Down to the Wire

Have I mentioned that Paul is a procrastinator? I'm keenly aware of that fact right now. He's presenting at a conference in Baltimore next week, and in preparation for that he's supposed to give a presentation at noon tomorrow for two of the chemistry groups at PSU. His advisor had asked him to submit his presentation to her on Friday so that she'd have time to give him feedback and he could make any changes she might suggest prior to Tuesday. Well his presentation is now less than 24 hours away, and he hasn't sent her anything yet. He got up and worked on it some throughout the night last night. Tonight he'll be pulling an all nighter in his office at PSU. He hasn't been on campus since Wednesday, but he's planning on going in sometime tonight and not coming back until tomorrow night. It's not like I can help him. I don't know anything about computer programming or physical chemistry. I tend to get stressed out when he's approaching (or has recently missed) a deadline. What good does that do? He always comes through for the real deadlines (but never the ones his advisor gives him). I'm sure his presentation will go well at noon tomorrow and also next week in Baltimore. I'll be very glad when it's over. The next big crunch will come in September. This affirms in my mind that I do not think it will be wise for him to join us in Florida the end of August. He'll be approaching a deadline for his presentation in Italy.

Saturday night I was sitting next to a woman who was feeding her 5 month old. It was hard not to feel a bit depressed because Mackenzie was willingly opening her mouth and consuming food by spoon (first sweet potatoes and then bananas). She ate more in one sitting than Ian usually eats in one sitting, and she's 11 months younger than Ian. Later this month we'll hit the one year mark as far as when I first introduced solid foods to Ian. Yes, we have made progress lately, but still most six month olds can eat more than he will be eating at 17 months old. It's frustrating to realize it's taken a full year to get him to the stage other babies are already at when they are 5 months old. Applesauce and vegetables still result in vomiting even though I don't give him either one without mixing in something else. His favorite foods are banana yogurt, vanilla yogurt, and pudding. There are times he willingly opens his mouth for those foods. This puts a HUGE smile on my face. There are other times when he cries and I have to force feed him those same foods. He still throws up every day, but it has been easier to clean up since he's almost always in his highchair when it happens.

I know that some day he'll be eating table food and this will be a distant memory. That seems so far away right now. It usually seems that we are facing at least one difficult situation at every moment of our life. Feeding Ian is definitely the biggest struggle in my life right now. Looking at it that way puts it in perspective. Yes, it's very vexing at times (sometimes 6 times a day), but compared to the difficult things others are going through right now, and even compared to difficult things I've gone through in the past (being childless for one), this is not a big deal. This too shall pass.