a little hello

Hi everybody. It seems these posts are getting fewer and farther between, but Jack is keeping me so busy these days that it's hard to sit down for more than a minute. I can't imagine what it will be like with TWO! According to the baby gaga ticker, we have only 147 days until that happens. I'm thinking that it may be April instead of May, though, given our history of earlier birth plus the fact that subsequent babies tend to come before rather than after the due date. Who knows, but either way, 100some days seems short! Our ultrasound is in a week, and we are really hoping everything will look developmentally normal and healthy. I still feel fine, and the pregnancy is progressing well, if not quickly. The little one is moving around now as I type.

Jack is going through a tough time. Teething is partly the culprit, but beyond that he seems generally frustrated with life most of the time. He's become very determined to do things, and when they don't work out ("no, Jack, we aren't going to play with the thermostat anymore," "no, Jack mommy is currently on the phone so you can't play with the reciever," or even things like trying to walk across the room and tripping and falling) he melts into a tantrum and uncontrollable emotion. I'm sure it's normal for his age, but it's very frustrating for me. His most worrisome trait is the headbanging that accompanies most tantrums. Usually it's on the carpet, but at times it lands against my chin or chest, or sometimes the door frame. He's a wild man. I think it's partly age, and partly the fact that he's like his dad: if he can't do something perfectly, it's not worth doing at all. :) So we have been losing a lot of sleep at night as he wakes up with teething pain frequently, as well as a lot of patience during the day as he needs constant entertainment to remain relatively happy. I keep trying to find things to get out and about and do, to keep him distracted, but it's hard when it's so cold. This past weekend we had to cancel a lot of fun plans due to the ice storm. Even little trips like packing up and going to the play area at the mall seem labor intensive at times. But we are surviving the winter, so far.

We got our holiday tree this weekend and Jack helped decorate. It's a little more sparse in the ornament department this year, since we had to pack away all the metal balls after he got a hold of one and shattered it all over the floor. But he had fun helping hang ornaments, and our living room is very festive.





On the dissertation front, I have 13 interviews left to get through (all in Spanish). Once that is done, and I'm really having a hard time motivating myself to just get through them quickly, I'll be able to sit down with ALL my data, interviews, newspapers, fieldnotes, and all, and figure out what the heck this paper is going to be about. That's scary and exciting at the same time. I hope to have a big Ah-HA moment, where it all makes sense, but I know it may be awhile before that happens. My goal of starting my writing in January is plausible, but not definite. I will have the interviews done by then, but I don't know if I'll have the outline made up yet. Still, it's nice to think about finally finishing the data analysis, and moving onto the real writing process. Again I kick myself for not doing the interview transcripts while in the field, but hindsight is 20/20. At the time I thought I could easily do them at home, and spend more of my research time just being there. But now I realize how much time I wasted.

Mike is gearing up for a bunch of new patients to come to his pharmacy at the end of December. Another Hy-Vee pharmacy is closing and sending all their records to his pharmacy. So things could get very busy, very fast. They are going to have a lot more staff to offset things. One of the pharmacy technicians he hired from the closing store has my name: Brandyce K. isn't that strange??!
Hope all is well with all of you readers!