Besides having extreme anxiety about the real likelihood that I'll be returning to work in 2 weeks, which I'll get to in a separate post, this was a week of changes, (aren't they all?), but especially for my dear husband.  Beard be gone for one, but also he decided to do some drama to his looks. 

Enter handsome teacher, just home from a long day.  Isn't his hair great? Who wouldn't want this guy to teach their kids? 

Out comes the clippers and the crazy eyes, away go the luscious locks. 

He has the same smile, and how he and Nolan are matchy!  

While we could probably attribute this shift in appearance to a lot of things, Nick shaved his head to the skin (and re-did it yesterday) as an act of solidarity for his father, who is going through chemotherapy.   When his grandmother lost her hair in chemo, he did the same thing.  I think he's feeling like a physical change might help him understand it a all little more.  When someone you love is sick, and far away there are really just a few things that you can do to feel like you're carrying some of it for them, not that you ever really can, but the little things are comforting.

I offered to do the same and he told me to keep my hair for now.  

And here we have a lesson in perspective. 

Little baby, quietly occupying the corner of the couch, listening to some tunes on the laptop. 

Big boy, chilling, scoping out the scene. 

Man in charge, gangsta, watch out. :)

Sure daddy, you can hold up my head for me anytime.  

I'll just take a little snooze as long as you don't move a muscle. 

You moved, I'm awake now.  Oh well. You can still hold up my head. 

Love my family. 

This week Nick texted me from work about the Iowa v. Northwestern basketball game.  The text alerted me to the game, but also that it was expected that his family would be in Hawkeye gear for the event.  I took him seriously and Nolan was ready to go when he got home, I am indulging him in this only because I don't have any alliances to sports teams (other than maybe Xavier basketball), but also because Nick breathes Iowa (I am sure this is not new information for anyone reading).  And Nolan looks cute in anything we put on him, so it wasn't too hard.

Getting ready to watch some basketball with Daddy!  Our awesome midwife Casey gave us this baby sweatshirt that her kids had outgrown, it seriously made Nick's week when he saw this little guy dressed in black and gold (thanks Casey!!!)

It suits him pretty well, and thankfully, he has plenty of room to grow into it. 

This is a daily look for us, hanging out, walking around the apartment, looking outside at the freezing cold, but sunny day. 

Here is my boy, hanging in his new sling.  He's not sure if he loves it yet, but we are getting acquainted.  It's awesome to be able to slip him in, and be hands free without all the wrapping of the Moby.  Though, the Moby wrap distributes the weight really well and the sling puts most of it over one shoulder.  I'm still pleased with the purchase. 

Last night we had a family outing for delicious dinner with friends Paul, Kristina, and Gus.  It makes me feel like a person again to be doing some small social outings, and Nolan is getting increasingly less angry about being in the carseat, I foresee good things with this change.

The boys are grinning at each other, BFF (or rather, Nolan is grinning at Kristina, and Gus is checking out Nick- same difference right?)

More grinning. 

A blurry, but adorably happy Gus with mom and dad and bunny ears. It was a really fun night! 

And here we are in our current state, (yes, I am wearing my 6th grade t-shirt, with all of my co- 12 year olds signatures).

Awake, alert, cute, cozy, hands are delicious and amazing. 

Out, and still sleeping right now. 

baby rants

First Target outing  (alone)
Well the post baby, return to the world of the shopping, interacting and general living has begun.  Last weekend I successfully went to a friends baby shower, and this past Saturday I made an errand run to Target (sans baby).  Sarah's baby shower was great, it felt so nice to get out of the house and visit with friends, I didn't forget how to drive a stick shift Subaru, and Nolan did just fine without me.  Target on the other hand was almost a complete failure.  I wandered around aimlessly, despite the explicit list in my pocket.  The clothing section, which was my main goal (nursing friendly clothes are needed) was entirely overwhelming, and I could not focus on anything, it didn't seem to matter, trying on clothes at a store felt trivial and silly when I can do online shopping with baby in arms.  The one thing I really enjoyed about the Target run was the decaf fancy Starbucks drink I treated myself to as soon as I walked in the door.  It was enough just to walk around with a coffee in hand, it made me feel like I'd returned to pleasant society, at least for a little while.

Nap and Nurse
My dear friend Kristina introduced me to the term "nap and nurse" the other day when her family was visiting, and it is such an accurate description of what Nolan and I do all day at home.  He is a boy comforted most quickly by the boob, (like many others I suppose:), and when we are home without Nick, that is where he wants to be.  If he could sleep all day while nursing, he would.  I am the one who breaks his reverie to do people things like go to the bathroom and heat up something for lunch.  We are thrilled that he is thriving, and that he is such a big fan of eating, but we sincerely need to work on the other parts of life like napping alone and sleeping at night.  Speaking of sleeping at night, my swaddling love was premature.  For Nolan, the trick is swaddling him when he's already in a deep sleep: he fights it so vigorously when he's even mildly awake, and then gets so revved up that sleep, though it's what he needs most, is the last thing on his little adrenaline filled mind.  And then it works until he frees his arms, which cause him to wake up right away, and can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours (our record).  It's just so unpredictable, if he's really out (limp limb signs and slack face) he can sleep in the bed with us and be ok for about 2 hours, but if we put him in the co-sleeper, even when he's deeply sleeping, he always wakes within a few minutes.  What worked for one night seems to be impossible the next, and the only constants are marathon nursing before finally falling asleep for a little while, and my sleep deprivation that I have acclimated to, to a degree... suggestions welcome!

Here's a pic of Kristina and Paul's baby Gus, and Nolan meeting for the first time! Instant BFF. (thanks for the picture Paul!)

Baby clothes story
Before Nolan was born, it's fair to say that I was a complete novice and had no idea what we really needed in terms of baby clothes.  Nick is a member of the camp of "we don't need anything, he can wear the same thing all the time, and don't buy any clothes," which for newborn stuff was a fairly good approach because of all the hand me downs we got from friends and the shower and otherwise gifts we received.  I did buy 1 pack of newborn onesies because I thought it was a good idea to have extra.  He has worn the onesies (the crotch snapping, long sleeve shirt kind) all of one time.  And now they're too small.  So Nick has prevailed in this arena so far.  The clothes we've used the most of are the sleeper outfits, with or without feet, he goes through about 3 of them a day with spit up and explosive pooping and peeing, and getting in and out of onesies is so time consuming and frustrating for him.  We stick to comfy outfits that he can wear during the day and at night.   But the whole reason for this paragraph is that now, we are at a point where we will be retiring his newborn outfits.  He has grown too long! He can't straighten his legs in some of them, my boy is growing!  This must mean that he is getting some good nourishment, which makes me feel not so bad about letting him nurse all the time.  Anyhow, over the course of the last month, I have discovered a favorite for baby clothes.  We have 2 Kicky Pants outfits (thank you Kim and Jim and Kristina and Paul!) and they are our favorites.  They are made from bamboo, are soft, and wick moisture away (which is great when you have a heater of a boy).  And this morning, I made my first, post birth, baby clothes purchase on Amazon.  I got more Kicky Pants for Nolan!  I can't wait for them to come in the mail.

Of course, the baby is on my lap doing the napping part of nap and nurse, so I'll get some pictures up here a little later today!  (pics added!)

This would be a new dance move: left arm up, legs folded: sporting the Kicky Pants outfit.

I caught the beginnings of a smile on camera!  His eyes look happy to me. 

And here is the best laundry basket inhabitant ever.  He didn't think it was too funny, but he let me take a picture before reminding me he wasn't amused.

Sunday at our house

As I think I mentioned in a previous post, we have joyfully joined Angelic Organics CSA this year (community supported agriculture), and have thus enjoyed a bounty of freshness each week.  The past few weeks have supplied us with a surplus of tomatoes, and Nick decided they needed to be canned.  Summer sweet tomatoes in December is surely a great idea.  We left our official canning supplies (wire rack and huge multi-sized pots) in Iowa, to be gathered up at the end of October, so with the help of borrowing Mary Sue's giant pots, Nick had to fashion aluminum foil separators to go in the water bath with the jars.  A layperson might not know this, but when boiling the cans in the water bath, they are not allowed to touch each other, or the bottom of the pot.  Ingeniously, we used our vegetable steamer to keep them off the bottom, and Nicks aluminum foil contraption to prevent them from touching.  It worked famously (...for the most part, aside from a quickly remedied floating aluminum foil issue).

Double handed precision, deep into the canning sterilization is in process here. 

The steps that are omitted are the minute blanching of the tomatoes, the ice bath, the removal of the skins, and the cooking the crushed tomatoes for 35 minutes.

You can see the remnant of one of the aluminum foil rings at the top left.  Also, the aromatic cooked and crushed tomato loveliness.  

And here is the finished product!  All that effort better be worth it in December!  

The pastime that was enjoyed while we were in the canning mode was the Chicago Bears game on the radio, accompanied by the necessary football snack.   I am on sports overload, it's not really of any interest to me, and it seems like there is so much going on right now.  We don't have a tv, so it's a lot of radio sports, which makes it even more enjoyable (note sarcasm) because I have no idea who the players are or what the plays mean.  Anyhow, Nick loves it all (and so far this weekend has taken in parts of college football, NFL and baseball) mostly via internet or radio.

It must be September when Nick brings out the candy corn and roasted peanuts.  The combination is admittedly, delicious and addicting and I was only able to snap a picture of the remnants here.

 Also today, I finally finished up the blocks we painted at the shower I gave for Kristina and Paul a few weeks ago.  Don't they look great!  I am pretty proud of how they turned out.

The little guy is due to arrive any time now, and I am sure he'll be ready for spelling lessons right away.

And for the rest of the day, I am making tomato sauce with the left over imperfect tomatoes (the ones that had soft spots or bits of moldiness), and right now the plan is some kind of eggplant/tomato/noodle bake for dinner.  The eggplant is from the farm! yum.

CPS struggles and the past 2 weeks

Wow, what a lot of catching up there is to do.  I don't know where the last two weeks went, oh wait, I was immersed in 4th grade, testing, data accumulation and analysis, lesson planning, action planning and the list goes on..... 

Yesterday I had some difficult news at work, and as of right now, I still don't know the outcome and I have a free day off.  It all started when I noticed that I was not paid and my email became disabled on the same day.  Apparently there was yet another administrative mistake, and I am not officially in the system.  It's a super long story, and I'll spare the details (let me know if you are curious and I'll surely fill them in) but the gist of it is that due to latent CPS rules pertaining to the hire process coupled with ineptness administratively, the staffing center doesn't know if they can pay me for the first 4 weeks of school, let alone allow me to keep my position.  It has to do with being displaced vs being a substitute, and the politics and circumstances surrounding it all.

I just can't imagine not continuing the year with my students, not to mention the time and energy I've put into my classroom.  Clearly of least importance here is the fact that CPS and to a lesser extent, my school has, perhaps not purposefully, really walked all over me in this situation.  My recourse is so limited, and my rights are null.   Anyway, maybe you are wondering about my delicate situation with a 26 week old baby kicking in me, and really, health insurance was my number one concern when I realized the ramifications of the situation.  As of now, we have 1 more day of full health coverage, and starting Thursday, we'll be Cobra-ing for I'm sure an exorbitant amount.

The headache has been immense.

I just got off the phone with my principal, who has been communicating with the labor relations lawyer to try and figure out my situation.  As of right now, it looks like tomorrow I'll be going to CPS headquarters to re-apply for a position, to jump through all of the same hoops I've already been through, just so I can be considered a "day to day sub" for the time being while I wait to become a TAT (temporary assigned teacher).  At least TAT's have health benefits.  I'll probably lose the sick days and vacation days that I accrued last year, and my maternity leave won't be covered at all, but, on the bright side, if all goes as planned (and I have zero expectations that everything will work), then we might have health coverage for the rest of the year.  Keep your fingers crossed.  GEEZ.

Add this to the craziness that has been our year.  Through this whole time though, I've made some great friends at school, and they've been super supportive.  For this I am lucky.


In other news, despite the stressful and exhaustive first few weeks, we've had some fun times too.

A few weeks ago we took Arnie to the dog beach, and he absolutely loved it. 

Man and dog, relaxing by the water. 

We also had a mini dinner party.  Mary Sue, Jennifer and Adam helped us break in our new place.  Unfortunately, the photo was taken after the delicious dinner was consumed, but take my word for it: the lake trout was amazing, and Mary Sue's perfect chocolate chip cookies were indeed perfect.

Then this past weekend we had an even bigger party!  We hosted dear friends Kristina and Paul for their baby shower.   I baked and baked, and everything turned out delicious.  I think they were happy with it, and I was thrilled with squeezing all those people into our apartment successfully!   Some of the tasty recipes can be found here : http://www.npr.org/2011/08/19/139676573/seasonal-dessert-recipes-to-sweeten-your-summer  NPR is my go-to for everything. 

Kristina's nursery theme is owls, and we had a hoot getting ready.  I ordered some owl cupcakes from my friend Beth, who has a little vegan cup/cake business.  The were so delicious.  Order some treats from Beth here: http://www.cakesbybethy.com/ 

Here is a taste of the people that were mingling about.  Kristina and Paul are awesome, naturally their friends are awesome too, and didn't mind getting cozy and comfortable in our apartment! 

And of course, when two preggo friends get together, the babies have to say hello.   Gus and LW2 say hi!

Belly kisses! 

And, speaking of pregnancy, I have one week until the third trimester starts.  How crazy is that?  This time is flying by. 

And, this day is shaping up ok without 27 kids.  So far I've slept in (until 6:50), taken Arnie on 2 walks, had a pedicure and some magic vanilla ice cream (one of the treats I made for the shower) and now, instead of worrying about my job, we're taking Arnie back to the dog beach for the afternoon.  Lovely.