January?!?! 2011???

Not only is it January already, but we are now SIX days into January? It just doesn't look to slow down anytime soon. I was recounting to my sister today all that is going on..and her head was spinning just from reading it. Yep, that's I feel living it!

Our documents went to China on Dec 17th (yay!). Interestingly enough, we send out documents for Megan on Dec 6th in 2005 and we were officially logged in on Dec 20th, 2005. I believe we should get the approval to go to China in late March/early April. That's just THREE MONTHS AWAY! holy smoly...there's a LOT to do besides raise the last about $8,000.

Well, I have very little time to write anything...but here are some pics for Dec. I can say that I taught a class the last week of December and I swear Megan grew up SO MUCH in that one week! So crazy.

Graduation
It's official!! PhD!

Megan's new "perch" that she calls her "cliff". I think cliff comes from Cliff H@nger, a character/story line on Between the Li0ns, one of her favorite shows.

One of her favorite Christmas gifts: a microphone

Can you tell how much this girl loves shoes? This face says it all!

I wish I had more time to write. It seems like life is moving so quick and I want to document it all, but there is just so little time...and even less energy!

And now it's September...

Holy moly...where is this year going? Whoa.

I did defend my dissertation proposal at the end of August and all went well, so I'm continuing on the journey to get this thing finished up to graduate in December! FINALLY!!!

September is the month I have dreaded for some time. I have to finish writing my dissertation before we leave for SD on the 24th. Guess that means as of today I have 22 days to finish it. Holy cow. Needless to say, stress is very high at our house because life is not stopping for me to write. DH is unable to get any additional time off this month, so that leaves only weekends to write (other than naptime and some evening time). Of course, I'm still teaching an online class, so I must work on that as well. Combine that with preparation to leave (packing, arranging dog sitter, etc.), paperwork to bring JiJie home as well as fundraising. Yeah, just a little stress. DH did come up with a plan for Grandmom to come and visit for a week for me to write, so she'll be here on the 13th. That idea came directly from God! My goodness. I felt a million times better at even the possibility. She'll leave just a few days before we leave to head up to SD (and see her again!).

So, things a bit light on the blog front...and will be for a while. Of course, October is looking like its going to be a bit overwhelming as well. And may include another trip back to SD for a family function, plus a bunch of fund raising plans that just could NOT fit into September. sigh. November? Hopefully a little less stressful!

New words

In the last couple of days, she's added "bubble", "ball" and "apple" to her list of words! She is constantly chattering...so you have to listen for when she happens on a word. Or rather, when she "reveals" that she knows a word!!!

Sleep had been doing SO WELL. Until I went away this weekend. I kind of expected that to be the case. I went for a "disser-cation" where I focused on my dissertation Friday night and Saturday. I came home mid-morning on Sunday. It was so nice to make progress without interruption. I got a lot accomplished, organized and a plan devised. DH & Megan survived. Grandma V even called to try and help out, but DH said, I can handle it. And he did! I didn't realize how much I missed them until I was on my way home. I guess being focused does that!!!

Just stuff

Calculator as Phone

Busy watching Signing Time probably Vol. 2

Megan has started putting everything up to her ear like a phone. She doesn't say anything, but she tilts her head like she's talking on it, then hands it to me to talk on it too. If she can grab my cell phone, she loves to use that. But one day it was her rings (of course), another day it was the magnets to the LeapFrog Farm Animal toy on the frig. And in this photo, it's a calculator. She wouldn't, of course, hold it there long enough for me to snap the actual photo, but you get the idea.

She loves to watching "her movie" (aka Signing Time). I think it's her favorite part of the day when in the morning after bath she gets to watch her movie while I get ready. I thought Vol. 2 was a little advanced for her (at least conceptually) with signs like "share", "your turn", "my turn", "clean", "dirty", but she has learned so many of the signs already. I started a list so I can ask her to sign different things when she's wiggly on the changing table (it makes her straighten right up and anxiously await what sign I'm going to ask her next!). She can sign over 30 signs. That's a LOT of signs! She knows when the movie is about done, and that we then have milk and take a nap. It's part of the routine, I guess. I've considered making Vol. 1 part of the lunchtime/afternoon nap routine. She goes to sleep so much easier when she knows what comes next. I feel like I kind of "spring" afternoon nap on her. I mean she has lunch, then plays a little, then we have milk and take a nap. But, she has such a hard time winding down between playing, milk and sleeping. I tried the movie one day and it seemed to work really well, then (honestly) I've been lazy since then. I have to decide if I want to give it to her in our room (like the 1st one) or the living room (where's there are lots of toys & distractions). Then it impacts my ability to eat lunch, besides it's 30 minutes. But, I need to just buck it up and pay attention to time so she can try it. And I think in our room is the best. I can shut the door so she's stuck in there with me...and she can crawl around our room, but mostly just pay attention to the movie. I think I'll do it again today and see what happens.

Megan continues to work on her walking abilities...and is improving every day! I'm so anxious for her to chose walking over crawling.

NanaLin noted that almost every picture Megan has her rings either in her hands or somewhere near. I guess I'm so used to seeing them with her all the time, I hadn't really noticed. But when I look back at her walking video, she has them in her hands. How funny.

Dissertation update: with DH in the hospital and recovering all these days, my plans went a rye for a few weeks. But, I'm back at it. After talking to my chairperson, I've moved to actually doing some research while she's napping (and/or when Grandma V comes to play). Some asked about my topic...so here is it (in a nutshell)...I'm looking at students who participated in community service while attending their institution (college or university) and if they were satisfied with their education at that institution. Additionally, I'm looking at whether if they could start over, they would return to that institution. I may look at historical data..I may look at one lone institution...I may look at national data...but it's all based on an annual survey conducted at many institutions. I'm not sure on that part. I may throw in some demographic data, I'm not sure. At this point, I'm simply looking for other research out there--and coming up with my justification on whether this is "study worthy" or not. So far, I'm finding reason to research it simply because there seems to be nothing that looks at these 2 things together. There's the update.

I think that's enough for now...back to grading papers.

A Public Commitment

I've not written much on here about the dissertation I'm supposed to be working...simply because I want this to be mostly about Megan (and she's the reason for my not working on it! Well, maybe not entirely, but mostly.) But, I decided this morning...this is it. I need to jump in and really work on it hard. What's tough about it for me is that Megan does need so much of my time when she's awake. Besides who can form many intelligent sentences when you have a 16 month old in the background you have your eye on and your ear listening to? Well, maybe there are some talents folks out there that can, but I can't.

So, in sitting down to write this morning while she was napping, I decided I'm making a commitment--and then I decided I needed to blog the said commitment so I'm not the only one who knows I've made it (well, besides DH)! Can we say accountability? Yep, unfortunately. Back to my commitment...I'm going to write (aka journaling at this point) every morning when Megan naps. It's not much time, but then today I've gotten an hour, so one never knows! I'm not giving up her afternoon naps for writing (although I probably should, and will at some point in the future) as I need to rest during these times since nights are typically not that great. My body and brain need the rest.

Now it's out there...in fact, I wonder if every once in a while I need to post my progress. As in...I'm still just journaling about this and that, or I'm now onto writing my thoughts about my topic, or I'm actually now researching my topic, etc. I probably will. I don't know how often I will, but if you think of it, ask me the status. That will definitely keep me writing. It has to. If I'm going to get done by December 2009, I have about 16 months to get this done in. That's not much time. And as fast as the last 5.5 have gone since Megan came home, it's going to come fast.