Miscellany

A good friend of mine gave Henry some nesting cups for his birthday. He LOVES them, and his favorite thing to do with them is to wedge a smaller cup into a larger one, like so:

I can pick them all up and arrange them in nesting order, and he'll strew them out and wedge them together every time.

I'm taking Laura's cue and listing ten things I did today. You will quickly see that my day didn't turn out as planned:

1. Did a bit of administrative work (retrieving and filing articles) for a research project I'm working on. Wrote some other work-related emails.

2. Got a massage.

3. Grabbed tacos at a little taco shack for lunch for Jonathan and me.

4. Upon getting home, realized that Henry was burning up. Took temperature: 102.7. Freaked out.

5. Called pediatrician, who of course was already gone for the day.

6. Gave Tylenol to Henry per nurse's suggestion to just watch him and give him Tylenol/Motrin to keep fever down.

7. Took Henry to urgent care anyway; nurse checked temp, 103.

8. Gave Henry a huge dose of Motrin as the doctor directed.

9. Sat in a hot car worried sick about my baby in the rear-facing car seat in traffic for a solid hour before getting to the pharmacy for antibiotics.

10. Took Henry's temperature several more times; it has returned to normal now.

It's going to be a long night...

I'm pleased to say that one of my hacks has made Parent Hacks. I submitted it to them, of course, but still.

I just completed another hack, this time a baby-finger-food-hack. I cooked elbow macaroni, put it on a plate after draining, then topped it with some shredded cheese and microwaved it for a few seconds. The result: mac and cheese that you can pick up and eat, unlike the regular kind that's coated in cheese sauce (and a bit hard to pick up in little fingers).

It's somewhat exhausting to think about everything I need to do this summer. But maybe laying it out, here in a public space, will help me get all the to-dos out of my head, where they've been swirling around.

Research

1. Book proposal: get it done, send it out.

2. Maybe an article manuscript in response to a CFP I saw. If not that, then definitely a good draft of a Program Profile for Composition Forum, something my department chair has encouraged me to write.

3. Review a manuscript for a journal.

4. Review a book.

Teaching

1. Prepare for first-year writing course I'm teaching in the fall. We are in the planning stages of making some possible changes to the first-year writing curriculum here, and some of us will be class-testing new books this fall. I'm class-testing They Say, I Say with a 102 class.

2. Continue to read and respond to chapters by the authors of the two dissertations and one master's thesis I'm directing.

Home Improvement

1. Clean out dining room closets. Yes, it's wacky to have closets in the dining room, but you get used to it.

2. Acquire and/or create, frame, and hang up some good art for our walls.

3. Clean out/organize closet in guest bedroom.

Miscellaneous

1. Take one-day pediatric CPR/first aid class.

2. Update CV.

3. Read at least two novels. I'm thinking one of these will be by Philip K. Dick.

Q.E.D.

Best year ever.

I have to believe experiences like the following will make me a better teacher.

Clancy: Henry, say Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma.

Henry: Da-Da.

Clancy: Henry, say Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma.

Henry: Da-Da.

Clancy: Henry, say Ma-Ma.

Henry: Pppbbbtt (sputters)

Clancy: Henry, say Ma-Ma.

Henry: Ah-Ya-Ya.

Henry's been practicing standing with no hands for a little while now, but I was able to get a picture this morning: