ballet and poop

The twins are starting dance class on Saturday and we are all really excited about it. We went to an open house at the school last week where we got to see demonstrations of Afro-Jazz, Tap, Salsa, Egyptian dance, Ballet and Pre-ballet, and we were all enthralled. When the instructor asked for some volunteers to join him dancing Afro-Jazz, Cayla popped right up and joined in. Actually, she mostly stood there watching and pulling on the bottom of her shirt while lifting the wrong foot and stepping forward when everyone else was stepping backwards, but she had a huge smile on her face and was very proud of herself. Collin is very happy that he gets to wear tights to class (last time he had to wear sweatpants, and I don't think he ever felt that they were appropriate DANCE attire, given that he wears a leotard with a skirt and pink ballet slippers when dancing at home). And he got new black ballet shoes today, which he probably would have slept in if we had let him.

The twins have been very interested in the digestive system and especially the related waste products for some time. However, I do have to say that now that they are actually intelligible it's losing some of it's cuteness. It's quite embarrasing when they call out from public stalls "Hey Queso, are you pooping?" or, upon hearing a bowel movement or gas eminating from adjacent stall "Eeeeuuuhhh! Who did that?". While I'm very happy that they are in tune with their bodily functions, we clearly need to work on appropriate topics for discussion in public restrooms.

I'm getting back into classes and already feel a bit overwhelmed. I have a big project or paper in each class, and in three out of four classes the professors proudly proclaimed that they had front-loaded the assignments to take the load off of us at the end of the semester and give us more time for our other classes. The result is that I have three long papers due the week before Thanksgiving, including a research article suitable for publication. Oh, OK, no problem.

In other school news, I also cemented my standing as top nerd by answering other students questions when the professor couldn't in statistics class. I was pretty sure I had achieved the designation last year, but I really nailed it home this week. The good news is that all statistics professors are also top nerds, so I just need to stay tight with them and I'll be good. Who needs cool friends anyway? I dragged Erica and the twins to the Friedman school picnic last week, and Erica met my advisor, who does what I think is really interesting work and is a very good teacher, so I've talked very highly of him. Erica's comment was "Um, I just expected him to be a little, you know, cooler." Yes, well, he teaches statistics.

By the way, this post is not by Erica although it will say it is. I no longer have a google account and am too lazy to make a new one, so I'm just signing in as Erica, but it's really me, Flannery.