The plan has backfired.

I don't know the sign for "All done" and started using a makeshift one with Bethany where I put my hands up near my face while saying "all done." (Hard to explain...think of it as though one is saying "I don't know" and putting up two hands while shrugging shoulders.) Today she used it! But instead of putting her hands up in the air near her face, she decided to put them into her hair and over her ears! So my child has learned that, right at the end of a meal when her hands are covered with sweet potatoes or smushed carrots, she needs to put those very hands over her ears and into her hair and say "All done!" with the sweetest smile on her face. Ack!

I am exhausted and trying to stay awake. I thought treating myself to a little blog-writing would wake me up. :) I have a Microbiology midterm tomorrow and three more on Monday (Organic and Biochemistry, Organic and Biochemistry Lab, and Nutrition for the Health Sciences), along with several big assignments due between now and Monday as well. My stinging eyes are fast giving up on me and I'm thinking it's time to hit the sack and set the alarm for 4-ish or so to give myself a break. Time truly doesn't exist in which to complete this work...I can't seem to pull all-nighters anymore without totally losing interest and fantasizing about my blankets (or just falling asleep face-first on the table until Bethany wakes me up over the baby monitor). It cracks me up to remember my high school days, for instance, when I would stay up all night writing poems and playing the guitar and any number of things while living off of a few hours of sleep a night. Until recently, I have been able to exist with very little sleep but Bethany especially is very exhausting these days. My darling husband cut his own sleep short today to give me some extra study time.

Oh, good news, by the way. Zoya learned how to ride her bike without training wheels today. She has had a big month (the reading, and now this). Now that snow is preparing to cloak our neck of the world, her excitement will have to be on hold for eight months until it melts.

Yawn. I hope this post is coherent. Good night, world.