Ahh.
Hey there -- been a while. Things are better here on the farm. England trip went quite well, kiddo tolerated all the travel well and the relations over there were quite smitten with her. It went really fast, though, and didn't feel like much of a holiday for us, other than people cooked for us and we ate relatively healthily on fresh food (compared to what we live off of now... frozen dinners, cold cuts, canned soup... ). Neil did his crazy schedule on the return, literally grabbing his books the minute we got into the house from the airport and heading back out to class.
I will be incredibly glad when he's done, this is his last semester of law school, and I don't think I realized how much I'd miss his company and support this semester until a couple months ago when the days were getting shorter and Ju was getting fussier in the evenings. Even though he still has to study for the bar between now and February and he's technically not on kid duty while studying, at least he'll be home and I have someone I can pass her off to when I need to, oh, pee or something.
Thankfully also she's going to sleep much more easily now, I have a bedtime routine that includes "reading" a couple little books before eating and then, when she conks out from that, putting her down. We are still working on the frequent night wakings, now, but a few nights ago she stunned us by sleeping a record 8 hours straight (of course, we didn't get to bed until a few hours after she started sleeping, so we got in about 5 of those for ourselves -- still amazing). I'm learning that even if she sleeps through the night now, that she will likely undo that progress as she gets older and separation anxiety kicks in or she starts teething again or she experiences whatever other developmental milestone comes up. Oy.
I don't think we can ever appreciate what we've put our parents through until we become parents ourselves. That's probably an obvious statement, but I definitely feel it now more than simply comprehend it.
She's got two little razor-sharp teeth on her bottom gum just about ready to poke themselves out, and I'm beginning to see hints of her as a little girl, not just as a baby. Soon she'll be six months old -- half a year! -- and I can't believe the time has flown by as fast as it has. I keep having dreams of her learning how to talk, or rather mimicking words, left and right. I can't wait for her to learn these things, but I also miss her little teeny baby self.
Neil makes these statements every once in a while that indicate how amused/shocked/surprised he is that I'm enjoying motherhood so much. That doesn't surprise me, but I am surprised that I'm tolerating the stay-at-homeness of it. That's the hard part, but it's working. I often have to remind myself that I can ask for help, and yet I can do a lot on my own with her, too. I'm hoping this next semester, therefore, to get some babysitting help and get out more so I can get more academic stuff done, as well as maintain some sanity.
That being said, I DID actually hand in two PhD projects this semester, both were received well, so that's a relief. The drum study is DONE, but needs a little editing, and my course proposal is pretty cool as is, apparently. Yaaaay. Only two more prelim projects to go.
Off to bed, then. And tomorrow I'll start to prepare to commence to think about getting read for Christmas.
I will be incredibly glad when he's done, this is his last semester of law school, and I don't think I realized how much I'd miss his company and support this semester until a couple months ago when the days were getting shorter and Ju was getting fussier in the evenings. Even though he still has to study for the bar between now and February and he's technically not on kid duty while studying, at least he'll be home and I have someone I can pass her off to when I need to, oh, pee or something.
Thankfully also she's going to sleep much more easily now, I have a bedtime routine that includes "reading" a couple little books before eating and then, when she conks out from that, putting her down. We are still working on the frequent night wakings, now, but a few nights ago she stunned us by sleeping a record 8 hours straight (of course, we didn't get to bed until a few hours after she started sleeping, so we got in about 5 of those for ourselves -- still amazing). I'm learning that even if she sleeps through the night now, that she will likely undo that progress as she gets older and separation anxiety kicks in or she starts teething again or she experiences whatever other developmental milestone comes up. Oy.
I don't think we can ever appreciate what we've put our parents through until we become parents ourselves. That's probably an obvious statement, but I definitely feel it now more than simply comprehend it.
She's got two little razor-sharp teeth on her bottom gum just about ready to poke themselves out, and I'm beginning to see hints of her as a little girl, not just as a baby. Soon she'll be six months old -- half a year! -- and I can't believe the time has flown by as fast as it has. I keep having dreams of her learning how to talk, or rather mimicking words, left and right. I can't wait for her to learn these things, but I also miss her little teeny baby self.
Neil makes these statements every once in a while that indicate how amused/shocked/surprised he is that I'm enjoying motherhood so much. That doesn't surprise me, but I am surprised that I'm tolerating the stay-at-homeness of it. That's the hard part, but it's working. I often have to remind myself that I can ask for help, and yet I can do a lot on my own with her, too. I'm hoping this next semester, therefore, to get some babysitting help and get out more so I can get more academic stuff done, as well as maintain some sanity.
That being said, I DID actually hand in two PhD projects this semester, both were received well, so that's a relief. The drum study is DONE, but needs a little editing, and my course proposal is pretty cool as is, apparently. Yaaaay. Only two more prelim projects to go.
Off to bed, then. And tomorrow I'll start to prepare to commence to think about getting read for Christmas.