one small corner of the universe

• I am in my fifth day at my new job, and I am already equal parts elated-overjoyed-invigorated and freaked-the-hell-out. It’s too much to explain now, but here are some things for you to consider: for the first time in years I am being listened to at work–by adults; I am legally parking in the same faculty/staff lot I used to sneak into after midnight on Fridays as a college junior because it’s right next to the dorm I lived in that year; I am only just beginning to absorb the magnitude of my responsibilities, and I can’t pin down how I feel about them (see above re: one second elated, the next freaked out).
• In case you haven’t already figured it out, I am now employed by my undergraduate alma mater. I cannot describe the surreality this fact generates on a daily basis.
• Thanks to all who participated in The Great Bag Search. I ended up going with a black-on-black TimBuk2 “Blogger” bag, which I got for 44 bucks from Sierra Trading Post. “D” wins the prize for suggesting STP, and although the Blogger bag came in 3rd place with only 3 votes, it most closely resembles the bag I loved. And also, 44 BUCKS! Did I mention that part? I got a bag that is regularly priced at $100 for 44 BUCKS!
• My baby is officially sick for only the second time in her life. This time, like before, she has an ear infection, and the combination of fever and ear pain has made her more cuddly than usual. She is typically not the cuddling kind. Hugs abound, kisses even, but she doesn’t have time for sitting around in a lap unless there’s a book involved. Or a fever, apparently.
• Speaking of my offspring, I have entered uncharted territory as a parent, and I have only my quiet boasting to blame. Some months ago Bri posted a sleep survey on her blog in an effort to gain some insight into her son’s sleep patterns. In that survey one had the option to anonymously assert that her child did not need to be “trained to sleep,” that the little angel just came into being with solid sleep habits. I was one of the innocently ignorant who proudly selected that item, and now I am paying for it. About two weeks ago, Mia stopped going to sleep at her traditional bedtime, insisting instead on getting out of her bed (she started sleeping in a toddler bed at the end of July, which I will discuss in an extended sleep-related post as soon as I’ve had some!) and screaming bloody murder every time I attempted to leave the room. She also stopped sleeping through the night, opting to wake between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m. and refusing to go placidly back to sleep like she did in the good old days of a few months ago. Consequently, I have not slept through the night in the past two weeks. I don’t know how you people with the perpetually erratic sleepers have coherent conversations or manage to put on matching clothes every day. Look for a longer post about all of this in the near future. And by post I mean a rant detailing the sleep deterioration and lots of shameless begging for suggestions on how to fix it.
• And finally, also speaking of my offspring: there is a curriculum resource center for undergraduate teacher candidates in my building, and the center’s director is constantly receiving new resources, so she is also often giving old resources away. If you’ve ever worked with elementary grade levels you know there is a lot of cool shit out there to teach math to little kids–nifty colorful manipulatives shaped like gummy bears, for example, or giant cloth rulers, or big multi-colored buttons in various shapes that are perfect for counting, sorting, or stringing with shoelaces. It was this last item that went home with me yesterday afternoon: bright red, yellow, blue, and green buttons shaped like triangles, squares, and circles on a red shoe string. I was expecting Mia to stack them, or even attempt to string them, but what she did still has me laughing. She put all of the shapes in a big pile looked at them all very closely, and then she pulled out all of the yellow ones and put them in a smaller pile. And then she pretended to eat them. After each pretend bite she would say with gusto, “Cheese!* Mmm mmm mmm!” Holy CRAP, people, my baby has an IMAGINATION!

*Incidentally, we don’t even eat “yellow cheese” at our house, but she has Dorling Kindersley’s My First Book of Words and My First Book of Numbers, and in those books are brightly colored photographs of various things, including a block of cheese. Yellow cheese. So not only was she pretending, she was also recalling information FROM A BOOK.