One day down, ~17 to go

I survived my first day of teaching, though when I left in the morning I was quite sure I would not. Here is the situation: I am covering two courses and a lab for a professor who went on paternity leave. The baby showed up a week earlier than expected, so I had to start earlier than expected. For one of the classes I got an email telling me that I needed to start from chapter 8---this is from the future-father professor and was before the baby's arrival. So Thursday night (the night before the class) I worked on my lectures and at 1am stapled them, put them in their folder and was excited at the prospect of 5 hours' sleep. I decided to check my email one last time where I re-read an email from a professor who had covered the class for a couple of days before my starting who told me that I should start with chapter 7. I had read this email before and though it said chapter 7, I read it as chapter 8. Wonderful. Well, I stayed up all through the night and prepared a new lecture on material I hadn't looked at with this book, and headed off for my first day of school not having shut my eyes for more than a blink since 6 am the previous day. This is how everyone should start their first day. It was kind of funny to think that these kinds of things were probably always (well, sometimes at least) happening to professors through my schooling years, but I didn't know (and nor did my students). I survived, I am now ready for the real lectures for this week. Hopefully things go better for me sleep-wise.

Friday was the first day for our new nanny. Everything seemed to go well as I came home to a very happy Emmett who really seemed to be enjoying his time with her. That was comforting.

Friday night Andrea and I went to bed at 8:30. That was exciting. Emmett didn't wake on Thursday night (well, didn't wake to where we needed to get up to get him...staying up all night I learned that he wakes a number of times but settles back to sleep nicely). He also didn't wake last night or the night before, so that is three in a row from 7pm to 6am or 7am, depending. Pretty exciting stuff. I like this trend and hope it continues.

Saturday was a really nice day that the fam spent together. We went to the California Academy of Science for the first time. We are members, which is nice as we don't have to go with a goal of seeing everything in the building. We concentrated only on the sub-level which is where all of the aquariums are and such. It was pretty neat but crowded. I must say that I am much more excited for the other levels. There were some cool things we saw like jelly fish, but fish in tanks aren't really my thing when it comes to science. We will be heading back again soon. I took the picture to the left under one of the aquaria (aquariums? who knows) with the iPhone (which I just traded in four hours ago as it pooped out on me)---the lighting is weird because of the aquarium and the iphone doesn't take good pictures. Emmett was pretty interested, but not super interested. I think it is still out of his league---or maybe he is more excited for the other levels, too? We went to a friend's birthday bash in the park and had a nice walk back. All-in-all a pretty great day.

Today I spent trying to get ahead with the courses so another all-nighter doesn't occur. In the afternoon, though, we took a CityCarShare car out for a spin to make sure we knew how it all worked in case we needed one and were more pressed for time. I think I have mentioned it here before, but last weekend we gave our car away as we weren't using it enough to justify its costs even though it was paid-in-full. We signed up for CityCarShare for those rare times that we need a car. For $10/month we both are members and we can borrow a car as often as needed. We have to pay something like $6/hour + 40 cents a mile for use, and I did the math on the trips that we make and it made more sense to do this than to hold on to our car (weekend trips we will rent from a real agency as it is slightly cheaper). Anyway, today we took it for a spint to Japantown to get some of those rice crackers that the woman in the park gave to Emmett and he loved. We found some, but they weren't exactly what we had before. He is figuring out the chewing thing even though he doesn't have any upper teeth to counter his pair on the bottom. Afterward we got a frozen yogurt (not a really sweet one...a tart one) and he was begging so I gave him a spoonful. The look on his face was too funny as it was tart and very cold. It is so hard not to laugh when he makes these faces. However, I went back for another bite and he had his mouth open at the ready, so I gave him another---with the same result. I didn't give him too much, but he seemed to like it. Oh, and on the bad parent front: while we were at the birthday party I had a cup of beer in my hand and he was reaching for it again and again. Remembering my first taste of beer and my reaction I figured I would give him a taste so that it would turn him off to it, but he took his sip and decided he wanted more (which he didn't get). This kid is crazy.

OK, I think that is enough of an update for now. More about me than him, it seems. He is continuing to pull himself up by our hands and isn't much closer to crawling, although he is improving in his ability to spin around on his belly. He has become MUCH more vocal in the last week. I feel as if we are spending time with a different baby. He was yelling up a storm in the museum on Saturday. The pleased look that he gets on his face when he really lets out a real yell is pretty funny. He looks very proud of himself. Oh, here is another picture I just found, too. Andrea took this one.