Law Students

Ear Tubes and the Promise of Sleep

Posted on April 01, 2008
Landon is now the proud owner of teeny tiny ear tubes and we have been promised that this will substantially improve, if not end, the ear infections and sleepless nights for all of us. The surgeon said she drained out quite a bit of fluid which definitely would have been hurting him, so we should see some improvement right away...

Reeling

Posted on March 31, 2008
Landon had his glucose fasting test this morning and his result was high. The nurse said the number should be between 60 and 110 and his result was 124. I also got the results from his random glucose test on Friday- a result of over 200 is indicative of diabetes and his was 230...

Doing Anything But

Posted on March 30, 2008
Spring quarter begins tomorrow. I haven't done any reading for the first day- I haven't even chosen my classes for the first day. I haven't started that substantial paper- the one I was hoping to finish (ha!) or at least get well underway during the break...

Reflection Distortion

Posted on March 30, 2008
I bought a bikini today. I'm still trying to decide if I will keep it. It survived my harsh personal appraisal in the dressing room mirror, so it must not look too bad. But based on past experience, I know that when I try it on again I will suddenly think it looks terrible and wonder why I bought it in the first place...

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One More Thing

Posted on March 28, 2008
Landon had his "9 month" check-up this morning. He's really only 8.5 months, but his pediatrician is starting up a new clinic far away and we wanted him to be able to see her. His weight (20 lb. 12 oz.), height (29.5"), and head circumference (45 cm) are all good, and the needle pricking went well...

The Specialist

Posted on March 27, 2008
Landon and I met his most recent pediatric specialist this morning, a very personable otolaryngologist (ENT). I briefly explained Landon's recurrent (really, persistent) ear infections for the past 2 months- how he'll be on a 10-day course of antibiotics and on Day 11 or 12 start screaming at night, only to be diagnosed with yet another infection and put on yet another antibiotic...

Childcare, more complicated than you'd think

Posted on March 26, 2008
As you all know I recently spent 2.5 days in Austin buying a house, choosing a daycare, and wishing someone would cut a hole in my head and drain out whatever was threatening to explode in there. The house buying was accomplished in a quick and nearly painless manner...

An Eerie Silence

Posted on March 25, 2008
Last night Landon went to bed at 7:30. He generally goes down between 8:30 and 9, but he was so fussy and obviously exhausted (Maya said he didn't take a good nap yesterday because he was so excited to see all his babies again), that I stuck him in his crib at 7:28 and was amazed to find him fast asleep two minutes later...

Post-Bunny Busyness

Posted on March 24, 2008
We have returned home to a snow dusted Chicago. It's a bit surreal to unpack swim suits and remember that just two days ago JP was out on a jet ski and Landon and I were in shorts and short-sleeves, feeling the grass beneath our barefoot toes. He finally got to wear some of the clothes I got back in May at his baby shower- including this fabulous UT jersey onesie...

Our Boy

Posted on March 21, 2008
A year ago today we found out that I was growing a little boy. JP, who always insisted the baby was male, threw his hands up in victory in the ultrasound room.Landon: March 21, 2007Landon: March 21, 2008 What a difference a year makes! Landon, when he noticed my parent's giant cat (you and I might think of her as a labrador retriever) for the first time.

Partially Cured

Posted on March 20, 2008
Thank you all for your congratulations and concern. We are still so excited, and still just a little bit in shock. I mean we were sitting up at the lake house this afternoon with Landon, marveling at how much he seemed to change in two days, and I couldn't believe that just three days earlier we were up at the lake, marveling at the Landon, and we didn't have a house...

Mine

Posted on March 19, 2008
The seller accepted our second offer. We signed some papers and apparently someone is going to give us a house. I'm an almost home owner. I think I'm in shock- I was so afraid to get excited in case the seller rejected our counter-offer and went with the other buyer, that now I'm having a hard time believing it came through!I do adore this house...

Quick House-Hunt Dispatch

Posted on March 18, 2008
We put a bid on a house today. It is beautiful and perfect and I love it. There is already another buyer in the picture who offered a bid two days ago, which the seller countered, and hasn't returned. Only in Austin is a house on the market five days with two competing offers...

Texas Soon-To-Be Our Texas

Posted on March 16, 2008
We're here. The two days before we left were quite awful - Landon cried all night, I wanted to cry all night, JP worked late, and I kept getting sicker. Then everything went wrong the morning we were supposed to go to the airport. After waiting nearly 45 minutes for a cab that never came (it was the St...

The Breaking of the Proverbial Camel's Back

Posted on March 13, 2008
Yes, I am the camel. I keep getting sicker- my nose is raw and pink from the constant blowing. I've actually been walking around school with a box of deluxe triple-ply kleenex in one hand and a bag to throw my used tissues in the other. It's as pathetic as it sounds...

Cuteness

Posted on March 12, 2008
Because even I was bored by the time I finished whining, here is a bit of cuteness to offset any alleged misery:His new default facial expression is to bite his lower lip and poof out his cheeks. I've had a hard time capturing the look because he always smiles for the camera, but this image is close...

Misery

Posted on March 12, 2008
I am sick. Splitting headache, constant nose-blowing, frequent sneezing, feverish with chills, feel like crap, want to curl up on the couch with tea, kleenex, and really bad TV, kind of sick. Landon is sick too. I am in the middle of finals. JP has been working late...

A Strange Sense of Calm

Posted on March 10, 2008
Each quarter I sink to a new level of finals unpreparedness. It's become something of a contest among 3L's to see who has done the least studying and I'm pretty sure I win. This isn't the "I haven't studied at all (oh, but I did do all the reading, took notes, looked over old exams, and made an outline)" type of whining; I really haven't done any of those things...

Belugaless

Posted on March 08, 2008
I am sitting in an under-heated undergraduate library, wearing my puffy down coat, and striving to create a con law outline without actually having read con law. Snow is pouring down from the heavens. I am freezing. I am tired. I am without belugas...

A Surgical Story in Pictures

Posted on March 06, 2008
Greetings Dear Readers,I am pleased to report that Landon is home and doing well. I am drinking an enormous diet coke which I am counting on fueling me through the next hundred hours of catch-up reading and exam studying. But before I open my con law book for the first time in weeks, I thought I'd share our surgical adventure today...

Best Served Chilled

Posted on March 05, 2008
Currently sitting on my refrigerator shelf, resting comfortable between my box of caffeine-free diet coke and leftover spaghetti sauce, are two poo-filled diapers. Parenting is so glamorous.Landon had two bloody stools yesterday. We called the pediatrician last night and she is very concerned about Clostridium difficile, a bad bacteria in the colon which is able to thrive because all the good bacteria in the gut has been eradicated by repeated antibiotic treatment (which Landon most certainly has had)...

Obsessed

Posted on March 04, 2008
The TV has been turned on CNN since Landon and I got home this evening. He may only be seven months old, but he's deeply invested in the democratic process. And though we can't tell daddy, he's totally rooting for Obama. I think the most exciting thing about this election- besides the fact that I finally have a candidate I care about, rather than one who's just a better than the other guy- is the incredibly high voter turnout...

3pm: Diet Coke and a Fudge Brownie

Posted on March 03, 2008
Time for my daily diet coke break (or Diet Pepsi, I don't have a preference and am actually drinking Diet Pepsi now, but in the South we call everything "coke" and I've had a hard time breaking the habit). I don't drink coffee ever or caffeine often, but I do enjoy my afternoon diet coke...

Home, Drugs in Hand

Posted on March 02, 2008
We are home, Landon is acting much more like a Landon, and JP and I are like the walking dead. We decided to go to Northwestern Children's Memorial hospital. It's closer to us and doesn't have the memories or medical files of the Univ. of Chicago Children's...

The Last Place We Want To Go

Posted on March 02, 2008
Landon was up all last night crying (ALL last night, we got maybe 60 minutes of sleep) and this morning he had a temperature of 101.4 and was refusing his bottle. We called the pediatrician who said to keep him hydrated and watch the temperature. We called her back when it went up to 103...

House Hunting Examination

Posted on March 01, 2008
At exactly two weeks from today, I will have to have accomplished the following things:- catch up in the Marriage Law reading, write four, 5-page reaction papers on something in the reading- read 200+ pages in Con Law, create outline, write something on the Exam- create outline for Sexual Orientation and the Law, write something on the Exam- write reaction paper to final Law & Politics Workshop meeting for the quarter- talk with Austin loan officer and realtor to make schedule for home buying trip March 18-20- go through the hundred Austin listings our realtor has sent, do research, create list of homes to see on our 3-day home buying trip- have apartment surveyed by moving estimator to get timeline of summer move (tomorrow, 11:30)- get Landon sleeping through the night so we can all get a little rest before his surgery and our trip to Texas send his sleep schedule back to hell- go to hospital for Landon's surgery (March 6th), pretend like I will study while there, spend the night watching children's movies instead- play with beluga whales- pack and fly to TexasI'm not very stressed out about the school stuff because my expectations are embarrassingly low...

Inspired

Posted on February 29, 2008
I went to a lunch talk today with Maureen Mahoney. She's the head of the Latham & Watkins appellate practice group in Washington, DC and one of the top Supreme Court advocates out there. She's argued 18 cases in front of the Supreme Court and won 16 of them (including the famous Grutter v...

Our Story of a Broken System

Posted on February 27, 2008
A reader sent me this article from The Washington Post: "A Case of a Family Services Job Well Done, or Overdone?". The Caplans' experience is so similar to ours that it was hard to read- I could feel myself right back at October 13th, waking up in our apartment with the sick realization that Landon was in a shelter and I didn't know when we could get him home- but I'm glad to see the story is out there...

Distractions

Posted on February 26, 2008
Rather than bore you with details about my stress level, impossibly long to-do list, and the phone call I just had filled with the mind-numbing logistics of our cross-country move, I offer you this video clip of Landon. I took it on Saturday when he got up into the crawling position for the first time ever...

The Quarter-Century Mark

Posted on February 25, 2008
Today was the official birthday. It was pretty anticlimactic since I'd already celebrated it with my friends on Thursday and JP on Saturday. I actually forgot it was today until I checked my email about an hour after Landon woke me up (no, he did not let me sleep in) and saw an inbox full of "Happy Birthday" messages on my Facebook Wall...

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