I had been hoping to write about this earlier, but finals week has been eating away at my life. Today is my first break, so here goes. Saturday, December 15th was my 38th birthday. I don't feel 38 at all. In fact the term "almost 40" just doesn't feel like it relates to me at all. And I mean that in a good way. I still feel mentally like I'm in my late 20s early 30s. Maybe it's because I'm surrounded by young adults all day. Or maybe it's because I was in school and out of the "real world" for so long. I don't know. Age is just a number and you are what you feel and all that good stuff.
Anyway, here's the best part. Ethan worked so hard to make my birthday special and everything went off without a hitch. I have a great, sneaky husband:) The first thing he did was that he bought me a PDA for my birthday, but he had it sent to a friends' house so that I didn't know about it. We had talked about PDAs early last year, but then we never brought them up again. Since I work on two different campuses it's hard for me know when to schedule meetings. My calendar is on Outlook and it's only on my office computer while most of my meetings take place at the other campus. So this way I will know when I am available, especially since the number of meetings I will be in next semester has just increased by a ton.
Secondly, Ethan secretly arranged for my best friend Daniel and his partner, Michael, to come out from Manhattan. Ethan made a big deal about how we had to leave the house by 11:15 to go out for Thai food for lunch. I knew that something was up, but not exactly what. Then we turned left instead of right on the way to the restaurant. We ended up at the train station where we met Danny and Michael. Best birthday gift ever! I never get to see Danny enough, and I hadn't seen Michael since I interviewed for my job in May of '06. Although their presence was by far enough, Danny also brought me a book that he bought in London. It's all about the making of Joy Division's first album. It should be very interesting.
Dermot also gave me what I asked for. I told Dermot that all I wanted from him for my birthday was for him to follow directions. He was a little shaky in the morning. I think that he was jealous that it wasn't his birthday, but I told him that he could share mine. Then things got better. He was actually wonderful at the restaurant. I was really very proud of him. Michael even commented on how good Dermot was for being one three year old among 4 adults at a Thai restaurant. I also told Dermot that I wanted lots of kisses and hugs and he kept that part of the deal too. What a sweet kid.
Now that I have finished all of my online course finals stuff, I am off to wrap Dermot's Christmas presents. That's what prep days are for in the life of a working mom.
In weight news. I am one pound away from losing all of the weight I put on from that damn Zoloft. I've lost 39 pounds and not a single person (other than Ethan) has said a thing about it. I actually finally went out and bought clothes the next size down. Yeah for me. I'm also just at the point where some of my bigger clothes actually hang on me and make me look even bigger. I can't wear some of the largest stuff I had. Wow. I forgot how weird it was to outgrow clothes going down instead of going up.
December 20, 2007
December 11, 2007
Nothing
Hello. I feel like I have nothing to say right now, but hello. This is the last week before finals week and I am busy, busy, busy. I have had to write 5 final exams. I have been busy finishing up committee work and I have a lot of grading ahead of me. It times like this when I feel that I should take the easy way out and only give multiple choice tests. But no, I'm the idiot who makes all of my students write. Which is a great idea until I have to grade all of it:)
Anyway, enough about work. It's my mind way too much these days. Let's talk about Santa instead. 'Tis the season and all of that. Dermot told Ethan today that one of his teachers told him that Santa wasn't going to bring him any presents because he was bad. Granted, Dermot was bad, but we've stressed to him that he's getting presents no matter what. We buy the presents because we love him. Santa is made up. He's not getting the Santa as myth thing, but he's certainly getting the idea that he's getting gifts no matter what. The worse part is that this is the second teacher who told him that. WTF? This is MY kid. Don't you threaten him with your beliefs. What makes me more angry is that I taught Early Childhood Education for 3 years at Iowa State. I consistently stressed, as did my colleagues, the idea that you can't have culturally biased treatment of kids. For all they know we celebrate Hanukkah. There's no reason to assume that buy into Santa or celebrate Christmas. I would have failed these people and they do have B.S.s in Early Childhood. They should know better.
In happier news, Dermot is really getting into the spirit this Christmas. He's been watching old Christmas specials and falling in love. It started with the original Rudolph move with the misfit toys. He's already got Rudolph and Bumbles. Santa and Boss Elf are on their way later this week. He even plays with them. Quite often he wants action figures and then they just sit in box. These he's really using. Then we saw the original Frosty last Friday and he loved that. We recorded it and he has asked to see it again. I also recorded the year without a santa clause, because it's my favorite, but I haven't been able to convince him to see it yet. I just know he'll fall in love with heat miser like his mom did. The miser brothers are just so freaking cool.
Well off to teach. My work is apparently never done!
Anyway, enough about work. It's my mind way too much these days. Let's talk about Santa instead. 'Tis the season and all of that. Dermot told Ethan today that one of his teachers told him that Santa wasn't going to bring him any presents because he was bad. Granted, Dermot was bad, but we've stressed to him that he's getting presents no matter what. We buy the presents because we love him. Santa is made up. He's not getting the Santa as myth thing, but he's certainly getting the idea that he's getting gifts no matter what. The worse part is that this is the second teacher who told him that. WTF? This is MY kid. Don't you threaten him with your beliefs. What makes me more angry is that I taught Early Childhood Education for 3 years at Iowa State. I consistently stressed, as did my colleagues, the idea that you can't have culturally biased treatment of kids. For all they know we celebrate Hanukkah. There's no reason to assume that buy into Santa or celebrate Christmas. I would have failed these people and they do have B.S.s in Early Childhood. They should know better.
In happier news, Dermot is really getting into the spirit this Christmas. He's been watching old Christmas specials and falling in love. It started with the original Rudolph move with the misfit toys. He's already got Rudolph and Bumbles. Santa and Boss Elf are on their way later this week. He even plays with them. Quite often he wants action figures and then they just sit in box. These he's really using. Then we saw the original Frosty last Friday and he loved that. We recorded it and he has asked to see it again. I also recorded the year without a santa clause, because it's my favorite, but I haven't been able to convince him to see it yet. I just know he'll fall in love with heat miser like his mom did. The miser brothers are just so freaking cool.
Well off to teach. My work is apparently never done!
December 03, 2007
Love Fest
I have been meaning to blog about this for a while, but something else kept getting in the way or seemed more important to get into text. My little boy is turning into the biggest little love bug. Ethan and I have always been very verbal towards Dermot about how much we love. I probably say it a million times a day, and I say it in many different ways.
I love you my little monkey
You're the best
You're so cute I just want to eat you
Come here little sweetie
Etc.
Well Dermot has picked up on all of this and now he gives it back to us. He tells me that I'm pretty, that a cutie, that I'm a sweetie. He will hug me and yell how much he loves me. He's completely giving with the love.
The funny part of it is that for 3 years I beat myself up. Dermot was a source of such personal pain (all self-induced). I beat myself up for having a C-section, I beat myself up for having him on half mama's milk and half formula for 3 months. Then I beat myself up because I put him in daycare. Then I wasn't a good enough mother for whatever reason I chose to beat myself up with. I know that I'm not alone. Many of us do this. What I didn't expect is that Dermot himself would be the one who changed all of that. I never thought that this child would turn out to be a source of my own self-esteem. I figured that I would always be "not good enough". But when he says these incredibly sweet things to me, I find myself believing them. He's the most amazing child.
I also wanted to let everyone know that Dermot seems to have finally gotten a lot of things "together" for lack of a better word. For months this kids has been a total nut case on weekends. He wouldn't follow directions, he was aggressive, you name it. But for the last 6-8 weeks, he's been really good. Like really good. Of course, yesterday he took some steps backward, but I think it was the weather and being cooped up after the snow. Typically, he's a real fun who only occasionally needs some correction. So, based on my case study (sample of one) kids are nuts and drive you nuts until they are almost 4.
In other, psychological news, Dermot told me that he wants to marry me. It was the funniest thing I have heard in a long time. To make it better, I had just taught about Freud's phallic stage (ages 3-6) and the Oedipal complex last week in all three of my intro classes. What great timing.
Onto food news. This weekend I made split pea soup. I had been craving it and it was so good. In fact, I have some for lunch today. YUM. I used a recipe from a cook book, but basically it's just split peas, water, diced potato, diced carrot, diced sweet potato (which was new to me an worked wonderfully), and spices.
In regards to Nicole's comment about chopping veggies. Yes, we do spend a lot of time chopping veggies, but I can do it in between other things. That or sometimes I'll do some and then Ethan will do some. You can buy frozen stuff, but I just don't like it. We've gotten to the point where I don't really think about atypical it is that we chop up fresh veggies for a lot of our meals. Once you get used to it, that's just the way you do it. Plus, I don't have to worry about defrosting meat or cleaning it or cutting it up, either. I only have the veggies to worry about.
I love you my little monkey
You're the best
You're so cute I just want to eat you
Come here little sweetie
Etc.
Well Dermot has picked up on all of this and now he gives it back to us. He tells me that I'm pretty, that a cutie, that I'm a sweetie. He will hug me and yell how much he loves me. He's completely giving with the love.
The funny part of it is that for 3 years I beat myself up. Dermot was a source of such personal pain (all self-induced). I beat myself up for having a C-section, I beat myself up for having him on half mama's milk and half formula for 3 months. Then I beat myself up because I put him in daycare. Then I wasn't a good enough mother for whatever reason I chose to beat myself up with. I know that I'm not alone. Many of us do this. What I didn't expect is that Dermot himself would be the one who changed all of that. I never thought that this child would turn out to be a source of my own self-esteem. I figured that I would always be "not good enough". But when he says these incredibly sweet things to me, I find myself believing them. He's the most amazing child.
I also wanted to let everyone know that Dermot seems to have finally gotten a lot of things "together" for lack of a better word. For months this kids has been a total nut case on weekends. He wouldn't follow directions, he was aggressive, you name it. But for the last 6-8 weeks, he's been really good. Like really good. Of course, yesterday he took some steps backward, but I think it was the weather and being cooped up after the snow. Typically, he's a real fun who only occasionally needs some correction. So, based on my case study (sample of one) kids are nuts and drive you nuts until they are almost 4.
In other, psychological news, Dermot told me that he wants to marry me. It was the funniest thing I have heard in a long time. To make it better, I had just taught about Freud's phallic stage (ages 3-6) and the Oedipal complex last week in all three of my intro classes. What great timing.
Onto food news. This weekend I made split pea soup. I had been craving it and it was so good. In fact, I have some for lunch today. YUM. I used a recipe from a cook book, but basically it's just split peas, water, diced potato, diced carrot, diced sweet potato (which was new to me an worked wonderfully), and spices.
In regards to Nicole's comment about chopping veggies. Yes, we do spend a lot of time chopping veggies, but I can do it in between other things. That or sometimes I'll do some and then Ethan will do some. You can buy frozen stuff, but I just don't like it. We've gotten to the point where I don't really think about atypical it is that we chop up fresh veggies for a lot of our meals. Once you get used to it, that's just the way you do it. Plus, I don't have to worry about defrosting meat or cleaning it or cutting it up, either. I only have the veggies to worry about.
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