The kids seems to be stuck on Atlantic time (Miss M sleeping 7-5:30 instead of 8ish to 7ish; AM sitting up at 5:30 this morning and signing for bread), so I may never be able to stay up until 10pm ever again. So instead of my thoughts on our trip, you get random stuff.

1. Should I get a gift for my speech therapy grad student? Last clinic session is Monday, and it’s not like she’s getting paid. I would like to, because I think it would nice. She and AM have a real rapport; I’m going to miss watching them. Anyway, assuming I do, what to I get? She’s single, mid-20s. I have no idea of her interests, since we only talk about AM. Help!

2. Speaking of speech therapy, AM had a great session on Monday. Came out with all kinds of things I did not know he knew (something akin to “ribbit” for a frog sound and “ruff” for a dog sound and “quack” for a duck sound). Maybe we’ll hear actual words soon.

3. Sprouty somehow survived two weeks without watering–I had left him for dead, really–and has the beginnings of another bean. He is now The Lima Who Would Not Die.

4. My book list for March-April

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger *

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Last Life by Claire Messud

The Midwife’s Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas *

I Was A Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood by Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile

Plainsong by Kent Haruf *

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

* = book club selection

All of this at the expense of The New Yorker, but I just can’t give up my subscription because my fantasy is to plop myself down at a coffeehouse one rainy Sunday and read the growing pile of them in one go.

5. I have a freelance assignment (supposedly) coming. When it gets here I will fail to have any sort of outside life whatsoever. So it’s not you (or your blogs), it’s definitely me.