Somewhat Pregnant

Heather is in the 27th week of the pregnancy. Oh… so is the baby. The young ‘un is moving quite a bit. When she gets kicked, Heather just says, "Hi, Baby!" and puts her hands on her stomach to get the full experience, and to really appreciate the movements of our second child. Heather has an appointment next week. My scheduler adjusted my calendar so that I can be there, too. Unbeknownst to you, but knownst to me, I am the guy who sets my schedule, so I was kind enough to coordinate my schedule with myself. I try to be accommodating, especially with Team Me, Myself, and I.

I don’t want to miss a thing whenever I can be at the appointments. Besides, Gabriel is a handful and I can occupy his time and distract him so that the Doc can check out the momma-to-be. I admit, Heather is looking "mostly pregnant" now (in the words of her doctor, as she has progressed from somewhat pregnant to the current state of progress). Soon, she will be very pregnant, but that is more than a month away yet. Heather has her misgivings about the way she looks and feels. Mostly pregnant or not, Heather always looks good to me!

There is No "I" in Team? Riiiight!

I received the spiffy copy of my AABA diploma yesterday. It isn’t an advanced degree, but I feel pretty good about sticking with the program, especially when the demands of work are stressful. It is worth it, and I feel that I am accomplishing something worthwhile. One step at a time, I will reach the masters degree that I set as the minimum academic finish line (for now). I want to earn a doctoral degree, but whether I complete that without a break after the master program or not is something on which I haven’t decided. I have abundant time to decide.

I finished my portion of a learning team PowerPoint dealing with organizational structures. The assignment is due tomorrow, but nobody posted a thing all day. I have been working a lot of hours, so I didn’t lead the group. Besides, I was the group leader for the last assignment, so I figured it was someone else’s turn to lead. I wasn’t sure what everyone else was contributing to the assignment. I got tired of waiting for the group tonight, so I sat down and did five slides for the assignment and posted it. Hopefully, I didn’t upstage anyone else who was doing the same content. But nobody told me squat about their plans, so that is just tough tiddly winks if my work conflicts with other team members. So much for communications among the team members. Tonight, everyone apologized for not being online all day to get their work done. If I have to, I will post the assignment myself and leave off the names of anyone who has been slacking. Why should they get credit for not doing their fair share?

I posted about fifteen times throughout the day and into the evening, asking for input from the group. It wasn’t until after 8 tonight before the others actually started working on the project. I will probably edit the compiled work of the entire group and create transitions to put it all together logically. Oh well. I want it done right, and usually the only way to make that happen is to do it myself! I admit that I am particular about correctness of format to APA standards, and I expect the team members to contribute to the perfection of assignments. This is college-level writing, after all. I have another paper to write tomorrow, but until then, I am not thinking about work or school anymore tonight!

Please hold on to the bar...

Gabriel is so funny. Heather said she was hungry and took out a luscious-looking Granny Smith apple. He took it away from her, and is currently eating like it was the best apple ever. It is kind of funny, in that he commandeered the apple after Heather managed one bite. The apple is huge, and Gabriel has to use both hands just to hang on to it. Thankfully, he is such a healthy eater. He turns down chocolate in favor of fruits and vegetables. I hope he always makes such smart food choices. Oh, by the way, Heather says this is the first apple he ever ate (in the non-apple mush format). That is one great thing about living with a toddler. There are so many “firsts” to enjoy. Being a father is great. Being a daddy is even better!

Today, I started working on a handrail for the stairs. Gabriel can navigate to the basement in record time, scooting on his behind and using his hands to control his course and speed down the stairs. One of these days, he will climb the stairs and want to use the hand rail. When we bought the house, the inspector noted that was one thing that should be added soon. Only four and a half years later, we are adding the rail. I stained the handrail today, and after I seal the wood tomorrow, I will hang it on the wall. It’s a cheap project, but it makes me feel like a productive DIYer.