Wow, what a busy few weeks we've had. Casey was out of town for 10 days; both Gavin and I have been sick; the arctic blast brought snow and ice, shutting our little corner of the world down; and both work and school routines are in full force. The good news is Gavin and I are on the mend, the snow and ice have gone, and Casey is back so I am no longer playing "single, working mom," which by the way made me appreciate the full-time single, working mothers out there a whole lot more.

Gavin is all over the place and despite being sick, he is really a joyful little kid and we are grateful for that.




Here are a few videos I recorded last week.

Crawling to Uncle Tyler


Sometime last week I went into the nursery to straighten up and start the bedtime routine. I put Gavin in his crib while I did this. He was a hoot! He was talking up a storm, making motorboat noises, pulling up and crawling from one side of his crib to the other. Below are two videos and a picture from that evening.






School is going well. Lots of reading and writing this semester, as opposed to all the math from last semester. Biology is a continuation of the Biology course I took in Fall 2008, but this half is only offered during the spring semester because there is a lot of tree identification and other outdoor activities. There will be several field trips, two in the Smoky Mtn. National Park and one to a natural history museum. If you recall, last spring when I was pregnant, I was not really excited about my Environmental Ethics course, which is offered through the department of Philosophy. My instructor was kind of pompous and it was hard to get excited about the reading material. The only reason I was disappointed to withdrawal from the course was because it only meant I would have to endure it all over again this spring. Luck would have it that there is a different instructor this semester. He is definitely not pompous, very good at connecting with his students and we're reading books that are not only relevant to this geographical region but also to our current political and cultural climates, which makes for a much more meaningful learning experience.