New Semester

Our semester starts this week, which is a week later than most semesters. It makes sense given our northern location; this way students can stay away during one of the coldest weeks of the year, and go a little later into May, when the weather is nice. It's generally not too hot here by May.

Two of my graduate students are already missing class this week (the first class of the semester) because they're going to the inauguration. This year I'm becoming a bit more of a hardass and am implementing grade penalties for missing too many classes. My courses aren't lecture courses, they're interactive seminars in which students' contribution to the discussion is a key element of class. So missing class means that you really miss out on a lot. Anyway, I can understand why somebody would want to go to this historic inauguration. I want to go, too. But I can't, because I have to teach this week. It doesn't make a great impression when you decide to miss the first class of the semester.

But...tomorrow will be an incredible, uplifting day.

Thanks to a Christmas gift from my mom, the twin whisperer will watch the kids 3 days a week this semester and so Jake and I will each have 4 full days on campus during the week. I'll need it, as I'm teaching two classes instead of my typical 1 class. To non-academics that probably doesn't sound like much at all, but the non-teaching aspects of my job already constitute a full-time, 40+ hour a week job, so adding in two classes on top of that is a lot more. This morning when the twin whisperer came, both kids lit up and started laughing, squealing, and saying "Hi! Hi! Hi!" It's going to be hard when we lose her.

Speaking of the kids, Nora's crankiness has largely disappeared now that her walking is better. I think she was frustrated about walking. Now she can walk like a pro, and she's much happier. Meanwhile, Milo is in the phase where he can walk across the room, so he's practicing walking all the time, but he also falls down about once every 30 seconds. So he is very cranky. I swear, this weekend he practically spent the entire time just crying and yelling. Milo can already push himself up to a stand from the floor, though, which impresses me. Nora is still pulling up on objects.

Milo and Nora have entered an extreme sibling rivalry phase. It's almost like they're brother and sister and they irritate one another just by existing. The nerve! Sometimes Milo gets ticked off just because Nora has the audacity to be there next to him. He yells at her and grabs at her. Then she'll grab at him and the next thing I know there will be a full on baby wrestling scene going on, which ends in both of them crying angry tears. The twin whisperer said that it's a phase that she's seen every pair of twins go through. I haven't worked up the courage yet to ask her how long the phase might last. I keep telling the kids the whole reason we had two at once was so that they could play together and allow mama to neglect them as she hits the bottle cooks dinner or cleans the kitchen, but so far they don't seem to be buying it.