So this picture has nothing to do with the title of this blog post, but Kyle (#SummerofDad) and his family met up with us in Baltimore for a little short visit to the Baltimore National Aquarium and I just love this picture! We are near the jellyfish sculptures where the Dolphin Experience is housed and the lighting was perfect… and I had to get a photo with these two little babies together, meeting for the first time! Aren’t they cute?

So I am posting a little late – time has really gotten away from me these last two days. I could’ve started writing a few days ago, which would’ve been in the best interest of time considering at any given day I may not get the chance to write up a post. But I didn’t.

Very exciting/busy/stressful/confusing/overwhelming things happening over here! I had an interview yesterday with Chamberlain College of Nursing, for a position as a Visiting Professor. I met with the Dean of Faculty and the President of the nursing school. Both were so nice and welcoming, and I wowed them enough that today I got a call from the recruiter and found out I got the job! So that starts the second week of July. The first couple months they just need someone to fill in with their nursing simulation lab working on health assessments for the nursing students and then after Labor Day, I’ll lead my own group of nursing students throughout an 8-week course on inpatient units taking care of patients. Yay, teaching baby nurses!

Just because my head has been frazzled, here’s a look at the task list I was able to accomplish in the past 4 days: 

1. Complete and submit my application to the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) for my public health nursing certification. This involved contacting University of San Diego after completing exit counseling 5 years after graduation, to get my transcripts sent to the CA BRN as well as talking with my nursing program’s assistant to correctly fill out my application to the CA BRN. (We have to have a certain # of hours in our curriculum to cover child abuse neglect and prevention coursework, as well as public health coursework… you’d think having my MPH could translate to cover that whole section but it doesn’t. 
2. Track down the Maryland BON (Board of Nursing) (Lady #1 told me the form I needed in order to complete my RN application in Maryland was not available for me to print and mail to CA BRN. She said she would mail via USPS so I could fill it out. 2 weeks later, no form. Calls, emails, etc. from me to reach her. No word. Called again (third time). Lady #2 finally returned my call. Apparently the form was online. Great. I wasted 2 weeks, thanks Maryland BON. Which leads to my next point…
3. Completed and submitted my license verification paperwork for the Maryland BRN to the CA BRN, because in order for me to work in Virginia as the visiting professor or in any other capacity as a nurse, I have to have my Maryland RN license. Therefore, California has to stamp this piece of paper and sign that I really was a nurse in California and make me pay $60 for it.  This is on top of paying over $100 for my Maryland RN license, and after paying over $200 to reinstate my CA RN license. This was all done so that I could be a viable candidate for a nursing job — WHEREVER THAT MAY BE. Keeping options open, that’s what my strategy was. 
4. Applied to a Clinical Nurse Educator position at UCLA, didn’t get it. 
5. Submitted my name change paperwork to Fidelity Investments, because in order to roll over my retirement savings from back when I got my first nursing job, it’s much easier if my names match. Which they didn’t. That paperwork was sitting on the kitchen table for 2 weeks. 
6. Interviewed at Chamberlain, got the job! Yay! 
7. Oh, took care of the kiddo, fed husband. 
8. Relaxed. 

So in more exciting news, here’s what Jia did over the past week: 

• About the title of the post. This morning, June 17th let the record show that Jia said her first sentence: “Bye Daddy” as he was leaving for work! We were shocked and speechless! Crazy once you hear an actual thought come out of their mouths, instead of the normal high-pitched screaming or low-monotonous whine. This was magical and I want to hear more! More I tell you! 
• But no tantrums, please. We need to buy The Happiest Toddler on the Block. For reals. The Happiest Baby on the Block was a miracle worker with helping us learn how to keep her happy and quiet as a newborn, but good NESS. SAKES. These 15/16 month milestone tantrums should be used as a torture method for interrogation. She screams to be carried, but cries and wriggles out, but lifts up her legs because she doesn’t want to be let down. “NOOOO PICK ME UP, but not THAT WAY, I don’t want to be put DOWN!!! HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHAT I WANT? You can’t tell by my shrill scream and red face?!” 
• She reads to herself. I love this. It reinforces that this is why we need to read to our infants and toddlers every day. I recorded her standing at her night stand, opening books and trying to say the word associated with the picture (we have a Baby’s First Words book that she likes flipping through). She read “Boy”, “Chair”, “Cup”, “Duck” out loud and then opened her next favorite book – “Jesus Loves Me,” given by our church on her Baptism anniversary. She really likes this book because it’s supposed to be read/sung to the tune of the song “Jesus Loves Me” from church. So we always sing it. By “We” I mean Jeff or myself. Anyway, she opened the book and placed it in front of Mei Mei (our pug girl) as she rested on Jia’s nursery chair. She continued to jabber out loud to herself as she flipped through the pages. 
• On the Weaning Front: I’m starting this new thing now (first day was today) where she wakes up and Jeff gets her, changes her, etc. while I cook breakfast. Typically, Jeff gets her from her crib, brings her into the room and I nurse her, then we fart around for a little while I make breakfast and we eat together. In my effort to respond to her cues in no longer being interested in feeding twice a day, I’m trying to make breakfast so that she’s not waiting around for nourishment (in absence of breastmilk). We all eat together, but now a little earlier. It’s crazy how before Jia, Jeff NEVER ate breakfast. I always had breakfast by myself in front of the TV or I slept in while Jeff went to work on my days off. Then he started eating breakfast and about 9:30 AM, when Jia started eating solids, so we could eat together. Then as she started eating more at meals and less with nursing, we shifted breakfast up to 9 AM, then to 8:30 AM, and so now it’s about 7:30-8 AM and we all eat together. Nothing like kids to force you into a welcomed routine. I can’t even remember how it was to sleep in until 10/11 AM and mosey around til we scrounged up lunch and then did what? Walked around the mall? I digress… so now we nurse before bed and that’s it. Once a day. 
• She’s a 50/50 independent kid. Some days she’ll play independently while I cook or putz around in the kitchen or do chores. Other days she wants to be attached to my hip while I lug the laundry downstairs or awkwardly lean into the fridge to grab ingredients, while I feel my bicep burn from her meager 20 lbs. An infant carrier? Nope, not suitable enough. “Mommy’s not doing any work by strapping me on in a convenient backpack style.” Unfortunate. haha… You’d think I’d have really toned arms but I think it’s my gorging of cookies and hidden stashes of chocolate that prevent the muscle from showing through… 
• Eating:
  • Cucumber
  • Eggplant lasagna
  • soy brown sugar glazed baked chicken
  • buttered yellow dutch potatoes
  • organic mixed veggies (corn, green beans, carrots, peas) with unsalted butter, loves these for some reason and I’m glad!)
  • SUSHI! We took her to sushi and she was a fan of: pickled ginger (huge surprise!), nori (seaweed that wraps the sushi) with rice, avocado (yay, once again!), smoked salmon and cream cheese, and sampled the smoked eel. She didn’t eat a bite of sushi altogether, but she ate its components separately. It still felt like an unexpected win for the evening. Wasn’t a fan of gyoza (dumplings)
  • pile of peanut butter. 
• She drinks about 1/2 a gallon of whole milk a week. She does pretty well each day, with drinking about 10 ounces daily. I think it’s 150 calories per 4 ounces, so I’ll take it for now but hope she increases her intake along with her meal intake as we get away from nursing. 

Loves being in the driver’s seat

Touch tank at the aquarium

OK that’s all for me. It’s 10 PM and I need to shower and get ready for bed. I’m trying to get to bed before 11 PM every night and so far I’m doing a pretty bad job at reaching that goal. We’ll see about a Saturday post this weekend, I’m not sure if that will happen.