday.  To recap the week so far...

Kevin's talk was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be.  Actually, it was probably amazinger.  I understood it.  So did everyone else.  And for someone like me to understand DNA methylation, you know he was using small words and short sentences.  Molecular biologist, I'm not.  He got to meet quite a few of my colleagues and a lot of the grad students too.  I love where I work, so it was really cool to show off our awesome university and my even awesomer students and colleagues.  I took him to KC to his hotel afterwards and got home at 10:30, absolutely exhausted. That is a long, boring drive.

So Tuesday I had 6.5 billion tests to grade.  Ok, really it was more like 49, but it felt like 6.5 billion.  Some of my students did really well and some of them had a bad case of VD - verbal diarrhea.  You know, when you start writing and you can't stop?  When you throw every word you've ever heard the prof mention in a lecture in your answer, hoping to God that the heart has something to do with the digestive system, or maybe that was respiration.  Oh well, we'll just discuss it all together and maybe she'll give me partial credit.  Yeah, I totally admit to doing that in my college days (particularly in physics - I had ED - equation diarrhea - I was sure that somehow E=MC^2 had something to do with any possible answer).  As a prof, I hate VD.  The most awesome answer, though, that I've ever gotten in many years of teaching was when I asked whether a particular heart rhythm was good or bad.  The answer? "Yes, it's probably bad because it was on your powerpoint about abnormal heart rhythms."  Can I just say how awesome that is??

I hung a decorative sign on my door Tuesday that was very effective.  So effective, in fact, that a colleague joked later in the day that I'd taken my sign down so he thought it was safe to come in.

Today was good, just busy.  Wednesdays are usually big meeting days.  Tomorrow should be pretty nice.  Hope you're having a good week!

Rookie mistakes

So, in KC yesterday I made a pitstop by Target.  LOVE that store for kids' clothes.  So I got Ian some summer stuff and one of the things I got him was a bright, white polo shirt.  What was I thinking, you ask? Well, I was thinking "Oh, how cute, Dave has a white polo and I can force them to wear matching outfits."  What was I not thinking?  That Ian is 13 months old and his new food trick is spitting things out.

So, here's a before shot - Ian with Kevin.  Clean Ian (and clean Kevin):

See how white the shirt is??

We had lunch in Lawrence at a BBQ place.  Where I offered Ian his first taste of baked beans, again without thinking.  That was the first collar stain.  Then later, Dave fed (attempted) him spaghetti for dinner. Those would be the other stains.  Finally, I tried to feed him a vegetable and selected carrots because they're his favorite.  At this point, the shirt was more orange than anything, so who cared.

After:

Oh well.  Next time I'll get an orange polo.  He's still cute though. :)  He wasn't in the mood so much for his stroller today either, so I carried him a lot and Kevin pushed the 3 bottles of wine we bought in the stroller.  Fun day in Lawrence.  Tomorrow is Kevin's seminar and he'll be meeting a ton of people.  Then I drive him back to KC and collapse - it's been a fantastic weekend but I'm worn out!!

A vegetarian nightmare...

Didn't realize until I logged in that I hadn't blogged in a few days.  Sorry about that.  It's been a crazy few days.  Kevin is here - we picked him up from the airport in Kansas City yesterday.  You know that friend that you can fall immediately in sync with again no matter how long it's been since you saw each other?  Kevin's one of those.  We got our Ph.D.s together.  He's a post-doc right now and extremely busy so we don't talk very often, but we've had a fabulous time catching up so far.

After picking him up, we decided to walk around the plaza area of KC.  Very swanky stores.  Very fun window shopping.  We decided to go to Fogo de Chao for dinner.  It's a Brazilian steakhouse (churrascaria), which I'm pretty sure translates from Portuguese as "humungous amounts of dead animals". Or something to that effect.  Dave and I went there for our 10th anniversary and meant to go there this year too, but a little person named Ian kinda canceled those plans.  So last night was celebrating Kevin's visit and a belated 11th anniversary.  Actually, Ian was very much present when we went on our 10th - I was about a 5 weeks away from having him and my stomach was the size of a raisin.  So in a restaurant with the most amazing salad bar I've ever seen and gauchos waiting to offer you 14 (no exaggeration) different kinds of pork, beef, and chicken, I ate 3 lettuce leaves and a sausage that night.  Oh well, last night I made up for it. :)  Dave and Kevin had a great time too - Dave never gets lamb any more (Kansas - not so much the lamb state).  So when offered (multiple times), a leg of lamb cooked just the way he likes it (still bleeding) and mint-encrusted lamb chops, he said yes, please.  I had the sausages and a small piece of parmesan-encrusted pork loin.  Kevin was in love with the bacon-wrapped filet mignon.  And then there was our son....


So, this was Ian's first restaurant with tablecloths and cloth napkins.  We take him everywhere, including restaurants, so he's really pretty well behaved, especially considering he's 13 months old - we've just gotten used to leaving big tips because of the messy aftermath.  Last night was a long dinner (hey, salad bar + 14 kinds of meat takes a while), and Ian's afternoon nap lasted 15 minutes.  So he wasn't in the mood to try new things and chicken nuggets were NOT on the menu.  So he had half a roll, some cheese (OMG, the cheese!) and then the waiter brought out a sliced fruit plate (unsolicited) of sliced bananas, strawberries, and blueberries.  With whipped cream.  I said thank you and looked at him like "I hope you know how much cleanup this is going to involve."  So Ian ate 2 banana slices and ALL of the whipped cream.  Then he had fun with the rest of his dinner (the floor saw a lot of it) and the tablecloth.

We're off for more fun in Lawrence today.  Weather is supposed to be about 75 degrees with 20mph winds.  Which will guarantee 2 things - a great afternoon on Massachusetts street and a REALLY bad hair day for me.

Wild men and rockstars

Ok, today's post is mainly about other people because my day wasn't all that interesting.  Ooh, ooh, except I may have gotten the name of a contact that might be able to get me free slides for my summer course.  That could be really cool.  Other than that, one of my grad students gave a seminar today and did a very nice job and I talked about lungs.  Nothing too exciting.

I have to take a second and devote it to a rockstar - my sister.  She is superwoman.  She has been a mama now for 4 days, and I'm pretty sure she hasn't slept since Friday night.  She's doing so well.  If I'd gone that long feeding him around the clock, getting no sleep, etc, I'd at least be cranky, if not a little psycho.  She sounds like she's just so calm and patient.  Michael is one lucky little guy - he has amazing parents.  Well, and a pretty cool aunt, too, he just doesn't know it yet. :)

So...the wild men.  Well, really just a wild man.  Ian has provided some great photo ops the past few days.  This was how my wild man greeted me this morning - love the hair!

Got the hair calmed down, got him dressed in his spiffy plaid shorts and polo shirt (what, you thought he wouldn't be a preppy baby?).  And I wanted to take some pics of him in his cute outfit.  This is what I got:

The I'm-too-sexy-for-my-tractor pose.  This was after I'd taken 5 or 6 pictures, so I think this was really his Mommy-please-quit-taking-my-picture pose.

Finally, I'll leave you with one of my faves:

The last one is from this morning too - Dave youtube'd the muppets doing the mahna mahna song.  Ian's favorite song in the world, for some reason.  :)  Happy Wednesday!

Just another manic Monday...

Wow - isn't the end of the semester when everything is supposed to settle down?  Today my office was hopping from 9 until I left.  Even my 2:00 prospective student showed up 10 minutes before I got out of class and was therefore waiting for me when I got out.  Lots of advising, lots of research, and lots of planning, since Kevin is coming in a week.  Well, at least I can't say that the day dragged, right?

Figured something out today with Ian.  Serve anything NOT involving his precious chicken first.  Then offer chicken, because after the chicken, he will not go back to anything else.  Dinner tonight, for him, was mashed potatoes and carrots (baby carrots, no molars).  He's not such a fan of mashed potatoes, but if you scoop a little up and coat it in pureed carrots, all is right with the world.  The kid loves carrots.  So, after a decent amount of potatoes and carrots, I thought I could serve his chicken and then go back to carrot bombs.  No way, Jose.  Oh well, at least he had a pretty balanced dinner.  Little guy is also teething, so tonight he wasn't the happiest camper.

This morning I had a pretty decent workout and then I introduced a coffeepot into the lab.  I'm actually not a coffee drinker and much prefer energy drinks, but coffee's cheaper.  I think my Ph.D. was sponsored by RedBull.  Anyway, iced hazelnut Folgers adulterated with sugar-free hot chocolate mix, Splenda, and creamer isn't bad.  I did kinda feel like I was vibrating afterwards, but I consider that a bonus.

So, nothing Earth-shattering tonight.  My brain is tired.  Tomorrow I should have more interesting stories - I'm helping out with science night at our local Catholic school. K-6.  Should be awesome playing with the frictionless chair.  :)

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)