Dry.....

Obtaining an MSW requires a lot of reading.... I mean ALLLLLLOOOOOOTTTTT of reading. One of the cool things this semester was we received a list of 30 or so novels and we had to evaluate the person in the novel.

I picked Dry by Augusten Burroughs for a few reasons. One the shortest articles with my midterm paper were related to alcoholism and two his book was published by a customer of mine.

The book was excellent and I highly recommend it for any one who likes to read or someone you know who may be dealing with alcoholism in one way or another.

Conditioning of the young ones....

I have not been posting as much due to school, work, and truck repairs. I have a huge paper due next Tuesday and then four more case studies and one group research project due by the first week of May as well.

Nadia is doing really well. Her feedings are increasing and she is going to the doctor this week for her six month checkup. She is almost turning over completely and she is now communicating in many other ways besides crying with oohs, agoos, and loud screeches here and there.

We have Tash's brother's birthday dinner on Saturday and my godson Leo's birthday party on Sunday afternoon in Kinnelon, NJ. A beautiful area in Northern NJ.

Tash is busy with work and school and taking care of Nadia when she is not at work although she still works from home when Nadia cooperates.

Lastly, because I must fight social issues as a social worker.... Recently I was at a Babies R Us and I noticed something and when I passed it a second time I questioned whether society is conditioning children on the roles they are supposed to fulfill in life. I know everyone will say they tell their children they can be whatever they want but children follow the norms of society and Babies R Us is telling your child when their role in life is.

I know many people will think it is no big deal but children base their actions on what they see and not always what they are told. Case in point, when parents smoke in many cases their children smoke even though their parents tell them it is wrong and they should not do it.

Off my moral high horse I step on Equal Pay Day as women in America are currently paid an average of .77 for every dollar a man earns for the same work.

Laughing and the upcoming weekend.....

Well.... this weekend begins a stretch of party weekends with one off weekend over the next five weeks.

Nadia has started what I would call a sustained laugh. She is now laughing several times a day and her first known laugh was with both Tash and I in the room together so that was cool. See our instagram page for updated pictures as she is growing fast and becoming very heavy.

Nadia will be attending a celebration of family birthdays on Sunday as we will head to UJK on Sunday in celebration of UJ's and Jen's birthdays. We are very excited for our venture as it will be Nadia's first trip away from home besides a ride to the train station or some type of doctor visit. I need to buy some type of travelling bed which I will do tonight.

As for me personally, this week I had a pretty rough exam but I am sure I did well on it because I was prepared. I will begin fieldwork in the fall and I found out this week that I will have to make some changes and choices come September. I am confidently concerned about it. I think that is the best way to describe my mind right now as I know I am making the right decision but it will require some serious dedication and determination. Who is better than me for taking stubbornness and making it work in a positive manner?

Tomorrow I will be finishing up the replacement of bearings and brake rotors in my truck. Tash and I were deep in PA when a squeaky bearing finally gave way prompting us to drive home very slowly from PA. What I did not tell Tash was that we had no brakes for the last hour of the trip. When I would push the brake, the rotor would move because the bearing was not holding it in place. Right now my truck is sitting on tree stumps with the front wheels off and the brakes and hub have been completely removed. The hub with the bearing issue was also bad but I found one on Ebay so that part is arriving today. Once I have that part I will attach the lug bolts and the new rotor and then I need to go to a mechanic tomorrow so they can press the bearing races into the hubs.

We made it home safe with the broken truck and planted 37 fruit trees on the farm the next day. So, three years from now we can eat tons of fruit and talk about “the trip.”

I am looking forward to wrapping that up quickly tomorrow as I have a 1:00pm haircut in the highlands.

Speak to you all soon!

Saturday morning with dad...

Mom is working today so I am all alone with Daddy. Pretty soon my dad is leaving for the garbage dump to take our trash to the dump. Baba Lena will take care of me while dad is gone. 

Dad is on Spring Break this week so he does not have any homework to do but he probably could work on his final paper for psychopathology.

I have to eat more when dad is feeding me because he thinks there is something wrong with him when he feeds me and I just do not feel like eating.

Anyway,  on some weight news I have crossed the 9 pound threshold and I continue to grow at a monumental pace. I am healthy as could be and I am sleeping well at night.

I have been experiencing some drool and bubbles and I keep hearing my mom and dad speaking about these things called teeth. I am not sure what they are yet but I will update you as soon as I find out.

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Nikki are coming to visit again this weekend and I am really excited. Uncle Kevin held me and I found it very easy to fall asleep. I think they are going to drop off some cookies and then go out to lunch with my mom and dad.

One last thing I wanted to update you on is that my dad has been leaving his Macbook next to me when he leaves the room and it also stays on for a bit. I figured I would mess around with it and I think I have pretty much mastered blogging. Now, if I can just figure out how to setup an email for myself.....

Uncle Sonny...

On this day last year as many of you know we lost one of the center pieces of our family. He was a man who was always concerned about everyone else. He was always happy when his jokes made others laugh and he was always heartfelt during reminiscing about others we lost. He lived a full life and he worked hard to help support everyone in his life. He was a family man!

Evidence of his greatest enjoyment can be seen with the various pictures of him holding his grandchildren as they push at his face. He really enjoyed and loved his family and I know I can speak for our family when I say we enjoyed him and we were lucky to have a man of his stature and compassion in our lives.

Women and bottles...

As a father of a girl I must admit that I cringed and became infuriated about a recent news incident. When I heard a certain famous person call a women a slut and state she should post videos of her sex acts online for all to see because she believes birth control should be part of a healthcare plan I became upset. As a student of social work and one who has a daughter I guess these types of things should upset me. In America we all chip in for things we might not believe in. For example war, many people are against but they are forced to pay for it.

Anyway, I do not want to get too political here but it is a shame that a man can degrade a women through the press in such a manner. It seems some believe women are less equal than men in today's society and the truth is they are less equal but they should not be. Do not fear as I am on a mission to fix this.

On to more pleasant thoughts.....

As Nadia keeps growing I keep washing bottles. A bottle washing master as I would like to think. I wash 9 bottles in less than 20 minutes and that includes the various devices that the bottles consists of as well. Tash asked me the other day how I wash the bottles so fast. I think it is because I do it more often and I do not really wash them but rather just rinse them with hot water. Do not tell her my secret please.

Nadia is beginning to utter sounds other than crying when we talk to her. Tash hears most of it but Nadia lets me in on the conversation when I am home once in a while. One of the things that makes me happy to is how she follows me around the room with her eyes as Tash is holding her. I go up to her to say things and when I walk away and turn around her eyes are zeroed in on me no matter where I go.

It is amazing to watch her grow and think that almost 5 months ago she was less than 1/4 of what she weighs now. Of course that seems like no big deal but as most of you know quadrupling in size when beginning at 1 lb 10 ounces is a huge difference. Last week she weighed in at 8 lbs 1 ounces.

Nadia will be 5 months old on March 9th.

The weekend past...

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Nikki stopped by this weekend and you can see some pictures in our Instagram feed to the right.

We also went out to The Alps again and I must say they change the menu constantly and the food is excellent every time thus far. If you come to visit we will certainly take you there for lunch or dinner.

After a three day weekend it is back to the grind as I have class tonight and tomorrow with a midterm tomorrow.

Yesterday I went to a Starbucks and observed everyone in the place for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Human beings are amazing creatures and it was a lot of fun to see the quirks that many of us have. I will be writing a short 10 page paper for my midterm in my Psychopathology class and this observation was part of the project.

After my observation Tash and I had a nice lunch at home and we then took the baby for a walk on the farm. Walks on the farm always help Nadia fall asleep.

I am also taking a 2 hour lunch tomorrow from work to watch a presentation from two of my SW colleagues as they release their research results about the changing landscape in aging social work. I will be receiving a Certificate in Aging Social Work along with my MSW so this will be relevant to my field of study.

We are actually thinking about a family party to introduce Nadia sometime in the late Spring or Summer season. We have not set anything in stone yet but my in laws certainly have the property for such a party. We have not gone over the details with them yet either but we were thinking of it being a family picnic type deal…. Anyway we are slowly thinking about this as there is plenty of space to host almost 100 people for sure…. TBC….