18 in 6

I started my master's this summer. I took 12 hours in 10 weeks! Crazy! I took another 6 this fall semester. That was also a little crazy when dealing with a full-time job and 2 little ones at home. That's a grand total of 18 hours in 6 months! The original plan was to take another 6 in the fall and then one more psycho summer of 12 hours and be done. However, baby #3 has thrown quite a curve ball into "the plan." I've decided to take one course this summer just to keep myself going but not two in order to *hopefully* allow some mental time to prepare myself for three kids. Baby is due during finals week so I may be finishing the course after baby arrives. I hope not, but chances of baby coming late aren't likely if previous baby is a factor.

I will NOT be taking any classes this summer! Complete enjoyment of my family and learning to manage life with three little ones is my only priority.

I maintained a 4.0 this summer and was really hoping to keep it up throughout my studies. However, one of my classes this semester I let "slide" a bit. It really was hard to keep up with online discussions for two classes on top of all the other stuff I had to deal with both in the classes and in my regular life. I received a B+ on 2/3 of my quizzes. 40% of my grade is a B+ average. My thoughts have been that this for sure has done me in for achieving an A in the class. The only saving grace is my project and, if my calculations are correct, I have to receive at least an A- to pull off an A in the class. This professor is quite stingy on grading and quite picky as well. His wording on quizzes is tricky and, if I do say so myself, a bit unfair. Only having the one project has not allowed me anything to compare to and not knowing how he grades these has been quite nerve-wracking. A part of me has been worried that I missed some vital part or did something completely wrong and I failed it!

I've been religiously checking my email for over a week to see what I received on this project.

Confidence has not been my friend.

I still have no email from my professor with feedback on my project! Grades were due today!

I've been checking "my final grades" online and the earliest semester I can see grades for is Summer II 2010. Ugh!

Finally, I decided to also check my "unofficial" transcript online. I was quickly scrolling down it, assuming that it would not be posted yet, when I saw the two classes I was enrolled in this semester. A and A!!!

Seeing as how I still have not received my grade for the project, I'm not extremely confident that this is accurate. However, why would it show up online if he had not already submitted my grade??? But why would he have submitted my grade and not emailed me back my project???

Please, professor, email me my project feedback before the stress kills me!

Sweetly Surprised

We were pretty strict on Layla's use of the pacifier. She didn't get it for nearly 4 weeks and then we only gave it to her for sleeping purposes (mostly). We took her off the paci at night when she was 4-5 months old and only kept her on it for nap knowing that it would make life easier for all when she went to daycare. When she was a little over a year old (13-14 months), I took the paci away completely just to see what would happen. She never asked for it and never made a fuss. Piece of cake!

With Piper we were much more relaxed. She received a paci while still in the hospital and definitely was not so restricted to mostly sleeping times. We tried one night (maybe around 6 months?? 8 months??) to take it away and let her cry it out...we gave in rather quickly. I'd like to say it's because they were sharing a room but it's mostly because our patience for such things isn't what it was when we had only one kid. So we continued letting her have one as I continued to say that we are going to be in for an ugly battle when we finally decide to take it away.

Christmas break began Friday night. Saturday night I figured now would be a good time to try taking the paci away for nighttime sleeping. This really is our best shot before baby #3 arrives as it is our longest span of time where we don't have to worry about sleepless nights and school the next day. So off we went on this little venture.

Saturday night she cried for five or so minutes. Of course she was very tired from not napping too well that day.

Sunday night she only cried for a couple of minutes. Of course she was very tired from a day full of Christmas fun at Jeremy's dad's house.

Monday night she only cried for a minute or so. Of course...well...nothing.

Tonight she didn't cry at all!

Is this really happening??? I've been afraid to say anything until now for fear of jinxing us, but I'm thinking maybe this won't be quite the battle I envisioned it would be.

It's quite nice to be so sweetly surprised.

It Only Takes A Night

to turn a crawler into a walker.

I saw Piper take her first steps on December 2. Five was the max for the night. Since then, we haven't really seen much more. We did get up to ten steps one time which was quite exciting! But she's always preferred crawling. The only time we could get her to take steps was if someone was right in front of her prompting her to walk. And why not crawl when you're so fast at it?!

Yesterday was no different - taking a few steps here and there but crawling most of the time.

Something changed while she was sleeping.

Today Piper has done very little crawling...walking everywhere she goes! No matter if she falls, she gets right back up and starts walking again. Walking with "large" toys in her hands or a sippy cup in her mouth, her determination is deep.

Something switched within my little pumpkin. It happened in a night. She realized that the task at hand wasn't quite so daunting. She was right. She's adapted to moving around upright quite successfully. :-)

New adventures are here and it's quite exciting!

I'm Back!

After a long hiatus, I am back to blogging. I've had many blog topics pop in my head over the course of the past 4 or so months, but I've simply not gotten around to writing them. :-( I'm going to blame it on starting my master's.