It's called a "sticky"

That "post" at the top? Isn't really a post, it's called a "sticky", like a sticky note. But I figured it was the best way (besides calling and emailing, you know, those touchy-feely communication methods) to keep family and friends updated. I'm not entirely sure how many of our family and friends regularly visit my blog, but the info is here for whomever happens to stumble this way. And having it passively available is a really easy to alleviate my guilt for not calling/emailing ;)

Fireflies

It's early evening the day before Fourth of July. The house is full of family who've gathered to celebrate the holiday together the following evening. Several conversations are going on, despite frequent distractions caused by the youngest family member, Zachary, who is not yet two. From his point of view, everyone is there to play with him, and he has very little concern for any conversation they may be trying to have. Grandpa Mark, on the other hand, is excited for dusk when the fireflies appear. He reminds everyone, every couple minutes or so, that the fireflies will be out soon.

It's finally getting to be twilight, and we move outside. We can see fireflies blinking in the bushes. Zachary thoroughly enjoys the freedom he's allowed in the backyard. Auntie Beth and Cameron emerge from the house with plastic containers for catching the fireflies. Grandpa Mark is content to simply watch the fireflies. He wonders aloud why there aren't any fireflies in his homestate of California. "Perhaps someone should smuggle a couple in and see if they'll make it," he suggests, not for the first time. But no one offers to lead the experiment.

The plastic containers now have some inhabitants, and Auntie Beth and Cameron are eager to show them to Zachary. "Here Zachary! Look! See inside? Here, hold out your hand. Open your hand. Now hold still. Hold still. There, see? Oh, don't touch! That's a firefly. Can you say 'firefly'? Oh there he goes! Did you see him glow? He flew away, didn't he?"

The toddler doesn't respond, but his eyes are full of delight and wonder. He stands there a minute, looking around. Spotting Auntie Beth again, he trots over to her with his hand out.

"Do you want another one? Okay, I'll catch another one for you." It doesn't take long for her to find one and put it on the outstretched hand. The little boy is mesmerized.

The evening continues in this way - Zachary finding joy and delight in watching and holding fireflies, the rest of us finding joy and delight in watching Zachary - until the darkness is thick upon us. We finally move back inside and say our goodnights, anticipating an exciting Fourth filled with food, family, and fireworks.

Updates

It's been a while since my last post! Although we had internet access at my sister-in-law's house, I didn't take much computer time. We didn't keep our schedule too busy, which was nice, and I got lots of help playing with and taking care of LB! Poor DH, however, found himself spending most of the week finishing up his dissertation. We all wished that it could have been finished before the week started, but that didn't work out. The good news is that his dissertation is DONE and has been submitted to his committee!!! (If you're not familiar with the Ph.D. world, I'll just say that this is the BEGINNING OF THE END, which is an excellent thing!) So here's the timetable for his degree:

• Dissertation has been submitted to the committee.
• They have until July 20th (technically July 19th? not sure) to make any changes/recommendations/complaints/etc.
• On July 20th DH give his DEFENSE. This means a 45 minutes presentation followed by a question and answer session that can last as long as his committee wants to grill him.
• Following the defense, the committee will deliberate and then inform DH of the outcome: pass or not. Unlike with the proposal, however, it's highly unlikely that he would have been allowed to get this far and not pass, so we're not too worried.
• Then the paperwork gets all turned in, I get to explain to DH's advisor that we have a son, and then DH will get his diploma in August.

So with the clock ticking down on DH's time at Vanderbilt, he's been searching for and applying for jobs. So far he's submitted applications to Google and Microsoft in WA and CA and some military contracting companies in AL and while we were visiting family in PA he applied for a positing with St. Jude Medical in Southern CA. One of the Google positins and the St. Jude position came with recommendations from friends, and so far the St. Jude possibility is the only one to respond. DH spoke with an HR representation yesterday, and will be setting up a phone interview in the next couple days. It's very exciting! First of all, we're excited simply that he's gotten a "call back". (You know, you put yourself out there and you're never really sure whether anyone will notice!). It's also very exciting because the work would require the knowledge and experience he has from BOTH of his fields (he has degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science). Finally, it's really exciting because of the location. Although CA IS more expensive in terms on cost of living, it's SO CLOSE to family. Let me help you visualize it (because I'm a visual person).

My parents and his parents are in So. CA, about 3 hours away from each other. The path between them is an L shape (to go from mine to his, you go south, then east). The job opportunity is right at the corner of the L. I'm not kidding. It's as close to halfway between them as you can get! It's more than coincidence, I'm sure.

So we're trying not to get TOO excited, because it still may not work out, but we're definitely excited.

I'm also excited for Friday morning. We have our 2nd trimester ultrasound, and hopefully we'll be able to determine the gender! I hope the baby cooperates :) It's kind of silly, but I feel like so many things hinge on knowing whether it's a girl or boy! Knowing the gender will help us pick a name, decide on whether we're sticking with Classic Pooh or switching to a more pink theme, and we need to know if LB's clothes will work or if we need to ask for girls' clothes!

Speaking of LB, that boy is getting so tall, we need to get him a new car seat! The shoulder straps are too low - they're behind his shoulders instead of above them. We were in Walmart last night and stopped in the baby section to look at the car seats. LB was noisy and pointing and full of saying "please" (in sign language) until we finally figured out what he wanted: he wanted to get in the car seats that were on display! Which turned out to be good, because then we could see if the shoulder strap slots were tall enough. We probably won't get a new one though, not on our budget! So I've found a couple on Craigslist that might work. I'm waiting for the measurement from the seat (where the child sits) to the top strap slot. We decided we need to get one before we move since we'll probably be driving across country and LB needs to have a properly fitting car seat.

So driving across country. It's kinda fun. DH and I have done it twice: from New Orleans to So. CA after we graduated from Tulane (just the two of us) and then from So. CA to here (with DH's folks and brother). This time, however, we would be traveling not only with a toddler, but two cats as well! We haven't spent much time working out all the details yet, since we don't know where we're going yet, but we do know that shipping the cats could costs as much as $1,000. It'd be nice to ship the cats and have movers come in, pack up our house and drive the truck, but we may have to do more of it ourselves, depending on what kind of help DH's new company can give us. So we'll see.

Well, back to unpacking, washing diapers, and other such things.

Prenatal #3

Zachary and I met with Mary Ann this morning. We dropped Curtis off at work and made it to Mary Ann’s early for an 8:30 appointment (very proud of ourselves for getting all three out the door on time!!). We talked about...[Read More]

What NOT to do with a broken pickle jar

Our garbage disposal stopped working last week. Wednesday evening, I think. Made noise, no spin. Finally, almost a week later, I started to take it apart. I couldn't get some of the screws, so it had to wait till DH got home. (So we went out to dinner, bummer ;) ). The next day, I took it into the sunshine and managed to pry out the problem. APPARENTLY, you can't put broken glass down the garbage disposal! Who knew?! </sarcasm>

I'm sorry to say that we know exactly who DIDN'T know: DH. It's also how I remember that it quit on Wednesday. See, DH broke a pickle jar that evening. LB was still strapped in his high chair, so we didn't have to worry about him, but apparently we needed to worry about me. I cut my finger on the broken jar. A real macho cut too: tried to take a chunk of skin right off the knuckle of my little finger. Left all manner of blood on the jar, on the floor, and dripping down my leg. So that put me out of commission of helping to clean up. Now, a week after its demise, we see that the pickle jar had two lessons for us: for me, being more careful when cleaning up broken glass; and for DH, DON'T PUT GLASS DOWN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL!! IT'S A ROCK! ROCKS DON'T GO DOWN THE SINK!!!!

I think my finger's healing just fine, btw. I don't really know because I haven't taken off the bandaid since Sunday. My finger hasn't fallen off or anything, so I assume all's well.

New Blog

When I was pregnant with LB I had a pregnancy website where I recorded all the goings-on of the pregnancy: prenatal visits, ultrasound, belly photos, thoughts, etc. So I have one again: baby.humphreyonline.us. I like having everything in one place. I may or may not continue with pregnancy posts here, so that site will be the best place to keep up :)

Monday Morning

(This post was supposed to have been published already. Don't know why it didn't!)

We picked up this folding table and chair (two chairs, actually) for $6 at a garage sale. Love it! It’s susceptible to scissors, so we’ll have to be careful as toddlers turn to preschoolers. I was trying to catch up on dishes this morning after breakfast (our garbage disposal quit. Not happy), and so left LB to his own devices. Fortunately for the both of us, he found something productive to do. If I’d had the camera downstairs, I would have taken video: he was “reading” out loud to himself and pointing to the pictures. And when he’d finished with one book, he dropped it on the floor and started on another one. I think he got through three books before deciding to do something else (namely, hang on my leg). So precious!

Later, when sitting still was no longer appealing, he found the cats to be very entertaining. One escaped to the great outdoors while the other one (who is currently sitting on my lap, making me hot and covering my yellow shirt with black fur) found behind the tv to be a safe haven from the toddler terror.