Thursday, March 8, 2007

Finally. It finally happened. The sun came out. Temperatures rose. Snow melted. Fun was had by all.

A beautiful day today here in Three Hills, with the temperature getting up to close to double-digits, if not more. Seriously, it was so nice that I wore shorts in the afternoon. Of course, those who know me well know that shorts are my preferred bottom-half clothing option, and I would wear them year-round if I could. As soon as the temperature rises above zero, therefore, I must wear them. And you know what? It felt good.

With the nice weather, much time was taken outside today. Wife and son came to greet me at chapel this morning (I have a class in the morning before chapel), which was a nice surprise. Then, after lunch, Steph wasn't feeling so well (she thinks it's because of an old applesauce-fruit cup thing she ate, but it could be anything, really), so I skipped my first class of the afternoon and let her sleep. What to do while she's sleeping? How about go for a walk. So I piled the boy in the stroller, and we headed down to the IDA to pick up some Maalox for the wife, some rechargable batteries for the camera (the Costco ones don't work so well in high-drain devices, I'm afraid), and socket covers. Yes, I know, we're totally derelict parents for not putting covers on the plugs before this. So sue us.

Anyway, the weather was so nice while we were out that I decided to take a little scenic tour of town on the way home. It helped that the boy had fallen asleep, and I wanted to prolong the experience. Sure enough, he woke up pretty much the exact time I got home, so we were good.

After that, Steph was feeling a bit better, so it was off to class for me. Again wanting to take advantage of the weather, she and the boy came along, this time with the boy strapped into the Snugli and worn like a backpack. Cutest...thing...ever. It looked like a nature documentary where the mother bear carries around the babies on her back. So cute. Off we went to school, and we parted ways.

Over an hour later, I emerged from my classroom to walk home, and there were wife and son again, with son in the backpack again. My immediate thought was, "How did she get him back in there on her own?" (it took both of us to get him in the first time, and I pictured much difficulty in repeating the procedure solo). But no, it turns out she ran into a couple of the other young moms around here, and they had decided to take a walk over to the three hills north of town, from which the town derives its name. So actually, they hadn't been home yet. Nice. I tell you, when it's nice weather, you gotta take it.

We figure that Theo was out of the house for close to three hours today, give or take a bit. And he was happy as a clam. Actually, I've never seen a clam as happy as he was. He's such an outdoorsy baby, it's ridiculous. And we're happy to oblige, especially on days like today. And there's more of this to come, they say (and I actually believe them this time). Fabulous.

In other news, well, not much really. Teething seems to have reached its zenith and is on the downward slide, so that's nice. We can see faint outlines of three new teeth--all on the bottom--coming in, which would make his mouth symmetrical again. We seem to recall that last time, this is what happened, too--we had a few days of terrible pain, but the pain stopped before the teeth broke through the surface. Here's hoping.

Oh yeah, you know that presentation I've been talking about for so long? Yeah, I got the date wrong; I actually present next Wednesday, not this Friday. Which is better than realizing the presentation was, say, today, which would have been worse. Ah well, extra time to prepare has never been bad, right?

School-wise, I actually feel pretty good about my progress thus far. It's scary to think that the end of the semester is just 12 class sessions away (6-1/2 weeks). It seems like there's so much to do before then, but I know I'll get it done. I have a few things nagging at me, but I can polish them off well, I'm sure. No concerns yet. Yet.

Well, I think that's all I've got in the tank today. We're both pretty tired--it seems the bad bed is making life very difficult, especially when you take the aggregate effect of many weeks in it into account. Yuck. Oh well. There's plenty of time to read in bed before turning out the light, which is always nice, too. A good way to end the day.

I hope you all had a pleasant day as well. More of the same tomorrow. See you then.