Smacked in the Head.

Something I can't quite figure out is when Nico is at the park with his BFF Ovid.  Now, Ovid is a few months younger than Nico.  I think Nico has a much more developed vocabulary, but Ovid was potty trained sooner, so whatever.  We have met Ovid and his mom at Optimist park a couple of times and the last two times its been an absolute panic riot when it's time to go.

Yesterday, he smacked his friend in the face.  In the face. And there was the meltdown.

They are totally best friends forever, so I don't understand.

Another interesting thing he is doing lately is qualifying some of this statements.  Like, "This macaronni and cheese is kinda good" or "It's a pretty nice night out".  It is awesome.

Sumo and Spanish

Here is a video of Dave and Nico doing sumo.  Its awesome.


We have also started teaching him spanish and french words.  This was always going to happen, since Dave speaks so much french already.  According to Dave, Nico's pronunciation is pretty good.  But, check this out:


Disregarding the fact that Nico is picking his nose here... listen to him roll his Rs and Ls.  Words like brown (marron) and yellow (amarillo).  Pretty impressive.  I know adults who can't do that.

Did I spoil your plans?

I really do feel bad about Nico not getting to see his friends at his old school.  He and his little buddy Ovid are just hysterical together.  The last time we went to the park they ran up to each other and hugged.  It was awesome.  This morning, Nico was talking about how he didnt want to go to school, he just wanted to stay at the house and sword fight.  like this:

I know- how much fun is that?  So I compromised with Nico and told him that he had to go to school because after we were going to take the swords to the park and meet Ovid there... so Ovid and Nico are going to fight with swords at the park.  Isn't that amazing?  What could be better than best friends and sword fighting at the park? 

In other news, we have been doing preseason.

Preseason used to be just a way that we would get around FHSAA rules about when practice could start.  But now we actually use it for fitness.  I wish I had a lot of spare time on my hands... I would love to make some highlight video for the girls this year. I think they would love it. 

Other than that... Dave gets back from Jacksonville today.  Nico has a birthday party tomorrow.  And we have practice.  And I am running a race.  Theoretically.  I was supposed to run a race last weekend, but whatever... 

I have 11 more job applications to put out before October 15.  I have 28 applications "out there" right now. I think it goes fine until I look at one that was submitted to Kenyon, where in I addressed it to Professor Sacks, but then say, "Dear Professor Sachs..."  FML.  These are the things that I hate and that kill me.  My only hope is that they write that off as a brilliant mind who can't be bothered to think about the difference between an h and a k... but likely they write that off as me being a dumbass...Which is fair. But its a job I would never get... so, I guess no harm done, right?

I don't even care...

I have come to the conclusion that I must not have a very expanded vocubulary or pattern of speech.  I came to this realization that there have been times when someone has said something and I have recognized it as something that I say a lot....For example, I used to say, "Barf!"  A lot.  Like: "Hey Jessi, how do you feel about going to work today?"  Me: "Barf!" "Jessi, how do you feel about playing playing Momo's team today?"  Me: "Double Barf!"

I notice it even more now with Nico because he sometimes will parrot what I say.  One thing he has been saying lately is "I don't even care!"  Mostly it's in the context of us playing around.  We will be in the car and he will put his foot on the back of my seat or my shoulder and he'll say, "look Mom!"  And then I will "get him".  "Getting Nico" is mostly just me tickling him.  And I say things like, "I'm gonna get those legs, I don't even care!"  Its really funny.  Nico laughs. So he's been saying that a lot lately, "I don't even care."  

Other than that, not much going on around here.  I have been working out a lot on my lunch break.  My friend from DOH who now works at the COM upstairs works out too, so that is nice.  We keep each other accountable.  

The house is a disaster area, once again.  If Nico's tuition wasn't so expensive, we'd just hire a house cleaning service.  Permanently.  I love not having to clean my house.  Which gets me to thinking... how in the hell did the Boomer women do it?  It seems like once a week something has to be done... a sink needs to be fixed, the washer needs to be fixed, the car needs to go to the shop on top of making dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry every night.  Seriously.  And I can't even use the excuse that Nico is playing sports, doing swimming lessons, doing gymnastics, music lessons and such.  I need a clone.  That is it.  A clone.  

All for now. Back to work!

Well-check

We had a pretty laid back weekend.  We started preseason last week, so after we did soccer on Saturday, we mostly hung out at the house.  Here is Nico at the park on Sunday, before nap and our soccer game on Sunday night. 

Nico went to the doctor yesterday for his 3 year well-child visit.  BTW- how fantastic is not paying co-pays for that?  I think it's awesome!  

Nico weights 33 lbs, and is 38 inches tall.  He is in the 55% for both.  Apparently, my son is an elf-child.  He has been dealing with a head cold of some sort, perhaps leftover from the thing that Dave and I caught last week.  So, we kept him home from school yesterday- where in I got this adorable picture of him while he slept.  

We didnt do much except watch some TV and snuggle on the couch.  I had big plans for doing Christmas crafts and such.  But we ran out of time. Yes, I am already beginning it.  I don't even care.  Mostly because Christmas is my favorite holiday and I want it to be Nico's too.  But also because I tend to get my a$$ kicked during the soccer season, and I am not trying to wait to do all christmas things till our mid-season break.  

All for now.   

Mopping...

So the first day I took Nico to his new big school, he mopped. His new big school has a fluid deck- where in the kids put on water shoes (crocs) and smocks.  They wash baby dolls, have painting, stamping, a mud kitchen (seriously, a mud kitchen?  what is that?) and mops.  Nico mopped the whole deck while we were there.

I ordered a mop from Amazon for Nico thinking that he would love it.  We busted it this weekend.  When Nico mopped for 5 minutes.  Seriously.  5 minutes before he was ready to do something else.  Boooo!!

I was sick this weekend.  Some type of cold or something.  It's weird, because I remember when I first moved to Tallahassee I got really sick... bronchitis and pneumonia.  I was working as a preschool teacher and couldnt afford to take any time off- so I didnt.  Now a little cold puts me on my a$$... I guess I am getting old.  It sucks.

Preseason starts today.  Can't wait till someone throws up.... I warned them about it :)

Smarty McSmarts

I can't remember why, but over the weekend, Nico and I were talking about President Obama.  I was explaining to Nico that a president is a person that Americans pick to be our leader, to help make decisions for the country.  And that President Obama is our president right now.

Fast forward to last night when I come home late from the office.  Nico and Dave are getting ready for bed when Dave tells me that Nico blew his mind tonight by explaining that he knew "President Orvama" is our president and helps make decisions.  Isn't that great? Really smart.  

Here he is working a game that Max and Emme got him for his birthday.  

Long Labor Day Weekend.

So the question on whether or not Nico was going to be allowed to travel was answered this week. The ANSWER IS YES!!  Nico was great!

Since Dave was down in Tampa covering the RNC, Nico and I left from Tallahassee on Thursday afternoon.  I scooped him up from his school before nap and we headed to the airport.  We had a brief moment when he was acting like the Assistant Regional Manager of the Jerk Store.  In fact, the only time he acted up was while we were in the airport in Tallahassee and Atlanta.  And by acting up, he was basically just trying to get away from me- which I probably wouldnt care about it if he were 5 or 8 and aware that TSA would bounce his little ass on the no fly list if he cuts up too much.  When your kid is 3 your biggest worry in life is that someone is going to take him.  Add to that the fact that Nico is ridiculously good looking.  Doesn't this look like the kind of kid you would want to steal?  I thought so.  

The flight from Tallahassee to Atlanta was easy.  Nico didnt cry or fuss on the flight.  Which was awesome.  He stayed awake until we were leaving Atlanta when he fell asleep while taxiing for take-off.  He was sitting in the window seat and just put his head in my lap and took a little nap.  It was awesome.  

Nicole, Emme and Max scooped us up from the airport and took us back to their place in Rockwall.  They moved this summer from Dallas to the suburb of Rockwall.  Their house is huge and we had a blast there. Max and Emme have lots of toys that Nico loved playing with (including several ride-on cars like firetrucks).  Friday we hung around the house waiting for everyone to get done with school and work.  Oh and we got a hamburger cake.  But we didn't get any pictures of it.  :(

Friday night we scooped up Dave from the airport and headed back to Rockwall.  Saturday we headed to the harbor (on a lake in Rockwall) and had Chilosos for dinner.  

The harbor is cool because we also got some ice cream and listened to the Rockwall symphony play some movie soundtracks.  We sat in the grass and listened and the kids went in the light house.  It was awesome.  

We ended up winning the tournament.  I got to see Julia and her husband Jake.  Julia just had ankle surgery, or else she would have played with us during the tournament.  The girls that were on the team are really cool.  Good players... no drama, no attitude.  It was great.

The kids had a great time... even if it was apparent that someone is definitely an only child (and his name rhymes with Rico).  Nicole and Cody have a pool, so it was great swimming a bunch.   The great thing about a pool is that its easier to jump in the pool than to take a bath just before bed time.  Isnt that awesome!!  We got some snuggles with Beckett... who is getting big.  That boy is going to be a biggun!!

In all it was a great long weekend.  But now we are back.  Back on the grind.  Back to work.  Back to school.  Booo!

Interview...

So, since some of you have asked.  Since I am on the Academic Job market this year and I had an interview with a school last week.  Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine is hiring faculty for their Department of Social Medicine. The application deadline was August 15 and I was contacted for a phone interview shortly thereafter.  I dont know how many other candidates they talked to on the phone, but 6-10 is pretty standard for phone interviews.  The interview was only 20 minutes, so I dont know how standard that is.  It went pretty quickly though.

I was a little unsettled by the fact that the committee seemed mostly interested in my dissertation work, which was odd, because I dont think its all that interesting anymore.  Maybe its because I have been writing or working with that data for 6+ years.  Maybe its the main take home point that I have taken from doing research on infant health disparities: that what we really need is better data sources to go beyond what we already know.  I thought they were interested in me because I am at a college of medicine and my current research is in an area that complements their current research.  But turns out they just wanted to know about my main dissertation findings.  I tried twice to turn the conversation to my current work, but I felt like a big-time spaz during the call. Plus, I just got some weird feelings from the committee. It seemed like they were humoring someone by interviewing me...

Then I got an email from Ike, who had spoken to the search committee chair. I dont know to what extent it is protocol to call a candidate's advisor- my guess is that it varies by college and search committee (the dissertation advisor is theoretically, the closest faculty member to the candidate).  Ike told me about how the conversation went which was mostly positive, but the committee had some concerns about my publication record. At this point in time I have one publication (published in 2009, one coming out later this year, and one that will be under review this week, plus I have another paper that will be out by the end of the fall- all from my dissertation.)  That is not even to talk about papers I can write with the data I am collecting.

I guess the good thing about me as a scholar/candidate is that I am self-aware enough to know that my lack of publications may be a problem.  I know this.  I know that the gap from my first paper (2009) to the one coming out this year (2012) is weird. Although to be fair, this current paper was supposed to come out in 2011.  I wish that I could put an asterisk on my cv and say regarding the gap: "During the period 2009-2012, I got married, had a kid, did an internship in DC, worked for AHCA, worked for DOH, taught for the FSU Dept. of Sociology, tutored athletes, coached three seasons of high school soccer, graduated, and got a paper rejected."  But in the end, it really doesn't matter.  It seems (and not just based on the feedback from OU) that the only currency that matters is publications. Of course, its possible that the OU experience was just a fluke... it was my first interview ever, so maybe the whole thing was a crap shoot. Maybe I will get other interviews and it won't matter.  Maybe OU was always out of my reach.  I was surprised when they wanted an interview. My thought was, "Have you seen my cv?  You know I have 1.5 publications, right?  Okay, you want to interview me... you must be into my "potential".  Okay, I can dig that..."

I would like for once, just once, for something to be easy. I guess there are two ways of looking at it... that maybe all the things that are hard are really just red flags.  Maybe it's the Universe's way of saying, "It's never going to happen, man. It's a pipe dream.  I keep putting up road blocks, but you keep climbing over them.  Can't you just go do something else?"

Or maybe it's the Universe's way of saying, "If you can swim in the deep end with chum, sharks and concrete shoes, swimming in the shallow end with a bang stick, minnows and floaties should be no problem.  Get to swimming, kid."

I don't hold much hope for getting invited for an interview at OU. But I am trying to be as thorough as possible with the job market.  I kinda just wish I could fast forward to next year at this time...