There is no good time
Monday, January 25, 2021
conversations
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Birthday!
Ahem! Excuse me! Alert!
We now have a NINE year old!
Technically, this was Dylan's second birthday in MI, as I was out here interviewing with my family during her birthday last year.
We celebrated over the course of the week, which was nice because I got to buy her MarioKart and give her a second remote control for her Nintendo Switch last weekend and we got to play together almost every night this week.
What else...
She also got a new sled since she put a hole in her old one sledding over rocks, some light sabers, a bunch of the Dog Diaries books, the Pony Club guide to D level horse management, and some random other plastic that hopefully she will lose interest in so I can throw them away things . Our AP cooked her an orange cake, and it was delicious. She got to pick her own special birthday lunch yesterday. And she got to have a Zoom birthday party today with her friends from Philadelphia, and two playdates outside with her local friends.
I'd say it was a pretty damn good birthday!
As for me, well I am having trouble making myself workout, focusing on completing manuscripts, getting all my admin done, figuring out what I'm going to write a grant on in the next six months. You know, the usual.
I am on call AGAIN tomorrow. Here's hoping it will be better than last Monday.
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Welcome to 2021!
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
post-post
Sunday, January 17, 2021
On volunteering
Friday, January 15, 2021
Friday DONE
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Bedtime update
Thank you SO MUCH for all your helpful comments yesterday! OMG it is so freeing to think that actually it's ok that we allow our kid to put herself to bed, and don't have some elaborate bedtime ritual. I do think having a hard stop on electronics will be immensely helpful, so we have decided on 8:15, which should still allow mommy plenty of evening writing time.
Last night we piloted this and though some pouting occurred, we ended up actually having a pleasant evening? Dyl got ready for bed, and then decided she wanted to play horse and so we ran cantered around the first floor of the house chasing each other (which admittedly wasn't the most relaxing activity pre-bedtime, but whatever). Then we went upstairs and read together as a family in my bed for 20 min. Dyl finished Little House in the Big Woods, which she had previously refused to read when I had suggested it, but then some teacher at school did and she was all in.
Whatever. I will take it.
Lights out happened at about 9, maybe a little after, which was GREAT!
She was still a grump this morning, but I suspect she is like her mommy in that regard.
So -- WIN!
(We will see how long this lasts.)
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In other news, my geriatric parents have their appointments to get their first COVID vaccine in CT. I am so excited for them, though still had to remind them that they wouldn't have anything approaching good immunity until 2-3 weeks after the second shot, so they still needed to behave themselves. Still, I will actually be able to visit them this summer, potentially, which is so nice!
I also signed up to administer vaccines to patients this Saturday at the stadium, which I have never actually been inside of. So excited to do this!
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Zoom birthday party with Dyl's Philly friends has been arranged. Any ideas on what to do for the party? Generally the girls play video games together, but I'm wondering whether I should do anything else. I've seen some posts from moms who did elaborate things like mail craft projects for everyone to do together over zoom, but I have to be honest -- even under the best of conditions I wouldn't have the bandwidth for that. Would welcome your thoughts, especially those that say -- Don't worry! Let them all talk and play video games, and have an organic gathering!
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Submitting abstract tomorrow, better get off my ass!