sorry, sorry

five weeks... but it's the holidays, right? this will need to be a quick one, as i've got a student inthe other room taking a timed test, and he's got about 10 minutes left. sigh.

so ma and jim and anthony (my officially new 10-year-old brother, finally legally adopted this summer after nearly three years of living with ma and jim in sc) visited for christmas and new years. it was a nonstop ride of action and adventure, usually somehow related to ice skating or hot chocolate. we managed to split up quite a lot so people got alone time with each other... for example, on friday the 29th, ma and i took the train down to gatwick to pick up the rental car that would take us back to oxford and then to warwick castle the following day, giving us girls several hours to chat without constant interruptions from the pre-pubescent. meanwhile, d and jim steered anthony through the natural history museum, despite a lot of whining about his having rather gone back to the science museum instead. so everyone managed to keep busy.

other exciting news... this week, i started feeling the hamster kick around inside my belly, which is really really cool. s/he usually is most active when i'm sitting still, such as teaching or lying in bed doing a sudoku.

i've become slightly addicted to sudoku lately, but i can already feel myself tiring of it, so hopefully it won't last long.

i even forced d to feel my belly on wednesday night, and he was able to get a kick or two out of the hamster himself. i'm getting bigger and bigger... but the maternity clothes i ordered just before cmas have gotten lost in the post, so i'm having to make do with my normal pants buttoned up with rubber bands and with a long sweater over them to hide the jimmyrigging. ah well.

ok, student should be finished now... more later....