Cold Spaghetti

When: Sunday, November 20th. (I was thinking Saturday, but Paul likes Sunday?)
Where: our neighbors’ driveways
What: “play date” theme. I’ll set up a kid’s level table with different colors of play-doh and a ton of tools to play. Kids can run around front yards and play at the table.
Who: mostly adults, a few kids from the neighborhood
Extra Fun: Paul and some friends from juggling club will juggle and unicycle

Questions: Time?? Will naps around lunch time (11-1; 12-2 ish). Emily, his closest playfriend, naps at 2:30. If we do it later in the evening (3-5) do we need to provide a more dinner-ish menu? We could borrow a neighbors grill and grill out…? Suggested kid-friendly menu? Time thoughts? Other activities?

The photo isn’t going to win me any glamour awards, but finally… a belly picture! Here I am at 13 weeks. I should have moved my arm, it’s sort of shielding the “pop” out that by belly does. Next time, we’ll take one early in the day when I am awake and the sun is out! 

Will looks better today. He still is basically covered with slightly raised red welts, but they are much more faded today and not nearly as severe in coverage. He remains happy and wild.

Fun new phrases: “go outside,” “let’s go!” “want juice/agua/fishies/uvas,” “thank you, Mommy,” “go night-night”

After the events of yesterday morning, I began to tackle the first and longest set of Biostats (ie: Intermediate Biostats/Advanced Eval/Regression/Logistic Regression) comprehensive exam questions. I have been feeling good about everything so far, especially after getting an email “thumbs up” on my survey/sampling/M&E questions set from a professor. Then I started on these questions. I discovered that I cannot transfer multi-level dummy variables to specific regression equations and that simple probability questions can reduce me to a puddle of mush. Paul, thankfully, was able to pull me up with some probability help (even he was surprised that there was something on the exam he could do) but when I asked him to look at another question he said, “Holly, I don’t even know what that word means.” *sigh* I have serious concerns about passing this part of the exam. I’m going to try to work through the next set and then send the two to my professor with questions. The good news is, the questions didn’t take me long, so maybe I can stop worrying about whether or not I will finish in time.

Today, Will and I are going to Mobile for the weekend. We’ve been needing to go back and get the rest of our things (ie: the cats). Paul has big home repair projects planned and my parents have plans to take Will out golfing on Saturday (to hit balls and then play nine holes if the course is clear!)

You can see Will’s hives on the underside of his arms when he lifts up his milk glass. His arms are relatively mild compared to his truck… his poor little back is completely covered. There are hives on his legs, face, neck, and hands as well. 

Somewhere between Will’s first and second bowls of oatmeal, we noticed it. His checks were a splochy bright red. On instinct, I pulled back the sleeve of his pajamas… and there it was. Will has hives.

Calls to the school and to the pediatrician on call resulted in this: hives are common, we rarely find out what causes them, and as long as he’s not uncomfortable, itchy, feverish, or otherwise ill, there was no problem bringing him to school. So, Will went to school (late, but he went).

And the poor guy is still covered. He seems fine… happy, talking, eating, etc. Although he now says “hives” and rubs his legs. “Yes, Will,” I say, “you have hives.” As if I wasn’t documenting every little bump on his tiny body. If he were uncomfortable, I think we’d have to seek medication for the both of us.

We have no idea what caused it… emotional stress? Something in the air? Something he ate? Nothing that we can think of fits the bill. Just another experience on the ride of parenthood.

Will, fresh from school and having a snack! 

Will slept soundly last night after munching down two apples and a huge bowl of grapes after his shower. (Side note: in our house, grapes are known as “wahoos” since Will calls them “uvas”, the spanish word for grapes.) His fruit-filled belly kept him down until 6am, when he burst awake with the words “BIG TOE”, repeating it over and over again in top form until I plucked him out of the crib.*

School drop-off is getting better. He brought home a pumpkin cut-out he made and I am proud to report (after seeing the others that decorated the classroom for Halloween) that Will’s was one of the only ones with the eyes, nose, and mouth actually positioned in the shape of a face.

The past two days have been heavy studying: survey design and sampling. Current issues: some formula confusion with sample size related to 2-stage cluster designs. This morning, my awesome Biostats professor sent me a mammoth list of practice questions… it’s both exciting and terrifying. My goal is to get through the sampling mathematics before trying to gear my brain up for logisitic regression. The toughest part right now is that there is no one here to study with and limited professors to ask for help with difficult questions.

*Don’t ask. We have no idea where “Big Toe” came from. No idea.

I am about half-way into my 13th week; officially in the fun zone of second trimester!

Will works so hard to make a sound by blowing into the empty water jug.

You can set a clock by Will. No matter what time he goes to bed at night, he’s up between 6 and 6:30. Unfortunately, his clock does not re-set well with random changes of time.

So, at 5:12 this morning, who should awake, bright and happy? Will, of course! It’s still dark out and raining (finally, it hasn’t rained here since the storm… serious dust issues in the city air). I decided that we should keep him in bed until at least 6. The lesson is that when it is dark, it is not time to get up. It’s not working too well, at least yet. He’s in there calling things out at the top of his lungs, trying out a wide range of words to see what will work to get us to come into his room: “Mommy, Daddy, Inky, Eat, Down, Hungry, Toys, Poo-Poo…”