Despite the rain and the return of cooler weather, we are trying our best to enjoy our little sleep-deprived weekend.  Last night we had some friends over to share in some LaPlatte Farms grass-fed beef.  We had planned on grilling, but the rain stopped us.  We broiled the steaks instead, and they were delicious!

This morning, after a night of being up with Holden every hour or so, I made a yummy brunch of bacon, potatoes, and cheese souffle.  It was FTW, in a big way, and pretty much made up for the lack of sleep.  Holden’s sleeping patterns (or lack thereof) have caught the attention of our downstairs neighbors, who have been overheard imitating Holden’s incoherent babbling with annoyance.  I feel sort of bad that we are waking them up, but I also feel righteous about it—after all, these same neighbors have kept us up many, many nights with their incessant partying.  Holden just had two more teeth break through, which explains his discomfort, at least partially.  He now has a total of six teeth.  I think he is working on a few more.  

What have we been up to over the past week?  Well, still no word from the job.  I have moved on and completely discounted it as a possibility at this point.  After spending countless hours working on my talk, planning experiments, a budget, and a special topics course, plus pumping for Holden to go to the nanny, and paying over $200 for childcare while I prepared for my talk, it’s been hard to give up easily.  Nevertheless, I have begun looking for other jobs, and found a temporary one (out-of-state) for which I would be well-suited.  I started printing off my materials for the application (again, a 60+ page bundle), and the day that I was supposed to send the application, the job ad disappeared from their website.  I contacted them only to find out that they had already begun interviewing but that I was welcome to send my application anyway.  They also said there was no guarantee that they would be able to review my materials before hiring someone.  I mailed my application anyway, not feeling incredibly hopeful, and also feeling upset that I had wasted so much time waiting around on this other job and thus did not find out about this newest opportunity until it was practically too late.  Hopefully, I will know something within the next couple of weeks and I will finally have an answer about where we will be living and where I will be working.

Last weekend, we went to Nunyuns with three other neighborhood couples and their babies.  As usual, I enjoyed their breakfast burrito:

Holden enjoyed Cheerios:

And some time with his buddy, Harper (and other buddies, Felix and Idris, not pictured):

Later that day, Holden had his first taste of ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked:

I also wrapped up my pumping finally and will be shipping off 121 ounces of breastmilk to a human milk bank.  The milk will be processed and given to critically ill infants in the NICU.  I hope all those babies grow strong and healthy.

Earlier this week, we spent time with some of Holden’s other friends (enjoying more of that grass-fed beef).  Here is Holden with his 15-month-old pal Maggie, and Maggie’s big sister, Grace.  Their brother Sam was off causing mischief elsewhere!:

On the most sunny and warm day of the week, I took Holden on a walk along our wonderful bike path.  A few years ago, the town constructed a bridge over the river to eliminate the need for a ferry to transport people across the river.  Here is the mandatory self-portrait from our walk:

Here is the bridge, with views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks beyond:

We do live in a pretty spectacular place!  After our walk, we went to the park for some swing time and a “Puffs picnic.”

As always, Holden becomes rapt and pensive when watching the big kids play.  

Now on this lazy Sunday, we’re getting ready to take Holden out for a chilly walk around town.  Hopefully we will wear him out, and he will finally sleep well for us tonight.