February 2009

The shortest month, indeed!  As I was walking out to my car with a colleague today, I mentioned that my daughter “just turned 1″, and it took me a second to realize that was nearly a month ago.  Time does fly when you’re having fun (or ear infections, or stomach bugs, or whatever else Kiera and I got saddled with this month).

We started off the month with the kids’ birthday party at Kidz Rule in Hatfield, PA.  There was a huge turnout of cousins and friends from the neighborhood and Tabor Children’s House, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves (not least of all Dylan and Kiera!).  It was interesting to compare Kiera’s first birthday to Dylan’s – back in 2006, Dylan wanted no part of the small family gathering we had at the Doylestown house, and slept or cried through most of it.  Kiera, on the other hand, did her best to hang with the big kids, and did so admirably (read: with no temper tantrums).

Miss Kim came to babysit on Valentine’s Day, so Dylan and Kiera got to get rid of Mom & Dad for an evening of fun.  They also got to spend some time with Pop-Pop Joe while I played tech support one Saturday afternoon.

I learned earlier this month that a short piece I wrote will be included for publication in a book called The Teachable Moment, to be published in May 2009.  My contribution is about my experiences teaching Shakespeare to high school students and trying to make it relevant and accessible.  Early reviews are favorable (by which I mean “my editor liked it”), but we’ll see how the jackals of the Amazon.com reviews community treat it.

Short month, short blog post.  It was 60 degrees today, but snow and sleet are forecast for Sunday (we’re supposed to visit Grandma Judy & Grandpa Hank that day, weather permitting). Lambs, lions, etc.; bring on Spring already.