It's hard to believe, but we've survived Margaret's 1st year! We celebrated her birthday with friends and family at the beginning of this month. We've had plenty of difficulties along the way...prematurity, difficulty nursing, almost lost milk supply in the beginning, ear infections (every month since August), new-found allergies (dairy and eggs)...but we've made it. She's a happy, healthy girl with a strong personality, a wonderful sense of humor and a sweetness you can't argue with. She's scheduled for ear tubes on May 7th, and we've eliminated all dairy and eggs from her diet, and mine since she is still nursing about 3 times a day. We're hoping that with these changes, she will remain healthier this upcoming year.
Joseph is excelling in Kindergarten, the school has begun testing him for the gifted program. We always knew he was smart though, never needed the school to tell us that :) He has made some great friends this year and always talks about the fun stuff he and the boys do at school and after-school.
Elisabeth is doing well also. The school set up a 504 plan for her, she get accommodation for testing and classwork. This has lessened a lot of anxiety for her in the classroom. She has also made some good friends this year, something we are super happy about, social situations are one of her difficulties. She loves her occupational therapy and we are beginning to see the benefits of it now. She has really stepped up responsibility wise, pitching in more often to help with Margaret or other small jobs around the house. I'm really proud of her!My classes are keeping me very busy! Grad school is intense! I love what I am doing though and knowing that I'm about half-way done now just gives me the push to get through. The French department at UF is very small, there are probably less than 20 graduate students, including PhD, MA, and ABA (those just working on writing their dissertations). We have become a very tight-knit group, very good friends. I know that I could depend on any one of my colleagues for anything. My life for the next year and a half is planned out now. It is as follows: May and June off from school and teaching, July and August teaching and research, Fall semester 3 courses and teaching 2 sections of French, Spring semester 1 course and research and teaching one class and studying for and taking my comprehensive exams, summer writing my thesis, then done! I can't even describe the emotion of seeing it all written out like that, a mix of pure joy and fear and anxiety.
Classes finished yesterday for this semester. I have 3 big papers remaining, 3 shorter summaries, grading final exams and calculating grades. So, I will go now, I need to take Margaret to daycare and get working on paper #1, due by midnight Friday. I'm really looking forward to being finished this semester and regaining the ability (even for a short while) to knit and read.
