October? Yeah. That happened.

October has been full of fun things, and I've been a big ol' slacker on posting new stuff.  We had Tye's 3rd birthday, mine and Donna's 81st birthday, SfN, Steph's farewell party, and a trip to the pumpkin patch!  I figured I'd better get this stuff on to the interwebs before Halloween and Em's birthday happen later this week.

Can't believe that October is almost over.  

I had my 3 month ultrasound yesterday and the new baby looks, well, like a baby.  The doc didn't guess for us whether we might expect pink or blue, but based on what Em's ultrasounds looked like at this stage, I will guess Pink!  Rob is holding tight to the hope he might have a son, and my doc is in his corner, even if only out of pity.  We have 6-8 more weeks before we will know for sure!

Anyway, here is a somewhat abbreviated look at the last few weeks.

Tye turned 3 years old!  There were cupcakes, a pinata, and a sugar-induced coma. And lots of presents!

Donna (Gammie) turned 50 and I turned 31.  My mom got us an 81st  birthday ice-cream cake.  You know, since we are so old we can't chew regular cake anymore. And Em shows that she is ready for a nap by lying on the floor.

We said goodbye to our friend Steph, who moved to Boston.  We failed at photography.

Rob left town for two days, which meant I was a single mom.  I was not cut out to be a single Mom.  Em helped me rearrange my underwear drawer as well as the furniture.  And perhaps she didn't wear pants as much as she should have.

And finally, we took Em to the pumpkin patch this past weekend.  It was a 40 minute drive with a toddler who hates the car.  Any guesses as to how I appeased her on the trip?

It was freezing cold and SO WINDY (thanks Hurricane Sandy), but we had fun anyways.  Em loved the hay mountain.

Hey look it's Rob-on the other side of the camera!

Ok I will call that updated for now!  Tomorrow we have halloween and Joy made the cutest costume for Em.  And Saturday is her birthday party!  Of course, Kayla's kids have had a fever for the past couple days so I'm looking forward to her being like me and sick on every birthday.  

But I paid 50 bucks to order a cake last night.  So we are having a party with or without her.

Happy Tuesday!

Today I am throwing a party.

Our friend Stephanie is leaving for a job at Haaahvaaahd. That's Harvard to the educated lot of you, I just like to say it like I imagine a fancy person might.  Of course, all of you know that I am definitely not fancy.

Anyway today is her Farewell Party.  I have cleaned both bathrooms, but have not gone to the store to get anything for the stuff I am making for the party.  It is 11:18 a.m., and naturally I am on the internet because I am SO THANKFUL that Em finally laid down for a nap after hollering for an hour straight.

AND.  We got a brain today.  I canceled all my piano lessons for the morning, thinking, "Who knows when I'll have to go in?"  I still don't know because no one can get in touch with the family to get permission to remove the dead person's brain.  I understand the need for permission, I really do.  But this individual is not going to be using his/her brain anytime soon.  The party is at 8 p.m., and the brain needs to be dissected before 6 p.m. to be under the 24 hour postmortem interval required for light microscopy.  Which means I will probably be going into lab around 5:30.

So excuse my language, but this day is kind of fucked up.

In other news, we obviously made it back from New Orleans.  Em, turns out, is EXACTLY LIKE ME in the car.  To make a long story short, we will be driving everywhere at night from now on because entertaining her is pretty much impossible after about 2 hours.

Here is the last picture I have from her many adventures with Memere.  I'll be updating about Tye's birthday party soon, and about Steph's Farewell Party too, if it comes together.

Happy Saturday Everybody!!

Now I remember why I hated it when my mom dressed me!

But she looks so adorable, I just want to bite her cheeks!

Fun with Memere

Rob and I are in New Orleans at the Society for Neuroscience conference.  We both gave talks yesterday, and I was completely panicked when I found out my talk was in a theatre!  It wasn't full by any stretch of the imagination (I realize I'm not that awesome), so it turned out okay.  But it was definitely an intimidating space that I had to walk in and out of a few times before I got up the courage to give my talk to the chairman of the session.

We both got lots of positive feedback from our presentations.  Rob had a very famous scientist, Graham Collingridge, at his talk and got some good suggestions for his project from him. I don't know if anyone famous was at my talk besides for me.  But lots of people really liked what I had to say so that's a plus.

We're seeing lots of people from UAB and other places while we're here. It's good to run into some old friends.  Abby brought me Em's birthday present, which she'll open at her party.  I am sure this will place Abby firmly at the top of Em's "favorite person" list, just where she wants to be.  Johanna is down from Nashville, Lindsey's down from NY, and Rachel and Hayley made it here from the west.  So I've been enjoying catching up with everyone since I was not at SfN last year.

I have to say I'm pretty exhausted by the thought of doing any actual work at this conference, now that the grants are out, and my talk is over.  But I made a valiant effort this morning and afternoon.  I'm currently in the hotel room watching "Say Yes to the Dress", and some bride on here says that she wants to look like a "Flamingo Dancer" on her wedding day.  I didn't know that was a thing, and perhaps she means "Flamenco"?  Anyway I'm enjoying the mindless entertainment of these people whose WORST NIGHTMARES include their wedding dress not fitting.  I appreciate the anxiety, but I guess I'm past that part of my life so now it makes me laugh :)

Meanwhile, Em is having a great time with my Mom and with her Aunt Rikki.  I've recently learned that Em knows how to say "Thank You" (I can never understand what she's saying!), and that Aunt Rikki is her new favorite person.  Memere is busy feeding her all kinds of fun foods like marshmallow Froot Loops.  Em might never come home!

Yesterday they took a trip to the park after Rob and I left for the conference.  I also have some pictures of Tye's 3rd birthday party but those will have to wait until I have a chance to upload them.

Fun with Memere:

Headed for some fun at the park

Coke Icee in a sippy cup after the park. Em is taking it VERY SERIOUSLY.

 With Aunt Rikki and Cousin Tye.

I don't know ANYONE else that is allowed to mess up my parents house like this.

Perhaps Em and my mom made some margaritas...

Happy Monday!

So guess what?

Things are still so busy at work, but there is an end in sight!  Rosy is sending her grant tomorrow morning at 8 a.m.!  So while I have a ton of stuff to help her with, and lectures to make, and students to teach and quizzes to administer, I'm posting on my blog.  I'm tired of people "reminding" me that I haven't posted anything new in a while!  But honestly, I love that people like my blog-people that I had no idea were reading it are checking it out regularly, which is scary because I feel like my life is pretty boring.

ANYWAY.

Em has a whole slew of favorite hobbies, including stopping regularly to smell the roses (or marigolds, as the case may be) and "helping" me the in the kitchen. The latter has led to a small amount of babyproofing because she now moves so fast that I am usually the last to know when she's trying to drink the cleaning supplies.  Seriously, it's amazing she has lived this long.  Hopefully she will make it to her first birthday with the cabinets securely locked.  But maybe not because her other favorite hobby includes running on the ceramic tile floor, which usually leads to sorrow.

A Mans Family Fail. That might be snot on my shirt.

She likes to keep her hair out of the way while she "cooks".  This series of pictures is so hilarious to me.  We actually kept this cabinet available to her to play in, partly out of resignation and partly because it entices her to play in kitchen while I make dinner.

I am also trying to get her interested in reading, which, so far is going a little like this.  Doesn't she look thrilled? Mostly she likes to turn the pages as fast as possible, throw the book down, and then go play. 

So, because Emerald is going to be a big sister in May (!!!), we started looking into less expensive daycare options.  We found a SAHM (that's lingo for "stay at home mom") in Homewood that keeps her for about $40 less a week than the daycare center cost us.  And she is available to keep the new baby once "it" arrives too. Plus there is only Em plus Kayla's boys. She has three boys, and the oldest is in school.  Yesterday, the day of our first ultrasound for the new baby, was Em's first day at her new daycare.  Kayla was nice enough to send me some picture updates:

Play time

Craft Time.

Redecorating the high chair:

Outside time!  

(That is Kayla's youngest, Chase.  He was sad to no longer be the "baby" 

but hopefully he will adjust soon.)

Because I am the mom of the year, I left Em's two craft projects on top of the car yesterday and drove off down the interstate.  Which is unfortunate because one of them was made of hard plaster.  I am trying to make myself feel better by remembering that there will be lots of craft projects in the months and years to come.

Oh, and finally:  The new baby is due on Mother's Day.  Yesterday we saw a strong heartbeat on the ultrasound and everything looks good even though it is still kind of early.  And I am feeling fine, with the exception of being completely exhausted by my 11 month old!  

Happy Tuesday!!