Sunday blogging is best if done rarely, in order to allow for events to accrue. We are enjoying parenthood and watching Elliot grow in size and personality. Yesterday we took him over to BJ’s sister Brit’s house to meet her young daughters Abigail and Emma. It was BJ’s mother Terry’s birthday, so much family was there. Emma is two months older than E and has two little front teeth. E has begun to froth at the mouth in quantities sufficient enough to warrant an occasional bib – this is the precursor to teeth. Soon we will try “solid” food. Time certainly is flying. Before too long there will be crocuses in my side yard and incisors in my son.

We’ve discovered that baby stuff washes up in our lives like shells on a beach. Tempe, Brit, my sister Sandy, and my brother Kris keep showering us with hand me down toys and clothing. Saturday Brit gifted us with an exer-saucer, like a walker without wheels, and Elliot loves it. All of our other fiends and family persist in buying us new stuff for him which will eventually become hand me downs for other potential children in the expanded tribe – it’s a most strange and fascinating process: watching the village show up to raise the child (and to clean out their basements and closets).

Teaching is going better this semester, not that it went badly last term – but I wasn’t really enjoying myself. I’ve found a groove and have adjusted more to the institutional culture at my school. I’ve made a decision to stay where I am for a while and give the resume a chance to build up a few years under a single banner of allegiance. I’ve been jumping jobs yearly for so long that I may look like a bad risk to future employers. I don’t plan on teaching high school in the extended long term, I want to go back to college teaching, but for now I am staying put.

People keep asking how old E is and guessing six-months before we can answer. He has grown rapidly into a large child. The second question we often get relates to his sleeping habits, “through the night?”. We’ve only just started to put him down for the night in his crib, up until a week ago he’d been sleeping with us. He gives us about six hours in the crib before he wakes up and then he’ll sleep another few with Jes after I leave for work. People keep warning us that sweet baby karma necessitates that our second child will scream from dawn till dusk, here’s to hoping E’s temperament is the template.

That’s about it for us. How are you?