My current pet peeve

The phrase "Latina woman." It's redundant. You can't be a Latina man. And I know, Sotomayor used it herself, but I'm not excusing her, either. That phrase is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

Dissertation update

I just heard back from my committee chair. My first three chapters have been accepted. No further substantive revisions needed. Wahooooooooo!

Cooper

He is, as I type this, laying beside me with his head on a couch pillow, fake snoring at the top of his lungs. And now he just shushed himself.

He has a habit of sucking his thumb, as long as he has his corner blanket to hold on to with the same hand. We leave his corner blanket in his crib so he won't suck his thumb during the day. Well, he figured out where the dish towels are kept in the kitchen and has started stealing a towel out to use as a surrogate blanket. He thinks it's funny to get caught, and will go put it back as soon as we tell him to do so. Yesterday he went into the kitchen, grabbed a towel and then ran through the living room into the front entry as fast as his little legs could carry him, so he could still see the television but I couldn't see him from my spot on the couch. He laughed when I told him to go put the towel back, and ran back into the kitchen and put it back.

Later in the afternoon, I heard the sound of a kitchen chair being pushed across the floor. Right as I'm about to get up and go investigate, he walks into the living room carrying the kitchen rug behind him. He drops it in the middle of the living room floor, and walks back into the kitchen. Curious, I wait to see what happens next. A few more scooting sounds and a pause of a few seconds later, I hear him splashing in the kitchen sink. I walk in there to get him down before he dumps any more water on the kitchen floor, and pull the chair back (the rug was blocking him from getting the chair up to the sink) so I can start mopping up the water. He is still standing on the kitchen chair, so he grabs onto the back of it and starts rocking back and forth as hard as he can, and starts scooting the chair back to the sink while standing on it.

I had no idea parenting was going to be so funny.

Seems like I'm a teacher in and out of the classroom

T-Mobile Mom to Mom Quiz: "

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Talking to a two year old

At the beginning of April, Cooper had a speech evaluation. The speech pathologist said that he failed the evaluation, but not enough to qualify for services. She said he measured three months behind on both his receptive (understanding what you tell him) and expressive (talking) communication. This could be easily explained by the months of fluid on his ears, and then the intensive physical therapy he has been undergoing for his motor delay. She gave me some recommendations of what we can do to help his speech develop.

In the last six weeks, his speech has blossomed. Every day he has new words. Walking to church today, he pointed at a tree, "Tree!" He said "thank you" today for the first time. He has started using two word sentences. I cut a piece of cake the other day for a snack, and he looked at it and said, "Cake! Bite please!" He watched me make my fried egg with toast and cheese this morning, and said, "Toast? Cheese?" with such a tone of intense betrayal since he was eating mini-pancakes for breakfast, and toast and cheese are two of his favorite foods.

He is picking up new nouns about as fast as I can teach them. I expect to hear him say, "Go put that back" and "Come back here" any day now. And hopefully, "I love you."

RBOC: Sunday morning edition

I've been on a fried egg kick lately. I am writing this blog post while eating a fried egg on toast.

Cooper is outgrowing all his tops. It amazes me how fast he grows. Into the 3T tops for summer wear.

He fell down the stairs at our friends' house last weekend. He was more startled than anything, luckily he only somersaulted down a few carpeted steps into his dad's arms, but he is much more leery of going up and down stairs by himself now.

He must wear a baseball cap at all times. A few nights ago I found him asleep in his crib with his cap on backwards.

I finally got into the garden this weekend. One of the drawbacks of having a long, rainy spring is lots and lots of weeds and no time to pull them all out. I got a few of the beds weeded. I found several seedlings that have volunteered themselves, including one that I think is a lupine plant. I'm also realizing I need to figure out how to transplant perennial geraniums and daylilies. And maybe some bellflowers as well.

I went to the farmer's market yesterday and eyed all the beautiful plants for sale. I did not buy any though, because I wasn't sure what holes I would need to fill in. That's my motivation for getting all the flower beds in shape this week: buy new plants next Saturday.

I found some adorable globe bird feeders yesterday. They are now hanging in the backyard. We'll see if they attract any new birds to the yard or if they just attract more squirrels.

I want to get a bird house.

We are about to embark on the potty training adventure in our home. Wish me luck.

Job search update

I received a very nice call from the dean this afternoon, letting me know that I am the "leading candidate" for the job. They can not officially offer me the position until they get approval from the university's board, but they are recommending my hire. The dean did not think they would have all the necessary paperwork in place for the board's meeting this month, so it will probably be June 10th before the board votes on my position. I wonder if I can keep my fingers crossed for the next month?

Well, that's done

The interview went really well. The department will be meeting next week to vote. I'm more excited about this job now than I was before the interview which is always a nice development. The faculty in the department were very nice and friendly, and I think it would be a good work environment.

Also, I finished a draft of chapter three of my dissertation this evening. I'm going to give it one more read through in the morning, and then send the first three chapters of my dissertation off to my committee in the morning.

Breaking Radio Silence

I'm posting long enough to say that I'm alive. I've been swamped by finishing up this chapter draft for my dissertation and prepping for my job interview tomorrow.

One interesting thing that I have learned while prepping for this job interview: I have a whole heck of a lot of paper that I really don't need to be hanging on to. However, there is no time today to purge all that stuff. Maybe this summer, when I have some free time.