Sept. 8

This week flew!

James' work is picking up a little. He's working Tuesday evenings, and is helping out with a similar program on Saturdays. He was called on to translate this week and it was rough--new vocab, a touchy situation, etc etc. I'm sure he did great, but on Saturday night it was all we could do to get our teeth brushed and fall into bed. He's working on getting up to date on the program his boss uses, so is doing a bunch of research for them.

I had a sort of floppy week. We've all been a little sick (I think the baby caught something from his cousins who've just started school again), and I'm trying to work on my thesis but a) I'm letting it get to me and b) we need to pay tuition so all this week was this battle of should we/shouldn't we. We will, and it will be fine, but the ambiguity made working seem sort of useless...anyway. I found some really interested recent articles that set the stage really beautifully; I just need to write the thing.
Highlights: I did a dry run of pumpkin pasties for our Halloween party. I did curry and lime/garlic Mexican-y, and a traditional one. My favorite, though, was bacon and collared greens with a little molasses. Nom. Also this week: peach and watermelon salad w/key lime, mint, basil, sriracha, and queso fresco. Winner. I'm excited for fall, but it's cooled down enough to feel like proper summer, and I'm in the mood for stone fruit al fresco.

And the baby is doing his thing. He loves babbling dadada, and he hasn't quite realized that he's talking about his dad, but we're working on that. He's still scooting--not quite off his belly yet, and he has no sign of any other teeth. I'm almost convinced he won't get any more. He also got a haircut this week but, alas, it was my first cut and I was going of an only semi-helpful YouTube video...it looks fine with a little mousse? But like a little monk w/out it. I think I get credit for not cutting his ear off by accident. We're also trying to get him to use a stuffed animal instead of us/a bottle to comfort himself. He's taken to waking up screaming once or so a night and we hope that a little something will help him calm down. Right now we have a little longhorn (we're terrible Cougs) that he's starting to cuddle up to. It's adorable mostly.

And a story from the annals: James was loading Isaac into the CRV. It was just before we left Wisconsin, so Isaac was maybe 7 months. Anyway, Isaac was hanging out in the front seat for a sec while James was adjusting his car seat. James picked him up, strapped him into his seat and noticed that he had something in his mouth. J pulled on his chin, and out fell an inch-long socket, clunk, on the floor of the CRV. Of all the things to fall out of a baby's mouth...

Loves,
jki

Week of 9/1

Ok. Let's give this a try.

The hands-down highlight of this week: James took his national exam, and, though we won't get his score for 4 weeks (we're all appalled by this--I'm not certain the administrators know that computers are really good at this stuff), he felt good about it and has consistently gotten passing scores on practice exams. He worked so so hard studying, and it was admirable and awesome, but meant we had little time for anything else. But he's done! He also met with his new boss for the first time and attended a group session and is starting to get into the swing. I couldn't be happier--we've been working toward this for so long, it's nice to start to see the fruit.

I have been enjoying developing a routine. Like we run and plan every morning. I wash dishes as James puts Isaac down every night. It's exactly the blissful mundanity that I've been looking forward to. And I love it. I hung some pictures this week, am getting to know our local fauna--I worry over the spider webs every day: if I leave them there will be fewer bugs, if I clean them my house will feel clean--we had Karen and Danny over for our first dinner. I get bored, I haven't quite hit my groove, but I'm getting there.

Isaac is just getting smarter and more precocious and charming. He's found the door stoppers and not only scoots as fast as possible to twang them, but I noticed once that an overly innocent face was hiding a full mouth which ended up being the rubber end; he can also twist them out of their brackets, so we have to watch him carefully with those any more. His schedule has settled enough that I can put him in his crib to fall asleep at more-or-less predictable times. I read in a parenting book that chicken bones are fun for teething and he *loves* them. I imagine him saying "Wait! This is food?! You guys get to eat this stuff!?" No walking and no knee-crawling yet, but he can pull himself up and get where he needs to go. And though he is starting to understand that he shouldn't just crawl off the bed, we heard him crying when he was supposed to be napping to find him on the floor tangled in his monitor cord. Exactly what a parent wants to see.

So: happy, settling, ready for the next adventure.

keb+boys

(I was going to post pics, but this is *ridiculous*. Tumblr it is.)