Too Busy to Post!

Ack. Time has flown these last few weeks! I've been so busy that I haven't had much time to post anything.

Last week I helped our housemate, Arek ("Eric") move out into his own apartment. What started out as a temporary stay-at-our-house-while-doing-field-work-down-in-California a year ago turned into a full time rental. He stayed in our office...once we realized he was going to stick around for a while we moved our office (computer and stuff) into the living room. I will miss having another adult around in the evenings, even though he largely kept to himself, working/studying/going to the gym. But he was really good with Eddie and sometimes ate dinner with me...plus I felt better knowing there was always a big strong man in the house to protect me and the house. =)

On Saturday we got a new, temporary tenant named Tony. He's a medical student who knows my college friend, Joanne. He's doing a stint at the Med Center in Sacramento and rather than rent an unfurnished apartment for a few weeks, decided to stay with us. Today was his first day of work so Eddie and I drove him to the bus terminal on campus at 6:45am (!) so he could easily catch the Med Center shuttle. Tonight he'll navigate his own way back to the house, but I thought he'd be more comfortable for his first day with a little help. Yesterday he spent the whole day helping us around the house, playing with Eddie and the doggies, and tending to the chickens. It was awesome having extra help! He even offered to vacuum the whole house!! (Dave chalked this up to him being a married man...but I think he's just a nice guy.) His wife will be here in a few days so it'll be nice to meet her, too.

Tomorrow morning us Levie-Bowers are off to northern Georgia for Thanksgiving and my cousin Annette's wedding. I. Can't. Wait. to get there. Dave loves going there just as much as I do--I love that he loves my family--and we've been making lists of all the delicious foods we want to eat and all the things we want to do there.

Foods:

• Fried pickles
• Turnip greens
• Fried okra
• Carrot/raisin salad
• Pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw on the bun
• Wet walnut sundae
• Country ham
• Anything our relatives cook

Activities

• Tennessee Aquarium (we'll hold off on driving to Atlanta for that aquarium until Eddie's a little older...it is a 2 hour drive each way...)
• Visit our grandparents' and great aunt/uncle's graves
• Play on the swing set my cousin Chip built for Eddie
• Feed the catfish at Chip's pond
• Eat at the City Cafe Diner Restaurant in Chattanooga (we love the repetitive name!)
• Hang out with our Southern family!

As far as an Eddie update: he's still ADORABLE, more independent than ever, climbing up on EVERYTHING, running, and cutting more teeth.

Last night (and once about a week ago) he woke up several times during the night crying. I always giving him about 10 minutes to see if he'll go back to sleep. Usually he does, but when it is that often I know something is wrong because he *never* wakes up at night. Once it was a very full diaper (before we switched to Huggies Overnights). Last night, though, I couldn't tell what was wrong. My best guess is that he was cold--like most kids his age he flips and flops all night long so keeping him under a warm blanket is next to impossible. He sleeps in footed jammies with socks and a body suit underneath...but our house got down to like 53 last night. We like it cold when we're sleeping (lots of blankets)...but maybe that won't work out for Wadamus. I think I'll look into getting a programmable heater for his bedroom and set it at like 58. I know lots of people keep their baby's room at an even 72 all the time--I don't think that's a good idea for a couple of reasons, primarily because their bodies never learn to deal with "real" temperature variation. Or maybe I'll see about dressing him in two pairs of footie jammies...