Monday, November 30, 2009

Bet you didn't expect this.

So, a post every...oh six months. Not bad right?

Heh.

A lot has happened around here since last I posted. It would be silly to even try to play catch up. So let's just jump in here, shall we?

We had a lovely Thanksgiving here with Jus' folks and a couple of dear friends. It was honestly one of the most wonderful visits. Now, for those of you on the east coast, don't get me wrong...I missed you all on Turkey Day. But it was really nice to have family and friends around our table and just be.

Plus it gave us a chance to do some exploring around the area, unfortunately I wasn't the taker of all the pictures this weekend, so I don't have many yet to share. But here is one of Russell playing with the goats at the zoo. It'll have to do until I can get a copy of the others.



To all of you who have stuck with this blog despite my poor performance, I thank you.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Russell's first Haircut

Russell's hair is so fine and so blond that I almost feel like he doesn't have any. So, it was a hard to decide that he needed his first haircut. But I finally grew weary of him looking like a balding old man with the wispy stuff at the back of his neck and took him to get his haircut.

Before:

from the front:



profile:



We went to a chain place that caters to kids, so he got to sit in a car shaped seat that faced a tv screen. He loved it, until the buzzers were turned on.

During:

Playing with the car:



Then the buzzers went on:



Then the buzzers touched his head:



Then mommy had to put the camera down to comfort him.

But he looked really handsome when he was done. The other mother in the place (with 2 school-aged kids) commented that he looked older afterwards. The cut seems to have done his hair good, since then it's looked like it's fuller. He does have hair, it's just clear.

After:

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

'Helping' in the kitchen.

Russell has earned a new nickname around the house: 'helper'.

Yep, he helps you with all your chores.

He helps you unload the dishwasher by climbing into it and pulling out the sharp objects.

He helps you clean the floor by chasing the mop.

He helps you with laundry by emptying the clean laundry out of the basket and throwing it around the living room.

So, when you need a few minutes to do something, like cook dinner, you give him something to help with.

On June 30, I gave him a bowl, a wooden spoon, and a quarter cup of flour. Voila: cooking in the kitchen, helping mommy. And boy did he have fun.




He's gonna be a chef when he grows up.



And then, of course, the dingo 'helped' by licking all the flour off of the floor. What a team!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Delinquency is my middle name.

I have been so busy that blogging hasn't happened a lot lately, but cute pics of the babe have been taken, so I am going to work backwards and share the best of the best with you guys. Here's the first installment, July 1 - July 11 2009:

July 1st, 2009: Russell loves to sit and stare outside. Actually, most of the time it is him sitting and looking outside, and then imploring me to go outside. But you know, same thing right?



He does not understand that it is over 100 degrees out there.

The artistic version:



I love that photo.

July 7th, 2009: Russell loves spaghetti...it doesn't love him:



Just yesterday morning (7/11/09) I took this before we went over to the new house. He still loves his jungle mat.



More to come in the next few days...

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Our new home.

I made reference to us buying a house. It was a whirlwind, and one of the many reasons that I haven't posted lately. It was all precipitated by the fact that the house we are currently renting was put on the market by it's owner, because they are behind on the rent. There is NO WAY we were going to deal with the possibility of them going into foreclosure and us being evicted. And seriously, we didn't want to have to find a rental house now and move and then do it all again within a year, since that was the rough timeline for us to buy a house anyway...

so, long rambling saga cut short, we went for it, and closed on Thursday.

Here are some pics of our new home, which I am madly in love with:

The front room.



A shot through the dining area to the living room.



The living room. (Russell was hanging out in his pack and play while we were doing things around the house today).



The FANTASTIC kitchen.



The even more FANTASTIC pool! I kid you not when I say that one of the few luxuries I have ever wanted was a pool, and now I own one. And it is a gorgeous one. I am delighted.



I'm not the only one, Russell LOVES the water, and when he first saw this pool he thought he had just about won the lottery. All he wanted was for me to let go of him so he could go in the BIGGEST BATHTUB EVER. Alas, it was in really bad shape a few weeks ago (when the previous owners left, it was neglected for a few months) so we can't swim in it yet until a few more water treatments get the rest of the ick out. I SO look forward to it. (Especially since it averages 110 here right now.)

These are my fruit trees! I have wanted fruit trees so long that I asked for them for my 16th birthday. (To his credit, Jimmy bought me 2 apricot trees that year, but one didn't survive the New England winter, and the survivor couldn't bear fruit without a second to cross-pollinate.) The one on the left is a super-productive lemon tree, and the one on the right is an orange tree. I am thrilled.



Back inside, this is the loft, it is right outside the master bedroom double doors.



Yes, we are a little concerned about small babies throwing things off of it...like small babies. Here's the view down from the loft into the front room.



Cool no? We're not sure what we are going to do with that space yet, but it's a neat one.

Finally, the master bedroom.



The other two bedrooms don't photograph all that well, so I didn't bother to put the pics here, but one is for Russ and one is a guest room. Here's a good picture of Russell playing in his room.



He was crawling through the door and then shutting it most of the way and then crawling back out. ... well, until mommy realized that there were unprotected outlets on the other side of the door, and she couldn't see him, and she swung the door open fast and whacked him HARD in the head with it.

Yeah, great parenting. The only thing this kid really needs protection from is his mommy...I felt guilty until, well, seriously, I still feel guilty about it.

I also didn't get any good pics of the bathrooms, one master bath with a soaking tub and a stand alone shower and another full bath upstairs for Russell and guests, plus a half bath downstairs. There's a laundry room, and a two and a half car garage with a utility sink. And I am sure I am missing other details, but I can't remember them all.

If you made it this far I am sure you can tell that I am totally in love with the place and can't wait to move-in. Of course, now we have to pack... UGH.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Then again...

Please disregard that last post, turns out, I was being a little overambitious.

As of this morning, my dissertation defense has been rescheduled for the fall. This decision was all mine, though whole-heartedly supported by my advisor. Unfortunately, as I came down to the wire, I realized that there is no conceivable way I can both write this and do it justice in time for a July 17th defense. There is too much data and there are too many details to push it.

(As an aside, all of this is particularly true given the other events that are mucking up my life. I have been so busy working I have hardly had time to mention here that we are in the process of buying a house! But that is another post for another time.)

So, a graduate student I remain for a few months longer. We will reschedule the defense as soon as I have hit a number of benchmarks. Molly expects a October defense. I would love it to be sooner, but I am OUT of the prediction business, and it will be done when it is good. (Note that said "good" and not "perfect"...I want to graduate EVENTUALLY). In the meantime I will continue my intense schedule of work.

In the meantime, I will try and post SOMETHING once a week. You shouldn't all be deprived of cute baby (dare I say TODDLER!) pics just because I am still working on this dissertation!

Monday, May 4, 2009

The final countdown...

...I have a defense date! YAY!

On July 17th at 1pm, I will be defending my dissertation.

I have 70 days to finish the document and get it to my committee, and then 2 weeks to prepare the presentation.

AHHHHHHHHH!

And. Go.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

First biking...

...then hiking.

In March, Jus' folks came out for a visit. We took Russell on a hike in his hiking pack. He loved being able to see.

Getting ready to go.


Out on the trail...


...and loving every minute of it.


So exhausted he took a nap while we hiked.


and the obligatory scenery picture: a view out over Phoenix


It was a lot of fun, and certainly something we will be doing more of, when Mommy has some spare time...sometime in the future.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Some odds and ends and excuses.

I've been a lousy blogger, but it's because I've been a darned good student (mostly). Fair trade. Just a heads up that it might not get much better for a while, but I promise it's only temporary.

Working hard IS going to pay off eventually.

But, for now, since I am here, how about a few cute baby pics? Here are some random everyday pics from March that are cute. (And since some of them are over a month old, maybe it's time to get them up, no?)

Making it hard to put PJs on him after a bath.


Wild hair. It's like this a lot these days.


Sticking out our tongue at the camera.


What? I swear, I FOUND these tissues all torn up.


Opening a present.


I'll try and get posts up when I can, but no promises.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Biking babies!

Russell has gotten (on a few occasions now) to go biking with his daddy. He loves it! (Mommy doesn't own a bike yet.)









Sunday, April 19, 2009

Having a Ball!*

One of Russell's favorite toys right now. A giant (for him) beach ball. If we underinflate it just slightly, he can pick it up really easily.



He loves to bang on it.



and he is learning to roll it to another person.



Next step, how to shoot a jump shot. hee. hee.

*come on, I love good puns.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Friday, April 17, 2009

Too cool for this blog.

I have friends (one, in particular) who can remember every detail of every day of their lives. I, on the other hand, have vague recollections of things that were noteworthy, single frame images, and strange sensory memories, that are really nonspecific and often hard to figure out what they are reminding me of.

Right now I really wish I were that other type of person, because I want to make reference to a song my 5th or 6th grade chorus sang (I think, it could have been junior high) where we all had to bring in sunglasses. I think the name of the song was 'Shades' but I can't be certain...

Anyway, that's all a long winded way of introducing the coolest baby on the block:



Yeah, he's too cool for this blog...

...and he's getting a big head about it, literally. See those super-cute sunglasses. They are supposed to fit kids to age 2. Right now I am trying to figure out whether I need to get him a bigger pair He's only 10 MONTHS old! But he's got the biggest head ever. I am going to try one more time to adjust the velcro, but I think we need to get the 2-5 YEARS pair. Oy.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Pic of the day: beanbag portrait.

We were visiting friends about a month ago, and I needed to entertain the baby. Lucky for me he loves to pose for pictures.






And I got for a run today. Unfortunately, it marks the first occasion on which I fail to finish my run due to lack of ability. Which is funny, if you think about it, because I've done this run before. The details:

Walk/Jog C25K Week 4 day 1.
Start time: 11:30 am MST
Run time: 29.5 minutes
Distance: 2.1 miles
Pace: 14.0 minute mile
Estimated Miles on Sneakers:
Pink Adidas 13.31
Blue Brooks 14.83

Notes: Living out here has started to teach me what it really feels like to be dehydrated. The first sign for me, barring plain old thirst, is a slight dizziness in the back of my head. It feels like I do when I get motion sick. I didn't feel it today until I got back to the house, but when I was running I felt something strange which made me stop and walk halfway through the last 5 minute run. I guess you could almost call it weakness. It could be an even earlier sign of dehydration that I hadn't noted before now. I will be more cognizant of it in the future.

Now, for those that are prone to such things, don't worry. I had water on me and drank it all the way home. I just don't think I was hydrated enough to run.

I will repeat week 4 day 1 on Friday. If at first you don't succeed...and all that.

Oh yeah, and Happy Tax Day!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Happy Easter and some Catch up.

I hope you all had a pleasant Easter (well, thems of you who celebrate it.)

Russell had his very first visit from the Easter bunny er, dingo.



He was brought bubbles and six plastic eggs filled with Cheerios, all in a blue bunny bucket. It was very exciting.





In lieu of the 'standard celebration', we went on a hike and had a picnic lunch. It was lovely.

Russell discovered that Mommy's green apple was tasty.



We enjoyed the scenery.





And it was all so exciting, Russell took a nap towards the end.



(Yes, these pics were taken yesterday, demonstrating that I can, in fact, post pictures in a timely fashion. Don't get used to it. I still have about a month's worth of backlog to make up for.)

For instance...

I fell behind on my posting for a few days there, many apologies. Because of that, I never posted my run on Friday. I admit, by waiting even a few days, I have forgotten many bits of it. But here is a close approximation:

Walk/Jog C25K Week 3 day 3.
Start time: midafternoon
Run time: 25 minutes or less
Distance: let's call it 2 miles.
Pace: a complete mystery
Estimated Miles on Sneakers:
Pink Adidas 11.21
Blue Brooks 14.83

Notes: Another beautiful day in Phoenix. I had to turn around a wee bit early because I had to use the ladies room, but other than that, a good run.

I was going to go out for another run yesterday, but we wound up on the hike instead. A far better deal, in my opinion. My intention is to start week 4 on Wednesday. Progress is slow but steady.