Hey hey.

Hello Maia watchers! Hope that you all are doing well. We are moving through the early days of summer here with relative ease, although adjusting to 90-degree weather has presented the usual challenges (for me--Cara--especially. Summner is my least favorite season).

Maia has returned to a much more consistent and regular sleep pattern after about a month of unpredictable nights. This "who knows what to expect?" way of life is standard for us now; whenever we've come to expect something to occur, it changes! So, the best thing to do is to cherish consistency when it's there, and try to adjust as quickly as possible when it isn't. We're enjoying these relatively calm nights as much as we can, because . . . teething is probably right around the corner!!! Maia is sleeping right now and has been asleep since about 7:45 PM, and she'll probably wake up to eat at about 1:00 or 2:00 AM. Something like that.

I'm getting into the nuts and bolts of my new work life these days. I teach my first siblings class at St. Joseph Mercy hospital this Saturday, and then my first time teaching the same class at U of M hospital will be in early July. The Wednesday night U of M class will be my usual gig (once a month). Then, next week, I begin observing my mentor teach her six-week Childbirth Education class. After my observation period ends, I'll teach one six-week series myself in "student teaching" mode, and then they'll fit me into the regular schedule sometime at the end of the summer. My calendar is starting to look a bit more full than it has been for the past five months, which feels good.

So I'm sitting here at the dining room table right now working on my outline of medical terms and procedures for work, and I'm pleased to report that all of my obsessive reading for Maia's birth certainly comes in handy. There aren't many terms on this list that I don't recognize, which is making my task much simpler than it could have been otherwise. Here's one I didn't know: "ptyalism." Here's one I did know: "pica." Look 'em up! :)