scuba update

I had my second scuba-diving class on Sunday. Let me tell you, they do not waste any time.

The instructors gave us all of the equipment--a huge tank of air, wetsuit, vest, breathing thingy, etc. We strapped it all on, together with fins, mask and snorkel, started breathing through the mouthpiece, and stepped off into a 14-foot pool.

It was like stepping off an 80-foot cliff.

I was sure I would sink to the bottom and kiss this sweet life goodbye, but, amazingly enough, I survived that first plunge. We spent the next hour and a half chilling on the bottom of the pool and practiced flooding our masks with water and then breathing air back into the mask again.

If you've never been scuba diving, you have to try this--it's like being able to fly. Now I understand why NASA does all of its spacewalk training underwater; you're completely weightless.

I have to admit that I did freak out once and scream to the surface when I got a big stream of water up my nose.

Did I mention that I sat on the bottom of the pool for an hour and a half??--it still blows my mind.

going to the dentist

Juma went to the dentist for the very first time today. He did just dandy--didn't cry or anything. At least, he told me he didn't cry. Justin was the one who took him. The dentist gave a good report: no cavities, and no problems with his teeth. Whew.

a pretend story

Juma likes to tell and be told what he calls pretend stories (made up stories as opposed to written-in-books stories). He's getting pretty practiced on his form. Here's the story from tonight's bedtime ritual.

Juma: Once upon a time there was a caterpillar named Juma. [aside] What was his name?
Sarah: Juma.
Juma: [to himself] Oh, yeah, that's a good name. This caterpillar met a worm. They played.

cut

Juma fell at school today and got a nasty cut on his forehead. I took him to the emergency room and they glued it together quite nicely. (In the picture, he's trying to pretend to cry for effect.) The cut is about an inch long, but he's doing just fine.

On a completely unrelated note, I went to my first scuba-diving class yesterday. Two hours of class work and another two hours in the pool left me completely exhausted. Can't wait to get that little card that says I can dive in Zanzibar!

orange juice and limits

The other day, I made some fresh carrot-orange-apple juice. Juma tried it and liked it.

I asked, "Can you taste the oranges in there?"
He replied, "No, the oranges are hiding. I just taste juice."

He's trying every tactic he can think of to stall going to school and for me to leave him at school. "I'm not ready to leave yet" is a popular line with him. Covering his mouth so I can't brush his teeth before school is another tactic. Then when we're finally at school, he'll say, "Just stay a few minutes...Stay a couple minutes...Stay a little bit longer."

Then he's completely fine and ready to play as soon as I leave. Testing the limits, you think?

school and more school

Well, I survived my first week and a half of school. That included my first homework assignment--in epidemiology (the measure and study of the spread of disease in humans). It's a little weird to be doing math problems and such things--I'm so used to homework being read a book, then talk about it in class. Very open-ended, qualitative, no rigth answers, just theories with enough information to back it up. One of my public health classes is like that.

This program, on the other hand, is very quantitative--statistics, surveys, concise, compact; we never read a whole book, just articles. Read this article, then do problems 6.3 6.7, 6.11. Quantitative people don't have time for whole books--the TAs actually have to prep some of the students on how to read qualitative articles for a couple of the classes, because they've never read them before.

So it's different for me. I keep sane by reading books at home, for fun. Not as much time for it as before, but I'll go insane without it.

no more Holocaust class

Well, I found out a few days ago that I have been switched out of the Holocaust class and will now be teaching two sections of a class called "History of Modern South Asia." In some ways it is a relief--teaching the Holocaust would have been really draining. But then I was looking forward to it, also. It seems like a subject where the students would be really excited to learn and understand.

The extent of my knowledge of India is the movie "Ghandi." This should be interesting--I'll keep you posted. I'll have to keep just ahead of the students by reading like crazy, but I'll still probably be saying "I'll get back to you on that question" a lot.

September birthdays!

September is another big month for birthdays for both the Wilsons and the Beckhams.

Sept 7 Happy Birthday Rylee
Sept 9 Happy Birthday Ammon
Sept 11 Happy Birthday Isaac
Sept 12 Happy Birthday Rick
Sept 24 Happy Birthday Lance

And Happy Anniversary to Lance and Alisha this month too!

goodnight kisses

Juma was trying to give Justin a good night kiss, but was laughing so hard he couldn't pucker up. He repeatedly settled down, puckered up, but then as he was moving closer, he would break into a giggle and have to start all over again.

baseball

I haven't posted for a long time--sorry. Good thing Sarah has been taking up the slack.

Today, Sarah, Juma and I went to another minor league baseball game to watch our New Haven County Cutters. It was an absolutely perfect day. Septembers here are simply amazing. Juma got another baseball from the mascot (Juma calls the mascot the "big blob thing") and we watched a good six innings of America's pastime.

Here's the big blob thing in action:

It was nice to take a break from the stresses of the first week of school and relax a little.

I will be teaching a class on the Holocaust this semester. I hope it won't be too emotionally draining, but given the subject matter, I will need to remember happy days like today if I want to smile....

school

School started for me and Justin, and it's a little crazy. We've had to juggle Juma between us and some babysitters, but he doesn't mind. I had four classes yesterday, and I have one today. So on my birthday I was gone from 8:30 to 4:00. Ugh. We were so tired by that time, we didn't do anything for my birthday. Maybe we'll go out this weekend.