phew

Man, another 11-hour work day! Gotta stop these! To top it off today was installing the faculty show. Doesn't everyone love working with faculty? Actually it was pretty good. I got to work with my former committee chair who I like and respect and we didn't have too many challenges come our way. That said, my partner in crime on this project was far more thorough and meticulous than I was, so it was a good learning experience for me but I felt like a slacker. But he's got 14 years professional experience on me, so maybe I'd be more of a pro by then too. Plus he's more invested in the show too. Anyway it was fine and the show is up and looks pretty good despite the lack of involvement from a lot of the faculty.

In other news...hmm... is there other news?

The weather is turning. It's cold now. Well we had some crazy unseasonable warmth for a while so the cold hit a little harder. Still, we have some warmish sunny afternoons so that's nice. Though I don't suppose anyone reads this for weather updates...

In Sam land, things are going very well. I'm going to have to start setting up play dates to keep him occupied with kids and activities now that we can't rely on going to the park due to weather stuff. But it's so hard. We have these two big crazy dogs so it's hard to invite people, let alone toddlers, over to play.

SLEEP UPDATES
Sam sleeps well now. He still goes to bed late, doesn't get as much nighttime sleep as some kids, but takes a big afternoon nap.

DIAPERS (or lack thereof)
Sam pees in the potty without fail now. But he doesn't want to poop on the potty. At first he did pretty well with it. Then he changed his mind. I think I'm going to just go with using diapers for poop and potty for pee. Our insistence on sticking with the undies just lead to tons of dirty undies, and he has no interest in going back to diapers or not peeing in the potty. So, when it seems he's ready to go poop, we'll just get him in a diaper and let him go standing up. Maybe they make standing up potties, hahaha. I dunno, he potty trained in like 3 days and then just changed his mind about going poo, so I think he's just not ready. I don't want to force it and make it harder or make him uncomfortable ('cause he just holds it in since he doesn't want to go in his undies and doesn't want to use the potty) so we'll do diapers for a while and wait for the time he's ready to use the potty full time.

TALKING
Sam has more words than I can practically count and speaks in 2-4 word sentences. From talking with other kids his age, I think he is still a little delayed. That said, he is continually progressing in vocab and verbal communication, I'm not worried. But he goes to this playgroup at the community center that is run by the university's speech and language program and Sam was (ironically?) there as a "typical peer", not one of the kids receiving therapy. It was clear Sam was talking MORE than the other kids, but not A LOT more. Anyway the semester is ending so the playgroup is ending and I contacted them to see if we can continue on next semester. They also have a preschool that is very inexpensive, three days a week, and seems pretty fun. So I asked about that too, while also expressing my concern that Sam doesn't meet the criteria for "typical peer". The folks in charge had some minor concerns too but think he'll probably be alright. It would be sad if he fell into some in-between area (not needing therapy/not being "typical"), but Aaron and I think Sam is beyond classification too... Anyway, I used to think preschool was kind of weird for such little kids but it becomes clear to me that I am often too tired or lacking the necessary knowledge to lead useful activities for Sam during my full days with him. The socialization and structured activities seem to be good for him. So I hope it works out. It would be for next fall when he's 3 years old.

BABY
The baby is doing fine! My belly gets bigger and bigger. I am now to the point where people feel comfortable asking me if I'm pregnant, so I guess that's good that I no longer look just chubbier. Last appointment with the midwife was good. Rather uneventful. Things seem good and there's still something beating away in there and I'm gonna go ahead and believe it's my baby's heart. The ultrasound will be next month, so we'll know a lot more then!

PREGNANCY
I do, however, already have tailbone pain. I was paranoid and thought it was related to the sciatic nerve (I have known multiple people to get bad sciatica so that freaked me out). But after reading more it seems to be ligament pain. So the awesomely named hormone relaxin is relaxin' my ligaments. This has caused my pelvic bones to shift and cause me pain. It's not bad, more of a nuisance so far, but last pregnancy I didn't have this until near the end of it and it seems so early to be experiencing it already. So I went to see a physical therapist, but when I showed up for my 7 am (!) appointment I found out that the physical therapist who works with pregnant ladies was out due to a death in the family. The other therapist talked with me about what was going on but we decided we better just wait for the lady to get back. So I'll try again next week. I do know that the pain occurs more when I am fully extended, so standing on my feet all day, extra lifting, etc. can aggravate it. Oh, pregnancy.

So that is all. I'm gonna go crash. Oh wait, I do have one little thing to do for work first. Oh, work.