We have been running around like crazy people for the five weeks or so since summer school let up and we have been having a blast! We have been doing a lot of stuff with family as my brother just moved back to the area from state college and Jenny has been home for a record breaking two months. Her boyfriend Drew joined us for about ten days and we headed down to our tradition family vacation spot of Ocean City New Jersey. It wa sa lovely week of relaxing and eating fudge and enjoying being together as a family. Isaac especially enjoyed spending so much time with his grandfather and the significant others of all of my siblings who played with him tirelessly.
Traditional Ocean City boardwalk picture. How cute is Isaac?
He wanted to be buried constantly. Aunt Jenny and Drew were happy to oblige...
Then my camera broke. Yes, the third one within the past 18 months or so and the one I just bought in April... I give up...
I also did some reading at the beach. I read:
The Pact (A Love Story) by Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors. It was a page turner and pretty good but it wasn't the best book of hers I have ever read. It was one of her earlier books, and she definitely doesn't have the maturity as a writer that she has in her later books.
I also read Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Aspergers by John Elder Robison which was a great book. It was interesting on it's own as a memoir but also as a way to explain how it was for him growing up with asperger's and his struggles. Many of my students have Asperbergers (the less extreme side of the autistic spectrum) so I try to read everything I can get my hands on. It was a great read!
Anyways, I will try to post more later. I have been doing a ton around my house and everything looks great. My siblings have all been helping too which is awesome. I have the best family ever!
The first week or so was very similar to having a newborn baby with round the clock bottle feeding, trying to get him to use the bathroom (for those of you who have never handraised a kitten, I will spare you the details of what needs to be done to make that happen), cleaning him, etc. It actually did sort of numb the loud pounding of my biological clock. I guess that puts me on step closer to becoming a crazy cat lady. Anyways, we named him Cody and when I asked Isaac what his middle name should be he said "Pablo" which was about the last thing I imagined him saying. So Cody Pablo it is. We have gotten him using the litter box and eating solid foods (with occasional bottles). He is very playful and fun, so that has been awesome. Jenny has been an awesome help making sure he is fed and played with a helping with catsitting. Thanks Jen!
P.S. Do you like the new bathroom paint you can see behind Jenny?
Present Demanding Rudeness
So a few of you wanted to know how I handled the gift demander. Initially I just responded with a brief e-mail reminding him that I had told the bride at the wedding that I had forgotten the present and that I would try to mail it soon. He responded a few hours later thanking me with excessive emoticons and saying they were just "concerned" because over a dozen people attended their wedding and didn't send gifts. So I am guessing I wasn't the only person to get the "GIVE US A GIFT NOW" e-mail. Anyways, I had already bought and wrapped the present and I did enjoy myself at their wedding so I figured I would send it. Then I began to stew on it longer (and a million people who had heard the story came out of the wordwork to tell me how appaulled they were by the whole thing) and I decided that the behaviorist in me could not reinforce such poor social skills with a present and a polite e-mail. So I sent another e-mail. Which read roughly as follows:
