You've got a program featuring America's favorite old fart. Reading a book in front of a fireplace. Now, I have to kill all of you.

So we are in full-on holiday spirit around here. 

We played our last game before break on Monday night.  We went to Taylor.  We also lost one of our backs in the game.  SR got knocked to the ground pretty hard and hurt her ankle.  I thought she might have just sprained it- the way she was holding it on the field.  But her mom took her to the ortho and we find out yesterday that her season is done.  She's a senior so its pretty messed up.  You know, its funny with this kid- she was on JV her freshman year and came up as a sophomore.  Didnt play much her first two years- mostly because I didnt know where to play her.  She is probably the fastest thing on two legs I have ever seen in real life.  Last year we played her as a wing midfielder- which worked well for us against good teams- the teams that could switch the ball well.  I have seen her run down forwards attacking on the backside from 40 yards away.  She'd go jogging by and all we'd have to say is, "You gotta catch her, Stevey."  End of story.  Girl got caught. 

When we lost our big center back this year (she graduated), we moved Stevey into the back because she was so fast.  In fact, we even switched to a three back system, because we have one really tough back, one really smart back and one really fast back.  It was an amazing combination.  Except for our sophomore center back (the really smart one), she had the most number of minutes of anyone on the field (excluding our GK), if you dont count the 2 games she missed for a death in the family. 

Its funny with Taylor.  In the time that Dave and I have coached at Wakulla, we have played them 7 times.  Just under half the games we play against them, we have serious injuries (we lost a girl to an ACL our sophomore year at home, our GK ran into the goalpost our sophomore year at Taylor and now this).  One could argue that the ACL and the head injury had nothing to do with THEM, but rather an unlucky turn of events.  This one, though, its hard to make that case, when the girl threw Stevey down.  Of course, it is a physical sport, and perhaps it would have happened against some one else, or some other way.  The girl that did it apologized, but that isnt going to get Stevey back her senior year.  Its not going to help us figure out who is going to play back there now. 

Of course, it makes my justification for doing IP (injury prevention) harder.  Last year, I instituted a system of IP at practice- mostly just a few drills to help with agility and proper weight bearing- side to side shuffling, speed skaters, one legged hops.  The girls hated them.  But last year was the first year that we didnt lose anyone to a season ending knee injury- so I felt pretty good about making them do it.  This goes to show that all the IP in the world doesnt matter if someone jacks your ankle hard because she is frustrated. 

High school soccer tangent aside, we've been trying to get the house in order. Its hard, because Nico doesnt pull his weight very well.  I sit him in his bumpo seat on the table and he's all like, "I'm gonna eat some pretzel sticks, if you don't mind".  Yes, he actually helped himself to those pretzel sticks in the jar on the table.  That is the thing about babies, you're doing work and all they want to do is get into the snacks. 

I went to the post office today- dont know if yall know this or not, but I am currently partaking in a love affair with BookMooch.com, which trades books.  Like, you make a wishlist and when people add those books available to mooch, you contact them and set it up.  Its free, all you have to pay for is to send the books to other people... you dont pay to have books sent to you.  Its awesome.  In any case, I needed to send two books. 

This is what I have come to figure out: there are not many things in this world that make me irate.  But waiting in line at the post office sends me over the top almost every time.  It makes NO SENSE.  Why is there only one person working the desk and there are 12 people in line?  What is priceless is that there were two people working the counter.  As I got to the front of the line, one of them put up their little sign and walked away.  As I got up to the counter someone behind me in line asked, "Is that other guy coming back?" To which I replied, "Its the post office.  What do you think?"  The PO guy who was helping me said, when "He'll be back when he comes back from lunch."  It was 10:15. 

I am thinking about boycotting the Postal Service.  Seriously.  I dont do business with companies who I find it a PITA to deal with.  For example, Wal-Mart.  I know I should be all progressive and whatnot and disdain Walmart for their labor policies, etc (like a good hippie).  I should, for all intents and purposes like shopping at Walmart.  A place where I can get ice cream, a car battery, spray paint and jam?  Forget about.  But I  dont shop there because mostly I hate the experience of shopping at Walmart.  Its always an ordeal to go there.  Why should the Postal Service be any different?  In this age of email and UPS how in the hell does the USPS stay in business?  Note to self: find out location of closest UPS store and figure out how to cut the USPS out of the picture.  Snarky comment from my Dad about Government-run health care in 3....2....1....

In any case, the delicate leafy vines that I cut on Sunday to decorate the living room turned out to be a fail.  The vines are all dried up now... they look dead.  There aren't enough strings of little white lights that make that look good.  Looks like I will get to pull that down this weekend and put something else up there.  I thought about leaving it, hoping that it would look all artistic and whatnot.  Turns out, it looks like some dead vines hanging up there with little white lights.  Holiday decorating: FAIL!

I simply solved the problem. We needed a coffin... Er, a tree. There are no lots open on Christmas Eve. Lewis burned down my tree so I replaced it as best I could. Voilà.

So things have been busy around here.  Our game at Suwannee was canceled this weekend due to the weather.  It was cold and rainy here, and apparently was so all through the night in Live Oak, because the field was under water.  Of course, I find this out on the drive on I-10- close to Perry.  It sort of sucked for the JV girls and the Varsity girls since they had to be at the highschool at 745 to catch the bus.  This pretty much bums me out because we're 2-10-1.  Every game gives us a chance of digging out to .500.  But it is what it is.  Stupid weather.  Note to self: Talk to Kelly the Baller and make her fix that for the rest of the season!

To recap: The Bishop-Royses are going to play a game this holiday called "How many people can we fit into Dave and Jessi's House?"  Its great fun for all!!  We've got my Aunt Judy coming from Washington, Mom and Dad from the 239, NiCody and the kids from Texas and Royse's parents and Aunt Rosie.  So obviously the house needs to be cleaned, and I choose to procrastinate by doing crafts.  Yay!!   I bet you didnt know this: but there are some people that decorate the hell out of their houses at Christmas time.  Like LH and DH.  I only know this second hand from Julia- but they really do it up.  Then last night, Dave and I went to a holiday party at his coworker's house- it was awesome.  Like the house fell out of the Christmas Tree and hit every Christmas branch on the way down and fell into a pile of Christmas. 

So- since I can't be productive in the locked-in-my-office-writing-brilliant-papers-pimping-data-and-being-an-awesome-researcher sort of way, I have taken to decorating the house festively with Nico.  A sampling of our work:

I saw this and was floored, because three quarters of the Christmas ornaments that I got down from the attic and unwrapped where those glass ball ornaments.  Which I like, but only if I am going to do a tree that is only glass ornaments.  Otherwise, they look too random.  So I thought about taking them to Goodwill when I found a blog post about doing this with your old ornaments.  Of course, the point is to use up stuff that you already have.... I only had enough to cover about 80 percent of the foam wreath I had to buy.  So that was kind of a sustainability fail.  But it looks cool!! (Note to self: before you whip out your glue gun and proceed to copy my awesomeness, be advised that this project requires hot glue and its a pain in the ass... and that I fully expect to be picking up broken glass ornaments off the ground for the next two weeks.)

We also did this Christmas card wreath.  I have a wonderful bell wreath that I got a couple of years ago, that I absolutely adore on the door.  Every year, its about the first thing that goes up, somewhere on or near December 10.  And Dave takes it down on December 11.  Then I put it back up- is there anything better than the sound of jingle bells?  Apparently, yes, the sound of silence, because then Dave takes it down.  AGAIN.  He is pretty ANTI.  So I decided to fulfill the wreath need with something functional: 

This week I have been painting clothespins green, in order to make the above wreath- which you attach Christmas cards to... which I love, because I like displaying the cards, but dont ever know what is the best way. Since going to the crafts store is kind of a production and since I am trying to be all sustainable and whatnot, I am trying hard to use items that I already have this holiday, for decorating, wrapping, etc. 

So Nico and I have been working on this wreath, which is made mostly from items that I already had (except for the green paint and the red pony beads).  Its a little droopier than I would like, mostly because I destroyed my wire cutters trying to cut coat hanger for this project... so I ended up twisting floral wire together to make the body of the wreath.  This has worked pretty good for us- he sits pretty well in his bumpo seat for 15-20 minutes at a time, as long as I am standing up and moving around.  He takes it all in- watching me cook, do dishes, fold laundry, paint a bunch of clothespins, etc.  So far, he's not particularly interested in watching me write job market letters.  JOB MARKET: FAIL!

But, on the upside- Nico is starting at the FSU Infant and Toddler Center in January.  So I will have some time to devote to dissertating and job searches.  He is definitely going to be a hot mess up in there!  His schedule, as it were, includes cat naps in the car to Wakulla, eating every 2-4 hours (as he feels like), and me cuddling with him for inordinate amounts of time during the day.  Needy Momma's boy?  Yes, indeed.  My apologies to the girls that have to take care of him! Awesome!!

They say less is more...

Blog posts two days in a row?  Lucky!!

My favorite time of the year is the Fall...specifically the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas (okay- so technically its not really fall, but whatev!).  I like most of the stuff about this time of year- people tend to be in a better mood, looking forward to time off, seeing family, etc.  I also like giving gifts.  There is something that is awesome about it.  I think about it a lot, I consider it... hell, I have a 45 minute drive each way down  to Wakulla.  What else would you think about? 

To me, the perfect gift is one that is used a lot, or where it is completely evident that the gift giver took some time thinking about you and what you would like.  For example, 6 years ago, my mom gave me an italian charm bracelet for Christmas.  It had flags for all the countries where I had been.  It also had the year I graduated from highschool, etc.  I have since added charms for the marathon I ran, the minutes I got playing in the W-League, Win-Loss-Tie records for the last three highschool seasons and two black paw prints for Drake and Gordon.  Before Nico came, I wore it every day, except for when I went to Africa and only because I was afraid that I would lose it (I dont wear it now because it sometimes scratches and pinches Nico). It was truly a great gift.

Those are the gifts I try to give- ones that I think the receiver will use a lot (or appreciated a lot).  If you've ever received a gift from me, know that this is how I approach gift giving.  If I was ever wrong, sorry.  But my heart was in the right place. 

But it can be kind of stressful.  A lot of times its hard to figure out a good gift  because there are literally, too many that would be great.  But I guess as IE would say, "That is a good problem to have." 

However, this year in our family, we have decided to scale back Christmas.  A lot.  Part of it came from the realization that Dave and I cant have any more stuff in our house... it is out of control.  And, I feel guilty about bringing more stuff into the house, especially if it is associated with a hoppy like sewing, quilting, knitting and or scrapbooking.  Seriously, my dissertation isnt going to write itself as I work on a quilt.  And obviously, the hippie in me fights about the wasted wrapping and packaging materials.  But its also a realization that the things I enjoy about the holidays do not include fighting with holiday shopping traffic.  Nor do they include waiting in long check out lines or dealing with pissy shoppers.  Plus, I will shoot myself in the face if I become one of those parents who is in a tug of war with another grown ass adult over a Tickle Me Elmo.

Now, granted, the things that my family does during the holidays arent all hippy-fied.  For example-we love food.  We talk about it, we prepare it, we eat it, we compete over it.  Hell, my mom was pushing me to nail down a Christmas menu back in October.  Its what we do.  We also sit around and watch Christmas movies.  Even the ones that we've seen 20 times.  Yes, we all know all the lines to Christmas Vacation.  But its what we do.  We play games like yahtzee and boggle.  We used to play games like Taboo (until the Key West Incident) and Scattergories (until the double letter incident).  But we could play just about any game.  We are some game loving folk.   But its what we do.  I'd rather this kid have Christmas memories that involve getting his butt kicked by Aunt Nicole in Dont Break the Ice or his horror when Granny You and Grampy were inappropriate during Cranium. 
So- we arent doing it.  Not this year.  My mom and my sister's need for Christmas lists has made it very easy this year- just go to a list and buy something.  No need to obsess.  To wonder if it's an appropriate representation of our "love".  We made lists of stuff that we want/need.  That way we're sure that when we do give something, its something that we know will be used.  A lot.  Or LOVED.   

Oh Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree.

So this weekend was pretty good.  We spent Friday night and Saturday playing in the Chiles Soccer tournament.  We played Rutherford on Friday night and drew with them (but then went on to lose in PKs) and then played Fernidina Beach on Saturday morning.  We gave up a silly goal 4 minutes in, but then played okay for the rest of the game- resulting in a loss (1-0).  We were set to play against Lincoln for the third game, but the tournament people ended up having to cancel the third game, due a combination of the weather and referees availability.  This is okay with us- since we had already played Lincoln during the regular season (although, I wouldnt have minded another go at them- they didnt look look like they had brought their A- Game...

We got a tree on the way home from the tournament.  I grew up with an artificial tree- so I was sort of ambivalent about getting a real tree (especially since I think having a real tree makes us bad hippies).  Dave is into the smell of the tree- which I totally get.  Its a great smell.  Spent Saturday night, Sunday and today decorating said tree.

I think I am making Dave crazy.  I keep tearing up the house with my projects.  Even worse: I am not packing away one project before moving onto another.  The result is that the house is STILL a disaster area - but I am trying.  Right now I have two wreaths in the works.  I know IE is reading this like, "How about a little less arts and crafts and a little more work on your dissertation?"  To which I would reply- Nico gets very bored with the tapa-tapa-tapa, very quickly.  Whereas with bigger projects involving me making stuff he is a lot more interested.  Ce la vie.  What are you going to do?

Am looking forward to Christmas.  It will probably be pretty crazy.  My family is coming, Dave's family is coming.  We're planning on frying a turkey on Christmas day.  While we are at it, we are gonna fry some other stuff too... twinkies, snickers and oreos (just to see how they are) and try our hand at boudin balls (from Randols). and fried green chilli wontons (from the Bristol up in the Lou).  Of course, there will be a cupcake throw down.  My sister, Mom and I are having a cupcake competition.  My mom and I wanted to make our cupcakes from the jumbo muffin tins... Nicole is calling for the standard muffin tins.  We may need to get a ruling in this.  :)

Am also looking forward to beginning training on the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  Julia, Lauren and Kelly and I are *running* it in March.  I say *running* because there is no way in hell I could keep pace with Julie and Lauren (and definitely not Kelly- who RAN BOSTON.  In fact I see it looking something like this: Kelly finishes 2nd of everyone with a time of 1 hour flat- wearing a pink tutu.  Julia and Lauren run it in an hour and half- also wearing tutus and looking very graceful at that.   And it takes me nearly three hours to complete it and am struck with the fact that there are some elephants who can rock a tutu better than me on any day of the week.  What?   

On an unrelated note: I have decided to start a baby book for Nico.  After flim-flamming around with it, I decided to do it after seeing how Dave poured over his baby book.  Of course, I have this here blog- which has been important for the videos and the pictures of him and whatnot.  The book will be cool, but will be without video.  I wont go over the top with the scrapbooking- but might print some pictures to go in.  I think it will be pretty sweet.  All for now.  Headed to bed. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. We ended up leaving mid-afternoon on Wednesday. It was slow going though- especially once we got on I-75. But once we got on the turnpike, it picked up a little and we ended up making it into Miami around 1 am. As expected, the craxy traveling schedule+new surroundings threw a wrench in Nico's flow. This meant that instead of sleeping until 552 am, he proceeded to wake up at 3am. AWESOME. Naturally this lead to a lot of napping over the holiday.

Dave's Mom and Aunt made a huge Thanksgiving Feast, which was delicious- including a very tasty cranberry sauce- which I proceeded to eat most of by myself. That is how I roll.

On Friday, we went up to Christian and Heather's place to meet their new baby, Liam. Their older child (Miranda) is about 2 and half and is a genius. Overheard: "Mommy, can I get another marker? The pink doesnt show up well." The pink doesnt show up well? Srsly? Good grammar at two and half? Yes please. Apparently, the fact that she is pretty smart helps- but they dont talk to her like she is a little kid. They talk to her like she is a human. LOVE IT. Of course, Dave and I would like to have a genius kid like that- but I dont know if its worth not talking in LOLSpeak. For real- how much fun is it to say things like, "I can haz some milk?" or "All of ur diapers are belong to us nao!" And its even awesomer since we talk for him anyways.

Saturday we went to a place called "The Field" for lunch (an Irish Pub). It was delicious, thank you very much. I had Bangers and Mash- both of which I highly recommend.

On Sunday, we skipped across Aligator Alley and swung into Ft. Myers to do brunch with my parents. We saw a ton of alligators- which was very cool. They dont play! In any case, brunch with my parents was cool. My dad got to meet Nico for the first time, which was awesome. I think the jacked up sleeping schedule, plus all the stimuli got to Nico, because it wasn't long after we got on the road when he had a MELTDOWN MELTDOWN MELTDOWN. Not a lot of fun. I spent much of the drive on Sunday reclined back in the passenger seat trying to keep him from crying his face off.
We ended up getting back on Sunday night around 930 pm. Not too bad. Was actually a pretty fun weekend, if tiring. Right now, we're just trying to get our feet under us for this upcoming week. Its pretty out of control.

On a completely unrelated matter- I am thinking about entering Nico into a cute baby contest. Trying to figure out what kind of picture to send in. Any thoughts? How do you guys feel about these? I dont have any really great pictures of him smiling...and he's not really extradordinary looking (like the Nelson tripletts who are very adorable, with their curly blonde hair and blue eyes). Advice?

Rollin, rollin, rollin, keep those doggies rollin...

This is a picture that my friend Dylan took of the boy last week (on our Christmas Photo Session outing to Optimist Park). Isn't our boy handsome? The best thing about this picture? He has his little eyebrow arched. Makes my day!

On an unrelated matter- little homey rolled over today. Front to back. It was pretty great. I had just changed him out of a sleeper (that was covered in drool) and had laid him on our bed and was playing with him. I figured I ought to try to do some tummy time with him... especially since the last time we did it, he was pushing up really high. Unlike before where he just laid there on his stomach and made crying noses until I rolled him over. This afternoon he pushed up really high on to his elbows and kept pushing with one arm until he turned over. It was fantastic!

I yelled for Dave to come from the kitchen to see- but then Nico decided he wouldnt do it for Dad. So Dave went away... and Nico did it again. It was brilliant. Next step: walking!

I took a video of him doing it after I got back from tutoring:

All jacked up on mountain dew...

A new video:



Back story: my moms favorite movie kids are the little boys from Talladega Nights. When Nico is a little older, I'm going to teach him (along with his cousin Maddox) the lines. Until then, this will have to do.

Have a great weekend!

Panama City, Pictures and Puppies in the Pool

Had a pretty good weekend. Nico was a peach for the trip to PC yesterday. During the whole 13 hour trip, he only spent about 2 hours with me... he spent the rest of the time with Dave in the car, or with RM and the other parents. Got some good sleeps and came home to sleep about 10 hours (love it). We lost 4-0... to a team who wasnt a 4-0 win team. I could handle the loss, if I felt like this team was that good. But we didnt play very well, and we definitely quit towards the end of the second half. While I miss the hell out of my little brother, its a good thing he wasn't here to see it (he's not dead, he's in Australia). I keep waiting for it... its going to happen. All the pieces are going to click. And I hate to be the team on the other end of it. Sort of like Liverpool last year, when they started the season with several ties and not playing well. Then Fernando Torres opened up on some poor team, maybe Boro or Wigan? Liverpool had 6 goals that game, with Fernando having 3 or 4. That is going to happen to us... I know it.

Lauren and Dylan came over today and we took them to Optimist Park, so that he could take some pictures for our Christmas card- with the dogs, its always out of control. Figured more so with a baby. Was pretty painless and pretty quick. Good stuff.

Later today, we took the boys to Trusdale Pool for "Puppies in the Pool". In the fall, Trusdale shuts down for a weekend and people are allowed to bring their dogs. Its basically just a big dog social at a pool. Its pretty amazing. We took the boys last year. With Nico in tow, we thought we'd hit it up. Here is a video:



Note Drake accosting the little old stranger lady. Man, he is the world's worst dog!

Good to be back here...

So I am about to finish the book, "The Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg. She is British and is apparently widely regarded as the Baby Whisperer. Of course reading it has got me questioning everything. Thankfully I have been down this road before and I have decided to consider our circumstances and our life before incorporating baby advice into our life.

She's anti "attachment parenting" which is apparently, mostly what I do (on accident- turns out a lot of hippie-types do) by virtue of the fact that I wear this little guy. She has this philosophy called EASY (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) and says that bad habits are really easy to learn. She even gives a check list as to how sleeping problems occur. Aparently, Dave and I are on a run-away train on THAT track. Let Nico fall asleep on us? Check? Rock to sleep? Check. Developing a sleeping problem? WIN! For real, though... Usually by 8 or 9 at night, I am so exhausted that I will do anything short of giving him gin to make him go to sleep quickly and with as little fuss as possible.

There are situations like today, where I tried to go with the EASY method... feed him, lay him in his crib to chillax, hoping that he'll drift off to sleep. He doesnt. He lays there for a while, I am walking in and out, putting away diapers, blankets, etc. Eventually he gets pissed. So then I move onto another routine- put him in the bumpo chair, the swing, the papasan chair. Set him on my lap as I look at Failblog.org and Facebook. Nope... still pissed. Because I cant just sit around all day hovering over his crib, I bite the bullet, put the baby wrap on, put him in the pouch, go for a walk around the block and the next thing you know, someone is sleeping up a storm.

Of course, I would love to do her EASY method. It sounds so easy and wonderful. But a little unrealistic at this point. Exhibit A: soccer season is still going on. As long as I am taking him down to Wakulla with me, I think its unrealistic to train him out of the sleeping on us habit. Mostly because when I take him to practice, I put him in the pouch or in the Baby Bjorn. That = sleep. Also- guess who is teething? Yeah. For real. Homey is drooling like his name is Richard Droolfess. I shouldnt really be shocked at this... I have three sets of wisdom teeth. Okay, so I am not sure that is relevant, but thought it would be an interesting anecdote.

So now we have a cranktastic baby who doesnt self-soothe, who only sleeps when he is on one of us. Add to that, he doesnt do pacifiers. WHA-WHAT? How is this possible? Yeah, he wont keep them in his mouth. Literally, we have at least 10 pacifiers, none of which he could be the least interested in. The most recent purchases were two teething pacifiers, with flat textured "nipples" that he is supposed to chew on to help relieve some of the pain of teething. At least that one has a bigger handle thing that I can sometimes stick his fingers in to keep it on his hand.

This brings me to my point: the third hardest thing about having a kid (behind the sleep and the only having two arms thing) is that there is so much advice out there on how to deal with various baby problems, that its hard to know what to do. The book "Happiest Baby on the Block" (which was a boon for us) got us in the habit of rocking, swaddling and shushing. Now this "Baby Whisperer" is saying that sets up bad sleep habits by training a baby to be parented to sleep. So I am back to the drawing board of "Doing whatever works for us." Its good to be back here.

On a completely unrelated note- I have taken to calling Nico "Baby Head". This comes from what Dave and I call the boys sometimes (Dog Heads) and what I sometimes call Drake in my sleep (Dog Fish Head- a micro brewery), but think it comes originally from Doug and Bob McKenzie, who called their dog Doghead. Coincidentally, "Baby Head" has the same number of syllables as "Spider Pig" (of Simpsons Movie Fame). I think you know where this is going:



"Baby Head, Baby Head, does whatever a Baby Head does.
Does he fly through the air, no, cuz he's a Baby Head."

Okay... so now that I have accomplished the ever-important blog for the day and now have 45 minutes left till I have to leave for Leon (game tonight)... this is fantastic! Never mind that I have approximately 10 job applications that need to go out this month. Lets talk about the state of my desk.... not one bare spot. Its covered with all variety of items- thank you notes, ipod accessories, papers, books, pens, cartridges, old bills that need to be shredded, etc. Seriously, what Dave and I need is a stay at home wife. Of course, now might be the time to resurrect talk of starting a commune with some of my friends. I am thinking of a set up where I dont have to work, nor do I have to clean or cook. I was kind of just hoping for a set up where I could hang out with my kid and watch TV all day and do some crafting type things, and someone cooks meals for us, makes the money, pays the bills and does the cleaning. That's a commune, right? No? FAIL!!

Great News!!

So we got some *very* good news today. When I suspected that I might be pregnant, just about the first thing I did (aside from scheduling prenatal care), was go to the FSU Childcare center and enroll my fetus. Backstory: when I first moved to Tallahassee, I taught preschool at this place up on the north side of town. I had the privledge of working with two women who are amazing (JL and SC). JL taught the 4 year olds, I taught the 5s and SC taught everywhere. It was one of those amazingly fun jobs, where I would go to work at 7am, and it would be 3pm before I knew it... then it was time to go out and play, come in and clean up, and go home. It was awesome. I think that there was a gentle rivalry among us (and the other teachers) over who could have the cutest projects, the nicest rooms and the best art. The place was better for it. Our center had a reputation of sending kids to kindergarten ready to be successful (we fed into two "A" schools on the northside).

In any case, shortly after I quit to do grad school full time, JL and SC ended up at the FSU Childcare center. Its FSU's "research" based daycare/preschool. I always knew that if the time came for us to put our kid in a daycare/preschool setting and we were still in the 850- that taking them to JL and SC would be almost as good as me staying home with him. That is how amazing they are.

So, imagine my concern when I got the wait-list number of 157. Bummer... so I resigned myself to the fact that Nico might be 8 or 9 years old by the time it was time for him to go. I checked his status about a month ago and he was 85. Bummer still. Then today I got an email saying that they are ready to enroll him. Isn't that awesome?

We can start in the spring- and it probably wont be full-time full-time. I am going to try to arrange a schedule of tutoring that is more hours there, so I dont have to get a job-job. Which means that Nico will go there for a couple hours a day to start. Since soccer will still be going on, I will need to pick him and head down to practice, so he'll likely be gone by about 100. I think its pretty much the perfect situation. I know I will probably meltdown the first day I leave him there- but I think its for the better. He will get to be around other kids... so far his most consistent companion is that little dude that sits in the backseat with him when we drive down to Wakulla, who he can only see when he looks into the mirror :)

So that is definitely good news. Knowing that he is going to be in good hands there takes a load off my mind...I was definitely thinking that by the time I got a job-job in Tally-nasty that I would have to just stick him in whichever place will take him- envisioning the kinds of horror stories that only former preschool teachers can come up with.

Other good news is that Dave has tomorrow off. The girls and I decided to practice tomorrow- so he will get to go. When we get home, I have to do something with my office space. Its pretty much a disaster area. I also need to finish his nursery... we have pretty much everything set up in there- changing table, crib, book cases. I need to hang a shelf and maybe hang some picture frames. Its rapidly becoming my favorite room in the house- mostly because its so clean!

Project de-stuff the house is going full speed ahead. Looking to get rid of another 10 "larger" items this week... then Dave and I dont have to have a nomad cleaning strategy (moving stuff around the house).

All day long, just takin it easy...

Nothing new on the Nico front to report. He's getting big and is more fun every day. The whole "wearing" him during soccer games is working out pretty well. Its funny, though. Last night at Chiles one of the Chiles players asked Stevey as she was walking off the field, "Is that a baby on your coach?" Even funnier, is that in the second half, one of their players cleared a ball out of the back to the side line, kind of close to Nico and me... A collective gasp went up from our parents when I reached up and caught the ball over his head. Someone said something like, "Watch out for that baby!" to which I replied, "Its okay- I am a keeper"... and I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night!
He doesnt seem to be bothered by it much...except when we have to practice at Medart and he gets eaten up by the sand gnats... which is fair, because I hate practicing there (the sand gnats are awful). Of course it might help if I didnt always forget the bug spray. Its something I have been thinking about a lot lately...I have just kind of treated this little dude, like, "Alright little homey, we gotta do this, then this, then we gotta go to practice. And then..." Maybe I should be more like Betty Draper, and stay at home only doing domesticated stuff with him.

Speaking of Chiles. Wow. So back story: we lost to Chiles 7-0 our first year coaching. Last year we lost 6-0. We had sort of been resigned to the fact that anytime we play Chiles that its going to be a beating- they have too many elite club players, we have a lot of girls that only just recently got serious about playing soccer. But, it is what it is. We actually went into last night's game with a game plan- and executed it. It was pretty brilliant. Without getting into too many specifics- we needed to be patient and disciplined last night. Patient and disciplined. The plan worked pretty well and we lost 3-1. It would have been 2-1, but about half the team got willy-nilly when one of our girls straight jacked the ball from a Chiles player. One of our captains, Mandy had the goal, a really nice set piece half way between the side of the box and the sideline. And Shay. Wow. Shay. She was amazing. She didnt really have much to do through out the game, not like some games in the past where its like shooting practice. During most the game she made the saves she should have, and in the last five minutes, came up with two ridiculous, game winning saves. It was awesome!!

So today we've just been taking it easy. My girl Julia came to town this weekend and we went to get pedicures. Just in the nick of time really, because my feet were FUNKY. And not in a good way. Mostly doing cleaning and stuff around the house... listing stuff on Ebay (so I can get rid of it- man we collect some stuff.)

The picture below is from Friday morning... I had to meet with Ike in the morning and I got us up and going- but had to put him down to do some stuff (get the diaper bag ready, get dressed, etc). He eventually fell asleep in his crib... isnt he precious?

Not too bad actually.

So Nico went to his first high school soccer game last night. We played at Maclay- which is a small private school up here. Most of the girls who play at Maclay play in the TUFC system, so we knew that they were going to be tough. When we played last year, we played mid-season and lost 3-0.
We ended up losing 3-0 last night. We defended for 80 minutes- which is always tough. But not bad... considering that this is our first game, that we were trying to figure out how to replace our sweeper from last year and that we took one of our main attackers and stuck her in the back.... not bad at all. Even awesomer? Our GK had probably one of the best games I have ever seen her play. She probably had close to 20 shots taken on frame, and only gave up 3 goals, including one that was a rebound off a kick save.

Something that many of you probably dont know about me, is that watching good goalkeeping at any level gives me goose bumps. It does. I get goosebumps when Shay Given (formerly of the no-defense at all New Castle) comes all the way across the goal to pick a ball out of the upper 90. And I get goose bumps when a kid from a scrub highschool team makes a one on one save. I guess because I know how hard it is to be a good goalkeeper... and that for every night that you're on fire, you might have a night when you cant do anything right. In any case, she was awesome. She made it a fun game to watch.

Nico was pretty good for most of the game. He was a little bit fussy when we got to Maclay- but got to hang out with the girls a bit- which he seemed to like. When it was getting close to gametime, I tucked him into his little pouch and he went to sleep... and stayed that way until about 15 minutes left to go in the game... pretty good, I'd say. Of course, he's regressed sleeping-wise the last couple of days... seems really needy. We're on try #4 of getting him in the bassinet. :(

Funny story: so I am kind of hard core about being on time. So when a girl comes running up to practice late, it irks me a bit. My line for them is usually, "Lauren, what time is it on your planet? I got 304." So yesterday, its about 230 and I have figured that I need to start moving in the direction of getting our show on the road to go to Maclay for the game. I get some diapers out of the dryer. Look for warm clothes for me, for Nico. Get bottles ready. Get blankets in the car. Chase down extra pairs of white socks. I finally get us in the car and start heading towards Maclay and I see its 415. And I think, "Holy Crap! What just happened? How in the world did I manage to waste almost 2 hours of my life...and now I am late?" (The teams were to arrive by school bus at Maclay by about 330-345.) The stress level goes through the roof because I have half of the balls and the JV team needs them to warm up. SUCK!! So I manage to get out to Maclay by "435". The JV team hasnt even started warming up. WTF? Why aren't you warming up? What time did you get here? Why dont we have our act together? Where are my captains? Why cant they help the JV team get their act together? Did it really take two hours to get from WHS to Maclay? What the hell? Then my JV coach tells me that its not 435 (Neither Dave or me changed the clock in the 4Runner). Its 335. I felt like an idiot. She told my girls... who thought it was hilarious.

They wanted to know what time it was on my planet. Burn...
Daylight Savings Time: 1
Jessi: 0

LAME

So we were pretty lame for Halloween this weekend. Originally, we were supposed to be spending most of our day on Saturday down in Wakulla for the Big Bend Preseason Classic- but there was some communication problems with some of the coaches that we usually do this thing with. So we could have had huge plans for Halloween. But then, Dave and I have been getting our butts kicked by life these days. Turns out Life+1 is pretty crazy. So much so, that I have come to realize that the greatest Saturdays aren't lounging on the couch watching soccer, napping, and eating donuts. Great Saturdays are when you can put the house together from the tornado that went through it during the week.

Its even worse these days because we are working on *(FINALLY)* setting up Nico's room. This is good for several reasons, but mostly because it might help us corral some of the accoutrement that is ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Unfortunately, it means that DR and I no longer have a place to corral all of OUR stuff... so I am trying to figure out what to do with it all. Hiking Backpact I bought for EuroTrip 2006? Seems kind of useless now... dont foresee backpacking anywhere with a kid in the near future. Fencing foil? Taking up precious space in closet. Taking down the bed in the guest room has meant that stuff that was under our bed in the Master bedroom was displaced. And this is how we spend our life: moving stuff from place to place around the house. My college roommate called this "nomad" behavior. Seriously, I wish it didnt take so much time and effort to list stuff on ebay, because I would get rid of half the stuff in this house- I am so OVER stuff!!

So Halloween was pretty low-key this year. We got some candy and stayed in: doing some work around the house. I worked on job market stuff and Dave did some whatnot. Nico did get to chill out on the porch and wait for trick or treaters:


Per usual, we only had a handful of trick or treaters. I don't know why this is the case, except that maybe most of the people that live in our neighborhood dont have children? We wanted to dress Nico up in his tiger suit, but "one one of us" seems to have lost the top that goes with it (by "one of us" I mean, not me :). Good thing Nico's parents are weird enough to dress him up in animal outfits year round. That purchase may have gone to waste if we weren't strange!

Soccer season starts tomorrow night (Monday) against Maclay. Should be a nice test to see where we are at. Am really looking forward to it. It is the team that Dave and I have been waiting to coach for 3 years. Everyone on the team has comparable levels of skill and they look good in practice (so far). So it should be fun. Should also be cold. Which lets be real here, is the way it should be for highschool soccer. I would so much rather deal with cold and trying to stay warm than "oh-my-God-why-is-it-so-sticky-outside?" I feel that I am adequately prepared for the game and being on the sideline: warm pink hunting socks (check), blue and red waffleknit footie sleeper for Nico (check), blankets for girls (check), blankets for Nico (check), thermos for hot chocolate (check), hat/gloves/scarf (check).

Snug as a bug...

So the conference weekend got better (sort of). I nailed my talk on Saturday morning. Its so strange- but I felt so chill about it. Which was a far cry from when I gave the talk three weeks ago (at the CDPH brownbag). Even crazier, is that the three guys who wrote a pretty important book on mortality ("Living and Dying in the USA") were all in the session (one is currently a professor at FSU (retired), one is at CU-Boulder and the other is at UT Austin, but got his PhD from FSU). So I feel like I should have been a lot more nervous than I was. But Ike told me I did well, and I felt pretty good about the talk.

We left Saturday afternoon after grabbing lunch from a place called "Gaidos", a really old restaurant across the street from the beach. Then we took the ferry (instead of going back up through Houston). Really glad we did, because we got to see dolphins swimming along side the ferry. We ended up staying the night in Lafayette, after having one of the best meals ever. We ventured away from the high way in search of Cajun food and food a place called, "Randols", which was complete with a dancefloor and a zydeco band. It was pretty great.

Sunday, things to a turn for the worse when we went to get going and the 4Runner wouldnt start. Long story short, turns out the battery was completely dead... so we got a late start out of Lafayette. I didnt make it back in time for tutoring :(

How was Nico's first road trip? It was good. He was awesome. He got a tad crantastic at the end (when we were about an hour away from Tallahassee), but other than that, it wasnt too bad. Exhausting dealing with all the logistics. And all the stuff...Its amazing how much crap it takes to keep this kid clothed and in clean diapers. Absolutely amazing.

So we are trying to get back into our old routine. Practice and job market and whatnot. Speaking of whatnot... check it out:So I have been trying to figure out another possibility for hanging onto Nico while doing chores, being at practice, etc. I love the Baby Bjorn, but its hard to do chores around the house, because it doesnt stay close to my body... so when I am leaning over the kitchen sink doing dishes, Nico just sort of dangles there. Not very comfortable. Plus, its hard because I keep knocking his legs when I sweep the floor. One of the hippie blogs I read talks about "baby wearing"... and I was intrigued. Turns out you can take a 5-6 yard piece of knit fabric (20-30 inches wide) and wrap it around your body in a special way that makes the most comfy carrier/wrap thing. You slide the baby in the top, so you're tummy to tummy and pull this band up over him, and Voila!

I have gotten a lot of comments about it- mostly about how ingenius it is... but also about how comfy Nico looks. We went to the grocery today and a bunch of people thought it was cool that he was in there, snug as a bug.

It was pretty sweet.

The Seat of Power

We had a nice relaxing weekend, but hit it hard on the grindstone yesterday. Since Nico is getting to the point where he can hold up his own head a little, I thought it might be kind of fun for him to try out his little bumpo seat thing that his Grandma Royse got him. Its been a boon for us. I can actually set him in it and eat breakfast or do some laundry without him freaking out. I think its because he can see a little better sitting up in it... so he doesnt wig out that I've left. So that is good. A video of Dave playing the harmonica for him. And yes, that is a halloween hat. That mysteriously appeared in the house after one of Dave's recent trips to Target.




Tryouts started yesterday and we ended up with about 10-12 more girls than we expected, tiny little freshmen and sophomores that came out of nowhere. Good for the team, bad for organizing. Nico was a peach coming back from Wakulla yesterday. Trying to figureout how to duplicate THAT.

All for now...

I can haz a read?

So I finished reading "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" and MAN! It blew my mind! Defintely going to try to teach little homey to read using the method described in the book- which coincidentally, is not like learning ABCs and then small words and then reading... it starts by having kids memorize words that they know and use... like "Mommy", "Daddy", "nose", "toes", etc. Which makes sense, because those are things that babies are interested in... and its kind of difficult to explain what a "C" is.

Doman, the guy that wrote the book called it "The Gentle Revolution", which is to say that we can teach our kids to be excited and in love with learning, if we make it fun and exciting for them early on. And that you really can't start too early with trying to teach children. The majority of brain development takes place before the age of 8... so now is the time for him to learn. Even more amazing, is that the book talks about kids learning language and how easy it is for them to pick it up, just by hearing it. Makes me wish that we didnt live here. If we lived in India or Mexico or China and had an Nanny- Nico would grow up speaking Hindi, Spanish or Chinese. Since Dave's only second language that he is conversational in is French, I guess that means I need to learn French so that we can be conversational in the house... either that or Dave needs to learn Chinese with me (What? Dude- one in five people on this planet speaks Chinese, and that is not going to change in HIS life time. It really is the language of the future. My mother calling me a commie socialist pinko in 3....2....1....)

Got the chance to go to the gym last night. Managed to run about .75 miles and walk 1.25 miles, did some time on the ellipitcal and did some weights. Consequently, I am hobbling around like an old lady today. But it was nice- I'd almost forgotten how much I love the gym. Of course, I get home to find out that Nico had been screaming for the last four hours, non-stop. Which brings me to Nico's first ever Likes/Dislikes list:

Likes:
The Jimmy Buffett/Eagles/Van Morrison Genre
Sleeping on Mom
Showers
The Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack
Windows down
My beanbag stuffed dog
Dislikes:
Mom tutoring
Mom eating spicy foods, foods containing lots of garlic, or Mom drinking Milk.
Big dumb trucks honking while he is sleeping.
Riding back from Wakulla
Being in his carseat.

music

So Pandora rules! Its an internet radio station that started as the music genome project. Long story short, some nerds put together the project with the aims of being able to recomend music based on certain types of likes... so you put in that you want to start a Bruce Springsteen station. And it plays a song- now Bruce covers a lot of different genres- so it will play one song, perhaps "Born to Run", which is kind of distinctive. Its pretty much fast-tempoed rock, with a strong male lead, hard drum beats, etc. So the next song Pandora plays will be another song that is somewhat similar- perhaps "Sweet Child of Mine" by GNR or "You shook me all night long" by ACDC. And you say if you like the song or not, and keeps doing it. So you end up with a Bruce Station that also plays other songs that sound like the Bruce songs you like. Its genius.

In any case, Dave and I have been perfecting our Pandora stations. We have stations for Jimmy Buffett, Counting Crows, Van Morrison, Horns, Gregorian Chant, and obviously Bruce Springsteen. I think Nico is going to have our taste in music- because he can be fussy and I will sit down at my computer, turn Pandora on, a little bit of rocking and homeboy is asleep. As I type this, we're listening to the Jimmy Buffett station- which is playing a Kenny Chesney song right now. OUT. LIKE. A. LIGHT. Its pretty fantastic.

Speaking of fantastic- here is a video I took on my computer with the webcam of Nico... holding up his own head. Its pretty awesome... this kid is growing up!!

Boring...

So I spent the weekend teaching Nico how to read.

Okay, not really. But that would have been awesome! Instead, we had our last preseason workout on Saturday. Our friends Flav and Austin came, so we went to The Riverside Cafe afterward. Overall, he's been pretty good at practice. Saturday was no exception. He slept most of the morning and afternoon away. We are at the point now, where I generally dont wake him up to eat... he's routinely going 5-7 hours at night sleeping (woo hoo!). So I didnt wake him up to eat on Saturday. The result was that by the time 7 or 8 pm rolled around, he had only eaten four times since he woke up. And MAN was he pissed! But when I tried to feed him- even more pissed. He eventually stopped crying and went to sleep- but I have no idea why he was so mad... am wistfully hoping that we have one of those babies that likes to go to sleep early and is severely pissed off when you keep trying to feed him when he wants to sleep.

Aside from that- not much new to report. Have been looking at the job market and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. Still have no idea. Its getting to the point where I am entertaining the idea of just putting a bunch of options on pieces of paper and drawing one out of a hat- and going with that. Seems like a reasonable way to make career choices, no?

Nico and I had a good day today. We watched the Villa and City game on tv today. BTW- I am loving the hell out of this not working thing+the premier league playing games on Monday. It makes me feel less bad about not having a job when I can lay on the couch and watch Soccer on tv. Suckas!!

We also went for a walk around the neighborhood. Today was the first day that Nico sat in the Baby Bjorn face out. And he loved it. Am thinking about heading up to campus tomorrow, but taking the bus- which is a lot less of a pain in the ass than driving and parking at the stadium and having to walk with Nico to Bellamy. Of course, I may just decide to stay home. Who knows?

A big week...

So Nico had kind of a big week, which culminated with a trip to campus today for a center brownbag presentation. He hung out with Kim down on the fifth floor while I gave my talk, which didn't go as well as my proposal defense last week. Part of the problem is that the presentation was one I gave back in April at PAA- and in the time leading up to the presentation back then, I lived, breathed and ate my talk. I was so deeply wrapped up in it, that I didn't realize how bad it was... I went to give the talk today and turns out the two tables I included could have been labeled better than I had them, which led to confusion. I didnt realize it, because I was focused more on the script than the presentation- since the talking part is always a weakness of mine. But, I got some terrific feedback- some ideas that will strengthen the paper when I get it back from PR squared- and also when I give the talk at the end of the month.

Its funny- I don't feel like I am "there" yet, wherever "there" is. Largely, its due to confidence, I think. When someone asks me a question about my research, I freak out a little inside, assuming that they know more than I do and that they are actually just testing me, to see if I know my stuff. I think I will be "there" when I can talk much more comfortably about my research, in more general terms. I also have a hard time judging how much my audience knows about my topic. So today, I jumped right into the data and the methods without really setting up the project... because I assumed they all knew what I knew. I guess its a learning process. How I get there, I don't know. But I guess that is part of the process.

In other news, Ike gave me his blessing to go on the job market... traditionally, you go on the job market once you've defended your proposal, the idea being that you get your materials together and your applications out, work on your dissertation, go on job talks and interviews in the spring, get offered, accept, finish dissertation, defend in the summer and start your fabulous new job in the fall. Theoretically.

Ike suggested that I cast my net far and wide- dont apply anywhere that I would turn down due to location. So I have been compiling a list of job posts that I am interested in. So far, I have four or five, specifically I am interested in... generally there are about a dozen state and federal jobs I am intrigued with. I am not sure this bodes well for getting hired this year- but you miss 100% of the shots you don't make, right? Its funny, there are some jobs I see and think, "Holy shit- I could so totally do this job. Right now. And do it really well!" And there are some jobs that I am grossly underqualified for. Like an assistant professor position at Harvard. The whole, "missing 100% of the shots" mantra goes out the window when I think of applying at Harvard. Like, really Jessi? Really? Harvard? Did the job post ask for academically schizophrenic stressed out new moms? NO? Don't you think that might be a waste of time to apply? Exactly!

So back to Nico's big week. We went to the "First Friday" thing in Railroad Square... for non Tallahasseers, First Friday is when all the galleries and shops open up at night down at Railroad Square. There are street noms, beer and wine, music, and art. Its pretty cool. Nico slept the whole time, which was pretty cool. Man! That kid can not resist the power of the baby Bjorn. You put him in it the count down goes sometime like: 10...9....8... ASLEEP. Its pretty sweet.

We went to the Leon County Public Library yesterday. We got two books, one on baby games and one called "How to teach your baby to read". I first became intrigued with this during a late-night feeding, cruising through the 800 channels we have when I found a paid advertisement for "Your baby can read". I think it was based on the work by Glen Doman. Check it out:



Obviously my plans for Nico to rule the world with his superior intellect (and his bow hunting skillz), could be dramatically improved if he could start reading at an early age. So I got this book, "Teach your baby to read" from the library. Its an easy read- filled with lots of anecdotes on how "tiny children" want to read and have the capabilities to do it, so long as you accomodate them on some issues... like their eyesight. Because the eyes aren't fully developed, the author says that you start with BIG letters.

This is actually pretty cool, because when Dave's mom was up here after Nico was born, she told me that when Dave was born, she decorated his nursery with large cutout letters (the size of construction paper sheets). Result: Dave Royse actively reading the newspaper on his own, by first grade. Operation Nico Reads: Launch!!!

Role Call!

Could he be any more adorable?



More later...