KSU

So I am in the middle of my first week at Kennesaw State University. It has been a little crazy, a lot of work, and a lot of fun. I love teaching Physiology and the kids here seem so different fromGT students. That is such a welcome thing. I was so over the whiney engineers who do not want to be in psychology classes. But I am a little overwhelmed right now and have not had a chance to download any photos. I promise I will soon. Hugs to all.

Our crazy life! All that and a tree!

So things continue to be hectic. I am trying to edit my dissertation and prep for the 3 classes I will be teaching and take care of Sam. She is not a huge fan of solid food. So that takes a lot of effort. Plus a tree fell through my parents house when they were out of town. And my computer has had issues and got reformatted. So I have not been able to post lately. But here is a photo of the tree and some of whem my aunt and grandmother visited and other cute ones of Sam.

I just realized I never posted her 6 month check up stats. She is doing really well, sitting up well and standing if supported. She was (on July 31st) 15 lbs, 14 oz (50%) and 27 inches (90%). So she has not kept up with the percentile for weight, but she gained more than a half ounce a day, which is great. Now she will be down to a quarter ounce a day. But she was so long that it was suggested we move her up to the convertabile car seat, so she is now in the Britax, or as we call it the Barka lounger for the car. She adjusted well.

Sam sits pretty!

Samantha has been getting better and better at sitting up. Here is how she was doing on July 12th. She is doing even better now.

LA and Sam and Isabelle

So the last post was mostly early in our trip. After a few days in Phoenix, during which we drove to Tucson, we drove to Loma Linda to visit Isabelle (and Jon and Robyn). During that time we hit the LA zoo. Grammy also had matching outfits for Sam and Izzy, but Sam was not feeling very cooperative, so we did not get great pictures in their outfits. But they looked really cute. After Loma Linda, we returned to Phoenix where we did some shopping and got Sam's 6 month portraits done (see above for cute shots). She was such a good sport for the whole trip, but really did great for the 2 hours or so of having her picture made. And she slept the whole flight home. What a dream baby, such a blessing. She is so wonderful and we cannot believe she is almost 6 months old! We started rice cereal when we got home and I will post those soon. Just trying to spread it out some.

Sam takes flight

Nick, Sam and I headed to Phoenix, Tucson, and Cali to visit his family. I have tons of pictures, so here is a bunch. I will add more later. Sam may have been in withdrawal from being separated from her jumparoo, but she had plenty to play with and she got lots of love and a whole new wardrobe. She got to see Grammy, Poppi, and Uncle Terence in Phoenix. She also got to see a few of Nick's aunts and cousins. Several family friends stopped by, too. We drove down to Tucson where Nick's brother, Chris, and his family live (Amy, Jessica, Zach, and Devin). We also drove all the way to Cali to see Nick's other brother, Jon, and his family (Robyn and Isabelle). So Sam got to spend lots of time with cousins. We even got to swing by the LA Zoo. A very busy trip that we were crazy to take on, but we wanted to squeeze as much in as possible since we are so busy and do not get to go many places. We are all still recovering. The old saying need a vacation to recover from our vacation applies.

Misc pictures

Here are some cute pictures :)

The strawberry outfit is one Alexandra, Sam's second cousin, wore when she was this age. The toy tv is one I played with when I was little and Sam seems to really likes it. The red dot outfit is one my grandmother made for me. The other pictures are ones I think are just cute.

Happy 4th!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th. I do have some good news, I have decided to take a full-time visiting faculty position at Kennesaw State University (http://www.kennesaw.edu/), which is 20 minutes north of Atlanta. I will be teaching 3 courses in the Fall (Intro, Social, and Physiological Psychology) and then 4-5 in the Spring. So it will be a lot of work, but will be good for the vitea and keeps us from having to move for another year.

Here is a short video clip. Sam has been rolling over in both directions for a while now, but we never seem to be able to catch it. Here is as close as we have gotten so far, it is from June 15th. She is trying hard to be mobile, but often gets herself into trouble, such as rolling onto her tummy in the crib in a corner and wanting to be on her side or back. So we have to rescue her.