Almost There

So I've survived the first two written exams; only one more to go! It's been a bit stressful, to say the least. It's hard to judge how they went, but I think I did ok. We'll see where it ends up. I'm not sure how long it'll take to get the results, but at the very latest, I'll have to know by Aug. 22, because the oral defense is scheduled for the 23rd and I have to pass the writtens to get to that point. Keep your fingers crossed!

It was really nice that my mom was able to come out and visit for this past week. It was great to have someone take care of me and give me a break to study and just relax. Plus, it was just nice to see her. I wish we lived closer, but oh well. I guess we'll just have to make do with what we have. Ronan really enjoyed having grandma around too. He fell asleep in the car when we went to drop her off at the airport. He woke up when we got home and his first words were "Where's grandma?" Then he walked around asking "My grandma? My grandma?" It was pretty cute.

In other news, Tom got the dayshift position!! Hooray! I'm so excited about it. We're not sure when that will start - he's still on the night schedule through the middle of September, but hopefully after that we can make the switch. I decided for fun to think of some of the things I'm looking forward to having him on days:
1. Seeing him on a regular basis (he'll be gone from about 6:15 a.m. to 8 p.m. three days a week, but the other four he'll be here and awake!)
2. Having someone to help out with Ronan
3. Being able to go places together as a family
4. Not having to try to keep Ronan and the dogs quiet all day.
5. Not having to fight Ronan to keep him out of the bedroom when Tom's sleeping.
6. Keeping my car in the garage during the winter (since it's right under our room and it's so loud when the door goes up, I have to keep my car parked outside).
7. Keeping my clothes in my room and not being out of luck if I need to change in the middle of the day (plus being able to put clothes away as soon as they're out of the wash, instead of having to keep them folded up in our laundry room).
8. Ronan getting to spend a lot more time with his dad.
9. General improvement in our relationship, as we'll no longer be on opposite schedules.
10. Easier vacations, since he won't have to spend half of them trying to switch his schedule around.
11. Opening the curtains in our room.
12. Not having to eat dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon on his workdays.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. :) The main downside is that it'll be much harder to work out daycare for this semester. The class I'm scheduled to teach, assuming I pass comps, is from 5:30-6:45 p.m. twice a week, which means that I won't get home until 7:15 at the earliest. Daycare closes at 6:30 and if Tom's working, that's a good 45 minutes to an hour where neither of us are around. Thankfully, Tom's mom is happy to help out and with any luck, Tom can get schedules where he doesn't have to work at least one of those days. It's just ironic, since his current schedule actually makes it a little easier (on nights he works, he'd be able to pick up Ronan, get him fed, and then just have his mom or someone else come to the house to watch him until I get home). But it's definitely worth the hassle to have him back in the land of the living.

Ronan's been doing well himself. He had his 2.5 year check up a couple weeks ago. He's in the 62% for weight and 95% for height. It's pretty amazing how fast he's growing, especially considering the fact that a year ago, he was in the 5% for weight and there was some real worry about that. Amazing what not being sick constantly can do for a person!

We've also been working on potty training. It has it's ups and downs. Ronan has the basics pretty well under control. The trick is just getting him to the potty when he needs to use it. Sometimes he'll start to wet himself and then stop and go to the bathroom, sometimes not. Pooping of course is the bigger issue. He doesn't have any qualms about pooping on the potty, but he just hasn't made the connection yet between the feeling of having to poop and sitting on the potty. (Grossness alert!) The other day, I was working on dinner when Ronan came in - he was carrying a napkin which was full of poop. Apparently he had pooped directly into it. Gross, but it sure beat having to clean the carpet! Then yesterday I saw him run to the bathroom. Followed him in and he was standing on top of the potty, naked, with a cup of water in his hand, about to pour it on his bottom. I looked and sure enough, he was starting to poop, so I got him to sit on the potty and success! So I think he's starting to get the idea, but hasn't made all the connections yet. His daycare teacher is pretty happy with how he's doing there and suggested we start trying to have him in underwear there and see how it goes. I'm hoping it'll work well. For some reason, he does better with things at daycare, so maybe they can get him in the habit of knowing when he has to go and we can just build on that at home. We'll see.

Well, that's about all for now. I'm sure the next post will be either ecstatic over passing comps or sad over failing them. :) Hopefully it's the former!