The First Day of School

This week was our first week at school. We're both teachers so we got to spend the summer playing with Raptor-Son, but now it's back to work. It was also my least productive summer ever; I usually try to work on planning new things for next school year, but this year I've barely started, even though I've got an entirely new class. Woooooooo!

The system is that I drop the Wee Man off in the mornings around 7, and then Raptor-Mom picks up around 3, for a total of 8 hours. I used to go into work about 6:15, so I miss my morning preparation period, but this is working out well so far. He also seems to like it; every day when I drop him off, he smiles really big when he sees his teacher, and holds his arms out, so I think he's happy there. On Monday he was crying when he got picked up, but hopefully that's just an adjustment thing, because ever since then he's been either playing or sleeping when we get him.

We track his progress on an app called Tadpoles, which gives us (literally) up-to-the-minute reports on his diaper activities, sleeping, eating, and playing. It's the ultimate form of 21st-century parenting, and one more thing to obsessively check during the day whenever I have a free minute between classes.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to be back to work. This summer was a great time, and I'll have a bigger post about traveling with an infant in the next few weeks, but I like the structure of the school year better. It helps that I feel very much at home where I work currently, and I'm almost always excited to teach. Teaching is usually pitched as an ideal job for parents, but in reality I think it's very much the opposite. Yes, the summer was great, but the hours are essentially infinite during the school year: there's always something more I could be doing, planning, grading, revising, etc. It's work that very much follows you home at night, instead of staying safely at the office. Also the pay is terrible, and sometimes presidential candidates want to eliminate teacher lounges to keep you from complaining.

I'm still glad to be back, and glad we got to have a long summer with our new little guy.

5-Month Eyebrow Update: still nothing.

4 Month Check-In

Originally this was going to be a larger post about traveling with an infant, but that will have to wait. Consider this a teaser for that post then.

We just passed our four-month mark, a time that usually is a major sleep regression. Raptor-Son for the last week or so though has been knocking out 7 hour stretches. He wakes up hungry, then passes out for another couple hours until about 7:30 most mornings. He'll spend an hour or so awake, then take another nap, at which point his cycle repeats.

He's getting more playful too, and has begun to use his sense of taste analytically. Combined with his new ability to grab, this means any object in reach is about to become very damp. Sophie, his teething giraffe, is currently his favorite. He can grab her in lots of places, and she's very chew-able. He's recently started snatching glasses off people (me) and pulling beards (mine.) New tricks!

His Four Month Checkup went fine, he's still enormous. 89% for weight, 95% for height, and he's moved into 6-9 Month clothing. The shots went okay, he still hates being put down on the table, so as soon as we picked him up after the shots he stopped crying. He's a trooper.