Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

Katherine has basically one objective these days: to stand. The only point to crawling is to get to a place where she can pull herself up.

And she has become quite concerned about falling, so here she’s ensuring that won’t happen:

Lest you be horrified at the compost scene . . . well, I can’t help you.  But it was fresh compost!  And where was I?  Standing next to Katherine, washing dishes as she slipped behind me and started her mischief.

I wish I had a picture of Katherine’s adventure the day before she discovered the compost.  We’d just come in from the grocery store and the final garden run of the year.  We had reusable grocery bags all over the floor, and Katherine had a great time digging in the bags and coming up with a tub of butter or whatnot.  But it was quiet for a minute, and when I turned around she had dived head-first into the parsnips that Sydney had gathered from his garden.  He’d just dug them out of the frozen ground, and there was as much mud as parsnip.  Katherine had mud on her hands, her face, the front of her jumper, her toy–and she’s never looked prouder of herself.

We’re discovering that anytime she’s quiet (unless she’s in the crib) she’s probably headed for trouble.  I’ve now caught her countless times, watching the diaper bottom round the corner, as she headed for either kitty litter or kitty food.  She never fails to spot those times when we leave the door open.

Erin

Maybe with enough habituation, Erin will let me make messes, too.

Sydney

Yesterday, after our weekend away, I had to rewrite a writing sample for a school that requested more materials from me.  One day in which to rewrite a 25-page section of my dissertation chapter.  Oops.  Sydney was an angel: he cared for Katherine for most of the day (and she cooperated by taking two long naps!), he made a dish for me to take to the reading group dinner that night, and he picked up the last couple of ingredients I needed from the store on his way home from a talk.

I told him I really liked him as Mr. Homemaker and supportive spouse and wondered whether he thought he could make it a permanent role.  That got a raised eyebrow.

Erin

Despite the craziness of the King of Prussia Mall (seriously, it took us two hours to wade through Macy’s), the sleepless night with Katherine in a hotel room, and the icy roads all the way home today, we did indeed make it to PA, see Heidi, and acquire a suit.  Mission accomplished.

Erin

Thanks to the help of Christi and Sydney, I’ve gone out for short walks the last three days while leaving Katherine at home.  It’s suddenly gotten a lot like winter is supposed to get (bitter, windy, cold), and I’m not quite ready to try walking and pushing a stroller in snow.  But I’m sure stir-craziness will get me there.

Sydney, Katherine, and I are driving down to Philadelphia tomorrow to meet up with Heidi and do some shopping.  To clarify, Sydney will certainly NOT be shopping, and Heidi and I have a mission: to get the requisite interview suit, just in case I end up with an interview later this month.  Although we’d rather see where each other lives, it’s a pretty healthy drive all the way to Ithaca or DC.  So instead we’ll meet in the middle, I’ll have help from someone who’s actually worn a suit (I have, but not since eighth grade!), and we’ll get away from the job application stuff for awhile.

Erin

And the practice interviews didn’t prove to be painful.  Nice encouragement from all of the interviewers.  I’m done and Sydney has one more practice round on Thursday.

Now we’re just waiting for the phone to ring and the email to arrive . . .

Erin

Ah, the list of potential interview questions is amusing.  Favorite question:

(For background, two classes a semester is a standard teaching load at Cornell.  Three classes a term is not unusual.)

“How will you handle research while teaching four courses a semester?”

Um, spin time out of thin air?

You wonder whether to risk insulting the interviewers with a dismissive response–or give them the impression that you’re an idiot by not acknowledging that they just asked the impossible.  You can’t win!

Erin

Last night we had a number of philosophers over for dinner.  Given that this is the first group we’ve had over since Katherine was born we found ourselves a bit rusty (not quite the fluid cooking and hosting machine we hope to be someday!), but it was great to re-enter the sociable world.  Katherine was good, as usual, though she’s had pink cheeks and a clinginess the last two days that suggests she’s working on more teeth.  So I put her in the backpack while cooking and cleaning and she was happy to be close (and I was happy to spare my shoulders!).  She still seems okay with other people, so we enjoyed seeing her interact with other people.  As usual, we cooked way too much food, and now we have lots of wonderful leftovers to carry us through a busy week.

Tomorrow afternoon Sydney and I both have mock job interviews in our departments.  We’re expecting ludicrousness.  I mean, we have to pretend that people we know are not people we know, and that they’re from some school without a name (giving us little with which to tailor our preparations)?  And the questions may be awful: isn’t your research a bit outdated?  how do you deal with inept students?  in these hard economic times, what can you contribute to our college in addition to your teaching?

Yeah.  Boatloads of fun.  So we’re going to spend today trying to focus on the things we might have some control over (answers about our research and possible teaching we could do) and leave the other stuff to be discovered tomorrow.

Erin

This afternoon FedEx delivered a new stereo receiver to our door.  Sydney had bought our old one on ebay a long time ago and all was fine–except that it would suddenly stop playing and require a quick thump on the top to resume.  As bad as having a skipping record!  We’re excited to get this new machine going; I have Christmas music to be playing.

Katherine’s excited, too.  She loves the big box that the receiver came in and is having great fun pulling herself up on this new thing in the house.

Erin