Thankful

Well, miracles never cease. 

I am happy to report that as of December 8th I will be joining the ranks of the gainfully employed! 

I got another position at my old company which is awesome for the following reasons:

1) I am eligible for maternity leave with good maternity benefits

2) We will have health insurance after the baby is born

3) They have a lactation room 

4) My boss is in a different building so I will pretty much be a one woman show. 

5) My new lab is POSH.  brand new and super nice with HUGE windows.  

6) My new program is AWESOME.  Different than what I have been doing

7) I get to learn electrophysiology.  

8) It is guaranteed for 2 years which in my industry and this economy is the equivalent of eternity.  Plus, it works out well with the timing of Colin's schooling.

9) I can still take the company shuttle so I don't have to drive. 

10) I can go back to spin class, which I LOVE.  

11)  I pretty much just got paid to take a 2 month vacation. 

I am feeling very blessed this Thanksgiving season.  And I can't wait to get started!  

What should I do with my 2 weeks left?  Go to Boston?  Decorate the nursery?  

Hmmmmm........

Oh yes, for those who don't know, we are having a little BOY!  

Adventures in Babysitting

I have a friend here who I adore.  I also adore her children.  That is why, when she asks me if I would please watch them for her I don't hesitate in the slightest.  Because I love them all.  

This friend has a little boy Clarkie who is about 2 and a half.  He is energetic and crazy and oh so cute.  They also have a little girl who is about 6 months.  

We always have a lot of fun, but sometimes there are times when I wonder if I am ready for this.  

Scene 1:

Beautiful fall day.  We are outside playing and running around and kicking balls.  The baby starts fussing so I pick her up.  She decides to spit up all over me so I tell Clarkie that I will be right back.  I run in the house with the baby, grab a cloth and run back out.  (The yard in enclosed, by the way)  I am literally gone for 2 minutes, if that.  In that 2 minutes Clarkie discovers the kiddie pool that is full of nasty brown rain water with leaves floating around in it.  I come outside to discover that he is bent over the pool, lapping the water up!  Excellent!  

"Clarkie!"  I say.  He looks at me with a huge grin and announces in his most adorable two year old voice, " I dwink the durty watur!"  

"Yes, you did!" I respond.  Can you tell me how much you drank?  A lot? A little?

Still grinning and pointing to the pool, "I dwink the durty watur!"  

Right.  Got it.  Ok, well there weren't any chemicals in the water so I decide that maybe he will have a stomach ache, but maybe not, but that it is probably fine.  

It is fine.  His mom thinks that it is hilarious when I tell her so I am relieved.  

Scene 2:

Yesterday.  Clarkie has locked himself in his room.  Fine.  He can unlock it too and there is nothing that he can get hurt on.  He falls asleep which is also great.  But, he is potty training and doesn't have a diaper on so I am anticipating wet clothes when he emerges.  

I am right.  He emerges, soaked, and not at all happy to see me.  

After I convince him that he will feel much better if he puts on the new McQueen underwear that his mom bought him he agrees to change his clothes.  Off come the soaked pants and socks. next, the underwear, and lo and behold there is quite a load!  A load that has been slept in! Excellent!  No wonder he is grumpy.  

I have a moment of panic.  What do I do with all this...poo?  Wipes?  No, too much.  Bathtub and wipes is the only thing I can think of.  So, we wipe and we wash and we rinse and out comes a clean and happy boy very excited to put on his new underwear and go play with his cars.  

Then I turn to the underwear.  Suddenly a random thought pops into my head that I remember my mom or somebody telling me about cloth diapers.  if you hold them in the toilet and flush, the poo comes off and flushes down the toilet.  

Worked like a charm.  Thanks whoever told me that.  

Lucky for me the baby was just chilling in her crib where I had placed her prior to discovering the load.  

Lucky for us I won't birth a toddler and a baby.  But holy cow.  Am I really ready for gross toddler loads and drinking dirty water?  No, I'm not.  But I'm sure I will warm up to the idea.  

last one

I promise, this is my last politics post for a long time:

The University of Michigan has a cool analysis of the election results. Traditionally, the major news organizations show maps like this one:



The problem is, this type of representation doesn't factor in population densities, and it is binomial (either red or blue). It makes it look like Obama didn't do very well, especially in the mid-west and south.

So let's see what it would look like if you scaled for population density:



Better, but we still don't see how the counties voted, and the colors are still binomial. If you factor in these variables you get a much more telling (albeit impressionistic) map:



Now we can see a few trends: several large populations that voted almost unanimously for Obama, a majority of the country that was somewhere in the middle, and only some focal regions that were overwhelming in support of McCain.

You can see all their maps, and a discussion, here.

A professor at Princeton put together an animation of the country and how we've voted over time, but it doesn't yet include the 2008 results.

Black in White

Here is a touching article about the former White House butler. It helps put in perspective how significant this election really was.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110603948.html?sid=ST2008110604101&s_pos=

Poppage

Tuesday was a really good day for me, and not just because Obama was elected as President.

Tuesday a really gutsy woman at the fabric store asked me when I was DUE!

Now, I don't look terribly pregnant. If I wear even a semi baggy shirt you can't tell too much, especially if you didn't know me pre-pregnancy. I've kind of stuck to the baggy route so far because I don't exactly feel like I have a "cute" pregnant belly. Mainly I just feel thick and chubby and not cute. Tuesday, however, I donned a shirt that was a little tighter and made me look decidedly "cuteish" pregnant.

Allison and i go to the fabric store and this random woman asks me when I am due. This comment was followed by a really awkward exchange in which I blurt out "You think I am pregnant!" all excited, which was the exact wrong thing to say because she thought that she just made a HUGE mistake. But, I assured her that she had not made a mistake and that she was my new favorite person. She said that my "belly" didn't look like it belonged on my body since my arms and legs were skinny, which also made my day.

I really like that woman. I wish I had her on speed dial for when I am having a non-attractive feeling day.

My belly appears to be here to stay. No more disappearing acts during the night. I was 20 weeks on Monday, half-way through!