Preparing to Fly

In exactly one week, Myrick and I are hopping on a plane to Dallas/Ft. Worth to visit Candace and her two girls and Joanne and her two boys. I am so excited to see these two women as mommies having known both of them since elementary and middle school. Of their four combined children, I have only met one of them so my anticipation continues to build! I just have to make it through all of my grading and one more week of school and...

a cold that both Myrick and I have. Yep, that's right. Doesn't illness always strike at the most inopportune time? Not only do I need the extra sleep right now to fight this off, but of course grades are due this week which prevents me from getting the hours I need. And so it goes.

I have tons of anxiety about our airplane trip. We will have three legs to get down there which isn't terribly conducive to Myrick taking a nap. And of course the more connections you have to make, the higher the probability of missing one of them. And being the busy toddler that she is, I can't foresee her sitting on my lap as being a pleasant thing. I'm having terrible daydreams of her running and screaming wildly up and down the aisles with irritated passengers shooting me those "you're an awful mom" look. So tomorrow I will head into town and try to find some trip toys that I can pull out as needed throughout the journey. Nate and I briefly discussed the idea of getting a stripped-down portable DVD player... and then decided that just doesn't go with our values of active parenting. I will be an active and most likely exhausted parent of a young child on a very long journey. My mom did give Myrick a pop-up airplane book for Christmas so we have been looking at that in preparation. And a friend from school who has a 3 year old that just went on a long plane ride loaned me her DVD called "Shae by Air" about a little girl preparing for her first big plane trip. It teaches flying social skills for little ones - pretty neat. Granted this isn't Myrick's first plane ride, but it is her first in quite awhile, and she has very different needs now than she did just 7 short months ago. I hope all of my anxiety is for naught, but she has truly entered the "terrible two's" which makes me nervous...

Letter to Self

Dear Emily,

Just a reminder that you posted an entry not so long ago - oh, say about a month ago. In it you blogged about keeping your priorities straight. I think it went something like this:

• family first, self next, work last

Pretty good keeping family first - you've cooked some yummy food for them this week (tasty burritos, bread pudding, chocolate chip cookies, homemade mac-n-cauliflower-n-cheese) and spent some nice time playing outside with them. Don't confuse yourself for work, though. Hmm, seems difficult to do when grades are due beginning of next week, doesn't it? But I thought it was worth sending you a reminder before you made a decision to stay up into the wee hours of the morning grading papers.

Have an efficient, successful evening grading papers, and I'll see you well-rested in the morning!

Love, Yourself

First Piggy-Tails

Myrick's hair has finally grown long enough to put into itty-bitty piggy-tails, and I have to say, she's pretty darn cute! Getting them in was a bit of a chore. If I let her watch "Curious George" on PBS, then she is distracted enough to not notice what I'm doing. However, if she isn't distracted, let's just say we wrestle a bit and then she pulls at them. Without further ado, here are her adorable, blonde piggy-tails!

Precious Weekends

After putting in another 55 hour work-week grading papers and planning, it sometimes doesn't feel like there is enough coffee on this planet to fuel my life. It is hard to feel excited or motivated about going out and doing things over the weekend, and sadly, this is a pretty typical feeling - pure gratefulness that we've made it to another weekend when we can get a little R&R. Thankfully, though, we've had some snow days this year, and although I know we'll have to make them up in June (and that come June, I'll be grumpy about this very thing), I'm happy to take them whenever the snow deity sees fit to shower us with more fluffy flakes. It makes getting through these long school weeks feel more manageable when there is a recuperation day in the middle of the week. Gotta love those 4 day weeks.

Given that I never have enough time for myself, I find that I'm prone to daydreaming about my ideal Saturday. And I think it would go something like this:

• sleep in
• play with Myrick all morning outside (because it is warm enough!)
• cook something yummy and healthy for lunch - comfort food AND dessert
• put Myrick down for a nap and take one, too
• afternoon alone time (wish-list: massage, read for an hour, write some letters/emails/blog entries, hike or snowshoe with Nate)
• late-afternoon, early evening time with my Myrick
• date-night with Nate (owling, going out to the movies - gasp!, enjoying dinner at Zampa)

Ah, doesn't that sound so lovely? And you might've noticed that nowhere in that list was grading papers or returning school emails.

But enough daydreaming. Despite the copious amount of essay-grading that is staring me down from the corner of the room, this weekend is shaping up nicely: winter farmer's market shopping in the morning, bookstore errands, naptime and grading in the afternoon, and some cooking and netflixing in the evening. I love knowing that I have an entire weekend stretched out before me with the plan of mostly staying home with short outings here and there. Sounds great!

E-I-E-I-O

She's got those vowels down and some smooth moves to go with them!

Snow Days

Playing Barnyard Bingo

A recent favorite activity of Myrick's is to get up on one of her twin beds (it's really high for her so she needs a boost from mommy or daddy) and use it as a playspace. She plays with her puzzles up there and snuggles with Lamby. This week she and I have sat up there together to play with her "new" hand-me-down game Barnyard Bingo. She likes to collect all of the chips and put them under the covers or sit on them like she's keeping them warm! I'm not sure that's how we're supposed to play the game, but she sure has a great time.