9.08.2010
School and development
Kent has officially started school at La Printanière Montessori. We had a visit last week to meet his teachers, he's been going for an hour each day since last Friday, and he'll go for his full three hours each day starting next Monday. I love the way they phase the kids in, making sure everyone is acclimated and that the older kids are settled before the newer kids arrive. They have 3- through 5-year-olds in the same room, so the newer ones rely so much on the older ones to model things around the classroom and to show them the routine. We've been very impressed with how comfortable we all feel as a family in this school, and Kent's teachers are terrific, so patient and warm with the kids and so helpful to first-time parents.
Kent has trotted off with his teacher each day in the carpool line, and then when I come to get him an hour later, he has a huge grin and is immediately bursting with stories from his day. He always starts with a report of what they had for a snack — snack duty rotates among the families, so the snacks are pretty different from one day to the next — then moves on to where they went on their walk that day, what things they learned in the classroom, what he played on outside, what puzzle he might have worked on, etc. Montessori is very big on empowering kids to do daily tasks by themselves, so he's getting some practice with scooping and pouring (what they call Practical Life) from actual glass containers. He's learning to do other things for himself like swing without being pushed, eat and clean up on his own, choose what he wants to work on, and even potty on his own, though he's been there for such a short time each day that he hasn't gotten to that last part yet. When his teacher brought him to the car today, she mentioned that he's been doing great so far, which I had already expected but was still happy to hear. It's a perfect environment for him.
I've been musing this past week that this is my first time being on the outside of his learning, rather than right there next to him while he's learning. I'm usually the one explaining, showing, singing, spelling, modeling, and all the other things teachers do, but now, for the first time, Kent is learning without me. It's incredible. He's completely blossoming. And I know that for the rest of his life, I'm not ever going to be as intimately connected to what he's learning as I was for those first three years, but that's part of him becoming his own person and coming to rely more on himself than he does on me. I was ready to let him experience that next phase of his development, and he's taken to it beautifully so far. I've felt very contented all week. I also breathe a sigh of relief each time I hear my friends talking about their kids' experiences in more traditional schools, with uniforms, scheduled potty breaks, and token reward systems. I feel like Montessori places such a high value on trusting our children, making these things unnecessary, and it really mirrors how I try to be as a mother.
We've revamped Kent's room a little, giving him different spaces and making an attempt to put things on his walls that are more relevant to him and what he's doing. This is partly inspired by school, partly just a revamping I've been meaning to do for a while. [Read: people have given him things to put on his wall that we've never managed to put on his wall.] My mom got him a cool little peg rack that holds dress-up clothes and doubles as a curtain hook to hold his curtain open during the day, so he can do that himself when he wants more light. He also has a reading corner, the most exciting aspect of which is his new red bean bag. It's also adorned with some wall art, including a "k" sign that his Aunt Morgan made him, a drawing Mom and Bill bought for him of jungle animals reading together, and a print of Marcus Pfister's The Rainbow Fish that I actually bought back in college because I loved the book so much.
For now, the reading corner is mostly another place to play with his trains and cars, but someday, I tell you, it shall be for reading.
This past weekend, we also put up a clothesline and bought little binder clips to hold photos Kent has taken. I had fun looking back through the "By Kent" folder of photos on my computer to find print-worthy ones he'd enjoy seeing in his room. I did briefly ask for his input, but he wanted to get every photo printed, including the hundreds of blurry photos of his and other people's feet, or just the floor. It will be a bright day indeed when he fully absorbs the "point" aspect of "point and shoot". Anyway, this is what the clothesline looks like in general:
And these are a few of my favorite photos:
He captures the best Dean faces.
I think this must have been his finger.
This is a drawing he made that he told me at the time was dolphins. That was one of the first times he had mentioned something specific he drew, so I insisted he take a photo.
Using macro mode (which I turned on for him), he took a cool series of the stacking cups that used to be his and are now Dean's.
This last one is clearly awesome. Show him macro mode, suggest he put the camera on the floor for a different perspective (bonus: it holds the camera steady), and just look what he can do.
He's also starting to be really funny on purpose, not just making faces/noises, but actually crafting his own humor. I love it. This evening, we were on our way home from dinner, and he was holding a set of puzzle blocks he had been playing with in the restaurant. He started saying something about how he was never going to see his puzzle again, and I figured he had dropped it on the floor of the car or something. When I turned around to look at him, though, he was holding it on top of his head, completely stone-faced. He let out a little guffaw when he saw me looking at him.
Kent has trotted off with his teacher each day in the carpool line, and then when I come to get him an hour later, he has a huge grin and is immediately bursting with stories from his day. He always starts with a report of what they had for a snack — snack duty rotates among the families, so the snacks are pretty different from one day to the next — then moves on to where they went on their walk that day, what things they learned in the classroom, what he played on outside, what puzzle he might have worked on, etc. Montessori is very big on empowering kids to do daily tasks by themselves, so he's getting some practice with scooping and pouring (what they call Practical Life) from actual glass containers. He's learning to do other things for himself like swing without being pushed, eat and clean up on his own, choose what he wants to work on, and even potty on his own, though he's been there for such a short time each day that he hasn't gotten to that last part yet. When his teacher brought him to the car today, she mentioned that he's been doing great so far, which I had already expected but was still happy to hear. It's a perfect environment for him.
I've been musing this past week that this is my first time being on the outside of his learning, rather than right there next to him while he's learning. I'm usually the one explaining, showing, singing, spelling, modeling, and all the other things teachers do, but now, for the first time, Kent is learning without me. It's incredible. He's completely blossoming. And I know that for the rest of his life, I'm not ever going to be as intimately connected to what he's learning as I was for those first three years, but that's part of him becoming his own person and coming to rely more on himself than he does on me. I was ready to let him experience that next phase of his development, and he's taken to it beautifully so far. I've felt very contented all week. I also breathe a sigh of relief each time I hear my friends talking about their kids' experiences in more traditional schools, with uniforms, scheduled potty breaks, and token reward systems. I feel like Montessori places such a high value on trusting our children, making these things unnecessary, and it really mirrors how I try to be as a mother.
We've revamped Kent's room a little, giving him different spaces and making an attempt to put things on his walls that are more relevant to him and what he's doing. This is partly inspired by school, partly just a revamping I've been meaning to do for a while. [Read: people have given him things to put on his wall that we've never managed to put on his wall.] My mom got him a cool little peg rack that holds dress-up clothes and doubles as a curtain hook to hold his curtain open during the day, so he can do that himself when he wants more light. He also has a reading corner, the most exciting aspect of which is his new red bean bag. It's also adorned with some wall art, including a "k" sign that his Aunt Morgan made him, a drawing Mom and Bill bought for him of jungle animals reading together, and a print of Marcus Pfister's The Rainbow Fish that I actually bought back in college because I loved the book so much. For now, the reading corner is mostly another place to play with his trains and cars, but someday, I tell you, it shall be for reading.
This past weekend, we also put up a clothesline and bought little binder clips to hold photos Kent has taken. I had fun looking back through the "By Kent" folder of photos on my computer to find print-worthy ones he'd enjoy seeing in his room. I did briefly ask for his input, but he wanted to get every photo printed, including the hundreds of blurry photos of his and other people's feet, or just the floor. It will be a bright day indeed when he fully absorbs the "point" aspect of "point and shoot". Anyway, this is what the clothesline looks like in general:
And these are a few of my favorite photos:
He captures the best Dean faces.
I think this must have been his finger.
This is a drawing he made that he told me at the time was dolphins. That was one of the first times he had mentioned something specific he drew, so I insisted he take a photo.
Using macro mode (which I turned on for him), he took a cool series of the stacking cups that used to be his and are now Dean's.
This last one is clearly awesome. Show him macro mode, suggest he put the camera on the floor for a different perspective (bonus: it holds the camera steady), and just look what he can do.
He's also starting to be really funny on purpose, not just making faces/noises, but actually crafting his own humor. I love it. This evening, we were on our way home from dinner, and he was holding a set of puzzle blocks he had been playing with in the restaurant. He started saying something about how he was never going to see his puzzle again, and I figured he had dropped it on the floor of the car or something. When I turned around to look at him, though, he was holding it on top of his head, completely stone-faced. He let out a little guffaw when he saw me looking at him.
Labels: Kent, photography, school
- posted by erica 9/08/2010 09:43:00 PM
- 5 comments
10.23.2008
On the use of a planner
I love my advisor. Really. He's supportive, enthusiastic, kind, has kids, and is an eminently helpful resource. While reading the sections in Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day on advisors, I counted my lucky stars many times as he surpassed the list of things a good advisor does. I don't mind that his office is cluttered beyond belief, because I sometimes live that way too. I appreciate how busy he is, with student appointments (he has three doctoral students in the writing phase), faculty committees, and, oh yeah, teaching. But dude. He has a planner, and he usually writes stuff in it, but not always... so he often emails me at the last minute to reschedule our meetings or postpone them, because he's suddenly realized he has a schedule conflict.
This morning, Kent was up at 5 a.m. Yikes, right? After I dropped him off at school, I got home around 9:30 and went back to sleep, and I slept until noon. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and looked at the clock. I felt groggy, but I knew I needed to get up for my 12:30 meeting, so I got ready quickly, drove out to campus, parked myself in the coffeehouse, and sat down to check my email for the first time all morning. Somehow, I knew I'd find this email from him before I even read it... I just had that feeling. He had scheduled appointments with undergrads during our meeting time.
To be fair, he emailed me a few hours ago, and I usually do check a bunch of times a day, so he knows I'll generally get his correspondence quickly. But we meet at the SAME time every week (he's very hands-on), and he keeps forgetting what time. This happened to me with my thesis meetings a few years ago, too, and it took him about half the semester to remember the time of our regularly-occurring appointments. Now, he has a planner, and I watch him write things in it. I know he uses it. He says he just wrote in the wrong times for his undergrad appointments, so he hadn't realized the conflict until this morning.
He's not a terrible person, and I also want to cut him some slack, because I know what it's like to be so busy that appointment times get away from you. This was my life as an undergrad, when I was double-majoring and double-minoring, working as an RA, and serving as an officer in several organizations. I deliberately cut back when I came to grad school, though, realizing how easy it would be to wade back into that lifestyle and not realize it until I had gotten swept away. When I got a teaching job a couple of years ago, I learned very quickly that I needed a planner to keep things straight, and I've been surprisingly (to myself) dogmatic about using it. I just wish he could figure out how to do the same thing.
There are bigger problems to worry about. I just needed to get that out. Now I'm good.
This morning, Kent was up at 5 a.m. Yikes, right? After I dropped him off at school, I got home around 9:30 and went back to sleep, and I slept until noon. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and looked at the clock. I felt groggy, but I knew I needed to get up for my 12:30 meeting, so I got ready quickly, drove out to campus, parked myself in the coffeehouse, and sat down to check my email for the first time all morning. Somehow, I knew I'd find this email from him before I even read it... I just had that feeling. He had scheduled appointments with undergrads during our meeting time.
To be fair, he emailed me a few hours ago, and I usually do check a bunch of times a day, so he knows I'll generally get his correspondence quickly. But we meet at the SAME time every week (he's very hands-on), and he keeps forgetting what time. This happened to me with my thesis meetings a few years ago, too, and it took him about half the semester to remember the time of our regularly-occurring appointments. Now, he has a planner, and I watch him write things in it. I know he uses it. He says he just wrote in the wrong times for his undergrad appointments, so he hadn't realized the conflict until this morning.
He's not a terrible person, and I also want to cut him some slack, because I know what it's like to be so busy that appointment times get away from you. This was my life as an undergrad, when I was double-majoring and double-minoring, working as an RA, and serving as an officer in several organizations. I deliberately cut back when I came to grad school, though, realizing how easy it would be to wade back into that lifestyle and not realize it until I had gotten swept away. When I got a teaching job a couple of years ago, I learned very quickly that I needed a planner to keep things straight, and I've been surprisingly (to myself) dogmatic about using it. I just wish he could figure out how to do the same thing.
There are bigger problems to worry about. I just needed to get that out. Now I'm good.
Labels: dissertation land, school
- posted by erica 10/23/2008 01:59:00 PM
- 1 comments
5.14.2008
I scream, you scream... or maybe it's only Kent
There's a lot of screaming coming out of my boy these days. Fists clenched, brow furrowed, red-faced screaming. I think he's testing out his noises and seeing what kind of reaction they'll get, so I'm trying not to react sharply when he lets one of these shrill sounds erupt, but it's certainly a test of my patience. It was the kind of afternoon where there were no naps, which added to his and my crankiness since neither of us had a chance to recharge. It was also the kind of afternoon when after a certain point, I needed some emotional distance, so I sat him on the floor next to the computer and let him "sort" the paper recycling box while I surfed eBay for cool knitting needles and yarn I can't afford. Sale flyers, junk mail, and various other paper items soon littered the floor around our desk, but it's easy enough to clean up, and he had a ball tossing and chewing paper to his heart's content. I understand now why parents invent busywork for their young kids, like one mom I read about a few years ago who had her daughters wash her pocket change when she needed a break. They'd fill up the sink and very diligently wash all the coins, and she'd take a breather. Washing change might be in Kent's future, once he's old enough not to stick it in his mouth. Sigh.
I'm presenting at a very low-key local conference next week, and I'm excited but also fairly certain that I'm a tad nuts for submitting a proposal. When I presented at a slightly higher-key (?) local conference a couple of years ago, I was working on my paper for months — it was an offshoot of my thesis, and I tweaked and cajoled it into a 25-minute presentation, then kept editing it, did a run-through in front of people at school, etc. This paper, on the other hand, is being thrown together in about a week. It's an offshoot of my prospectus, my advisor's idea (which seemed like a good one at the time), and I have a pretty good handle on what I need to do to make it presentation-appropriate (like using shorter sentences and syntax for a listening audience instead of a reading audience). The major hurdle I hit last night was when I realized that I ought to give out an annotated copy of the score so that people can follow along as I'm talking and playing certain excerpts. Annotating a score is quite an undertaking, because you want to call attention to the right details and make it complement your presentation, and I haven't even begun to annotate this score yet. Since Jack's exam is tomorrow morning, he won't have to study like a mad person this weekend, so I'll get some time alone to crunch this thing out, which will be quite welcomed.
It feels good to be working on something concrete like a 20-minute presentation, to be given on X date, instead of an amorphous prospectus that goes back and forth between student and advisor for months until one or both of them say ENOUGH ALREADY and decide that it's finished. I won't have time for a read-through with anyone, so I'll just have to rely on all my experience (yeah, the ONE previous conference presentation) to help me self-edit. Oh, well. I'm still glad I'm doing it.
I'm presenting at a very low-key local conference next week, and I'm excited but also fairly certain that I'm a tad nuts for submitting a proposal. When I presented at a slightly higher-key (?) local conference a couple of years ago, I was working on my paper for months — it was an offshoot of my thesis, and I tweaked and cajoled it into a 25-minute presentation, then kept editing it, did a run-through in front of people at school, etc. This paper, on the other hand, is being thrown together in about a week. It's an offshoot of my prospectus, my advisor's idea (which seemed like a good one at the time), and I have a pretty good handle on what I need to do to make it presentation-appropriate (like using shorter sentences and syntax for a listening audience instead of a reading audience). The major hurdle I hit last night was when I realized that I ought to give out an annotated copy of the score so that people can follow along as I'm talking and playing certain excerpts. Annotating a score is quite an undertaking, because you want to call attention to the right details and make it complement your presentation, and I haven't even begun to annotate this score yet. Since Jack's exam is tomorrow morning, he won't have to study like a mad person this weekend, so I'll get some time alone to crunch this thing out, which will be quite welcomed.
It feels good to be working on something concrete like a 20-minute presentation, to be given on X date, instead of an amorphous prospectus that goes back and forth between student and advisor for months until one or both of them say ENOUGH ALREADY and decide that it's finished. I won't have time for a read-through with anyone, so I'll just have to rely on all my experience (yeah, the ONE previous conference presentation) to help me self-edit. Oh, well. I'm still glad I'm doing it.
- posted by erica 5/14/2008 09:16:00 PM
- 1 comments
2.11.2008
Rated
Okay, here's a fun thing to do. Go to ratemyprofessors.com, and look me up. I had a ball reading the positive comments from people who succeeded in my class and the negative comments from people who hated me because I assigned too much work and my tests were too hard. Ironically, the negative comments are exactly what I'd want people to know about me. I'm thinking of putting this link in my CV. Ha. This just brightened my already pleasant day!
Labels: school
- posted by erica 2/11/2008 06:03:00 PM
- 5 comments
10.02.2007
Mom catches up with the world
I'm sipping coffee, knitting, and listening to the mellow, pensive Felicity Senior Year soundtrack. (Okay, I was until a minute ago, when I decided to blog instead.) It's nice to feel clearheaded for a little while when my boy sleeps. When he made it clear at 7:30 this morning that he wasn't going back to bed, I was pretty cranky, so it's turned out to be a much lovelier morning than I had thought it would be. Plus, he's cute, so I don't mind being awake with him so much.
Kent will be three months old tomorrow, and he's growing so well. He's talking, smiling, and giggling more than ever. He's been working on rolling over for the past few weeks, arching his back and trying to swing his legs over but not quite making it yet. He's such a squirmy little cutie. The side effect of this aborted rolling over is that he ends up scooting himself around in a circle — I left him in his crib for a few minutes yesterday, and when I came back, he was in a completely different position, just staring up at me and smiling. I cracked up. What a funny kid.
He has enough neck control now that we can hold him up against us with one hand and be fairly certain that he's not going to careen suddenly off to the side, the way he used to. I've sat him in my lap a few times a day, which certainly makes typing and eating easier. I guess he'll be sitting up on his own within a month or two... pretty exciting! Then, he'll start to crawl, and no one will be safe.
We're officially going to the SMT conference in Baltimore in November, and I'm very excited but also a little apprehensive about traveling with him by myself, how things will go at the conference, etc. We're staying with Jack's sister and her husband, who've just bought a house (!), and hopefully will be taking public transportation to Inner Harbor for the conference stuff. We won't be going nonstop at the conference, because the protocol for bringing a baby into paper presentations hasn't really been explored, but I can still talk to people, visit book vendors and drool over books I can't afford, and maybe scoot into a paper from time to time if my friends will agree to watch him for a little while. My mom and her fiancé are coming down that Saturday to babysit, but they'll need to stay fairly close by for feedings and Mommy/Kent time. I was looking at the program abstracts the other day, and all three of the paper sessions that sound the coolest are on Saturday morning at the same time. Why do they do that? I can hop from session to session, and at least they're all at a time when I know I'll have child care. =) It should be a fun time, and I hope Kent will do okay on the plane. I don't really want to be that woman: the one with the screaming baby who can't help him calm down. At least there's nursing, as long as I don't get the flight attendant who made a breastfeeding mom get off the plane a couple of years ago. (Actually, I think that flight attendant learned her lesson after the woman sued the airline.)
Okay, enough about me. Some of the rest of you need to send me progress reports or update your blogs more often. =)
Kent will be three months old tomorrow, and he's growing so well. He's talking, smiling, and giggling more than ever. He's been working on rolling over for the past few weeks, arching his back and trying to swing his legs over but not quite making it yet. He's such a squirmy little cutie. The side effect of this aborted rolling over is that he ends up scooting himself around in a circle — I left him in his crib for a few minutes yesterday, and when I came back, he was in a completely different position, just staring up at me and smiling. I cracked up. What a funny kid.
He has enough neck control now that we can hold him up against us with one hand and be fairly certain that he's not going to careen suddenly off to the side, the way he used to. I've sat him in my lap a few times a day, which certainly makes typing and eating easier. I guess he'll be sitting up on his own within a month or two... pretty exciting! Then, he'll start to crawl, and no one will be safe.
We're officially going to the SMT conference in Baltimore in November, and I'm very excited but also a little apprehensive about traveling with him by myself, how things will go at the conference, etc. We're staying with Jack's sister and her husband, who've just bought a house (!), and hopefully will be taking public transportation to Inner Harbor for the conference stuff. We won't be going nonstop at the conference, because the protocol for bringing a baby into paper presentations hasn't really been explored, but I can still talk to people, visit book vendors and drool over books I can't afford, and maybe scoot into a paper from time to time if my friends will agree to watch him for a little while. My mom and her fiancé are coming down that Saturday to babysit, but they'll need to stay fairly close by for feedings and Mommy/Kent time. I was looking at the program abstracts the other day, and all three of the paper sessions that sound the coolest are on Saturday morning at the same time. Why do they do that? I can hop from session to session, and at least they're all at a time when I know I'll have child care. =) It should be a fun time, and I hope Kent will do okay on the plane. I don't really want to be that woman: the one with the screaming baby who can't help him calm down. At least there's nursing, as long as I don't get the flight attendant who made a breastfeeding mom get off the plane a couple of years ago. (Actually, I think that flight attendant learned her lesson after the woman sued the airline.)
Okay, enough about me. Some of the rest of you need to send me progress reports or update your blogs more often. =)
- posted by erica 10/02/2007 11:16:00 AM
- 5 comments
9.19.2007
Reason #712 why I love Jack
Wednesday night is now my Solo Coffeehouse Night.
The combination of a breastpump and a wonderful husband allow me to sneak out of the house for a few hours on Wednesdays for dissertating, emailing, blogging, or whatever. Usually it's dissertating, like tonight, when I got some great work done with Fauré's Violin Sonata no. 1. Music analysis is hard enough on its own, and it's basically impossible when I'm the only one watching Kent, since it requires careful attention to the score, typing or writing my observations, and constant pausing and rewinding of the music. My advisor, who has kids, is very understanding about the fact that this semester is going to be even more slack than the slackness I've shown so far in getting through my dissertation, but I still feel compelled to get SOMEthing done. I'm looking at three more years until my seven-year deadline to finish the Ph.D. is up, and even though I thought it would be plenty of time when I started, it's starting to feel like not-so-plenty. I wouldn't change a thing about our timing of having Kent, and though I love spending the days with him, I realize that in order to have the career I want to have eventually, I need to get a move on.
Anyway, after a quick dinner, I leave my boys at home to watch baseball and take care of each other, and I luxuriate for a couple of hours in the smell of coffee and pastries and the solitude of my own brain. I forgot how good it feels to be working on my music stuff. But I should really go home now, since it's bathtime. Rubber ducks, hooded towels, and my giggling boy await.
The combination of a breastpump and a wonderful husband allow me to sneak out of the house for a few hours on Wednesdays for dissertating, emailing, blogging, or whatever. Usually it's dissertating, like tonight, when I got some great work done with Fauré's Violin Sonata no. 1. Music analysis is hard enough on its own, and it's basically impossible when I'm the only one watching Kent, since it requires careful attention to the score, typing or writing my observations, and constant pausing and rewinding of the music. My advisor, who has kids, is very understanding about the fact that this semester is going to be even more slack than the slackness I've shown so far in getting through my dissertation, but I still feel compelled to get SOMEthing done. I'm looking at three more years until my seven-year deadline to finish the Ph.D. is up, and even though I thought it would be plenty of time when I started, it's starting to feel like not-so-plenty. I wouldn't change a thing about our timing of having Kent, and though I love spending the days with him, I realize that in order to have the career I want to have eventually, I need to get a move on.
Anyway, after a quick dinner, I leave my boys at home to watch baseball and take care of each other, and I luxuriate for a couple of hours in the smell of coffee and pastries and the solitude of my own brain. I forgot how good it feels to be working on my music stuff. But I should really go home now, since it's bathtime. Rubber ducks, hooded towels, and my giggling boy await.
Labels: husband things, Kent, school
- posted by erica 9/19/2007 09:20:00 PM
- 2 comments
6.07.2007
Thursday so far
We went to the doctor this morning for my now-weekly prenatal visit, and I'm 50% effaced. Score. Jack was pretty surprised, but it happens at different rates for different women, and it doesn't mean necessarily that Kent is coming tomorrow or anything. I'm only dilated to 1 cm for those keeping track at home (because I know you all have spreadsheets set up to track my pregnancy). Also, I'd just like to say that being checked for dilation and effacement is WAY more invasive than a Pap smear. Yikes.
I met with a music ed masters student this afternoon who'd like me to tutor her this summer so that she can pass the theory diagnostic exams (prerequisite for taking any grad-level theory), and that was fun. She's really sharp and has just been away from theory class for a while, teaching middle school band, and I have high hopes for her after we work together. Of course, I was very open with her when she first emailed me that getting together would be a bit more difficult in about a month, but she still wanted to work with me. I think we'll be able to get a lot done before then, and then perhaps we can meet every couple of weeks after the baby comes. We'll see.
I'd also like to report that it's hot here. Nobody is shocked, right? Right. At least I won't be pregnant in August (this is my mantra to get me through the next month).
We're having spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, and grilled asparagus for dinner, plus some kind of protein as soon as I figure that part out. I love veggie dinners. I also got some blueberries and peaches, and the blueberries will figure into a dessert somehow. Or we might eat them as is, since fruit is SO good on its own this time of year. Go, antioxidants! The peaches need to ripen for at least a day, so they're in a paper bag doing their thing, and I'll check on them tomorrow afternoon to see if they're ready yet. Peaches are my favorite fruit EVER.
I met with a music ed masters student this afternoon who'd like me to tutor her this summer so that she can pass the theory diagnostic exams (prerequisite for taking any grad-level theory), and that was fun. She's really sharp and has just been away from theory class for a while, teaching middle school band, and I have high hopes for her after we work together. Of course, I was very open with her when she first emailed me that getting together would be a bit more difficult in about a month, but she still wanted to work with me. I think we'll be able to get a lot done before then, and then perhaps we can meet every couple of weeks after the baby comes. We'll see.
I'd also like to report that it's hot here. Nobody is shocked, right? Right. At least I won't be pregnant in August (this is my mantra to get me through the next month).
We're having spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, and grilled asparagus for dinner, plus some kind of protein as soon as I figure that part out. I love veggie dinners. I also got some blueberries and peaches, and the blueberries will figure into a dessert somehow. Or we might eat them as is, since fruit is SO good on its own this time of year. Go, antioxidants! The peaches need to ripen for at least a day, so they're in a paper bag doing their thing, and I'll check on them tomorrow afternoon to see if they're ready yet. Peaches are my favorite fruit EVER.
Labels: belly, kitchen adventures, school
- posted by erica 6/07/2007 03:50:00 PM
- 3 comments
6.02.2007
Happy/tired
What a productive day! Oh my goodness, I feel so good about being able to check things off our to-do list. First of all, kudos go to Jack for snaking the drain in our bathroom sink this morning, which he had needed to do for a couple of months. The drain was barely trickling last night, so he bit the bullet after breakfast and got to it. He also replaced our burnt-out stovetop light with a CFL, so now I can see food again when I'm cooking. Yay, Jack! We then cleaned out the freezer, because it needed cleaning and because we needed more space for things I wanted to make ahead and freeze, like casseroles. We won't have a whole bunch of stuff saved up, because our freezer isn't that big, but it'll still be nice to have a few premade things we can just toss in the oven at first when we're desperate for a meal and have a baby needing things. =) I made some macaroni casserole, with and without ground beef, and a big recipe of spinach and artichoke dip that we can eat with pitas or use as pizza sauce or whatever. I froze it in baggies so that it's already portioned out, and I plan to do the same thing with roasted eggplant dip whenever I get around to it. Next weekend, we tackle the task of cleaning the fridge, which I'm not looking forward to but which needs doing, of course.
After lunch and showers, we proceeded to drive in clockwise fashion all around the city, hitting various thrift stores in search of a glider or rocker and getting a few other things accomplished as well. We visited my old peeps at BRU where we bought a mattress, a mattress pad, a crib sheet, and the plastic thingy to go under the car seat so my car's upholstery will survive the kid (ground-in crackers notwithstanding). One of my former co-workers had been a student in my music appreciation class this past semester, which was funny but not nearly as weird as I had thought it would be, and so when everyone saw me, they were joking about how she told them I was "serious" and wasn't as easy as she thought I'd be. To be fair, I had warned her that students complained about my class being too difficult the previous semester. =) It felt kind of good to have her say that, because I knew she didn't think I was unreasonable, just that she was slightly annoyed at actually having to do work in an elective class. This was also the first time any of them had seen me pregnant, so that was fun, and they were all shocked that I'm at 36 weeks already. Apparently, I look small to everyone else, just not myself.
After hitting many thrift stores and being disappointed in the furniture selection (I'm not sure what we were expecting to find, but it was worth a look anyway), we went to a furniture consignment shop and found a glider! It's in great shape except that it's missing a bolt, so once Jack figures out the size, it'll be easy to fix that. It was a good deal, much less than we would have spent on a low-quality new one, and it has a nice high back for tall people to rest their heads on. The upholstery isn't my favorite, but it is primarily blue, at least, and it sort of reminds me of the upholstery on my mom and stepdad's old chairs that they got when they first got married. If we decide to reupholster it later, that's always an option, but it's not a huge priority right now. We were just so excited to find a glider for a good price so that we can sit with the baby in his room!
Now we're home and are waiting patiently for our baked potatoes to finish baking. I need to throw together the rest of dinner in a minute, but sitting on the couch feels good right now. I think we're going to eat and watch a movie and not do anything else for the rest of the evening.
After lunch and showers, we proceeded to drive in clockwise fashion all around the city, hitting various thrift stores in search of a glider or rocker and getting a few other things accomplished as well. We visited my old peeps at BRU where we bought a mattress, a mattress pad, a crib sheet, and the plastic thingy to go under the car seat so my car's upholstery will survive the kid (ground-in crackers notwithstanding). One of my former co-workers had been a student in my music appreciation class this past semester, which was funny but not nearly as weird as I had thought it would be, and so when everyone saw me, they were joking about how she told them I was "serious" and wasn't as easy as she thought I'd be. To be fair, I had warned her that students complained about my class being too difficult the previous semester. =) It felt kind of good to have her say that, because I knew she didn't think I was unreasonable, just that she was slightly annoyed at actually having to do work in an elective class. This was also the first time any of them had seen me pregnant, so that was fun, and they were all shocked that I'm at 36 weeks already. Apparently, I look small to everyone else, just not myself.
After hitting many thrift stores and being disappointed in the furniture selection (I'm not sure what we were expecting to find, but it was worth a look anyway), we went to a furniture consignment shop and found a glider! It's in great shape except that it's missing a bolt, so once Jack figures out the size, it'll be easy to fix that. It was a good deal, much less than we would have spent on a low-quality new one, and it has a nice high back for tall people to rest their heads on. The upholstery isn't my favorite, but it is primarily blue, at least, and it sort of reminds me of the upholstery on my mom and stepdad's old chairs that they got when they first got married. If we decide to reupholster it later, that's always an option, but it's not a huge priority right now. We were just so excited to find a glider for a good price so that we can sit with the baby in his room!
Now we're home and are waiting patiently for our baked potatoes to finish baking. I need to throw together the rest of dinner in a minute, but sitting on the couch feels good right now. I think we're going to eat and watch a movie and not do anything else for the rest of the evening.
Labels: belly, Kent, kitchen adventures, nesting, school
- posted by erica 6/02/2007 07:10:00 PM
- 0 comments
5.18.2007
Sifting through the past
I've been exploring my past in several ways this week. First of all, I successfully went through ALL of my school papers, articles, notebooks, etc., that had been cluttering up our living and dining room (because I don't have a desk) for the past several years. The mess started to get bad a year and a half ago when I was studying for my comprehensive exam, and though I had kept it to one quadrant of the living room since then, it got much worse when I had my entire academic existence spread out over the house while I studied for my general exams. Yeesh. I spent two days putting every piece of paper into stacks, reminiscing on what I loved about all of those classes and making mental notes of what might be useful to return to later, for my dissertation or otherwise. There are now three matching plastic file boxes with hanging folders for each class, plus extra folders for conference handouts, miscellaneous articles, and the like. I'm relieved to have that sorting finished. The nesting instinct is not a myth.
Jack has also asked me to go through our old digital pics today, since his 10th high-school reunion is coming up, and they'd like pictures and updates from him for their little memory book. He had been so looking forward to the reunion until we got pregnant, when it became quite clear that I wouldn't be able to make the trip to VA in late June. He also wasn't interested in leaving me so close to the due date. I haven't finished going through the pictures, but it's amazing to see just how enormous our Cats folder is. I'll bet that the baby folder will be even bigger as time goes on, AND we'll have digital video to boot once we get comfortable using the video camera.
Last, I've finally finished labeling all of my old posts. (Sorry to those who use RSS feeds and have had to scroll through hundreds of updated old posts in the past few days so that they won't show up as "new" anymore!) Though I had gotten labeling capabilities a few weeks ago, it took me quite some time to sift through my 408 posts and categorize them. It's a unique experience to look back on one's old writings, in whatever form they may exist, and it's weird to me to get into the head space of who I was back then and then be jolted back into my present. Just ten minutes ago, I was reading posts about applying to grad schools and planning our wedding from Philly, and now I'm back in the present world of someone who's writing a dissertation and is about to have a baby with an amazing man she feels like she's been married to for much longer than four and a half years. It's hard to remember what it felt like just to be engaged to Jack, when we hardly knew each other in comparison to our relationship now.
So far, the largest collection of posts is under the label "school" (the guiding force behind many things, to be sure), followed somewhat distantly by "felines," "kitchen adventures," and "Louisiana." When I first started labeling, I noticed the most frequent labels were "belly" and "Kent," but of course, there was a sizable chunk of my blogging life that took place long before I was ready to have a baby.
Go read old journals, or sift through old posts or emails you've sent. Remember who you were, and reflect on how you've evolved.
Jack has also asked me to go through our old digital pics today, since his 10th high-school reunion is coming up, and they'd like pictures and updates from him for their little memory book. He had been so looking forward to the reunion until we got pregnant, when it became quite clear that I wouldn't be able to make the trip to VA in late June. He also wasn't interested in leaving me so close to the due date. I haven't finished going through the pictures, but it's amazing to see just how enormous our Cats folder is. I'll bet that the baby folder will be even bigger as time goes on, AND we'll have digital video to boot once we get comfortable using the video camera.
Last, I've finally finished labeling all of my old posts. (Sorry to those who use RSS feeds and have had to scroll through hundreds of updated old posts in the past few days so that they won't show up as "new" anymore!) Though I had gotten labeling capabilities a few weeks ago, it took me quite some time to sift through my 408 posts and categorize them. It's a unique experience to look back on one's old writings, in whatever form they may exist, and it's weird to me to get into the head space of who I was back then and then be jolted back into my present. Just ten minutes ago, I was reading posts about applying to grad schools and planning our wedding from Philly, and now I'm back in the present world of someone who's writing a dissertation and is about to have a baby with an amazing man she feels like she's been married to for much longer than four and a half years. It's hard to remember what it felt like just to be engaged to Jack, when we hardly knew each other in comparison to our relationship now.
So far, the largest collection of posts is under the label "school" (the guiding force behind many things, to be sure), followed somewhat distantly by "felines," "kitchen adventures," and "Louisiana." When I first started labeling, I noticed the most frequent labels were "belly" and "Kent," but of course, there was a sizable chunk of my blogging life that took place long before I was ready to have a baby.
Go read old journals, or sift through old posts or emails you've sent. Remember who you were, and reflect on how you've evolved.
Labels: blogging, husband things, nesting, observations, school
- posted by erica 5/18/2007 03:12:00 PM
- 2 comments
5.14.2007
When in doubt, take a stab at it
On my final exam for music appreciation, one of the things I had students do in the course of their essay question was to identify a piece of music from the Romantic period and its composer, and then list a few characteristics that would align it with other works of the period. One student's attempt at identifying a piece and composer was the following:
"An intro to a Art museum" by a russian man
I couldn't, in good conscience, give him any points for that, even though I knew that what he meant to say was Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, but it still made me giggle a lot.
"An intro to a Art museum" by a russian man
I couldn't, in good conscience, give him any points for that, even though I knew that what he meant to say was Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, but it still made me giggle a lot.
Labels: school
- posted by erica 5/14/2007 04:11:00 PM
- 1 comments
5.10.2007
Dude
College students have so much to deal with. One of the students taking my exam this morning came up in tears a few minutes ago because she was robbed at gunpoint by three men a few days ago and was having trouble concentrating — ya think?? She's been a really good student all semester, very conscientious, and she's really upset that she won't do well on the final because she can't clear her head long enough to get through the essay. She had told me this and sat back down to finish what she could, when another guy came in (over an hour late) and told me he had just been in a car accident on his way to school. Most students in the class have finished already, since my exams are pretty straightforward if they come prepared, so he should have enough time, but he's still noticeably shaken.
Other students in my classes this semester have had ranges of problems from kidney surgery and threatened miscarriage to deaths in the immediate family and one girl's having been kicked out of University housing after being accused repeatedly of stalking another student. She's transfering to a different school next semester to get away from this other person.
I thought college was hard for me, but my biggest problems involved finding enough hours in the day to do everything I had committed to doing. Man, these kids have a lot on their plates.
Other students in my classes this semester have had ranges of problems from kidney surgery and threatened miscarriage to deaths in the immediate family and one girl's having been kicked out of University housing after being accused repeatedly of stalking another student. She's transfering to a different school next semester to get away from this other person.
I thought college was hard for me, but my biggest problems involved finding enough hours in the day to do everything I had committed to doing. Man, these kids have a lot on their plates.
Labels: school
- posted by erica 5/10/2007 10:13:00 AM
- 0 comments
5.06.2007
Good Sunday
I am SO full. We just finished a really good dinner of edamame (seriously, my new favorite veggie) and Asian stir-fry noodle stuff. I always concoct my own sauce out of various ingredients I have on hand, like sesame oil, soy sauce, teriyaki, honey, etc., and today I threw in some red chili paste with a little too much gusto. It was CRAZY spicy. I think I drank four glasses of water during dinner, which has obviously added to my feeling of fullness. But it was really good anyway. Jack's a big fan of peanut sauce, so I think next time I might try throwing some peanut butter into the mix and seeing how it turns out (that's what Bobby Flay and the other Food Network foodies do, so I'm thinking it'll work).
We went out to lunch and then to a play with a small group of people from church today, and it was a nice afternoon. At lunch, all the women were telling us about their birthing experiences in BR (mostly negative experiences, but ten to fifteen years ago and thankfully not at our hospital), and we were telling them about our Lamaze class and how things had been going so far. One of the women in particular has been really supportive and sweet, always asking me how things are going, etc., and she's coming to my baby shower in a few weeks. It's been neat to get to know the moms at church even better since I've gotten pregnant, not only drawing on their collective wisdom but also hearing some really funny stories about their kids. I absolutely love our church.
The play we saw, called Cocktail, was engrossing and inspiring, and I'm so glad that we went. It's about Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, a Thai scientist who was responsible for manufacturing a generic HIV drug cocktail in Thailand despite her country's intellectual-property agreements with the U.S., which almost prevented her success. Before she took on the mammoth task of manufacturing this cocktail, the only option was AZT, which almost no one in Thailand could afford. After she worked tirelessly in Thailand and had perfected her drug cocktail, then saw to its distribution at the hands of Doctors Without Borders and other groups, she went to the DRC to do the same thing (and might still be there, actually — the timeline of this play only went through 2005, so I'm not sure). The production was fantastic, portraying the chilling rise of the AIDS epidemic in Thailand in the 80s and early 90s with a really cool montage, politicians' reluctance to get involved, and Kraisintu's eventual triumph in being able to help thousands of Thai and then thousands of Africans. It was an incredible play.
Now, I'm grading and preparing for finals week, since I'm giving exams tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday, and I foolishly hope to have all (most?) of the students' end-of-semester work back to them by the time they take their exams. Yeah, we'll see.
We went out to lunch and then to a play with a small group of people from church today, and it was a nice afternoon. At lunch, all the women were telling us about their birthing experiences in BR (mostly negative experiences, but ten to fifteen years ago and thankfully not at our hospital), and we were telling them about our Lamaze class and how things had been going so far. One of the women in particular has been really supportive and sweet, always asking me how things are going, etc., and she's coming to my baby shower in a few weeks. It's been neat to get to know the moms at church even better since I've gotten pregnant, not only drawing on their collective wisdom but also hearing some really funny stories about their kids. I absolutely love our church.
The play we saw, called Cocktail, was engrossing and inspiring, and I'm so glad that we went. It's about Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, a Thai scientist who was responsible for manufacturing a generic HIV drug cocktail in Thailand despite her country's intellectual-property agreements with the U.S., which almost prevented her success. Before she took on the mammoth task of manufacturing this cocktail, the only option was AZT, which almost no one in Thailand could afford. After she worked tirelessly in Thailand and had perfected her drug cocktail, then saw to its distribution at the hands of Doctors Without Borders and other groups, she went to the DRC to do the same thing (and might still be there, actually — the timeline of this play only went through 2005, so I'm not sure). The production was fantastic, portraying the chilling rise of the AIDS epidemic in Thailand in the 80s and early 90s with a really cool montage, politicians' reluctance to get involved, and Kraisintu's eventual triumph in being able to help thousands of Thai and then thousands of Africans. It was an incredible play.
Now, I'm grading and preparing for finals week, since I'm giving exams tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday, and I foolishly hope to have all (most?) of the students' end-of-semester work back to them by the time they take their exams. Yeah, we'll see.
Labels: belly, church, friends, kitchen adventures, school
- posted by erica 5/06/2007 09:41:00 PM
- 3 comments
4.27.2007
ABD
I passed my exam!
This was the last major step before completion of my dissertation (hence the initials ABD, common in academia: All But Dissertation). The dissertation and the defense thereof will be scary, but in a totally different way than the general exams were scary.
I went through just about every emotion imaginable in the last 24 hours, and I had a serious fight-or-flight response when I got to school this afternoon. Luckily for me, though, I overrode the impulse to run and instead put my game face on. It worked out well, I think.
There are always things the student doesn't know, and I've been running through those in my head of course, but I've also been thinking about how many things came up in the exam that I was able to answer intelligently but that I didn't know a few months or even a few days ago. I'm really proud of how much I've learned, actually. Ever since I left the exam, I've had various parts of Beethoven's Ninth playing in my ears. This is due in large part to the fact that we spent so much time talking about it today, since it influenced practically every symphony that has been written since its premiere, but it's also due, I think, to the fact that, for the well-known "Ode to Joy" choral finale, Beethoven uses a text about the ultimate triumph of humanity. I'm feeling a little triumphant.
On Epiphany Sunday every year, some mysterious group of people at our church makes little paper stars with different words on them, then everyone from the congregation draws a star out of the basket and is supposed to think about that word throughout the year, both in a spiritual context and more generally in their daily lives. My star this year simply had the word "Joy" on it, and I decided to pin it to my sun visor in my car so that I'd see it regularly and be reminded of the many joyful things in my life. It hasn't been hard with a baby on the way, but not all aspects of school have been full of joy; nevertheless, my Joy Star has been quietly reminding me to seek it. Now, though, I feel that I'm capable of Joy in this facet of my life. This is very good.
The German word for joy, repeated so often throughout the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, is Freude. I've got your Freude right here, baby.
This was the last major step before completion of my dissertation (hence the initials ABD, common in academia: All But Dissertation). The dissertation and the defense thereof will be scary, but in a totally different way than the general exams were scary.
I went through just about every emotion imaginable in the last 24 hours, and I had a serious fight-or-flight response when I got to school this afternoon. Luckily for me, though, I overrode the impulse to run and instead put my game face on. It worked out well, I think.
There are always things the student doesn't know, and I've been running through those in my head of course, but I've also been thinking about how many things came up in the exam that I was able to answer intelligently but that I didn't know a few months or even a few days ago. I'm really proud of how much I've learned, actually. Ever since I left the exam, I've had various parts of Beethoven's Ninth playing in my ears. This is due in large part to the fact that we spent so much time talking about it today, since it influenced practically every symphony that has been written since its premiere, but it's also due, I think, to the fact that, for the well-known "Ode to Joy" choral finale, Beethoven uses a text about the ultimate triumph of humanity. I'm feeling a little triumphant.
On Epiphany Sunday every year, some mysterious group of people at our church makes little paper stars with different words on them, then everyone from the congregation draws a star out of the basket and is supposed to think about that word throughout the year, both in a spiritual context and more generally in their daily lives. My star this year simply had the word "Joy" on it, and I decided to pin it to my sun visor in my car so that I'd see it regularly and be reminded of the many joyful things in my life. It hasn't been hard with a baby on the way, but not all aspects of school have been full of joy; nevertheless, my Joy Star has been quietly reminding me to seek it. Now, though, I feel that I'm capable of Joy in this facet of my life. This is very good.
The German word for joy, repeated so often throughout the finale of Beethoven's Ninth, is Freude. I've got your Freude right here, baby.
Labels: church, Freude, music, school
- posted by erica 4/27/2007 08:13:00 PM
- 4 comments
4.21.2007
Scurry
This has been a busy week, and next week is only going to be worse. I ended up driving out to Hammond on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (instead of my normal 2-day-a-week commute), and I've had a lot of grading to work on, besides my slogging along with Fauré research and oral exam prep.
Thursday night added to the busy-ness, but in a very welcomed way, since we drove to NOLA for a concert at the House of Blues. The band was one of our favorite groups, Nickel Creek, a 20-something trio who do bluegrass/pop (yes, bluegrass/pop is how I'd classify them). They're incredible musicians and play guitar, violin, and mandolin on most of their songs, some of which are very close to traditional bluegrass and some of which are more poppy-sounding. Anyway, we've been enjoying their music for years, and this is their Farewell (For Now) tour, so we figured we'd better get over there to hear them live.
The House of Blues is a standing-room-only venue, which we knew when we bought the tickets, so Jack called before we went to make sure there would be some kind of seating for a poor old pregnant woman. I was pretty apprehensive after remembering Jeannette's post about their aborted trip to the House of Blues during her pregnancy. Sure enough, though, they had stools for people like me; we just had to ask at the door, and thanks to new Louisiana laws, it's now a non-smoking venue as well. They were very understanding about the whole pregnancy issue, actually; the woman who was supposed to wand me to make sure I wasn't concealing a knife or a gun took one look at my belly, said "You got a baby in there?" (which cracked me up) and then said that she wouldn't wand me because she didn't know what it might do to the baby and she'd rather play it safe. Not exactly airport-security toughness, but it was fine with me. Once inside, we got a security guard to give us a stool, and we parked ourselves next to the sound booth so that I'd have a wall to sort of lean up against as well.
The arrangement worked with mixed success for a couple of hours (through the waiting time and the opening act), but it was one of those wooden stools with no padding, and it was too high up to put my feet on the ground, so I was pretty tired and sore just from sitting there. Jack stood behind me to help support my back, but it wasn't the same as being able to lean back in a normal chair. I made a couple of trips to the bathroom, which wasn't as scary as I had thought it might be, and I walked around a little bit to get my circulation going and make my back and butt bones stop hurting so much. I ended up holding out for three hours total, which was enough to get us almost all the way through their set. Since we were next to the sound booth, I kept sneaking peeks at the set list so that I could see how far we had come and what songs were coming up, and near the end, after one of my favorite songs ("This Side"), I told Jack that it was time to go. They had six songs left, but it wasn't going to happen for me. I was dead tired, and Jack, though a bit disappointed, was understanding about it, so we left, and I dozed in the car while he drove us home. It was a great concert, though I would have enjoyed it more with a real chair under me, I think.
In other news, we played Dance Dance Revolution for the first time last night at Jennifer's, and it was great! Some of the jumping around, like when I had to put both feet on different spots at once, wasn't exactly made for pregnant people to do, but we had a really good time. Jack and I were pretty evenly matched since we both have a good sense of timing and rhythm (no conception jokes, please), and we also had fun watching Jennifer and Rob push themselves to do really hard levels and then stumble over themselves trying to keep up. They used to play in different arcades around town until Rob got the game and the floor pads for Jennifer for Christmas, so now they practice at home, too. I'm interested in trying it at an arcade sometime, probably after the baby is out of my belly and I can move with the same grace and ease that I used to have (ha).
On tap for this next week is more teaching and grading in this penultimate week of classes, my 30-week doctor's appointment (which I'm doing solo so that Jack can save up his vacation hours), and the last throes of preparations for my oral exam next Friday. Ugh. And after all of that is over, we have our Super-Duper Lamaze Weekend Immersion Program on Saturday and Sunday. Don't be surprised if the posts are scant or nonexistent for a while!
Thursday night added to the busy-ness, but in a very welcomed way, since we drove to NOLA for a concert at the House of Blues. The band was one of our favorite groups, Nickel Creek, a 20-something trio who do bluegrass/pop (yes, bluegrass/pop is how I'd classify them). They're incredible musicians and play guitar, violin, and mandolin on most of their songs, some of which are very close to traditional bluegrass and some of which are more poppy-sounding. Anyway, we've been enjoying their music for years, and this is their Farewell (For Now) tour, so we figured we'd better get over there to hear them live.
The House of Blues is a standing-room-only venue, which we knew when we bought the tickets, so Jack called before we went to make sure there would be some kind of seating for a poor old pregnant woman. I was pretty apprehensive after remembering Jeannette's post about their aborted trip to the House of Blues during her pregnancy. Sure enough, though, they had stools for people like me; we just had to ask at the door, and thanks to new Louisiana laws, it's now a non-smoking venue as well. They were very understanding about the whole pregnancy issue, actually; the woman who was supposed to wand me to make sure I wasn't concealing a knife or a gun took one look at my belly, said "You got a baby in there?" (which cracked me up) and then said that she wouldn't wand me because she didn't know what it might do to the baby and she'd rather play it safe. Not exactly airport-security toughness, but it was fine with me. Once inside, we got a security guard to give us a stool, and we parked ourselves next to the sound booth so that I'd have a wall to sort of lean up against as well.
The arrangement worked with mixed success for a couple of hours (through the waiting time and the opening act), but it was one of those wooden stools with no padding, and it was too high up to put my feet on the ground, so I was pretty tired and sore just from sitting there. Jack stood behind me to help support my back, but it wasn't the same as being able to lean back in a normal chair. I made a couple of trips to the bathroom, which wasn't as scary as I had thought it might be, and I walked around a little bit to get my circulation going and make my back and butt bones stop hurting so much. I ended up holding out for three hours total, which was enough to get us almost all the way through their set. Since we were next to the sound booth, I kept sneaking peeks at the set list so that I could see how far we had come and what songs were coming up, and near the end, after one of my favorite songs ("This Side"), I told Jack that it was time to go. They had six songs left, but it wasn't going to happen for me. I was dead tired, and Jack, though a bit disappointed, was understanding about it, so we left, and I dozed in the car while he drove us home. It was a great concert, though I would have enjoyed it more with a real chair under me, I think.
In other news, we played Dance Dance Revolution for the first time last night at Jennifer's, and it was great! Some of the jumping around, like when I had to put both feet on different spots at once, wasn't exactly made for pregnant people to do, but we had a really good time. Jack and I were pretty evenly matched since we both have a good sense of timing and rhythm (no conception jokes, please), and we also had fun watching Jennifer and Rob push themselves to do really hard levels and then stumble over themselves trying to keep up. They used to play in different arcades around town until Rob got the game and the floor pads for Jennifer for Christmas, so now they practice at home, too. I'm interested in trying it at an arcade sometime, probably after the baby is out of my belly and I can move with the same grace and ease that I used to have (ha).
On tap for this next week is more teaching and grading in this penultimate week of classes, my 30-week doctor's appointment (which I'm doing solo so that Jack can save up his vacation hours), and the last throes of preparations for my oral exam next Friday. Ugh. And after all of that is over, we have our Super-Duper Lamaze Weekend Immersion Program on Saturday and Sunday. Don't be surprised if the posts are scant or nonexistent for a while!
Labels: belly, friends, music, school
- posted by erica 4/21/2007 04:44:00 PM
- 0 comments
4.16.2007
Close to home
Jack's parents are fine.
I'm still glued to CNN for details on the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech (despite my growing annoyance with Wolf Blitzer). This is my husband's home. His dad works at VT, his mom works there part-time, and Jack worked there himself during several different summers. Blacksburg and the surrounding area have always seemed like just about the most peaceful place I could imagine, so it's pretty jarring all around. Plus, you know, I work on a college campus.
Keep the VT community in your prayers.
I'm still glued to CNN for details on the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech (despite my growing annoyance with Wolf Blitzer). This is my husband's home. His dad works at VT, his mom works there part-time, and Jack worked there himself during several different summers. Blacksburg and the surrounding area have always seemed like just about the most peaceful place I could imagine, so it's pretty jarring all around. Plus, you know, I work on a college campus.
Keep the VT community in your prayers.
Labels: family, husband things, school, Virginia
- posted by erica 4/16/2007 04:41:00 PM
- 1 comments
4.13.2007
Sunny Friday
I've felt better today, nausea-wise and headache-wise, than I had been feeling earlier in the week, so I took this opportunity to get out of the house for a little while. I went to school to meet with my advisor very briefly so that I could nail down the expectations for this new exam schema they've given me, and then I went to the library to drop off a book and check out a few others that had come in through interlibrary loan. Then I met Jack downtown for lunch at this cafe we really like, and they surprised us by giving us better service than usual. It was a nice lunch, and it's nice and sunny outside, so it's been an enjoyable day so far. It's quite a different sort of afternoon than I thought I'd be having, too, and I feel better about the expectations for this exam in two weeks. I'm off to make a grocery store run in a few minutes, as soon as I get inspiration for dinner — or maybe I'll just hope that inspiration will strike at the store. Sometimes fresh produce is enough to get that ball rolling. =)
We have our first birthing class on Sunday afternoon at the hospital, and we're both really looking forward to it. It's the "prerequisite" for the Lamaze class, where they give everyone the basics of birthing and then give people the option of taking other classes if they're interested. I guess a lot of people just figure they'll come in and wing it, and that probably works out for a fair number of expecting parents, given the excellent care available at a lot of hospitals, but we like to know things.
Speaking of babies... my friend Annie Beth from college had her baby girl on Wednesday! Pictures of adorable Emily Grace with and without her tiny pink hat can be found on their website. Babies rock!
We have our first birthing class on Sunday afternoon at the hospital, and we're both really looking forward to it. It's the "prerequisite" for the Lamaze class, where they give everyone the basics of birthing and then give people the option of taking other classes if they're interested. I guess a lot of people just figure they'll come in and wing it, and that probably works out for a fair number of expecting parents, given the excellent care available at a lot of hospitals, but we like to know things.
Speaking of babies... my friend Annie Beth from college had her baby girl on Wednesday! Pictures of adorable Emily Grace with and without her tiny pink hat can be found on their website. Babies rock!
Labels: belly, friends, school
- posted by erica 4/13/2007 03:22:00 PM
- 1 comments
4.12.2007
Relief w/ frustration
So the written exam I was supposed to take tomorrow is apparently no longer on tap. My committee decided that they'd like me just to do another oral defense on April 27, based on the history exam I had taken earlier in the spring, contrary to what they had told me at first. Interesting development. I would have loved to know this sooner, since I spent all week working on readings and analysis that will likely not come up at all during the oral exam. I don't mind having learned all this stuff, because it's not as if I won't be able to use it at some point in the future (and it was good for me to work through, anyway), but I really think I could have spent my spring break more effectively if I actually knew what I was preparing for. I'm relieved not to have to do a written exam tomorrow, because I've been having first-trimester flashbacks this week and have been feeling pretty crappy all around, but still... it would have been nice to know earlier about this change in plans. I get the sense that they had decided all of this some time ago and just failed to express it to me in an explicit manner.
Miscommunication is a lovely thing. It seems to happen fairly often around here.
Miscommunication is a lovely thing. It seems to happen fairly often around here.
Labels: school
- posted by erica 4/12/2007 07:30:00 PM
- 0 comments
3.19.2007
Catching up
Sleepy... so sleepy. I tutored this morning, which is often an exhausting endeavor because of the level and type of questions my adult tutee asks, and now I'm getting in some quality library time before my advisor meeting this afternoon. I wasn't ready to get up this morning when my radio came on, but alas — I rose dutifully anyway.
Despite my tiredness, this past week rocked. Jeannette and Toddler Ellis were in town, and I got to be the babysitter while she admirably and successfully defended her thesis. Huzzah, Jeannette! Ellis is at a fascinating stage right now, where he's signing all sorts of things and interacting so purposefully with the world around him. I learned all the signs that were relevant to him: mommy, diaper, cat, bird, dog, cracker, milk, ball, where (to ask "Where's mommy?" or "Where's the kitty?"), and a few others. He became rather taken with a stuffed raccoon that my dad had given me, and at first he assimilated and called it a kitty, until I looked up the sign for raccoon online and taught that to him. When he learns a sign, he usually doesn't get it quite right, using the wrong fingers or whatever, and then he works his way up to copying the sign exactly. I was fascinated to watch this, because it's exactly how hearing kids work through spoken language, and it's neat to see a physical/visual manifestation of the same thing.
On Saturday, we went to New Orleans with them, intending to participate in the St. Patrick's Day festivities but deciding instead to skip the traffic and craziness and just let her enjoy being in her former home city for a little while. We went to her favorite Lebanese restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner and then sped off to the airport.
After we dropped Jeannette and Ellis off at the airport (and I ran in to use the bathroom!), we drove back home to our once-again-quiet house and tried to convince our traumatized cats that yes, the toddler was gone and they could rest easy once more. They weren't big fans of his, which is sad, because he thought they were awesome. Celia protest-peed a few times, even after they left, which is understandable but frustrating nonetheless, especially when we look forward to July and try to anticipate her reaction to having a baby in the house. It'll be especially fun to take all the bedding off the bed and wash it when we're sleep-deprived and overwhelmed by things already!
In spare moments lately, Jack and I have enjoyed watching my belly move, since Kent's kicks and wiggles are now visible from the outside. He's getting more insistent and more mobile, and it's so cool. I just love the movements and hope I never get tired of them. We hit the outlets in a major way this weekend and racked up on sale and clearance baby clothes, including some stuff for next winter that stores were practically giving away, and I also finally found a diaper bag I love that Jack isn't too embarrassed to carry. =) The Kent Box is getting pretty full, but soon we'll have the space in his room to really get things set up, and painting is going to happen within the next month as well.
We have three and a half months (in theory), and so far, things are coming together quite swimmingly.
Despite my tiredness, this past week rocked. Jeannette and Toddler Ellis were in town, and I got to be the babysitter while she admirably and successfully defended her thesis. Huzzah, Jeannette! Ellis is at a fascinating stage right now, where he's signing all sorts of things and interacting so purposefully with the world around him. I learned all the signs that were relevant to him: mommy, diaper, cat, bird, dog, cracker, milk, ball, where (to ask "Where's mommy?" or "Where's the kitty?"), and a few others. He became rather taken with a stuffed raccoon that my dad had given me, and at first he assimilated and called it a kitty, until I looked up the sign for raccoon online and taught that to him. When he learns a sign, he usually doesn't get it quite right, using the wrong fingers or whatever, and then he works his way up to copying the sign exactly. I was fascinated to watch this, because it's exactly how hearing kids work through spoken language, and it's neat to see a physical/visual manifestation of the same thing.
On Saturday, we went to New Orleans with them, intending to participate in the St. Patrick's Day festivities but deciding instead to skip the traffic and craziness and just let her enjoy being in her former home city for a little while. We went to her favorite Lebanese restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner and then sped off to the airport.
After we dropped Jeannette and Ellis off at the airport (and I ran in to use the bathroom!), we drove back home to our once-again-quiet house and tried to convince our traumatized cats that yes, the toddler was gone and they could rest easy once more. They weren't big fans of his, which is sad, because he thought they were awesome. Celia protest-peed a few times, even after they left, which is understandable but frustrating nonetheless, especially when we look forward to July and try to anticipate her reaction to having a baby in the house. It'll be especially fun to take all the bedding off the bed and wash it when we're sleep-deprived and overwhelmed by things already!
In spare moments lately, Jack and I have enjoyed watching my belly move, since Kent's kicks and wiggles are now visible from the outside. He's getting more insistent and more mobile, and it's so cool. I just love the movements and hope I never get tired of them. We hit the outlets in a major way this weekend and racked up on sale and clearance baby clothes, including some stuff for next winter that stores were practically giving away, and I also finally found a diaper bag I love that Jack isn't too embarrassed to carry. =) The Kent Box is getting pretty full, but soon we'll have the space in his room to really get things set up, and painting is going to happen within the next month as well.
We have three and a half months (in theory), and so far, things are coming together quite swimmingly.
Labels: belly, felines, friends, Kent, nesting, school
- posted by erica 3/19/2007 12:59:00 PM
- 2 comments
3.05.2007
In the library
If I've ever blogged from the library in the past, it's been when I was trying to waste time or trying to clear my head before doing more research. Today, I'm doing a bit of the latter. I got some great work accomplished this morning on my Fauré bibliography, this week's research project, and I'm about to delve into more online databases to get a better feel of what's out there that I haven't yet explored. I needed some lunch first, though, so I'm currently eating an interesting panini from the library coffee shop. It claims to be a BLT with brie, though the brie is kind of scarce and the bacon is kind of wimpy. I like crispy bacon, not the wimpy stuff. It tastes decent, though, and it's doing the job of feeding me and my fetus.
Speaking of the fetus... we put together our crib last night! It was delivered just minutes before I left for the retreat, and Jack got so much done over the weekend (4 of the 17 points!!) that we actually had space in the baby's room to open the box and put the thing together. It's gorgeous. I'll take a picture as soon as we get rid of the surrounding cardboard and styrofoam, because I'm just so HAPPY with my choice of crib from Target. I'm so glad that I spent the time I did researching so many different cribs before picking one, and it helped so much to have several people's detailed horror stories with cribs that I might otherwise have been drawn to. Well-written reviews are the online shopper's best friend.
The changing table is supposed to come today, so after I feel that I've accomplished a bit more with M. Fauré, I'll head home so that the UPS guy will have someone to give the box to. He usually leaves us a dumb tag instead of our box if we're not there, even though we have enormous bushes next to our front door behind which to hide packages, and the FedEx guy brings stuff to the back door to hide it even better. Oh well. I suppose it's better than having a box stolen from us, but it's hard to imagine someone walking off with a heavy box of furniture pieces when no one has ever even picked up a little box from Amazon.
I'm in a great mood today, and I think my renewed productivity in Dissertation Land has a great deal to do with the renewal I experienced at the retreat. Whatever is in the air during the women's retreat needs to be bottled, because it's amazingly effective at reminding me why to be happy with myself and how to help myself through difficulties. No activities in particular did that to me — it's just something about being around all those strong women, with their funny and wonderful baby stories they were eager to share, their frankness about their own perceived shortcomings, and the richness of their diverse life experiences and choices that I find inspiring.
Okay, back to my panini and my apple juice. Life is good.
UPDATE: We got a dumb tag. I'll try to catch him tomorrow or Wednesday.
Speaking of the fetus... we put together our crib last night! It was delivered just minutes before I left for the retreat, and Jack got so much done over the weekend (4 of the 17 points!!) that we actually had space in the baby's room to open the box and put the thing together. It's gorgeous. I'll take a picture as soon as we get rid of the surrounding cardboard and styrofoam, because I'm just so HAPPY with my choice of crib from Target. I'm so glad that I spent the time I did researching so many different cribs before picking one, and it helped so much to have several people's detailed horror stories with cribs that I might otherwise have been drawn to. Well-written reviews are the online shopper's best friend.
The changing table is supposed to come today, so after I feel that I've accomplished a bit more with M. Fauré, I'll head home so that the UPS guy will have someone to give the box to. He usually leaves us a dumb tag instead of our box if we're not there, even though we have enormous bushes next to our front door behind which to hide packages, and the FedEx guy brings stuff to the back door to hide it even better. Oh well. I suppose it's better than having a box stolen from us, but it's hard to imagine someone walking off with a heavy box of furniture pieces when no one has ever even picked up a little box from Amazon.
I'm in a great mood today, and I think my renewed productivity in Dissertation Land has a great deal to do with the renewal I experienced at the retreat. Whatever is in the air during the women's retreat needs to be bottled, because it's amazingly effective at reminding me why to be happy with myself and how to help myself through difficulties. No activities in particular did that to me — it's just something about being around all those strong women, with their funny and wonderful baby stories they were eager to share, their frankness about their own perceived shortcomings, and the richness of their diverse life experiences and choices that I find inspiring.
Okay, back to my panini and my apple juice. Life is good.
UPDATE: We got a dumb tag. I'll try to catch him tomorrow or Wednesday.
- posted by erica 3/05/2007 12:40:00 PM
- 2 comments
3.02.2007
Retreating
This has been a weird week, so I'm really glad that our church women's retreat is this weekend. I'm waiting for the woman who's coming to pick me up in a few minutes, and I'm looking forward to going to Feliciana (the Presbyterian retreat center about an hour from here) and relaxing a bit. I'm taking some grading with me, and it would be great to get some/all of it done. I've also got some books, including a Fauré book that includes a lot of his letters and a developmental book called The Scientist in the Crib that my developmental psychologist friend Lauren got me for Christmas. There will be crafts, creative writing, walks outside, etc., but it's all pretty unstructured, so it will be easy for me to go off and do my own thing when I feel like not mingling (which happens to me sometimes, just as it does to everyone). I had a blast last year, so this should be a neat weekend.
While I'm gone, Jack will be lonely (of course), but he has big plans to tackle a few more of the 17 points. A friend of mine from school is coming over to help him move furniture — nevermind the fact that all of said furniture is currently covered with clutter. Jack thinks he can get it cleared off, if not by organizing things, then by the Bill Carter method of sweeping everything into a box and forgetting about it. =) Anyway, wish him luck.
Ride's here. I'm outta here!
While I'm gone, Jack will be lonely (of course), but he has big plans to tackle a few more of the 17 points. A friend of mine from school is coming over to help him move furniture — nevermind the fact that all of said furniture is currently covered with clutter. Jack thinks he can get it cleared off, if not by organizing things, then by the Bill Carter method of sweeping everything into a box and forgetting about it. =) Anyway, wish him luck.
Ride's here. I'm outta here!
Labels: church, nesting, school
- posted by erica 3/02/2007 03:28:00 PM
- 0 comments
