A Walker Amongst Us.....

Well, remember when I posted 5 weeks to go.... I really mean it this time as I forgot about spring break.

Anyway, as some of you know Nadezhda began walking on March 8^th, 2013. Significant for many reasons besides the most obvious of a child taking their first steps as a human. March 8^th is International Women’s Day. First it will be easy to remember when she first walked because of that but second it is a major holiday in Russia.

So, you might be wondering how it happened. Well I was holding Nadia and I went to put her down for a second. As I was going to put her down she made me put her feet on the ground first and I expected her to then sit or turn around and grab my leg to hold herself up. What happened next startled me as she started to run away from me. I grabbed and then Tash and I made her practice walking for 4-6 hours. It is funny because once she did it she has improved greatly since that day. I am so grateful to have Nadia and Tash in my life. I am a lucky person. 

With my schedule being consumed with a lot of things I figured that Nadia's first steps would be taken when I was not home. However, I was lucky and I am so happy that her first steps were taken in the presence of Natasha and me.

As for me I continue to grind away through my field placement and I have four more weeks of fieldwork over the next five weeks. After that I will have about 2 weeks of school left but two major papers to write.

At the end of the semester I will have about two weeks off before I begin six weeks of a summer class and then I will be off for the rest of the summer. I must say I am looking forward to it.

Until next time… 

5 weeks to go.....

Well....

After getting up at 4:30am since September 1st and getting home 14 hours or so later from Monday through Friday I can say that the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight.

I said this to my field instructor and his response was... "Well, you have to be careful there because sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an entrance to another tunnel."

With that said I am enjoying this tunnel exploration but it has been grueling and exhaustive.

Nadia, Tash, and I took sometime for a four day visit to Miami Beach and that was a lot of fun a few weeks ago. I have overcome my fear of flying and even though I was a little nervous I never really panicked as I have in the past. I also did not drink a bunch of alcohol to help me overcome this issue. In Miami we just laid on the beach for a day, visited an amazing botanical garden, and drove to Key Largo for no reason really.

My fieldwork ends on April 15th but my last day will be April 10th as that is how my schedule is setup.

Nadia is doing well and it is likely she will no longer be seeing her therapists after their next visits. She has made great progress and she is almost completely caught up. Any day now she will be walking as she is very close.

Well, that is it for now as I wanted to keep in line with my blogging schedule of every six months or so.