Some of my Little Men

I'm happy to report that I managed to make it until Thanksgiving Break. While it's a break for my students, unfortunately it's not a break for me. I had my students turn in their major (8-10 page) papers on Friday and sent them on their merry way. My homework for them...watch a movie over the break, nearly any movie and come to class on the 29th of November with a professional review of the movie from one of five websites I've listed on the assignment sheet (Washington Post, New York Time, Chicago-Sun Times, etc.). Yep, tough homework. I can just imagine them telling their parents, "But mom/dad, I have to go see the newest Harry Potter because it's my homework!" Yeah. Hard life.

Me? I just have to write 2 rough drafts of my own that are 18-25 pages...hopefully by Wednesday, and grade all of their papers. Hmm....I think I got the short end of that stick.

As for the title of this post, I was blessed enough to spend some time with two of the "little men" in my life yesterday. I made the drive up to Spokane to drop a fellow classmate off at the airport and then I went to Sacred Heart Hospital to finally meet my newest nephew, Jacob. He's nearly four weeks old, was born with Down Syndrome, and the poor little guy has spent a majority of time in the hospital due to infections. The one week he was actually home with his family I was sick and didn't want to risk getting him sick, so all I had seen were pictures and let me tell you, he is just as cute in person. I got to hold him (watching to make sure I didn't accidentally pull his I.V. or other wires from his poor little body) for at least and hour and talk with his mom, my older sister Susan, about a bunch of things.

Jacob is just a sweetheart and he was looking really good. Some raspiness to his breathing, but apparently that was aggravated by a breathing tube that they had to insert for one reason or another. Although he had just thrown up what he had eaten before, I was able to feed him another bottle of food and just held and snuggled him while he slept. What an angel!

In an effort to give my sister and brother-in-law some time off from the hospital and get some one-on-one time together, I offered to take their older son, 11 year-old Nathan, to dinner and the movies. 15 year-old Elisha was with friends and 1 1/2 year old Courtney was going to hang out with her Grandma and Aunts that were in town. So it was just me and my other little man, Nathan.

Can I just say that if Jacob is as sweet as Nathan than the world is truly blessed. Nathan is one of the most soft-hearted and whip-smart boys I know. I absolutely love hanging out with him and he's a good sport about everything. The boy makes me smile and laugh all the time. We had pizza for dinner and went to see MegaMind at the theatre. My review -- meh. It was okay, but not laugh-out-loud funny...like Despicable Me. I went and saw that with four of my other nieces and nephews and we couldn't stop laughing. MegaMind has a great cast of voices (Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill), and they made fun of underdog superhero movies of the past, but I'm glad I went to a matinee and would be able to live the rest of my life without seeing it again if necessary. But I was also happy to see they're making another Kung Fu Panda movie. Yes, I like animated films just as much as my younger relatives and, yes, I take them along as excuses to see them. Any questions?

So I consider the day to be one of the best ways to spend a day of my break: not thinking about my students, their papers, or my papers, seeing loved family members and getting introduced to a new one, and spending one-on-one time with two of my favorite little men.

-sigh- Yep. Good day.