Where Is Amy

Two Working Moms Walk into a Bar...

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:35:00 +0000

... and that's the whole joke, because two working moms would never have time to go to a bar!

Yet sometimes I try to do something almost as ridiculous. I have a friend who had her daughter last summer and then went back to work in the fall. (She works at the university so we can both use the campus gym.) We are "surfing friends", and by that I mean we both used to like to surf, but since we've met each other we haven't been able to go surfing together.

Last quarter we decided that we would try to go swimming once a week. Ha! Guess how many times that happened? 1.5. We swam together once, and the next week she was late so our swim overlapped by about 5 minutes - so I'll count that as 1/2. I swam a 3rd time by myself and then I got too busy (and broke my nose!) and didn't exercise again for the rest of the quarter.

So far this quarter I have swam once (by myself). But we keep trying... I don't want to spend a lot of time at the gym, since I already feel guilty for leaving my little bundle of cuteness at daycare all day, but I feel like one hour a week isn't really asking tooooo much, right?

PS. I was doing my econometrics homework (finished now, 2.5 hours before class, BOOM!) and I just found out today that the word "collinear" is spelled with two l's. Why? Two points sharing a line, I feel like it should be co-linear, or colinear. Why the second l? Dislike!! :(

Awkward Pumping Moments

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:19:00 +0000

You are probably asking yourself, what could possible be awkward about wearing a sports bra with two holes cut out of it, out of which are protruding plastic flanges with bottles below them which are catching some sort of liquid, and those are attached to a machine that makes a noise that is a cross between Darth Vader breathing and a life-support machine for a coma patient?

And the answer is nothing.... as long as no one sees you.

So, the room that I pump in has two doors - an outer door which requires a key code, and then an inner door which you can close and adorn with a sign that says "occupied." Well, I used to close the inner door but I stopped doing it because the only people who come into that room are other pumping moms, and I figured if one of them ever comes early for her shift I might as well just let her in, cause who cares, right?

Well a couple weeks ago, I was pumping and I heard the door open. I figure it's one of my fellow mom-warriors, so I turn around and say hello. And... it's a man! Er, more like boy. I'd say he was an undergrad. He froze, mouth open, and then said, "the mail room is.... not here!" and turned around and ran out.

I felt bad for the kid, I think it was actually more awkward for him than for me. Once you've given birth to a baby you pretty much don't care who sees what anymore. BTW it took me a while to notice this, but it turns out that the "mail room" is actually a metal shelf in the area between the two doors...who knew? I didn't realize because it's usually empty. So, from now on I keep the door closed!

The "It's Not Worth It" Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:12:00 +0000

AOC is on vacation with her 2 kids right now, and reading her blog I am 100% in agreement with her.... a "vacation" with your kids is not a vacation. Er, I'll rephrase: you must redefine the word "vacation" to mean "out of town", rather than "relaxing, catching up on sleep, reading, doing anything that you would like to do for yourself, etc.".

Anyway, this reminds me of how last Friday DH and I decided to go to our favorite hamburger place for dinner. For some reason, after almost 11 months of motherhood, I still get a little bit excited when we reach Friday. (Not as excited as Rebecca Black, but ya know, kind of excited.) Why?? Well, I guess for 30 years of my life, "Friday" meant "Time to kick back and relax a little bit". Old habits die so, so, so hard.

So, in my excited Friday haze, I said, "hey I'm tired of cooking, let's go to Counter Burger!" And DH, who also apparently still forgets he's a dad sometimes said, "yeah sounds great!"

We drive there, thinking well it's time for the Tuff's second nap right now (yep he takes his second nap at 5:15pm, whatever, I am not a bad parent). So surely he will fall asleep in the gently swaying van, only to awaken in about 30-45 minutes, as per usual, and then we will enjoy a relaxing dinner.

Instead, he was tired so he screamed most of the way there, only pacified by me singing Banana Phone at the top of my lungs over and over again, and sure enough he did not fall asleep. But we're already making stupid mistakes, let's intensify them by going into the restaurant!

I manage to quickly order some sweet potato fries while the Tuff refuses to sit in his highchair and decides to use me as a jungle gym, thereby making it impossible for me to look at the menu. Then we get about 5 minutes of peace while Tuff enjoys a few bites of fries.

Then, he pees his diaper and it soaks through his pants. I go change him, and he screams the whole time. (He hates changing tables. I should really bring a little pillow for his head or something, I suspect those things are uncomfortable.) I OF COURSE didn't bring a change of clothes, so I bring him back out to the restaurant with no pants on. The lady sitting next to us has two kids so she kindly offers me a pair of pants. (I decline, but it was a nice offer. And yeah, nothing makes you feel like a stellar mom like having a stranger offer your child a pair of pants.)

Our food comes and DH wolfs down his burger so that he can hold the now very upset and over-tired baby while I eat. I get through half of my cold burger before the Tuff's screaming escalates so much that we decide to leave. I dont' even want to waste time asking for a box so I grab the burger and wrap it in a napkin and we escape.

Next time I *think* I'm tired of cooking I will re-read this post, and remind myself: Self, you are not tired of cooking. You love cooking because it is a BLESSING to be able to eat reasonably tasty food in your own home. In private. Don't be stupid. Don't go out to eat. It is never worth it. And if you really, really can't cook, ORDER SOME PIZZA.

An Economist's Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:36:00 +0000

Tomorrow is my 2-year anniversary with DH! Do you think it would be too unromantic/morbid if I wrote him a card that said:

"To min(T1, T2)-2 more wonderful years!"

Heh heh. JK I will not do that. And if I really felt the need to model our relationship in discrete time, I would be sure to use an infinite time horizon.

And.... I'm off to bed. Here's hoping we get enough sleep to enjoy our day off tomorrow! Happy MLK day to everyone, and happy anniversary to me & DH!

Singing Baby Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:50:00 +0000

Sad: Sining the (not very musically creative) theme song to "Baby Signing Time" to yourself while cooking dinner

Sadder: DH joining in and singing it along with me

Saddest: Our baby was not even in the room.

Balancing School and Home Life

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:50:00 +0000

You may laugh when I say this, given some of my earlier "I'm freaking out" posts, but overall, balancing the two worlds was much easier than I had thought it would be. I always thought I was bad at jugging multiple things. I remember once when I was working I tried to take a graduate class in DSP (digital signal processing) but I had ended up traveling so much for work that I dropped the class. So, that’s how I balanced work and school, that is to say, poorly. But now my priorities are very clear. The Tuff comes first, and everything else is after that. I have him in daycare about 6 hours a day, which I’m sure sounds like a lot for the SAHMs out there, but I think it’s working well for us. DH picks him up by 4pm, and I’m in class until 5. So I’m actually away from my baby for about 7ish hours, which is just enough time for me to walk to school, pump, do a sort of decent job on homework, and go to class.

Now, I had several times where I had to turn in an assignment that wasn’t finished, and I certainly never felt like I studied enough for any of my exams. A few years ago, I would have freaked out about this, but now I am very relaxed about it. I used to always be mad at myself for procrastinating, and I would rarely,if ever, be satisfied with my performance in a class. But now I’m 100% satisfied that I am doing the best I can, so in that sense school is actually easier.

I read a book about working moms and the book said that some moms are “separators” and some are “blenders”. I would have guessed that I would be a “blender”, i.e. having work spill into home life and vice versa, but I feel like I have turned out to be a mega-separator. My two lives are so separate, I sometimes feel like I’m living a weird secret double-life. Yesterday I went to the children’s museum in the morning with another friend and her baby, and then in the afternoon I went to Econometrics. Neither group of people knows anything about the other. My stay-at-home-mom friends could care less what Ordinary Least Squares is, and my classmates could care less what the Children’s Museum is. (It’s actually super fun, btw, the Tuff loved it!!! The museum, that is. Although I’m sure he will love OLS someday too.)

And there are actually many things that didn't change much when I went back to school. As far as sleep goes, it's really about the same whether I'm staying at home or not. I thought I would do some late nights with homework, but I tried that a couple times and decided very quickly that it wasn’t worth it.

There are many things that I miss having time for, and I think many SAHMs would agree that they also don't have time for any of these things:

- having uninterrupted conversations with people
- exercising
- reading
- watching movies
- spending time with my husband
- surfing the internet
- shopping for myself (I really wanted to buy some new clothes over the break, that didn't happen!)
- going out to eat
- getting my haircut
- cutting DH’s hair (FYI don't try to cut your husband's hair and keep an eye on your crawling baby at the same time. We had a minor disaster last week for which I deeply apologize to DH.)
- going to the dentist

Speaking of the dentist, since I find myself with time to write this blog post, I am going to end it right now and go call the dentist. It has been almost a year since my last cleaning, shameful!!

Free time... nervous...

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:31:00 +0000

I managed to drop off the Tuff at daycare by 10:20am and went to campus, pumped, and finished up my first homework assignment. and I still have almost an hour before my first class starts. Ok, I should be doing some reading or something, but really, I am experiencing some free time right now! Weird.

The funny thing is that I'm always composing these insightful and hilarious blog posts in my head, but I never have time to write them, and now that I have time I'm like... ummm... what should I write about?

Here's one thing: I went to dinner with a girlfriend of mine yesterday, who also has a baby, and we left the babies at home! It was SOOOO refreshing and fun. I hadn't been out without the husband and/or child since September when I went to the symphony with another friend.

Also, I should add that the Tuff is doing better in the car these days. It seems that he is not getting carsick after all. I wonder if he just started to believe that every time he got into the car he was going to end up on an airplane to another strange, strange land. We adjusted his straps a little bit, and also started loudly playing children's music in the car, which seems to help a lot.

And by car I mean van. And by van I mean this van, which has had about 9 lives over the last 3 years. But last night, as DH was dropping me off for my Very Exciting Dinner, the van started making Super Crazy noises, and then making smells, and then smoke, and then the power steering didn't work anymore. So, we have been test driving new vans for awhile but the time for a new van is approaching more and more quickly.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:58:00 +0000

I'm so tired right now. The only new year's resolution I can think of is: Never take my baby anywhere again.

It was actually really fun having all the family see Lil' Tuff over Christmas, but I am paying for it now!! His sleep is more messed up than Enron's books and I have no idea where to even start fixing it. Also, he cries every time he's in the car now, so I'm afraid he might be getting car sick.

I can't even imagine right now what my life will be like if the Tuff is a carsick baby. (We want to try a couple more experiments before determining that that is the cause of the crying. And no, not like science experiments, just stuff like adjusting his straps.) I guess we would be ordering more take-out, and DH and I would spend even less time together, if that is possible, because only one of us would go on all the errands. And we would see our friends even less too. I am just thankful that we actually never *need* to drive our baby anywhere, since his daycare is right outside our door.

So, happy new year everyone! Here's to getting some more sleep in 2012.

First Final

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 01:14:00 +0000

So the Grand Finale, a.k.a. Finals Week, was a spectacle of a week. Mr. Tuff was sick the whole week, which culminated with DH and I taking him to the doctor on Friday at 11am, which was 3.5 hours before my last final. Not exactly a recipe for scholarly success.

However, I would just like to take a very brief moment to brag. I just checked my scores for my first final exam, Micro, and I did ABOVE AVERAGE on the final exam for that class!!!!! I wasn't sure how that test went because it felt hard, but everyone else seemed to think it was really hard too. I am very proud and happy right now, because I had pretty low expectations. That test was on Monday, and I did have some time to study over the weekend but the Tuff got sick on Sunday and I had to sleep sitting up in the rocking chair for half the night because he would cough (and then cry) every time I put him down.

So, yay for me!!! :) And, if I don't get around to posting again beforehand, have a very merry Christmas!

Mini Mom Convention

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:24:00 +0000

Two days ago I decided to work at Tully's in the morning and then grab the bus to campus. (More on Tully's later... I have decided I am done with that place!)

I usually walk to school but since I have the most-awesome "One Bus Away" app on my phone, I could work until the bus was about 2 minutes away and then run outside to the bus stop. Efficiency! Seriously, everyone's life in Seattle is better because of that app. Although I don't want to use this too often, because my walk to school is the one last vestige of exercise in my life.

Anyway, as I waited for that whole minute, the girl standing next to me said "hey aren't you my new neighbor?" It turns out she lives in my same building - and since we live in student family housing that implies that she also has a child/children. When we got on the bus she said hi to two other mom-students, so there were 4 of us standing together on the bus who were moms in graduate school. Our conversation lasted for about 4 minutes, since I was only riding the bus for 2 stops, but it was possibly the highlight of my week. Sometimes I feel like I am so insane for doing what I'm doing, it's just really nice to be reminded that there are others like me. (Hiding in my midst, but of course we are all too busy to see each other!)

Mid Quarter Update

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:06:00 +0000

As of today we are trying a new schedule. DH is going into work at 6am and leaving at 3:30pm. I am (hopefully) dropping off the Tuff at 8am and getting home around 5ish. This way the Tuff is still only in daycare 8 hrs or less each day, but his schedule is shifted a little earlier.

I am hoping that this will help me get more studying done, because I have learned a couple things so far. One, I have found that nights and weekends are not nearly as useful as I had thought they would be. Here's the key thing - I really have to leave the house to get anything done (or send the two boys away) - and that means I have to pump again. And that just makes it too difficult so I rarely go. (Yes I know I am lazy, but I am tired of pumping!)

Two, I had originally planned to work more on T/Th afternoons since I finish class earlier on those days. But I find that once I'm done with class I want to rush home and see my baby, so I will work for about 30 minutes and then quit and head home. Somehow in the mornings it's not as hard, and then by the time afternoon comes and I am missing my baby - too late! I am stuck in class!

So... we'll see how this pans out. I am hoping it helps because I am not doing so good right now. As of today I got all my midterm grades and they are.... not my best grades ever. That being said I'm not super stressed about it. Well, I am worried about funding, but that is a topic for another post.

Why Not to Go Surfing

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:59:00 +0000

I had midterms last week, so to celebrate finishing those and having a three day weekend, DH and the Tuff and I went out to the coast to go surfing as we used to do in our pre-baby days.

We had a great time Friday night and Saturday up until I went surfing and my board hit me in the nose. Here was my thought process:

That hurt, I think I'm gonna go in.
Oh no, there's blood on my surfboard!

I wiped off the two drops of blood, and then it really starts. Blood everywhere!

I'm glad there are no sharks around here.

I start walking in and a girl sees me and asks if I'm ok. She looks really concerned. I tell her that my husband is on the shore and I'll be fine. These things happen, I tell her. Yeah, I said that. :/ She probably thought that either a) I had not yet fully realized what thing had just happened to me, b) I was insane, or c) I was super tough.

And the rest of the thought process:

What if I have to go to the hospital and then I can't breastfeed my baby?
If my nose keeps hurting like this I won't be able to get any studying done!
What if it's broken and I end up looking like Owen Wilson? No offense to Owen Wilson but thank God I already found a husband.

Well, I did not go to the hospital. I called my dad (who is a doctor) and he said to put some ice on it and stop being a baby. (JK he didn't say that last part, just the ice.) So... I am going to ice it one more time and then get some sleep. Not sure yet on whether it is crooked. Will update after the swelling goes down.

How Not to Freak Out...

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:19:00 +0000

... while you're trying to not fail grad school and then your baby gets sick and then your husband gets sick, and you have no time to do homework because obviously your poor baby is more important and he is fever-ing and cough-ing and has green mucus (and bit me again today OUCH!!!!). And you are super tired and your baby goes to bed at 9:45 and then you spend half an hour frantically crossing things off your to-do list and then you wonder why you can't fall asleep.

That whole thing was supposed to be the title of this post. And the contest is as follows:

I don't know.

A Hilarious Song!!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:55:00 +0000

So, DH is having that same weird new-parent thing I had where I randomly pull children's songs out of the depths of my brain. The other day he came home and said, "Have you ever heard the Teddy Bear's Picnic?"

Well, I had not. But now I have, and let me tell you, this song is awesome. Here's why it's hilarious. The song is all about these cute little happy-go-lucky teddy bears having a picnic. However, the song also implies that the teddy bears are real bear-bears. As in, if you come across one in the woods it will eat you.

Now granted, I am the person who didn't know what a duck was at age 27. (Short story: I thought that all water fowl were just types of ducks. It's really just a semantics thing. Nothing to make fun of me for.) That being said, I always had teddy bears in my head as.... well, not a bear. Like I don't say to someone who just got back from Alaska, "Oh what kind of bears did you see? Grizzly, black, teddy, polar?"

So you see why this is hilarious, right? Now, I highly recommend listening to the song. There are a few versions on YouTube but my favorite (so far) is this one. <--I'm done with embedding YouTube videos on this blog, they always look bad and I'm too lazy to fix the formatting.

Economic Theory #1

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:11:00 +0000

Today was another day where I ran around like a beheaded chicken*. But, I think the Econ grad school is already starting to pay off because today I came up with a great idea.

Backstory - my DH got a phone call tonight from the blood bank, asking him to donate plasma. I am all about donating blood but I told him not to do plasma cause a) he's afraid of needles, and b) it takes forever. For something that takes that long you should get paid for it. (And c) if he's doing plasma for 2 hours that's two hours that he isn't home, helping me out!)

Here's where the idea comes in.... I'm always getting emails saying that they need me to donate blood because the blood bank is at critically low levels, etc. But I bet if they took the money that they spend on emailing, phone calling, having those blood trucks drive all over town, etc, they could just offer to pay people for their blood. I think normally this wouldn't work that well, because they would have to pay too much. But in today's economy I think if they offered to pay $5 you'd have people lining up to donate blood. This helps both the unemployed and trauma victims! It's like, the New New Deal. In fact, the Red Cross shouldn't have to take it out of their marketing budget. The government could pay for it. Then in 30 years politicians can argue about Social Security, Medicare, and Blood Transfers. <-- bad pun

Then again, many economists believe that people should get paid to donate organs, because there would be way less of a shortage (if any). Of course there are of course moral issues there, so maybe there's a moral issue with the blood. But I feel like people used to get paid for donating blood, isn't that true? And if so, why did it stop? Did the Red Cross or whoever get so good at marketing that they were able to drum up all this free blood? Strange.

So there you have it - economy solved! You're welcome America.

*I literally ran to my first class today, in the pouring rain, because I was late because Lil' Tuff took a really long nap this morning, and by the way I then worried about him all day because I thought maybe he was extra tired because he's coming down with something. Then, in my 1.5 hours between classes I heated up my lunch, ate said lunch, finished writing up a homework problem that was due today, worked on another homework set that's due on Friday, read part of a paper, pumped, ran upstairs to a computer lab to check my school email, and met with a professor.

What Have I Learned in School

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:10:00 +0000

Things are slowly starting to run a little more smoothly. Lil' Tuffy seems to love his new daycare, and I love dropping him off right outside my door! After about a week I finally figured out that I can just bring milk in bags instead of bottles, because they keep my bottles there and wash them for me. Not having to wash and label 3-4 bottles a day is going to be a big time savings for me! <-- This may sound trivial, but it is not. Little time-savings such as this may allow me to stay sane, and even post on this old blog sometimes!

And poor lil' Tuff is mostly better, although still a tiny bit stuffed up. If the poor kid inherited my nose he will probably be snoring for the rest of his life! :(

Last Tuesday was probably the low point before things started to get a little bit less bleak. I took the Tuff to the doctor that day. He was mostly better by then but I had bailed on an earlier doctor appointment and then he had gotten worse again, so I didn't want to jinx his recovery. But, because that appt. took so long I had to miss a class, and it was the first time that class was meeting, which is sort of a bad way to start out a class.

As I was racing from bus to bus and imagining all my fellow classmates (who by the way were already done with their micro homework which I hadn't even started yet) sitting in class, I was feeling pretty crappy. Only 6 days into school and I'm missing class and I'm way behind on everything... this is not good!

I stopped at a bench because the Tuff was getting really heavy (he fell asleep at the doctor so I was free-carrying him with no wrap so that he wouldn't wake up) and the bench happened to have this quote inscribed on it:

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” --Theodore Roosevelt

Indeed. And that is what I keep telling myself. I like economics, and I think I will be good at it, and I will NOT compare myself to kids who have all the free time in the world to read entire textbooks and be 10 weeks ahead on their homework!

So that is what I have learned so far at school. That, and lots of math. And a very small amount of economics such as "people like to consume stuff."

Craaazy Math

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:42:00 +0000

During math camp, I noticed that all of the older grad students kept telling us how hard the first year courses were. I thought, well, I have a pretty substantial math background, so I'm not sure how hard the math will be.... but even one guy who had his undergrad in math told us that the first year was really hard, which made me pretty nervous.

Now that I've been in school for one week, I am starting to have an idea of why this is. See, here's normal math:

For example, say you have the equation: y = mx + b

and someone says, take the derivative with respect to x. That's easy!

dy/dx = m

Ahhhh. Clean, crisp, and refreshing.

Unless you're a grad student in economics.

In that case, the derivative is not m. Because guess what? m is also a function of x. And so is b. Oh yeah, and b is a function of y too. And by the way you were just supposed to know that, because it's just basic economic principles.

So, that's why it's hard. Also I forgot how to solve differential equations... the 2 hours we went over that in math camp was not really enough. But other than that, things are going better. Lil' Tuff is liking his new daycare. He sits on a chair (not a high chair, a mini wooden chair) and eats his lunch with the big kids! Awww, so grown up!!! And I'm liking it cause I now have NO daycare commute!!! I just walk to and from school and that's it. Happy days.

First Week of School

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:20:00 +0000

Soooooo much stuff has happened in the past couple weeks. Some good, some bad, but all stressful. So stressful in fact that I lost 5 pounds. Those of you who have ever seen me eat know that this is kind of a big deal. I mean, I don't just go around losing 5 pounds. I hear those people who say "oh, I was so stressed, I lost 5 pounds," and I think to myself, "That's weird. When I'm stressed I eat ice cream."

Ok some of the weight loss could also be due to me having to walk up a giant hill to get to campus every day. But most of it I'm sure was stress.

Here is a list of the most stressful things that happened in the past 2 weeks:

1. We moved.
2. Lil' Tuffy got sick. I could tell some poop stories here that, in retrospect, are pretty funny. But to respect the privacy of my family members who are too young to know that they are being blogged about, I will let you use your imagination.
3. Because Lil' Tuff got sick right after we moved, I first thought that he was crying a lot because he hated our new house and missed our old place.
4. Two Sundays ago, I was at urgent care, worrying that my baby might have E Coli or Rotovirus or West Nile disease or something where death was probably imminent.
5. The doctor came in and basically said that Lil' Tuff was fine. This made DH feel better, but did not make me feel better. This resulted in tension.
6. I got sick. Probably from not eating or sleeping.
7. My sickness made Lil' Tuffy more sick.
8. His inability to breathe through his nose means that he can't sleep, which means that I can't sleep.
9. I got a milk blister. (I think from not pumping enough during math camp?)
10. We are in the process of starting him at a new daycare. This actually doesn't start until Monday but we had to do lots of paperwork and whatnot, plus I have to worry about whether we're doing the right thing since the Tuff is now getting really comfy with his current daycare.
11. We broke our second stroller! :( Luckily DH did the honors this time, I would hate to say that I'd done two in a row.
12. In the midst of all this, Lil' Tuffy decides to start biting while nursing. One time I yelled so loud that he cried. A mean thing to do to a sick child, I know, but if you've been bitten I think you will sympathize... the yell was pretty much involuntary on my part.
13. Oh yeah, and I started school.

School is actually really fun so far. When I got to math camp I was like, "ahh, this is my thing." For me, seeing backwards Es on a chalkboard is like a fish getting back into the water. On the other hand, you can only have so much fun proving stuff while you are worrying about your sick baby. So, we'll see how it goes, I guess.

I'm Like a Nerdy Pageant Mom

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:01:00 +0000

Some moms put their little girls (and possibly boys?? I'm not sure...) into beauty pageants. I hate to judge, but I'm judging here... I think those things are bad. I just saw a thing on the news a few days ago where a little girl was dressed up as the Julia Roberts Pretty Woman hooker (blue mini skirt and cutoff shirt, with black boots). Wrong!!

But now that I just judged other people, let me tell you how I exploit my child... scientific studies! No, don't worry, I would never ever ever do something that I considered unsafe (no experimental drugs, medical practices, etc.) Really I should not even be comparing these two things but I just thought it was funny to think of myself as a nerdy version of a pageant mom.

When Lil' Tuff was born I got a postcard in the mail saying "if you would like to allow your child to participate in child development studies fill this out and return it", and I did that because I thought how cool would that be if my baby can help further scientific knowledge?

Today was his first study, which was a hearing study. (Actually technically it is his second study, he & I did a flu vaccine study which started when I was pregnant - and then they tried to draw blood from him when he was 6 weeks old, which didn't work.) I thought this hearing study was fitting since I used to work on speech recognition. They are looking to see if babies can differentiate vowel noises in different background noises. And apparently the Tuff did great... although perhaps they say that to all the parents! :) Would be interesting to compare his performance to that of a computer, since computers tend to do poorly in the presence of noise.

DH always does that whole "if our kid wants us to buy him something, he can get off his butt and get a job... I got a paper route when I was 8... blah blah" routine. So he will be happy to know that the Tuff made his second paycheck today! Good job baby!

Cooking Tip from Amy

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:38:00 +0000

During my 6 months as a SAHM I have learned a lot about cooking! I learned that there are different kinds of flour. I learned the word ramekin. I learned that you can make corn dogs without a deep fryer! I used a food processor for the first time. I learned some stuff about using the lid on the blender.

But here is one thing I just discovered that is very handy so I thought I would share it with you guys. Throughout my life, I have had a food habit that is probably not so good - I like to eat the entire box of Velveeta Shells and Cheese. It's just not healthy. One box = over 1000 calories. Ok, the average human needs 2200 calories a day, so 1000 isn't that big of a deal. Then again, 1000 in only one meal which consists of pasta and cheese-product? Bad.

You might just be thinking, "Amy, exercise some self-restraint, for God's sake." But here's the problem! Even if you get full before reaching the 1000-calorie mark, you're screwed because shells & cheese does not keep. Whatever magical, addictive chemicals are in the cheese begin to undergo rigor mortis within hours of being prepared! I mean, it gets really gross. And re-heating does not make it better.

Solution: I cooked half the box of pasta and added half the sauce. I then kept the other half of the cheese sauce in the fridge! Today I just cooked the remaining half and it tastes perfectly fine! And I can watch my girlish figure with a mere 500 calories! :) Ok I added some chips & salsa on the side but that's pretty healthy.

Transition

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Right now I am "transitioning" Lil' Tuffy into daycare. But it doesn't really feel like a transition. It feels more like I'm trying to break a horse. (Ok I know you're wondering so I will clarify - I have never actually broken a horse. But I read a LOT of Saddle Club books when I was a kid.)

I am supposed to be using this time to study, but I can't focus on anything because I'm too worried about my baby. Here's how it has gone so far:

Day 1 (Mon. Aug 29): I drop him off at 1pm, planning to leave him until 5pm. The daycare calls me at 4 asking me to come over because he won't take the bottle and he's freaking out. Not exactly the best start ever.

Day 2 (Wed Aug 31): I bring him at about 10:30am and pick him up at 1:30. I shifted the time earlier because after 3:30pm there is only 1 girl on duty and she is brand new. (It turns out that this is the main source of the problem on Monday. The more experienced teacher got Lil' Tuff to drink a couple ounces when she was there.) Day 2 seemed to go fine, and when I arrived he seemed happy. Until he heard my voice, at which point he started crying.

Of course then we have this big labor day vacation that throws a wrench into things... I feel like a terrible mom for dragging my baby up to Canada for 5 days when he's trying to get used to daycare, but I didn't realize how hard things would be because he's been so chill and flexible up to this point.

By the way, for days 1 and 2 he was the only baby there, which was great since he got lots of attention. But while we were gone 3 more babies started. There will be 8 when the center is full, which will be very soon.

Day 3 (yesterday): I bring him at 10:15am and pick him up at 2:45pm. He is crying when I get there - his teacher is rocking him and she says he is really tired, because he hardly napped the whole day. I suspect he was also hungry because he only ate half an ounce in the morning and then 3 ounces just before I arrived.

Day 4 (today): I just dropped him off. Usually when I leave he's happily playing on the floor with the other babies. But today one of the babies started crying and it set off a chain reaction. Lil' Tuff has not been around lots of other babies and I think the noise scared him. I picked my baby back up to comfort him for about 5 minutes, and when it seemed like the worst of the crying spree was dying down I took off.

I realize that babies cry, and that they set each other off, and that they will live if they cry for a few minutes here and there. But here's the thing - Lil' Tuff almost NEVER cries when he's at home. So why am I thrusting him from a world in which everything is chill and happy into a world of hunger, scary noises, and teachers who odn't have time to pick him up? Why??????

An 11-Year-Old's Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:43:00 +0000

Well, I can file this one under "things I never thought I'd do". A couple days ago I interrogated an 11 year old girl about daycare. Well, not really interrogated. Let's say peppered with questions. I know her mom, and I know that her mom went back to work after about 3 months of maternity leave. The mom said that she was really happy with the daycare and that her daughter is still friends with some of her daycare buddies. (Which is really cool.)

But I wanted to hear it out of the child's mouth. (And by the way her mom was not around for this conversation.) I asked her how she had liked being in daycare. She paused, so I added, was it fun? Boring?

She thought for a second, and I waited with bated breath. Did she love it? Hate it? Resent her mom for working so much? Guess what she said.

"It was pretty fun, I guess. I don't really remember."

Now I realize that there are arguments for staying home with your child that go beyond what their conscious-level memory of that time will be, but it just puts things in perspective a little bit when a very happy and intelligent 11 year old essentially tells you that something is not a big deal.

Stockpiling Quarters!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:17:00 +0000

Today my mom sent me a link to a story about the Presidential $1 Coins. I was not aware of this, but apparently since 2007 they have been minting 4 different ones each year (similar to the state quarters).

I would like to say two things about this:

1. I personally love dollar coins. I would be more than happy to use them. The next time I go to the bank I will ask if I can get $1 coins.

2. In fact, I love dollar coins so much that I will personally volunteer to help the government get more of them into circulation. If they will send me some quarters from their 1 billion dollar stockpile I will spend each and every quarter that they give me. I mean, that is a promise. I will even resist the temptation to keep one of each quarter for a collection. This I would do for my country. I truly believe it would be better for the economy for me to spend those quarters than for congress to waste a bunch of their time drafting and passing a bill to stop the production of the quarters. ALSO, according to this website:

The Government Accountability Office estimates replacing dollar bills with dollar coins would save $5.5 billion over the course of the next thirty years.

You see how this is a win-win-win situation for me, the American people, and for the U.S. Government?

Terrible New Song!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:14:00 +0000

The other day I heard a song on the radio that says, "You look better with the lights off." WTF. I thought, I must have mis-heard that. So I looked it up when I got home and sure enough it is true. I'm not even going to dignify the song by linking to it, but feel free to look it up if you don't believe me.

I'm not sure which is worse - the fact that surely someone out there has already had sex to this song (blehhh) or the fact that when I did look it up on YouTube it played a commercial for Build-a-Bear Workshop before playing the song!!! I mean, what is the average age of people listening to this???

And by the way, this is how I knew I was ~~an old person~~ ready to have kids... I hate most new things on the radio. Don't even get me started about how that one Lady Gage song sounds just like Express Yourself by Madonna!

The Empty Car Seat

noreply@blogger.com (Amy) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:19:00 +0000

Isn't it so weird when you're driving and you look in the rear view mirror and don't see that little face??

Lil' Tuff has been with his babysitter for almost 2 hours now and they haven't called me so I assume everything is OK. Yes I am slightly worried still. But I did just get through an entire chapter of my macro textbook which is good!

Also I think I just got reverse-decaffed. (By accident.) I asked for a tall decaf americano and the lady asked me if I wanted a double... I thought this was a weird question for a decaf but then again, if you're going to ask what the point of a double-decaf is, you do have to ask what the point of a single-decaf is.

Anyway I think she might not have made it a decaf because I am now feeling very jittery and trying to type too fast for my fingers. This is probably the real reason I am still worrying about Lil' Tuff - caffeine jitters!!