Preludes And Nocturnes

So we head over to hell-mart as they seem to be the only place in town with the puppy-backpack-harness thingy.  Oh yes, I put my child in a harness.  He is getting a little too quick these days and seems to have no issues with The Road or The Cars.  Still crawling, but crawling like a freaken pro!

We walk in and the greeter comments that he must have JUST had a nap since he was so smiley.  Er, he is a smiley kid!  And, in fact, ready for his next nap but still smiling!

Then went we got up to the front with the puppy backpack thingy I had to take it from him as he had been holding it, hugging it, and giving it cuddles throughout the store. The cashier scans it and hands it back with this crazed urgency saying, ” here, before the screaming starts!”  And she was very serious.  Malcolm, on the other hand, was just chillin trying to figure out how to reach the zipper on my purse.

This seems to happen all the time. People comment on how happy he is, how much he smiles, his giggles… conclusion - my kid is awesome.

And for your random pleasure, please go check out this amazon item and the reviews. Sweet jesus, too funny!

Birthday cake (er, non sugar cake, that is. Yes, we’re weirdos)

Presents!

Check out all the crazy awesomeness I got for my birthday!  Above you will see bazzil inks, a new rotary blade, a huge book of bird inspired paper, a beautiful ideas book for my new collages I’m doing, FOUR packs of stamps plus a single, beads, envelopes of all different colours (large), three more packs of paper, and too much excitement for me to explain.  Once I get the yard under control - I am crafting!!

Malcolm and I went to Nakusp with my mom on Saturday morning as my great aunt and uncle were having their 50th wedding anniversary, so there were all sorts of family in town.  The three of us had a wonderful time. The car ride, the ferry ride, the hotel room with lots of toilet paper and cabinets!  We had a great dinner, Malcolm crawled all around, we got to visit with family.

We got back home this afternoon, and Jim had mother’s day presents for me from him and Malcolm.  I got Heroes season 1 and 2, a book on House and Philosophy, and an ELLE magazine. Perfect!!!  I then got to take my Mother’s Day nap (I read for 30 min, slept for 2.5hrs), and then got up for a great dinner that Jim made - burgers and homemade fries.  Malcolm headed off to bed and Jim and I watched The Amazing Race with some cake and ice cream.

Oh yes, and Jim had cleaned the house for when I arrived home so I wouldn’t need to.  How amazing!!!  Here are pictures from the trip

Malcolm is getting ready to head out in the car!

Oh the ferry with Grandma!  It is bright and beautiful out there!

Oh, this is the best hotel room ever! Look at all these cabinets!!Mom and grandma are getting ready for the dinner, I’m securing the premise.  We had lots of fun at the party, but mom left her camera behind.

Grandma brought me home when I started to get tired of the big people. We walked along the beach and got some foods. Mom came back after the dinner part of the night, and grandma went to have more visit time. Mom and I played in the room. And, might I add, the toilet paper wasn’t clicked in all the way so I could pull it off. And I sat here for 15 mintues tearing off little tiny pieces. And then more pieces. And then some more!

Here’s my bed set-up. I’m right next to mom’s bed and singing her a song!

And the next morning I woke up in a wonderful mood. Off to great-great aunt Doreen’s for breakfast and then the trip home!

Okay, that is all from the trip - but here are some pics of me with my mom on her first mother’s day!

Finished marking the last paper at 10:15pm last night.  I have one week until they write their grammar exam- why oh why did I think that was a good idea?  But, until then all I have to do is prep up their grammar review classes.  I’m going to do them on power point and I really like the idea of finally having a comprehensive grammar review that I can use going forward. All my other grammar stuff is on overheads and in bits and pieces in different fonts, etc, as I made them up over the past nine years.

Yep, I’ve been teaching this class for nine years!  Different institutions and with some breaks in the teaching, but my first uni class I taught was Septebmer 2000. I will point out that I had actually typed eight years and as I wrote sept 2000 I did the math again and just went and changed the 8 to 9.  Counting years gets confusing sometimes when it starts with zero.  Or something. And I’m always like, ‘do I count the year to year or do I count once it is done?’  Whatever. You get the gist.

Too busy.  Too crazy. But this weekend I might get some time to craft and paint.  Jim will be writing all weekend as he has a deadline on Monday for some chapters (he’s contributing to a text book), so I’ll be on beeb duty.  Okay, it is after 7am and I have to scarf down my breakfast and get to work!

New hairdo (excuse the bags under my eyes - Malcolm and I had been up that night at 12:30 and then from 3am-6am) I had under three hours sleep. But, my hair looked great:

Oh mom, you are zageratin!

No. No I’m not.

Part of our anniversary day, today, was going to Toys R Us and getting some stuff for Malcolm.  He has just turned 10 months and we kinda haven’t bought him any toys yet.

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t keep him locked in the basement or anything. We were given a few things for shower gifts, we’ve bought him a jumperoo, and he got a few toys for Christmas. We also have gotten some very nice hand-me-down toys from friends.  So all in all he has things to play with, but I’ve kept the bulk down. We don’t have tonnes of space and I am not big on overloading on toys.

But past few weeks he is playing more.  And he seems bored with his more “baby” toys.  It just seemed he was ready for something new.

So up until now he has had mostly soft toys, some rattles/chew toys (we like that Sassy brand), Tiny Love, and then I gave him one of our phones and remote controls with the batteries taken out (he loves electronics). He has had a playmat, jumperoo, and ‘exersaucer/car’. So just enough random toys/stuffies to fill a medium sized tote.  Oh, and tonnes of books plus his bath tub toys.

So we spent about two hours in the store figuring out what would make him happy - what starts to bridge the time between baby and full on toddler.  So very exciting, today we got him some bigger boy toys.  We got the Little People Airport for his birthday, the Fisher Price Crawl and Cruise Musical Jungle, Bruin Xylo Pounder, sand shovel/rake/bucket, and a baseball (yeah, Jim insisted on that one..).  Best part, all items were on for 50% off!!  Yay!

One with noise, one without, one he makes noise on it, one for the beach… We’re feeling like this is a good start.

So colour me stupid, but I hadn’t really thought about needing to buy new toys yet. At times he seems like such little kid now… but can still be distracted by getting his sock off and into his mouth for 25 minutes at at time and can’t purposefully use a spoon or sippy cup. It confuses me. I never realised these levels of baby and what they might like at different stages.  And I had never really considered the levels of toys.  I just though “toys are toys”.

Yes, yes I *am* new.

So we’ll see tomorrow if he is all excited to play with the new things, or if he just leans over to lick the items once and then crawl off to find the kitty litter again.  His latest favorite toy…

*sigh*

Dear Diary,

Gah, school is hard! I don’t have classes today- but I still have all this homework! Why do students do this to me? Don’t they understand that I have a social life? They keep handing in these papers and wanting them returned - and now I have to make up that exam and the print shop says I must have it to them TWO WEEKS in advance to get it ready in time. NO WAY! *sigh*

So I was going to get to work right away this morning, but this new guy I’m hanging out with - Malcolm - he wanted to go to the mall. We had a blast hanging out, looking at books (he found one that doesn’t get soggy when he chews on it), and I *totally* blew my allowance. I got yams, frozen fruit, formula, lemon juice, feta cheese - so much stuff!! I had bags and bags when I got home!!

But I don’t know. Malcolm was really different later this morning. He was moody and kept yelling at me. Then he stuck his finger up my nose and pulled my hair. He said he wasn’t tired, but then he totally passed out upstairs.

I don’t understand boys.

Okay diary, talk to you later!

Oh well, at least he likes to vacuum!

Malcolm will be ten months next week! Ten whole months old!   We did his check up at the doctor - he is 22lbs 2oz and 29 inches long.  Oh, and he now hates the doctor.  Total freak out and acting like the man kept pinching him or something.  Poor bub.But he recovered quickly, and was soon happy to just sit and chew on the tonque stick thingy.

These days he quite enjoys ‘crawling’ around the house, but he can only move backwards so his life really consists of constantly moving away from whatever it is he wants at that moment.  Usually, though, backing into something else well worth exploring.  Like the cat food.  Or the cat. But he will also push himself backwards under the couch or loveseat and then get stuck. Cue frustrated screaming from baby.

I just finished reading the first book - Twilight.  Will reserve comment until I read the next one. But it says something that I’m reading the next one, right?

I have 69 essays sitting next to me here in a large box, waiting to be marked. Half were handed in Monday, the rest were handed in on Wednesday.  I set a goal of marking ten per day.  Then I asked if I could just get 5 done per day. I have, actually, marked 7 so far.  Oh yeah, lets see how well that pace is going to serve me… but Mr. Malcolm has been rather high-needs the past few days (doctor said today his throat was red and irritated indicating a cold coming on) and sleep has been minimal.

I have gone to the gym four times since last Saturday.  I’m working out like a crazy lady! Whoo!  Once for the treadmill, once for Zumba class, and twice for Centergy.  Zumba is so much fun - latin dance and lots of shaking of booty going on - and Centergy combines yoga and pilates into something that kicks my ass hardcore. If anyone wants some fun classes to go to, they should really see if these are in their area. I get so much more than when I work out on my own.  And times go quickly

I end, as usual, with cute pictures of mr beebers.  Thanks for the comments guys, even when you just wave and say hi - I love reading that you were here (as I’ve lost my tracker thing that tells me about the lurkers).  Yeah, I have a whole lot of things on my to do list. And I still want a whole new design here…

One day!

Oh, hai mom. You see, there was this evil blueberry. Yep.  Evil!

I can crawl anywhere!  What do you mean I might not want to keep on this path?! Crazy lady, I’m in control!!

Yeah, well. Okay. This might not be what I want. And the orange cat is trying not to smirk at me.

It is going okay. But I think we don’t really REALLY qualify as we’re kinda just hitting one full-time job between the two of us (outside job) and then sharing the one full-time job at home together.  I like having a clear reason to put on pants three days a week. I like my classes. I like seeing people at work again. But I miss the boys when I’m out.

It is nice, though, to get greeted on those three days when I return home.  Malcolm does his happy feet boom boom boom and flaps his arms.  There is sometimes also a squee noise (I don’t think that one is Jim).

Classes have pretty much settled into place. I teach one after the other and that is fairly effective. I try to get most of my prep done at school, but then spend a few evenings a week working at home.  I’m doing something new this term. Two of the three major papers for the class are being written in-class.  The first is at the end of this month and we’ll have one class to write, one class I’ll hand the papers back out to be peer edited by someone else in the room, and the final class that week to re-write.  This means they’ll will have to produce the whole body of work right then and there - but they still get the time to edit and think about things at home.

I hope this helps avoid some of the sloppy plagiarism issues of the past. Times that were not cut and dry - but when students could not resist getting a bit too much help from Mr. Internet (or their “tutor”).  Their final research paper is being completed in the final exam time period.  They will be able to bring in a detailed outline and ten pages of photocopied research (directly from books or articles). They will have to write the actual paper in three hours and everything is handed in at the end.

I will let you all know how this goes. I’m hopeful.

And here is some beebers for you all:

And here is everyone hanging out while I put away Malcolm’s clothes in his room (you know, the room he doesn’t sleep in yet but that is all set up with all his stuff…) The Bears have decided that since Malcolm isn’t yet using his crib, they would keep it warm for him until he switches into that room. Rupert just thinks every bed is his.

Malcolm thought this all was too much fun!

Ruper says, “not as much fun as a BAG in a PAN on the COUNTER!”

021.MOV

Movie link above. I would love to figure out how to embed video on here.. but I’m pretty happy I’ve figured out how to make my camera take video to begin with, ya know!

Malcolm now puts his hand on the mouse when we’re sitting together at the computer.  He can use the touch pad like crazy - for example he just somehow opened a new window as I was typing that.

He’s like rupert the can - technolgy I dfon’t even know how to do., AND HOW HE’S HELPING ME TYPE TOO                                 NBBBBBB                                                                          U U

Malcolm took a whole two 30 minute naps today.  Yep.  My son doesn’t believe in naps. Naps are for WEAK babies!

ANd I have a feeling he is going to just skip crawling and go right to walking.  Of course, neither too soon despite people asking Jim and I if he were walking yet.  At five months…

Malcolm has refused to sleep in his crib for naps today.  He has maxed out at 25 minutes and then wakens. He got so tired.. but no go.

We went out to meet the book rep for my January courses textbooks and he was super cute. Got home, 12 minute nap in his crib. He gets up and is soooo tired.

So finally I just put him in his jumperoo.  He has been asleep in it for the past 45 minutes.  I fear someone looking in the window and seeing him sleeping there and me on my computer - BAD MOMMY!  But he needs a sleep and he refuses to do it anywhere else!

And some other random pictures:

In other news, I am totally TOTALLY craving kraft dinner.  Arrrhhh!  I think I’ll make some homemade mac and cheese.  And I’ll do a post about different templates next, that one woman has so many awesome templates!  Whoo!