During spring semester of my sophomore year of college, I realized that Dean was in not one but two of my classes. I got a crush on his quiet, handsome self very quickly. I daydreamed about his intense eyes and very long hair. Soon, I got him to let me borrow his notes. (It was difficult because he said no one could read his messy handwriting, but I prevailed.) Later I followed him down the stairs of Greenlaw Hall and asked him to have lunch with me. We had pizza on a very rainy Monday. We shared an umbrella as we walked back to his apartment after lunch to study for our Spanish quiz. (Yes...study...)
Later Dean went to live in Spain for a year and we sent each other a lot of emails. I fell in love with his writing. He writes like Hemingway.
Dean and I have lived in four different places together. Together we have packed 4 moving vans, unpacked hundreds of boxes, adopted a cat, driven halfway across the country, climbed a variety of mountains, made a 5-hour trip twice in one day due to forgetting something very, very important, learned to make homemade pasta, swore we would never make homemade pasta again, paid off a college loan, obtained and left several jobs, survived terrible flus and one case of hives, watched all six seasons of The Sopranos in one summer, and cooked approximately 1,835 dinners. Oh, yeah--and we made Amelia. Our greatest accomplishment so far.
Dean makes me laugh, even when when I am grouchy and overwhelmed. Dean explains to Amelia the science behind yawning and makes up entertaining variations to "This Little Piggy." He has stayed home with Amelia while I have gone out to get a massage AND a pedicure. He has modified his work schedule while trying to accomplish the same amount of work so that I can go back to my own job. Dean is usually the one who remember to wash the diapers, and he is the Master of Swaddling. He is truly a partner in this parenting gig.
I am immensely grateful that he is my partner, husband, best friend, and one true love.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A Week of Thankfulness, Part 2
I missed yesterday, so I need to do two today!
What I wanted to write yesterday was that I am thankful for my job. This is not only because going back to work has made me feel much more like myself again, giving me the chance to wear real clothes and think my own thoughts during the drive to work, but also because I actually really like what I do! We found out during Dean's stint at the law firm how important it is to love or at least like the job you go to every day (or in my case, 2 days a week). I really enjoy my students. I even like their newly-discovered intellectual indignation, pretty common to freshmen around this time of year, about grades and "institutional education." ("We want to learn for learning's sake, but the system won't let us!!!") I also like teaching writing, even freshman composition. It's fun and challenging to improve my lessons every semester.
Also, even though Dean and I wish we were closer to our families, in this economy we know we are lucky to have any job, especially jobs that allows us such flexibiilty to spend time with Amelia.
As a footnote to this, and a tangent to the real clothes I mentioned above, I am also thankful for my boots, which I bought last year. (Mine are green. They were on sale.) These are the best shoes ever. They feel lighter than flip flops but they keep my feet super warm. They are great for walking across campus in the rain.
Anyway, speaking of jobs, I need to grade some papers. If the day allows, I will post again later.
What I wanted to write yesterday was that I am thankful for my job. This is not only because going back to work has made me feel much more like myself again, giving me the chance to wear real clothes and think my own thoughts during the drive to work, but also because I actually really like what I do! We found out during Dean's stint at the law firm how important it is to love or at least like the job you go to every day (or in my case, 2 days a week). I really enjoy my students. I even like their newly-discovered intellectual indignation, pretty common to freshmen around this time of year, about grades and "institutional education." ("We want to learn for learning's sake, but the system won't let us!!!") I also like teaching writing, even freshman composition. It's fun and challenging to improve my lessons every semester.
Also, even though Dean and I wish we were closer to our families, in this economy we know we are lucky to have any job, especially jobs that allows us such flexibiilty to spend time with Amelia.
As a footnote to this, and a tangent to the real clothes I mentioned above, I am also thankful for my boots, which I bought last year. (Mine are green. They were on sale.) These are the best shoes ever. They feel lighter than flip flops but they keep my feet super warm. They are great for walking across campus in the rain.
Anyway, speaking of jobs, I need to grade some papers. If the day allows, I will post again later.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Also...
I am joining MPJ's "Just for Today" challenge. Every time I nurse, I think I could be reading a poem, either to myself or aloud to myself and little A. More on this subject soon.
A Week of Thankfulness
In honor of Thanksgiving and of my 31st birthday on Wednesday, I thought it would be nice to try to write each day a bit on thankfulness. During my hardest moments over the past 7 weeks--and 10 and a half months, for that matter--it has helped me to stop and list a few things I am thankful for. This has gotten me through more than one teary moment in the middle of the night when I thought I could not possibly wake up and feed you-know-who. Just considering for even a second how thankful I am to have the healthy, lovely Amelia here with us now made the sleeplessness and exhaustion suddenly bearable, even not so bad.
(Note that I am referring to sleeplessness in the past tense. Amelia has been sleeping in 6+ hour stretches for the past several nights, waking once to eat, and sleeping some more. This is because we began swaddling her again. Or, rather, Dean began swaddling her--he is the master of swaddling. It's wonderful. It also considerably cuts down the amount of grunting and writhing Amelia does while she sleeps. Of course I know her sleep habits will change and change again, but I am reveling in this while it lasts.)
So to begin, I am so very thankful for Amelia. I love her. She is a cuddly, squirmy, fascinating little person. After she eats, she throws back her head and cradles it one arm like some little diva tossing her hair back because she knows the paparazzi is watching. She makes baby farm animal noises in her sleep. When she wakes up, after her initial adorable grouchiness, she smiles at whoever is there, and she loves to rest in her pack and play and watch her black and white mobile spin around. She coos at it.
She is the very picture of good health, too, which I am extremely thankful for. She is already quite chubby.
Yea, Amelia! My life, though admittedly more complicated and less my own, is infinitely more interesting and more wonderful now that you are here.
(Note that I am referring to sleeplessness in the past tense. Amelia has been sleeping in 6+ hour stretches for the past several nights, waking once to eat, and sleeping some more. This is because we began swaddling her again. Or, rather, Dean began swaddling her--he is the master of swaddling. It's wonderful. It also considerably cuts down the amount of grunting and writhing Amelia does while she sleeps. Of course I know her sleep habits will change and change again, but I am reveling in this while it lasts.)
So to begin, I am so very thankful for Amelia. I love her. She is a cuddly, squirmy, fascinating little person. After she eats, she throws back her head and cradles it one arm like some little diva tossing her hair back because she knows the paparazzi is watching. She makes baby farm animal noises in her sleep. When she wakes up, after her initial adorable grouchiness, she smiles at whoever is there, and she loves to rest in her pack and play and watch her black and white mobile spin around. She coos at it.
She is the very picture of good health, too, which I am extremely thankful for. She is already quite chubby.
Yea, Amelia! My life, though admittedly more complicated and less my own, is infinitely more interesting and more wonderful now that you are here.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Little Star
Six weeks old!
Amelia is definitely smiling at us from time to time, and she is trying hard to get her thumb in her mouth.
I have a new haircut, and we got a Moby Wrap.
In other news, I accidentally just Ferberized Amelia. I didn't mean too; it's just that she cried for over an hour and clearly needed to sleep. I fed her, rocked, sang, swaddled, walked, and started over from square one. So I put her in her Pack & Play just to take a break. The crying continued, then suddenly stopped. She is still asleep. Ahh, silence.
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