Some stuffs

• I am currently actually blogging in my office. I'm taking a "brain break" from working.  Actual work!  Crazy! 
• So far my sabbatical has consisted of none of the things I need to be "sabbaticalling."  (Except, apparently, for inventing new words.)  There have been so many "must do" things that have come up -- a colleague quit unexpectedly and sent one of my major projects into a bit of chaos and I've joined a hiring committee (for another retiring colleague) and have been eyeball deep in reading applications for days.  (That's what I needed the brain break from.  If I read one more research proposal full of synthetic organic chemistry I'm going to pass out.) We're three weeks in and I'd really like to at least pretend I'm working on what I'm supposed to.
• I've filled one giant recycling bin so far with crap from my office.  I anticipate at least four more in my future.  This cleansing is quite cathartic.
• In the past week, two OTHER colleagues have announced that they're leaving.  This is getting ridiculous.  The sad thing is that nearly all of the people I was friends with outside of work have left in the past few years or are leaving.  It's making me really depressed and anxious.  I'm pretty sure that the department I officially come back to in the fall will be an entirely different place. 
• Coming back has been weird.  I feel like the world should have gone on "pause" while I was gone.  It didn't.  (Hmm...world doesn't revolve around me?  Not possible!!)
• I just noticed that I am, apparently, 71 weeks pregnant according to my floating baby widget.  I should probably update this whole blog layout thingy at some point... 
• Man, 71 weeks pregnant?  With over 30 pounds of baby?!  Sounds painful.
• My parents came to visit sort of unexpectedly last weekend.  Killed any chance of accomplishing anything at home or at work and made me EXCEEDINGLY anxious.  I'm really hating my relationship with my parents at the moment.  I can't figure out how to make it work better.  One of these days I'll sit down and write about it.  I need to.
• One of these days I'm also going to write a very long blog post about my hair.  
• I'm serious.
• No, really.  It'll be fascinating.  I promise.  
• The helmets are working!!  And, not too horrible.  I still really don't like them -- you know how awesome it is to kiss a baby's head or just lean against it as you hold him?  It keeps you from doing that and that sucks.  But, they don't mind them and they are working.  They've been in them for a little over a month and there's been a major improvement already.  
• The boys are 9 months!  New skills:  sitting independently, peering intently at things (especially D), more intense babbling, sleeping on their sides, holding their own bottles and actually managing to get some milk out of them, eating rice rusks, grabbing the spoon and feeding themselves (sort of). 
• On the 7 month scale we've gone down a bit in our weight comparison back to the 5th percentile or less.  We're having a hard time getting their meals up.  They don't look crazy skinny (pudgy-ish legs, etc.), but need to increase.  We have a developmental NICU follow-up appointment in a few weeks and it will be interesting to see what they say since they've been pushing us on the weight thing more than the boys' normal doctor.
• Sleep has finally improved!  I've managed to get 7 hours straight a few times this past week.  I'm still exhausted -- it is still a bit interrupted and never feels completely restorative.  But, it is SO much better for us all.
• I'd really like to get some exercise.  I've lost all my pregnancy weight and then some and am actually thinner than I've been in many years.  But, it all happened by pumping and eating and not by exercise so I'm a skinny-flabby mess.  At some point I will suddenly have about 3-4 hours more a day (when I stop pumping) and I will exercise and cook!  (And, maybe sleep...)  I'm excited by this prospect.  It has to happen because, other than the flabbiness, I'm really happy with how I look right now (and I haven't been in YEARS) and don't want to lose that when I'm no longer burning lots of calories by being a food source.
• Hmm.  Well, I should get back to these job apps.  Please, tell me more about the research you want to do with undergrads!  Please, tell me all about your teaching experience!  I want to know!  Truly I do!! 
• Oh, yeah, can't leave without a picture, right?

D awake and S asleep on a drive.  Helmets off for a bit.  :)