Seven months!

Danny said to me the other day, "It's hard to believe that 1/36th of our time with Jack is already over." I thought he was being morbid and referring in some way to death, but then he clarified that he was talking about when Jack leaves the house, at age 18 (presumably). I thought that was so silly of him to be fretting about, but now I realize when he said that was not just the other day but a whole month ago and now we have even less than 35/36ths of our time left with him, we have some slightly smaller fraction that I don't want to calculate because I'm lazy and that kind of math makes my head hurt first thing in the morning, but the main point is our baby is SEVEN MONTHS OLD and "just the other day" he was six months old and really it feels like yesterday that he was a little peanut like Ava. I am going to freak out if I keep thinking this way, so I will move on.

Yesterday was an epic day in the field. I decided to do all the sites at once this time, even though last time I declared that it was a blessing that only half the plants were ready because we could never have done all ten sites at once. Apparently, I learn nothing from past mistakes. Always confident it will be different this time. My mom and grandma stayed with Jack, while I took my dad with me as my dutiful field assistant, and I'm not sure which of my parents had the worse end of that deal. Jack was apparently a delight most of the day, but this was by far the longest I have ever left him, and nobody besides me or Danny had ever successfully put him to bed before. But Grandma Glasses persevered! I came home to a sleeping baby at 10:30pm and he didn't stir when I got into bed at 11:30 and he even slept in until 6:40 this morning without waking up once! I don't know what you did, mom, but can you do it again? Lots?

Meanwhile, my dad was driving the 300 mile circuit with me,10 field sites with 80 cages to set up and gingerly place aphid-laden plants in, and 80 buckets of 2 gallons of water to haul around from water source to field which were almost always not in the same place. He didn't complain once. Actually, he did, but it was because he had a pocket full of sunscreen because the cap had come off the tube in his pocket. But he did not rebel against my working conditions and kept his calm while I was losing mine over the worst traffic I have ever seen in four years of driving on highway 1. Five if you count the year in my undergrad I worked at Hopkins. It was miserable. But we survived. And my very last experiment of my phd is half over. I can't say I'm feeling very nostalgic about it right now. I am super ready for it to be over. Not the phd (I am excited to write up and talk about it), but the field work. I think I am going to look for an indoor post-doc.

But back to Jack, because this post was supposed to be about him, not mommy's silly escapades on the central coast! At one point yesterday, he got ahold of the carrier, which has become the favored way of getting Jack to sleep, so I think he has some amount of attachment to it. He also loves straps (on the carrier, the diaper bag, my purse... seriously he can take the toys or leave them, but give this kid a good strap and he is set for life), of which the carrier has plenty, and I will often find him gnawing on them if I leave it anywhere in his vicinity. But apparently on this particular afternoon, he saw fit to wear the carrier. He actually put it on himself. Both arms in the arm-holes, my mom said! She thought it was hilarious, so snapped this photo. I think this was after the arms had already come out of the arm-holes, but you still get the idea. Do they make kids cuter than this? I just don't think so.

Thank you again, to both my parents! Thank you a million times! I promise I will never make you do this again! Except maybe once more in two weeks. But then, never again!