Warning: Graduate School may be hazardous to your health

I'm beginning to think that grad school should come with a surgeon general's warning label, like cigarettes. Not only are you exposed to germs galore (those undergrads are walking bioweapons!), but then there's the stress. Not to mention the strain of hauling books to and from the library, sitting for hours in front of the microfilm reader, and the lack of sleep that comes from either trying to cram more work in or simply not being able to turn off your brain once you go to bed. I've had friends get appendicitis, ulcers, bad backs, pinched nerves (who knew that being hunched over and reading books all the time could cause such damage?), and I myself have been dealing with insomnia, anxiety, and periodontal disease, which another grad school friend at a different school is also dealing with (so I'm chalking it up to school-related stress).

Ok, I'm being a bit facetious here. It's really not all doom and gloom. Overall, I'm glad to be doing it: I get to be around smart people who have similar interests, I'm studying things I'm interested in (and some stuff I'm not, but am learning a lot about), and theoretically, when it's all said and done, I'll get a job doing what I love. Not something everyone gets to do. And obviously, we're not miners who risk getting trapped underground for 6 months (although a friend of mine did have a bookshelf collapse on her, but luckily part of it landed on the wall and she was able to push herself out).

But on to more fun stuff. Ronan's enjoying his new daycare classroom. The teachers are great and quickly got to know him. When I dropped him off the other day, he started crying and one of the teachers picked him up and said, "Do you want to look out the window?" which faces the freeway and is full of cars and trucks, which he adores. So I know he's in good hands. Today when I picked him up, they let me know that he received his first bite from another child. Apparently, he had taken the kid's toy and then wouldn't move, so of course, the child bit him. Luckily, it didn't break the skin (though it certainly left a mark!) and Ronan seems to be just fine, although he did immediately put his hand over it when I took his shirt off tonight.

Loki has recently begun playing with Ronan a lot more. When we go outside, Loki tries to get Ronan to chase him (or vice versa). He (Loki) will run up to Ronan, then sort of crouch down (his play position), then suddenly run toward him, turn around and run away. The other day, they were on opposite sides of a tree and kept running around it trying to catch each other. Very cute to watch and also very helpful in wearing them both out. Shadow seems more content to sit and watch them, but either way, it's good fun.

In other news, we're finally going to get started on our bathroom remodel. The company called us yesterday and they'll be coming out on Tuesday to begin. It should take about 2 weeks, which I hope is accurate. I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to bathe Ronan during that time. Our downstairs bathroom only has a shower, and the last couple of times I've tried to do shower time with Ronan, he freaked out and ran away. But we'll figure something out. If all else fails, I suppose we could go with the sponge bath, but I don't see that working well. And this boy loves to play in the dirt, so no bath probably isn't an option.

Ronan's also getting very good now at using his fork and spoon. He loves to feed himself and God help us if we try to help. We're definitely in that stage where he wants to do things himself and then gets very frustrated when he can't. He's very determined to learn to put his shoes on. He'll spend a good ten minutes just sitting on the floor, shoe in one hand, foot in the other, trying to make it work. I've learned to build in more time before leaving to accommodate this process. He has mastered taking his shirt off, however, which means I need to go find some sleepers. We've been doing pjs that are separate shirt and pants combos and now he just takes the shirt off. But he refuses to have a blanket on him, so that's not going to work. I have been tipped off to Carters sleepers though, so I'll be taking care of that soon. (Thanks Bridget!)

Well, I should get going. I have to lead a study session tomorrow for my students to prep for their midterm. It would probably help if I had read the material. Good night!