Winter

Sort of. It was so cold in the middle of November. And then it snowed a bunch, delaying our return from Torrey from Thanksgiving. Today though? 58 degrees. Zoe and I went bike riding/running and we both had to take off our coats.
Why are you and Zoe bike riding/running on a weekday you may ask? Well, Zoe was up all night with some stomach ache that wouldn't go away. At least not until morning when it miraculously disappeared. The doctor thinks her stomach's hurting from some sinus/post-nasal drip thing. I think I shall invite Zoe to sleep standing up tonight.
But we're having a fun day even though I'm a bit of a zombie. Did I mention Max's babysitter quit to move to Austin? So Erik and I have been juggling Max which means I'm really barely keeping it together.
But it's the end of the semester and although I have a million things to do, most of them are semi-mindless. At least the way I organized this semester. I have to lay out type for the poetry/print making collaborative project. I have to alert students to next semester's course offerings. I have to review a few poems but I didn't have students turn in portfolios this semester because I've come to realize that the portfolio is perfunctory (mostly) for students and the comments I give them sit in the folder waiting to be picked up and rarely are. Plus, they already worked their butts off this semester. Parties (College and Department receptions rather) and dinners (thanks Sandy!) and letters of recommendations galore makes me feel like it is time to go to Amazon and click presents that read "prime shipping." Maybe I'll make something Christmasy for dinner tomorrow. Or maybe we'll grill steaks because it's almost 60 degrees and feels cheatingly like spring.

So. Lots of Max and Zoe these days to go with the end of the semester stuff.
Max can almost always successfully crawl backwards down the stairs so the level of danger-mouse activities is lower than it was last week. Max still checks out most of the world with his mouth, including your nose and your mouth which I guess counts as a kiss even though if you were trapped in the desert for months you could rehydrate with the amount of saliva that kid drools into your mouth. Zoe made him laugh the deep belly laugh today while she dangled her Zhu Zhu pet (early Christmas) from its name-tag by her mouth and let it drop to the table. Max was trying to eat yogurt at the time. Max likes to make raspberries while eating yogurt. Raspberries plus yogurt plus laughing at Zoe's amazing Zhu Zhu trick made for a delightful if yogurt-blown lunch.

We finally got Max to sleep and had our own lunch. I made a spinach salad from a giant box of spinach and gave Zoe the rest of the box. She laid on the TV floor and ate spinach by the handful. How this kid ever gets sick is beyond me. But apparently, her sickness and sleeplessness doesn't affect her--she was happy to go on a bike ride and is wondering when we're going shopping for this holiday that I am really almost ready, even though it's 58 degrees outside, to acknowledge exists.