Ethan has been very zen about things lately. 

I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up (last year's answer was an army tank guy or a fireman) and he responded with an air of focused tranquility and an inscrutable half-smile:  "I will be what I am." 

Then yesterday, when he was taking a shower, I was poking with dissatisfaction  at my no-longer svelte stomach and muttered something about being fat. He heard me and replied quite matter-of-factly, "You are what you are, Mommy."

Hilarious. 

In other news, classes are going on. I'm already behind on the laundry and my house looks like a truck hit it, but hell, at least my homework is done and my kid isn't weeping emo tears of loneliness (I've been letting the laundry and the vacuuming slide so I at least have a couple of hours to spend with him during the day.)

Unlike most semesters, I'm still fiddling with my courses. 

I really want to take a class on Austen and the Gothic that's being offered but sadly it's at 130 pm which makes it rather difficult, considering I have no daycare during that time. I'm hoping Brad will be amenable to the suggestion that he can watch Ethan on M/W so I can take it, and I'm hoping I can find a friend who is willing to pick up daycare slack for days when he can't. 

I'm taking a class with a fantastic professor on the american novel to 1914, which should be really interesting considering I know very little-- outside of the obvious, like Twain and Hawthorne-- about that particular subject. The first book we were assigned, Weiland, is surprisingly engrossing; I've nearly finished the book already.  

The british lit pre-1800 class I'm in is just horrifyingly dry, though. The professor seems really nice, and I think he's genuinely trying, but he's just very boring and the reading is a bit insane, even for an English major-- he wants 350+ pages of pre-1800s literature read a week (which wouldn't be a problem were it pretty much anything but pre-1800s literature) plus two scholarly book reviews. Too much for a class I'm not even really vaguely interested in, to be frank. I'm hoping to be able to drop it; that's dependent on my honors seminar counting for the pre-1800 requirement, which I think it should. Most of the reading is within that time frame. 

Regarding my honors seminar, it is by far the class I am most excited about.

One of the honors seminar classes I am taking this semester is entitled "Women Warriors." There's a lot of reading of old texts (like Lieutenant Nun) and interesting discourse on sexuality, femininity, etc etc which is great, but possibly the greatest thing about this class will be the fact that we are studying Buffy the Vampire Slayer as part of the pop culture section.

Yes, Buffy. How excited am I? The pop culture section is also including a bit on cartoony characters like Kimpossible and Dora the Explorer. I figure having a 5 year old I'm a leg up on the youngins in the class, since I've already been subjected to enough modern cartoonage to make my eyes bleed.

Also, I will be able to write a paper on Firefly (I'm thinking Zoe) which is also super cool. And I will be able to wax indignant about the treatment of female characters who have been presented as strong, warrior women and then eviscerated (such as padme amidala in the newest star wars trilogy, or elizabeth swann in pirates) in the movies. So my papers there are honestly nearly done; they're already formulated in my head. 

I haven't had my Africa and the World history class yet, nor have I had my first session of the fiction workshop class. I have high hopes for both; I have history tonight, and the fiction workshop on Thursday night. I rather want to submit a genre piece for the first round of the fiction workshop, but I've heard this particular professor is not a big fan of genre, so I'm torn on the issue. 

That's it from here; working away already. How's things in your corner of the globe?

I've been doing the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book with Ethan for the last month or so.  Because of going to VT, we took about a week's break on doing any of the lessons, so we're only on lesson 15 or so.  

Today he read the first Bob book without any help! He sounded out all the sounds and named all the words without my help! 

I'm totally proud. For some reason he seems to have this shy block though which is odd as this is not the kind of kid he is at all-- normally he's insanely proud when he figures out how to do something. With reading he's all mumbly and shy and tells me to stop telling him he's doing "excellent" because he's not. 

I'm not sure where this is coming from, unless he's fully aware he's only reading simple books and feels like he should be able to read harder ones-- which is possible. He's doing really well and I'm honestly excited for him. I know once we get a bit farther into the reading thing he's going to do even better. 

Anyway, I'm pleased at his progress and needed to share :)