Update-tastic

I'm in Wisconsin until the 10th of January. Baby, husband and I are having a good time, but as usual there are just too many things that we've done, are doing, and will do in the next few days.

Some highlights in the past tense:

1. The flight here was... interesting. It was just Isaac and me (Shaun and Loki having flown back a week early), and the weather was not cooperating. For once, however, getting out of the village, and out of Bethel, was not even close to an issue. Clear skies and cold temperatures made for easy flying, although a recent ear infection for Isaac made me a bit nervous. In Anchorage, I was greeted by news that while my flight to Seattle was one of the few still not canceled, it was delayed by several hours, putting me on a VERY close connection schedule in Seattle. We waited. 300 people were waiting for 30 standby seats on our flight; apparently ours was the only Anchorage-Seattle flight that had flown in the past 24 hours due to bad Seattle weather and flight crews being over their hours or some such madness. Our flight boarded after several more delays. We reached a post-blustery Seattle, without further incident, approximately ten minutes after my flight had started boarding. I had to get to a different concourse; I didnt' even have time to put Isaac in his carrier. So through SEA-TAC airport I sprinted, baby under my arm like a football, infant snowsuit draped over the diaper bag, everyone pointing and laughing because Isaac is shrieking with laughter at this fun new game. We arrived just as they were about to close the door. I got on board (first class this time... hooray for mileage upgrades) just in time to... sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half while they de-iced us THREE times. Come to find out SEA-TAC airport ran out of de-icing fluid. I'm not surprised; that airplane was COATED in ice. After we finally took off, it was comfortable (if not well-appointed; they hadn't had time to stock the plane with first class edibles, but we were all so happy to be airborne, they could have fed us stale bread and water and we'd have rejoiced and asked for more) flight into Minneapolis-St. Paul, where I discovered that my luggage (a suitcase and Isaac's car seat) had not made the quick connection in Seattle. I really didn't care. The airline loaned us a car seat and home we went. Our luggage arrived just in time for Christmas via FedEx.
   
   So there you have it. We shouldn't have made it home as easily as we did. My frantic sprint through SEA-TAC was nothing compared to what most people who went through Seattle experienced. But apparently the virgin goat I sacrificed was just what the travel gods had a hankerin' for, because I was home on my originally-scheduled flight, albeit late and without luggage.
2. Grandparents have been loving on the baby. I have pictures, and will try to get 'em posted at some point
3. Everyone in the entire extended family except for Isaac and myself caught a nasty norovirus on Christmas Eve/Christmas. I credit breastfeeding for keeping Isaac from getting it too badly, but I'm not sure why I didn't get sick. It's possible that, as an elementary school teacher, I've already been exposed to this specific bug, or maybe I just have a gut of steel. Anyway, I had 12 hours of hardly-noticeable queasiness when everyone else in my family lost five pounds on the Pray to the Porcelain God diet. I also had a bunch of pickled herring on Christmas Eve... maybe that helped. Pickled herring for good health!
4. I visited Minneapolis, and got to see Katie (only briefly because she and her husband, thankfully not their baby, also got sick) and Chanda. Good times, as usual.

That's about it. Pictures to come, I hope. :D

From Bad to worse

28 (now 29) posts in 2008. And it's not like nothing blogworthy happened. I popped out a baby, for chrissake.

I guess raising a kid is just more important than blogging about him.

I should try harder, though. Really. But I'm not going to make it a New Year's resolution or anything.

Well, Then

It's been a while. Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the holidays are all up in our faces. The year has blown by. I think that, just like the pregnancy made last year go so quickly, school-wise, having a baby around to mark the passage of time is doing the same this year. Just a few updates:

• Ike is... crawling, pulling up, and (as of a few days ago) flushing the toilet. Cause and effect... "I push this shiny silver thing down, and it makes a noise!"
• Loki has taken well to his new human torturer. He'll allow himself to be crawled upon, grabbed at, and bitten, and when he's had enough, he just gets up and walks away.
• My classroom looks like twenty different construction paper art projects exploded in it, and it's not far from the literal truth. This time of year, it's best to stick to things that keep students' little hands busy.
• I'm trying to lose the pregnancy weight, and making modest progress. Slow and steady wins the race, eh?
• Isaac is eating food. He refuses anything offered to him on a spoon, so we're just giving him baby-sized portions (read: tiiiiiiiiiny and non-choke-able) and letting him self-feed. Not sure what I'm going to do with my ziploc bags full of homemade purees, though.

And with that, I leave you. Don't let the holidays stress you out.

The Fan Scan

My mother and middle sister are at the Packer game. We keep scanning the crowd shots for them, but no luck so far.

Good game to be at!

Geek Cute

That dear husband of mine spliced together a video documentary of "Baby's First Exercise in Democracy."

We may not remember to video his first steps, but his first trip to the polls... that's not to be missed.

WHEE!

"President-Elect Obama."

That sounds pretty.

Whoda Thunk It

I've always been convinced that elementary is the level I was meant to teach. I'm certified K-12, but my entire teaching career has been at the elementary level (and most of that in the primary grades).

This semester, however, due to budget cuts, schedule constraints, and one of the secondary teachers needing an extra prep period, I've been teaching one period of junior high reading.

Yes, that's right. Junior high. The redheaded stepchild of school leveling. That age that everyone wishes their kids would just skip over on their way to adulthood. Puberty at its finest. Attitude and laziness and sarcasm.

And I kind of enjoy it. Sick, huh?

In some ways, it's more difficult than teaching the wee ones. In others, it's easier. The workload kind of balances out. But I kind of enjoy the specific challenges that teaching those in-between ages presents. Maybe it's just the newness of it all, but I honestly find myself looking forward to seventh period. They're loud, hormone-y, and slightly awkward. I have to say things like, "Please don't fart and waft it intentionally at your neighbor." I have to answer questions like, "If number one is pee and number two is anaq (poop), what's number three?" I supervise boys and girls whose idea of coy flirtation is throwing mechanical pencils at each others' heads.

In a sick, sadistic kind of way, it's a lot of fun.

Yes, Yes, and Yes

I like what this guy has to say about Palin, Alaska, and where the two do and don't intersect. We're talking about a state that still lacks basic infrastructure in many places. A state where my husband (who is a highly intelligent and capable person, but has ZERO I.T. training) is a village's "guy who really knows computers, you should ask him." A state where thousands of women can't remain at home past the 36th week of their pregnancies because their communities lack sufficient health care facilities and professionals.

I get the "Alaskan Mystique." I really do. But the reality just doesn't match up with what Palin's trying to capitalize on.

In Case he Forgets who he Is...

I made the bracelet (in manly colors, of course) for him before he was born, but it was too big for him at birth. I just got around to putting it on him today at lunch!

I... No Words. I Have no Words

Pet Yarn Chic.

And then there are some finished products here.

I love knitting, I love my dog. But... no. No. No. No. A thousand times no. I guess I shouldn't judge, but no.

And the Money Kept Rolling In...

It's PFD Day, baby. At least for those of use who applied early and opted for direct deposit.

Cash.

Money.

Hos.

I really should post a picture of the baby or something. I know.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle my Pants

Isaac's pants, really. Made from an old sweater. It never quite fit me right.

It's wool (nice and soft), so it doubles as a diaper cover. It also has a killer cargo pocket on the leg... how lucky was I to have a pair of pants with a cargo pocket on the arm in just the right place?

Liar, Liar...

...Pants on Fire!



I made fleece shorties (they work like a diaper cover and also take the place of shorts, for those of you not in the know). It's just a first try, and I didn't have a pattern or anything, so they're less spectacular than they could be, but I learned a lot and think that they'll be better next time. I know I want to put another layer of fleece into the crotch region next time around, but it was fun to just bust out a pair during naptime. I'm working with fleece for now, wanting to perfect my pattern/method before finding some nice recycled wool to play with.

I'll put them on Isaac when he wakes up from his nap and hopefully post a pic of him wearing them at some point.

REALLY, REALLY, REALLY Random Non-Baby-Related Thought

I really, really, really get annoyed when people use unnecessary big words.

I pride myself on having a pretty decent vocabulary; I'm not annoyed because I don't understand you. You think you sound smart just because you use big words. NO. You sound smart if you have good ideas. There are no bonus points for extra syllables.

I'm speaking to a general "you," not to anyone specific. Well, someone specific, but it's not someone I actually know... just someone whose writing I happened to read.

And now back to our regularly scheduled mundane crap...

It Starts

Mobility, that is. Isaac rolled over today, front-to-back, on his adorable puppy blanket.

This kid is an animal. :D

We're not Laughing AT Him...

Well, yeah, we're laughing at him, but I don't feel too bad because (a) he's a dog, and (b) he was having a whole lot of fun.

My sister has two Weimaraners, named Cosmo and Wyatt. Like Loki, they both love swimming. Like Loki, Cosmo is quite skilled at it. Wyatt, on the other hand... well... he gets an A for effort, an A for enthusiasm, and we'll just leave the little "achievement" box blank because I can't give a failing grade to someone trying THIS hard.




(Edited to add: Kudos to Shaun for splicing the videos together, and for taking the video itself. No, there was no earthquake in Northern Wisconsin, the shaking was a result of cameraman laughing fits.)

Just cute, in a general kind of way

6-14-08 008_2
Originally uploaded by smacca

If I could just keep him naked all day long, he'd be ecstatic.

We're in serious trouble once he's old enough to remove his own diaper. I can totally see him being that two year-old who greets visitors wearing nothing but a smile.

The ONLY time he consistently puts up with just being put down is when naked, or at least bare-butt. Of course, while he's perfectly happy, he's also likely either peeing all over the place or preparing to pee all over the place.

But he's not crying, and pee is fairly easy to clean up.

He's Gonna be a Swimmer

Seriously, this kid LOVES the water... more so if the jets are on. We were in the tub for at least 30 minutes and he didn't so much as whimper until the very end, and he was sleepy and probably well beyond his attention span at that point. Yes, worrywarts, he was plenty warm... that's the nice thing about being in a grown-up sized tub: most of him can be underwater. This is the first full smile we've managed to catch on camera. I just put it in black-and-white for shits and giggles.

And no, it wasn't a bubble bath, just a regular bath. The water just got really bubbly for some reason.

Hah! Baby!

Well, he's four weeks old, and if poopy diapers are any indication of happiness, he's quite content.

He's also started smiling... pretty much only right after waking up from a long nap or first thing in the morning, but a smile is a smile. And don't give me any of that "it's just gas" crap. These are smiles. Full, open-mouthed, crinkly-eyed smiles. It melts the heart. We tried to catch a few on film (is the term "on film" really applicable to a digital camera?), but it's hard. We caught him almost-smiling a bunch of times. They come and go pretty quickly. I've included a few below for your baby-viewing pleasure. Please also witness (and be totally awed by) the quilt he's laying on. It was made for Isaac by Mary S., a long-time friend of my parents and someone I consider to be pretty darn close to family. The quilt is cool. Beyond cool, even. It rocks. Beyond rocks, even.

Side note: Ignore the funny-looking mother. Her presence, while not aesthetically pleasing, was necessary to coerce a smile out of the little guy.

Old News...

I know pretty much everyone knows this already, but I've had a good reason for not posting (as opposed to my usual laziness reason for not posting).

Isaac Vincent made his arrival on May 6th at 3:57pm. Weighed in at eight pounds, 2 ounces and was an even 20 inches long. Screamed like a banshee right away and pinked up quite nicely, to the point where he pretty much matched the pink on my sexy hospital gown.

Just looking at this picture... he's changed so much in just the past four days. Time to take some more pictures...