Happy Valentine's Day!

We're still here!

I have this horrible fear that if I go too long between posts, you will all abandon me and I will have no one left to talk to. I'm sorry I've been out of touch lately. I'm still working part time and at home with Natalie part time. This is the best of both worlds, but the reality is that I am trying to fit full time work and full time mothering into two part time schedules, with very little time left for much else. So why, you might ask, would I be applying to a PhD program at this time? Don't ask. Anyway, not that I am complaining, because I love my little Muffaletta!

To chime in on the Dear Abby thing, that woman ("Abby") needs to be fired for incompetence. She's certainly no grief counselor or HR specialist, and apparently she's not much of a humanitarian either, and is sorely lacking in tact and grace. There's not much else I can say that hasn't already been said by all you industrious bloggers, but I just wanted to show that I was still paying attention.

All is well in our world at the moment. To summarize, 1. Natalie's still somewhere around the 50th percentile, a little on the petite side, but super strong and on the verge of sitting up on her own. She may, in fact, go straight to walking and skip the crawling stage, which is hopefully a sign of ambition and genius and nothing to be worried about. 2. We started solids a few weeks ago, which is going...okay. Maybe she'll take after Robert's side of the family and learn to bypass the buffet. The verdict so far is rice cereal: so-so; sweet potato: lovin' it; banana: not so much. 3. After months of being down on the Doctors Sears for my own failings as an attachment parent, it turns out we are co-sleeping by default (it's the only way the princess will sleep through the night). Is there such a thing as a baby who can't be Ferberized? As my SIL, Rosemary, says, "They're very cunning, these babies."