And the numbers are in . . .

(And no, I'm not talking about the NCAA basketball tournament. You don't think I actually follow that, do you?). Andrew had his 15 month doctor's appointment today. Apparently, the boy is going through some sort of growth-spurt! About three weeks or so ago, we had to take Andrew to the doctor's because of stomach flu issues, and he weighed in at 24 lbs 10 oz. Today, he weighed in at 26 lbs 9 oz--clearly, he has been making up for lost time. He's also grown two inches since his appointment in January, as he is now 33 inches (for the record, that means he is also more than half my height!), and his head circumference is 49.4 cm. This puts him in the 95th percentile for height and head circumference, and the 75th percentile for weight. The doctor pronounced him to be in excellent health.

On an unrelated note, I had an almost embarassing moment this morning. Dan told me that our landlady had called on Friday to say that she would be bringing some people by to view our apartment today, although she hadn't said what time. I assumed sometime in the afternoon. So this morning, when Andrew went down for his nap, I decided to take one too (I don't usually do this, but I was feeling pretty exhausted). Anyway, I woke up around 10 a.m. and could hear Andrew stirring in his room. I got up and opened the bedroom door into the hallway--into the surprised faces of our landlady and a couple she was showing around our apartment! Imagine what would have happened if they had been only a minute or two sooner . . .

On conferences and chaos

This past week has been busy and just a little chaotic. On Wednesday, I left the bucolic splendor of State College for the urban delights of New York City and the annual meeting of composition scholars that is the 4Cs (Conference of College Composition and Communication--although the last C in the title has been more or less irrelevant for several decades now). My graduate advisor was the conference chair, which meant that she's been more than usually busy for the last few months. I actually enjoyed the conference--some of the panels I attended were quite interesting and helped me think a little more about my dissertation project. Other panels, on the other hand, were less worthy of the time I spent there--I can't understand why so many scholars (some of them quite well respected) seem constitutionally incapable of limiting their remarks to the time given them, or to articulate a clear point in a twenty-minute paper. Anyway, most of you are probably less than interested in further diatribes on this particular topic, so I'll desist. My own presentation was Thursday morning after opening remarks--we had a pretty small crowd (most of whom knew at least one of the presenters; Keith Gibson, for those of you at Penn State who remember him, was in the audience. It was fun to see him again), but we had a good discussion after the panel. (Following which, I got sucked into the energetic wake of one of my professors and found myself one of two lone grad students at a moderately expensive Italian restaurant for lunch. Luckily, I had a baby-sitting gig--yes, babysitting [one of our professors and his wife have 10 month-old twins--and they were on the same panel, so they needed some help]--that afternoon that paid for my lunch!)

I also enjoyed wandering around downtown New York between some of the sessions (my roommate, Catherine Pavia, and I decided to ditch the conference on Saturday morning and spent the time wandering through New York's fashion district and up 5th Avenue, looking at shops). Friday evening, I went with Catherine and a handful of PSU grad students to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), which was free at the time. I'm not a big fan of modern art, but they had several nice pieces, including Van Gogh's Starry Night, Andy Warhol's Campbell Soup Cans, some Roy Lichtenstein pieces, and, my personal favorite, Andrew Wyeth's, Christina's World. We also found time to go to several nice restaurants--Wednesday night I went with a group of grad students to a Cuban restaurant; Thursday night we found ourselves at a Mexican restaurant (coincidentally right next door to the Cuban restaurant from the night before); and Friday night we had some wonderful Indian food. The last probably constituted one of the highlights from the visit for me: not only was the food good, but the company was excellent (two of my good friends from the program, Matt Newcomb and Cory Holding--the same two people that I spent most of the time with during my campus visit to Penn State six years ago).

Here's a picture of me in New York--the only picture I took the whole time I was there! I'm not a big fan of pictures of myself, and the older I get, the less interested I am in taking pictures of buildings and other inanimate objects.



I'm sorry if this blog seems to be all about me! But for the first time since Andrew was born, my life didn't significantly intertwine with Dan and Andrew's. Dan stayed behind in State College and watched Andrew, who didn't seem to mind my absence much (aside from deciding that 5 am was his new wakeup time). I don't think they did a whole lot, since there's not much to do when you're homebound with a toddler. At any rate, Dan's not around to give me his input, as he left this afternoon for a conference in Chicago (for those of you keeping score, we had less than 24 hours together before he had to leave!)

Of course, we also have the obligatory pictures of Andrew. Here, he's getting the worse of his horsey ride (he's finally figuring out how to get on and off by himself, but the dismount isn't always too smooth!)



We think that Andrew's hair is developing a little curl. I'm not sure how clearly you can see it in this picture, but he's developing a funny little ducktail right at the nape of his neck.


Finally, a picture of Andrew "puzzling" (which mostly means he takes the puzzles apart. He hasn't progressed to actually putting the pieces back together).


Andrew was officially 15 months old yesterday. I take him to the doctor for his check up tomorrow, so we'll find out how his recent spate of milk guzzling has affected his weigh! (Dan told me that he figures Andrew drinks around 40 oz of milk a day! No wonder we're going through milk like there's no tomorrow--I thought that stage was still at least a dozen years away . . .)

Snow Angels

In true Pennsylvana/New England fashion, this week dawned with elusive promises of spring. Last Sunday, when Dan and I took Andrew for a Sunday afternoon walk, we spotted crocuses beginning to bloom. The air was growing palpably warmer and that spring smell was in the air. By Tuesday, the temperatures had risen to 60+ degrees, and we took Andrew downtown to the library and then to a newly opened Italian ice place (not, alas, gelatto, but water ice, which will suffice). Not surprisingly, Andrew liked my chocolate chip mint custard blend better than Dan's rootbeer flavored water ice. (Give him a year or two, however, and I'm sure Dan will have taught him to appreciate rootbeer's distinctive taste). However, by Thursday the temperatures were beginning to chill, and Friday we had an official winter storm warning for our area. It then (as you may have guessed from our opening photo, or as you may already know if you a) live in Pennsylvania or b) follow the weather at all) proceeded to snow all day, leaving us with at least six inches of snow. Saturday morning, Dan was obliging enough to shovel off the walk before he went in to work. However, realizing that we needed to go grocery shopping (for one thing, Andrew's milk wouldn't last through Sunday--the kid is drinking about a quart of milk a day!), I decided to suit Andrew up in his snowsuit and take him outside while I shovelled off the car (literally) and shovelled out a path to the street. Andrew seemed to enjoy following me around--and he was so well padded that the few times he fell over didn't faze him. Andrew also made the obligatory snow angel for the sole purpose of recording it in photo (last time I wrote about making snow angels with Andrew, someone lamented that we didn't have pictures). Of course, what this really meant was that I picked him up, laid him in the snow and moved his arms around (he's not terribly mobile in the snow suit) while he looked at me in mild bemusement. At any rate, I hope this is our last major snowstorm of the season.

This week has also been one of culinary experiences. Earlier this week (Monday, I think), I made lasagna for probably the first time in my life. (I know--it's pathetic. I'm thirty years old and have never made lasagna before). Although I won't speak to my culinary abilities (we still have leftovers, which may say something about Dan's enjoyment of the lasagna!), Andrew seemed to enjoy it thoroughly. And I do mean thoroughly. In true child fashion, he managed to get it all over.



Wednesday night, I convinced Dan that we needed to celebrate his new job offer (see last post) by going to dinner (really, I was looking for an excuse not to cook). Given the limited range of restaurants in State College, we opted for Olive Garden and quite enjoyed our experience. Andrew was actually pretty good. He ate lots of croutons, some bread and some tomato, and about a third of his portion of macaroni and cheese (which was more than I expected him to eat!). Friday night, Dan made chicken katsu, which Andrew and I also enjoyed. This allowed Andrew to experience a true epicurean moment--his first taste of bulldog sauce. We put a little bit on his chicken, and then, as an alternative to actually giving him the sauce bottle (which is what he really wanted), we put a little bit of straight sauce on his tray. He loved it. He kept dipping his finger in it and then sucking it off, as you can see in this picture. (We had to record this for his Bubby and Poppy, who we knew would appreciate it!). Today, in the spirit of Saint Patrick's Day (yes, we know it was really yesterday, but Dan was gone all afternoon and into the evening to Huntington), I made corned beef and cabbage. It was actually pretty good--but then, there's not much you can do to ruin something that you simmer for a couple of hours.



Aside from Dan's job and dealing with the snow, not much of note happened during the week. This was Penn State's spring break, which we celebrated by staying in town and working. Well, Dan worked. I watched Andrew and tried to work on some presentations (I have a conference next week in NYC and workshops after I get back). Oh, and I went shopping. (Of course. But since Dan doesn't think I need to bore other people with this detail, I'll stop there!). So we thought we'd fill up the rest of today's entry with, naturally, pictures of Andrew.

Believe it or not, he did this to himself!



He still continues to enjoy his hidey-hole box. Often, unprompted, he'll climb in and try to pull the "door" shut (his feet usually stick out too far for the box to actually close, but he tries anyway).



Here he is standing not on, but in his pooh boat. For some reason this particular pose (it may just be the binkie) reminds me of his cousin Joshua.


And these last two simply demonstrate what a fun, joyous little boy Andrew is. If you look closely at the first one you can even see the two teeth that are coming in on the bottom.

Growing up, Moving on

Two reasons for this midweek post. First, we forgot to note another of Andrew's milestones--he's getting more teeth! Two teeth are growing in to flank his two bottom teeth. He may be getting some molars, too, but that's harder to tell. Certainly, he's drooling like a fiend.

The second is a little more momentous for us. Dan got offered a postdoc yesterday, to work with Adam Woolley (alum of UC Berkeley and Harvard), in the BYU chemistry department. This means that there's a high likelihood that we will be heading to Provo this fall after Dan graduates. We're pretty excited--I'm excited that we have somewhere to go; Dan's excited because he's always wanted to do the kind of research Professor Woolley does. Andrew's just excited (and, more to the point, excitable).

Out @#%! Spot!

The imminent approach of the Ides of March inspired us with today's Machbethian title (after rejecting similarly inspired "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble," and "Beware the ides of March"). Really, though, what we're looking for is a good recipe for getting old vomit out of carpet. Andrew is finally feeling better, but in his wake, he's manged to leave smelly reminders of his illness all over the house. Of the five rooms in our house (three carpeted), he's managed to throw up in the front room, his room, the kitchen and the hallway (following a particularly memorable incident in which he ran away from me *while* he was puking!). We've purchased some Glade and some air freshener, but there's only so much cover-up can do! But we're grateful that Andrew's mostly back to normal (keeping food down, normal bowel movements, etc. And for the faint of heart, don't worry, we're not going into any more detail than that!)

This week has not been particularly exciting (isn't that the story of pretty much every week in our lives?) Dan and I didn't see much of each other until Thursday, as we spent the first couple days of the week trading Andrew back and forth--I worked in the writing center Monday night, Dan went to Huntington Tuesday night, Wednesday night I conducted a writing workshop on literature reviews . . . It was nice to finally catch up with one another! Friday night, Dan and I watched The Prestige, a rather fascinating movie starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale about two dueling magicians, who go to increasingly intricate lengths to outdo one another. The movie was pretty dark, but we enjoyed it. Saturday, not much happened. Andrew and I went shopping (I saved over $30 on our grocery bill by clipping coupons--I felt rather frugal!) and Dan went to work. Actually, Andrew has been doing his darnedest this week to curb my shopping proclivities: Friday afternoon, after romping at the YMCA in the open children's gym, we went to Target. As soon as we walked in the door, Andrew proceeded to fill his pants and then some . . . so we walked right out again. Saturday, during the brief 45 minutes that we were at the mall, Andrew managed to fill his pants twice. The first time I hauled him to a changing table in the restroom (where two pre-teens came in while I was changing him and one whispered to her friend, "I've never actually seen someone changing a baby in the restroom before!"). The second time I figured that was our cue: we were done for the day.

At least, if the daily events of our life are somewhat lackluster, Andrew continues to make us laugh with his funny faces and antics. Although he's had his "boat" since Christmas, this week he finally figured out that it does more than make noise--he can actually ride on it!



Not quite sure what he's doing here, but the plastic-man face makes me laugh.



Andrew, the escapee, on one of his brief forays into the forbidden territory of our room. Here, he was rifling through Dan's sock drawer. It's a good thing he's so easily entertained.


We cut an opening in one of the larger boxes for Andrew to climb in; he was pretty excited by his new hidey hole.



We're entering into Spring Break, which means campus will be mostly deserted and we will be working hard . . . this week promises to be almost as exciting as the last! Be sure to stay posted . . .

More of the same

This week has been a fairly typical one (well, aside from the last day or two, but we'll get to that). We've been busy with school and with Andrew, and, since it was the end of the month, we've been busy with visiting and home teaching as well! Tuesday night, while Dan was in Huntington playing wiffle ball with the young men, my visiting teaching companion and one of the women we visit (it was supposed to be both of the women we visit, but one called off b/c of illness) came over for ice cream. We had a fun visit--spent a lot of time talking about heart conditions, as my visiting teachee's little boy has some heart conditions, and they go to the same heart clinic we've been to with Andrew. It was also nice because their impending arrival prompted me to clean the house more thoroughly than it's been cleaned in a little while!

Wednesday night our home teacher (his companion worked too late the night before and was exhausted) came over. After he left, we put Andrew to bed, ate a quick dinner, and then I went to a rhetoric reading group. It was actually pretty enjoyable--I haven't been social with my department in a while and I thought it behooved me to remind people that I am still here. I was also struck with a sudden realization of my seniority (not that kind of seniority, Justin!)--I've now been at Penn State as long or longer than all the other grad students who were there that night (with one exception), which means I'm now in the position of all those smart students who used to intimidate me so much! That doesn't necessarily mean I make any claims to smartness, only that I'm no longer so intimidated, and I actually made some comments on the readings, instead of just listening as I used to do. It was kind of nice to realize that I actually have made progress while I've been here. While I was at the reading group, Dan did some of his hometeaching. No, this doesn't mean that we left Andrew home alone. The original plan was that Dan and his companion (Michael) would leave when I got home, but apparently they didn't want to wait that long, so his companion's wife, Kelli, came over and sat in our living room and read (they only live a few houses down from us, so it was no real hardship).

Friday was also fairly eventful. After a persistent stomachache that had lasted most of the previous night and into Friday morning, I called the doctor. After waiting forty minutes for my 8:40 appointment (what kind of doctor is already forty minutes behind when she's only been at the clinic for forty minutes? There were three students, including me, waiting for her by the time she saw me--and one of the nurses had stopped by, somewhat concerned-looking, to check how many files were waiting in the doctor's box), the doctor gave me some mixed news. The good news: it wasn't serious. The bad news: it was probably a GI bug that was going around. Normally, this wouldn't be too horrible--unpleasant, but not too worrisome. However, I was supposed to be giving a workshop (with 66 students registered) that afternoon and I entertained somewhat terrifying visions of me sprinting for the restroom midworkshop while the students look on in wonder. At least the doctor's advice proved helpful: no solids for at least six hours, bland foods after that. I made it through the workshop without any problems.

After I got home, Dan headed back up to campus for what he thought might be a late night at a poster session for new departmental recruits (even though their lab isn't recruiting this year--Andy's going to Sweden--Andy still wanted their lab to have a presence). However, fate was with him; after an hour or so, Andy told him he could go home. So we had a rousing evening--Dan watched TV while I worked on a conference paper.

Saturday Dan actually had a successful run of his experiment (since having an experiment go through several runs successfully is something of the chemical equivalent of all the stars aligning, this seems worthy of mention--Dan says this project is actually more of an art form than a chemical experiment). Meanwhile, I dragged Andrew all over the mall in search of bargains, and found some too! (Dan won't let me go into detail, he says he wants to have that pleasure all to himself.)

Today, of course, as it was Sunday, we drove down to Huntington for church. The entire stake presidency was there, which, as it was fast Sunday rather than branch conference, suggested that something was up. Shortly thereafter, this suspicion was confirmed as they released the branch presidency and called a new one--the new branch president has only been in the branch a couple months longer than we have, so I imagine he feels just a little overwhelmed. After church, the branch had another Souper Sunday (where members bring soup and bread for lunch), so we stayed for that. Dan contributed his would-be famous cornbread. I say "would-be" because it would indeed be famous if it wasn't for me--I was supposed to remember to buy cornmeal yesterday, but I remembered everything on my list except that. So, I got out of the shower this morning to find Dan waiting for me expectantly. "Where did you put the cornmeal?" asks my trusting spouse, fully confident that I had, actually, remembered this detail. He'd already mixed the rest of the recipe--it was just waiting for this final ingredient. Then, of course, I remembered. Since we had no cornmeal in the house, we opted for a box of Jiffy cornbread muffins. Surprisingly enough, the result wasn't too bad. In fact, they turned out well enough that the former branch president's wife asked for the recipe!

We left the branch feast early, however, because Andrew was acting antsy and refused to eat anything. We thought he was merely tired, but when we got home and gave him his bottle, he puked all over himself, me, the rocking chair . . . Poor kid. He was also running a low fever, which seems to confirm that he probably caught the GI bug that I (maybe) had. We put him to bed an hour early, and he went right to sleep. And so, we hope, end our adventures for the week.

As usual, we also have a few pictures for our Andrew fans. Since Andrew seems to delight in sitting underneath out TV stand in his own little cubby-hole, I thought he might like a tent, as well, so I draped a blanket from the TV stand over a couple of boxes and put his plush chair in the resulting tent. He seemed thrilled with it, although he wouldn't sit in the chair.


Andrew has also developed a bad habit of sneaking into our room whenever he gets the chance. The other day, I looked up from whatever I was doing to see him trucking down the hall, carrying something heavy in his arms. It wasn't until he got closer that I realized he had Dan's old set of scriptures, which he then proceeded to leaf through. He was quite proud of himself for finding the scriptures--unfortunately, I didn't get the camera quickly enough to capture his expression.



And, as usual, Andrew managed to find new ways of making messes. This week, he discovered how to pull the lid off the box where we keep old newspapers, with predictable results.