Where to begin?

You wouldn't think that so much could happen in two weeks. It didn't used to. But two weeks to a seven-month-old is like four years to a 31-year-old, so Sadie basically started and graduated college (without a coterm) since I last wrote.

She's reading now.

This is actually the first book I think she didn't just immediately stuff into her mouth. Which is ironic, because it's probably the first book I've offered her that would've actually been okay to put in her mouth. We've had a few soggy cardboard incidents around here. And I think I wanted to occupy her for a few moments on this particular morning without coming back to a goobery mess, so I dug around in the closet and rediscovered this wonderful quilted book my Berkeley girls made me for Jack. I had forgotten just how amazing it is. But Sadie figured that out in no time. She LOVED it. Look how happy she is, Emily, Diana, Kayje, EJ, Becky, and Carrie! If you're out there reading this (I think at least Emily is), thank you! Your gift just keeps on giving!

Another big development: Sadie and Jack are officially sharing a room now. Which is to say, they sleep together there, the whole night. Sort of. "Sleep" is a term we throw around pretty loosely these days, meaning "things involved with being in and/or near a bed (not necessarily yours) while it's dark out". My friend Carolyn just wrote me an email asking my advice about sleep. I told her my best advice was to stay far, far away from my advice, because I'm clearly doing it all wrong. Sadie is a magnificent sleeper, though, which is a total gift. She can sleep right through her brother's middle-of-the-night outbursts. And Jack is getting better about protesting his nightly sentence silently. If we're lucky, instead of screaming in his bed, he will get out of bed, run to our room, and scream right in our faces instead. Oh Jack, it's a good thing you're so cute in the daytime.

This was his response to me saying "put your head to the side so I can see you better." He leaned and leaned and kept leaning until he fell over, which Sadie found pretty hilarious. They are enjoying each other more and more. Jack has been taking Sadie's playmat/baby-gym/whatever it's called and turning it upside down and bringing Sadie under it with him and declaring "This is a tent!" I have yet to capture that on film, but I did get them in this tent.

That was our rainy day activity Tuesday night. We ordered pizza and had a tent picnic. It was so cozy in there, nobody wanted to get out and make dinner or even worse brave the cold wet outdoors to go pick up food. Wound up being the highlight of my week. Sometimes laziness is the mother of invention.

What else? I survived my many hurdles I wrote about last time, along with a few additional ones I hadn't anticipated, and furthermore made and canned 10 quarts of tomato sauce and 5 quarts of applesauce and took the kids down to visit my grandma. My last big thing is to give a lecture at SF State on Monday, and I've already made all the slides which, if you know me, is AMAZING. I am done with something four whole days ahead of time. Stunning. And perhaps even more worthy of acclaim... I got the Stanford job! I will officially be the "Lead for Model Applications" for the Natural Capital Project, starting December 1. The job I applied for was "Lead Modeler" and apparently somebody else was better for that job but they liked me enough to create a new position! And I think I like this new position even better! And I get to work with all these superstars I've been following my whole phd, so it really feels like a dream come true. And I even get to work remotely part of the time, so I don't have to commute every day. AND half of the researchers on my team are based in Minnesota which means I'll be getting some free trips home! It still doesn't seem real, probably won't until I actually start. But there's a lot to do before then- I now have to squeeze three months of work at the current job into two months. Will these mad dashes to the finish ever end? (I am uninterested in any answers other than "Yes, Becky, take heart, you're getting a great big helping of peace and serenity for Christmas this year.")