Saturday, August 29, 2009
Ready, Set....
Tried to include this in the previous post a few minutes ago, but it went wonky on me.
Where to Begin?
Part 1: Life and such
So, we both began our first week of class this week. Andrew is teaching his new Planetary Science class and has a nice handfull of students. I'm teaching 101, which is our version of "Rocks for Jocks" to 160+ mostly freshman non-majors. I spent the week answering emails concerning the following [note, my desired responses are in parentheses...but I didn't actually respond that way even though I REALLY wanted too]
1. Do I really have to go on the field trip? [Yes, that's why it says "mandatory".]
2. Do I have to buy the textbook? [I couldn't care less if you do or not.]
3. Why don't you post the lectures online? [Because I'm not an idiot, and I know you won't come to class if I do. Yes, shockingly, you actually have to take you own notes.].
Sigh. Someday I'll get to teach a class I actually want to teach.
This of course has kept us all very busy, day and night. Riley is now at "school" 3x a week, which seems to be going pretty well. The other 2 days, Andrew and I will each take one day as our "Riley day", and get to spend the whole day with the little man. I think we will all benefit from that in the end. We have a pretty well organized morning and evening routine down, which helps us all get out the door on time, and some of us get enough sleep [you can guess who].
Also, my kid brother and his girlfriend have moved to Taiwan for a year! Check out their adventures in their blog ["Dane and Stacey", link at right].
Oh, and I got my hair chopped off. It was taking too much time to deal with. I think they call this the "Mommy cut".
2. New Fixins!
We had our backyard professionally landscaped last week. This included rebuilding our patio, and putting in some beds. We finally just decided that if we left it up to us, it would never get done, and we would like to enjoy our outdoor space more. We also had them put in some shrubs and a tree, but we will put in the perennials, etc ourselves. This will give us some constructive/creative outlet, at a time and place of our choosing! We are already enjoying the space very much, and are trying to plan for a couple of BBQs this fall [although there are precious few available weekends!]. We spent some time the last couple of weekends buying and putting in some things in the beds around our patio. This has been fun, but a lot of work; the soil is poor and needs improving before anything can go in.
out with the old [Rew and his Dad tore out our old patio]...
....in with...
the new!!
3. Riley!
Is mobile! He started shuffling along on his knees on Thurs, and by this morning he was practically racing. I've seen it before, but I will always be amazed at how quickly little ones aquire new skills. We spent the day today planning, purchasing, and executing babyproofing. Long way to go, but I think we at least have the living room safe for him to wander about. This of course marks the end of our happy days of freedom. Woe to us, but Riley is having a blast!
We're also beginning to plan his birthday celebrations. Can't believe he's almost been with us for a whole year. I can't really remember what life was like before this [I think there was probably more sleep involved], and I wouldn't have it any other way [although Andrew, who is currently rocking the little monkey back to sleep, may disagree].
monkey on the move!!! [note grass clinging to his chin]
So, we both began our first week of class this week. Andrew is teaching his new Planetary Science class and has a nice handfull of students. I'm teaching 101, which is our version of "Rocks for Jocks" to 160+ mostly freshman non-majors. I spent the week answering emails concerning the following [note, my desired responses are in parentheses...but I didn't actually respond that way even though I REALLY wanted too]
1. Do I really have to go on the field trip? [Yes, that's why it says "mandatory".]
2. Do I have to buy the textbook? [I couldn't care less if you do or not.]
3. Why don't you post the lectures online? [Because I'm not an idiot, and I know you won't come to class if I do. Yes, shockingly, you actually have to take you own notes.].
Sigh. Someday I'll get to teach a class I actually want to teach.
This of course has kept us all very busy, day and night. Riley is now at "school" 3x a week, which seems to be going pretty well. The other 2 days, Andrew and I will each take one day as our "Riley day", and get to spend the whole day with the little man. I think we will all benefit from that in the end. We have a pretty well organized morning and evening routine down, which helps us all get out the door on time, and some of us get enough sleep [you can guess who].
Also, my kid brother and his girlfriend have moved to Taiwan for a year! Check out their adventures in their blog ["Dane and Stacey", link at right].
Oh, and I got my hair chopped off. It was taking too much time to deal with. I think they call this the "Mommy cut".
2. New Fixins!
We had our backyard professionally landscaped last week. This included rebuilding our patio, and putting in some beds. We finally just decided that if we left it up to us, it would never get done, and we would like to enjoy our outdoor space more. We also had them put in some shrubs and a tree, but we will put in the perennials, etc ourselves. This will give us some constructive/creative outlet, at a time and place of our choosing! We are already enjoying the space very much, and are trying to plan for a couple of BBQs this fall [although there are precious few available weekends!]. We spent some time the last couple of weekends buying and putting in some things in the beds around our patio. This has been fun, but a lot of work; the soil is poor and needs improving before anything can go in.
out with the old [Rew and his Dad tore out our old patio]...
....in with...
the new!!3. Riley!
Is mobile! He started shuffling along on his knees on Thurs, and by this morning he was practically racing. I've seen it before, but I will always be amazed at how quickly little ones aquire new skills. We spent the day today planning, purchasing, and executing babyproofing. Long way to go, but I think we at least have the living room safe for him to wander about. This of course marks the end of our happy days of freedom. Woe to us, but Riley is having a blast!
We're also beginning to plan his birthday celebrations. Can't believe he's almost been with us for a whole year. I can't really remember what life was like before this [I think there was probably more sleep involved], and I wouldn't have it any other way [although Andrew, who is currently rocking the little monkey back to sleep, may disagree].
monkey on the move!!! [note grass clinging to his chin]Monday, August 10, 2009
Peaceful Morning Playtime
Some quiet moments this morning while going about our day. Riley was having a good time dissecting the canvas bag full of toys from our trip this weekend that had yet to be unpacked [he was helping!]. The peacefulness belies our impending fate as parents of a mobile infant. Riley's getting up on all fours now so we don't have long. The little guy turned 10months today- unbelievable.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Katsup
Well, our summer is quickly drawing to a close. Andrew and I are frantically trying to get ready for our classes this fall. Riley has finally turned a developmental corner and is working on becoming mobile. We returned from Yellowstone last week, but things have been a bit busy. We were only there for 4 days. Rew and Riley had a blast together, exploring the park and visiting a wolf and bear adventure center. I missed out on all the fun, spending my days in the field.
We did a lot of waiting in parking lots for the rest of the team to show up in the mornings. Somehow, even though we had an infant with us and were traveling in from outside the park, we still always beat them there by at least an hour. Anywho, here're my boys early one morning near one of my field sites.
Rew and Riley set off on their own adventures during the day, as we deemed the wilds of Yellowstone to be somewhat inappropriate for an infant [given the abundance of predators and hot liquid ouch]. Meadows are a good place for tactile discovery!
Passing strangers took this pic of the guys out on a little walk around the Old Faithful area. They took several short hikes together, and Riley seemed thrilled with the whole situation.
In fact, he found it so stimulating that it was nap-worthy!
This one's from home- he suddenly decided that tummytime was not as evil as he previously suspected while we were on our trip. He started rolling and scooting all of a sudden one day. We're hastily baby-proofing our house here...
We did a lot of waiting in parking lots for the rest of the team to show up in the mornings. Somehow, even though we had an infant with us and were traveling in from outside the park, we still always beat them there by at least an hour. Anywho, here're my boys early one morning near one of my field sites.
Rew and Riley set off on their own adventures during the day, as we deemed the wilds of Yellowstone to be somewhat inappropriate for an infant [given the abundance of predators and hot liquid ouch]. Meadows are a good place for tactile discovery!
Passing strangers took this pic of the guys out on a little walk around the Old Faithful area. They took several short hikes together, and Riley seemed thrilled with the whole situation.
In fact, he found it so stimulating that it was nap-worthy!
This one's from home- he suddenly decided that tummytime was not as evil as he previously suspected while we were on our trip. He started rolling and scooting all of a sudden one day. We're hastily baby-proofing our house here...
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