Naked Baby and Post Docs

With my tummy getting bigger the baby has become more of a topic of conversation with Luke and Thomas. I am asked everyday to lift up my shirt so they can see the baby. Then they begin to ask a lot of questions.After a couple weeks of questions a trend has emerged: Is the baby naked? Is the baby naked right now? Is it sleeping and naked? Is it naked when we go shopping? Is it naked in the bath? Is it naked at church? Does it have socks on?  Does it have shoes? Can you see his penis? To this I have to say, we don't know if the baby has a penis. If it has a penis then yes you can see the penis, and we can see it at the ultrasound in a couple weeks. If it doesn't have a penis that means it is a girl baby. In response to this I get a chorus of boys saying, I hope we see his penis. The boys want a brother, and I think they are quite jealous that they don't get to be naked near as often as the baby.

We have now entered the phase of Pete's schooling where he is applying for Post Docs. The first and main thing on his plate is applying for the NSF Grant. This would be the best opportunity for him. When applying for this grant Pete gets to pick who his supporting scientist would be. This gives him the chance to work with one of the top people in his area of math for 3 years with little to no teaching responsibilities. His top pick is a man named, Eliashberg, at Stanford. He recently got confirmation from Eliashberg that he would be willing to be his supporting scientist with the only minor maybe hitch being that he has also agreed to sponsor another student for the same grant. This shouldn't be a problem since the grant is awarded to multiple people from multiple institutions and there are no rules saying a supporting scientist is only allowed one student. Pete has very good references and has several talks at top institutions lined up over the next month plus his paper is being published in a well known journal, so things look good on paper and if it is meant to be it will happen. The next step is to apply to almost every university in the United States. There is a website dedicated to math jobs in academia where you can basically hit apply all. Once this is all done we wait. He should be done with applications some time in October/November and you find out the end of January or sometime in February.

The thought of moving to California is a bit overwhelming to me because of the cost. Oh my. Since it is the only university that I know is a definite possibility I have been looking up stuff online, and man it is expensive! We will still be students and the grant isn't for a lot of money, it is mostly the opportunity that you are applying for, not the money. Over half of that grant would go to rent with no opportunity to apply for students loans like we do now.  The thought knocks me down. Pete keeps talking it up, and I know living in California would do wonders for my seasonal depression, we would be near so many things that we aren't near now, and people who live there or have lived there talk about how much they love it, so it would be a lovely experience if we get the grant, I just wish it weren't so darn expensive.

Finally, I have ever so slowly waded into teaching Luke shapes with letters on the horizon. He is a very visual learner and learns in a slower and much different way than Jack. I have been looking online for how to teach visual learners. For shapes we are just doing 3 at time and have colored them, traced them, drawn them, and then made shape trees where he named, sorted, colored, and glued shapes onto trees. We are working on it. I am going to get around to making/buying shape bingo and shape memory. Then onto letters. The plus side is that Thomas is also learning things.