Hmm. Well, let's see. How about a status update on James' search for a postdoctorate position?
I realize not all of you are really all that sure about what a postdoc is. Basically, if you're going into academia and planning to be a professor, it's a job you get right after getting your PhD, but before you find a "real" job as a bona fide professor. Essentially, you find a professor to act as your mentor, and your duties include finding a real job, doing research, finding a real job, possibly teaching classes... oh, and finding a real job.
And yes, a postdoc is practically a requisite if you want to get a professorship at an awesome university. If James' goal in life was to be a professor at a dinky little university or little college, he wouldn't need a postdoc position. And, since James wants to do research, he needs a postdoc so he get a job at a university where his primary purpose is research with teaching on the side, and not the other way around.
Still with me? Good.
So James is set to graduate mid-June. Right around then, you may commence calling him Dr. Dilts. James has essentially set it up so that he can continue working at the university for two months following his graduation (so, until mid-August, say) and get a paycheck and important benefits like medical insurance... Huzzah! We were really worried about those few months for a while, imagining that we'd have no income and no insurance, but thankfully this doesn't seem to be what's going to happen. YAY!
As for the real job starting in the fall... Well... it's hard to say. Here's what James was expecting to happen, and why.
The most likely position seemed to be the one at UC San Diego. He has a collaborator there that wants to work with him and is okay with being his mentor for a year or two. This guy actually approached James and essentially asked James if he wanted to do a postdoc with him at UCSD.
Well... the problem here isn't that the guy doesn't want to work with James anymore, it's that the money to pay James has to come from SOMEWHERE. We weren't expecting this to be an issue, because that professor has said that he'd always been able to pay a postdoc he wanted, and he fully expected this to be the case for James as well.
... And now, he's trying to figure out how to pay James, because all the straightforward options aren't really working out. The "official" postdoc positions through the university were filled with postdocs other math professors at UCSD wanted, due to some department politics. (I.e., "No, it's MY turn to hire a postdoc! You had one a few years ago!" "But mine is the best!" "No, MINE!" etc. Presumably something like that.) And the professor has another graduate student who might graduate in the middle of next year and be a postdoc (with the associated pay increase) for the remainder of the schoolyear, or something... So yeah. Things got complicated.
This doesn't mean James isn't going to get to work at UCSD with this professor. If the professor can finagle enough grant money to pay James a reasonable salary, then it could still work out.
There has also been some rumors that maybe if the professor at UCSD contributed some grant money, and the professor at Stanford contributed some, too, then maybe James could do a postdoc at both... kind of... And yeah. Neither James nor I am sure how that could possibly work, but... yeah.
James has also applied to:
- University of Washington (in Seattle, Washington),
- MIT (in Cambridge, Massachusetts),
- Princeton University (in Princeton, New Jersey),
- Pennsylvania State University (in State College, Pennsylvania),
- University of Michigan (in Ann Arbor, Michigan), and
- University of Wisconsin (in Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
These are all far less likely to work out than the UCSD position, because they depend on a professor that James doesn't really know piping up and saying, "Ooh, I'd like to work with him" upon seeing his application amongst a big stack. So yeah. Unlikely. But... possible. (Oh, and adding to the stress? It's unlikely that any of these places would actually send a rejection letter to you once they've filled the position with someone else. For all we know ALL of the above positions have already been filled, and we are clinging to false hopes! Eep!)
We've been very prayerful about things. We keep getting assurances that things are going to work out precisely the way the Lord is planning them to (no duh), but we still don't know where we're going. Sigh. It at least helped my stress to know that we now have plans clear into August now instead of just until June.
So yeah.
In short, things could maybe might probably possibly I really, really hope work out for San Diego. Otherwise, only the Lord knows.
Let's see now, what else.
Dragon is a happy kid. He's pretty smart, I think. It's hard to pinpoint why I think this, but I am getting the idea that he is smarter than Amelia was at the same age. Hard to say, though. It could absolutely just be my imagination. I think part of it is his constant expression of interest and curiosity. Sometimes I'm afraid to mention adult topics in front of him, because I just feel like he is filing everything away for reflection. I wasn't ever afraid to do in front of baby Amelia.
And I feel like he is doing things slightly faster. He is almost sitting stably. He can sit without support for maybe ten seconds at times. He's exactly five months old today, and I'm pretty sure Amelia wasn't sitting yet until after six months. So his gross motor skills are better, though I don't think his fine motor skills are as advanced as hers were. In any case, he is obsessed with sitting. Sometimes he will cry until I allow him to sit up instead of lie on his back.
Ooh, also he is verbally more advanced than she was. He's a screecher, and a squealer, and apparently that's more common in older babies. He has (on more than one occasion) squealed so loudly as to silence a room of 20+ people. He's been doing that since maybe three months?
Oh. Also he is big. He, disturbingly, fills out his 9-month clothes quite well already.
Ah, I suppose I never told you details about the hypospadias evaluation. We went up to Portland to see a pediatric urologist. He looked at Dragon's penis and said that actually, his urethral opening seemed to be where it's supposed to be, meaning that's there isn't actually any hypospadias. It just kind of looked like it, because the foreskin wasn't completely formed (called a hooded foreskin), and the penis has a weird twist to it (that's called chordee), and both those are usually only seen with hypospadias. It's quite unusual to see the chordee without hypospadias.
The doctor predicted that Dragon wouldn't have any problems with urination, erection, intercourse, or anything else as a result of these things, and said that in this case, the problem is likely completely cosmetic. He said we could have it repaired if we wanted.
And, well, I thought... nah. Don't need to. I hadn't wanted to circumcise Dragon because that was a purely cosmetic surgery. On genitals. Right next to the anus, while the kid is in diapers. Genitalia seem like a very important set of things to be doing cosmetic surgery on just for fun. Um... seems dumb. And, so I thought, well, let's not do . And then, when he's older, if it does happen to bother him (which I don't think it will, but we'll see), then he can still have it corrected.
Anyway. What else.
Amelia... is getting to be extremely intelligible when she talks. It's weird to finally be able to understand the majority of the stuff she's saying. And I can understand what she's saying when she sings, now, too. She's growing up! (And, she's getting shockingly big, too. I just moved her up to 4T clothes. Eep!)
My two kids are so happy together. I think they are going to be bestest brother/sister friends. Hopefully the third child will also be a good friend in there. But Amelia and Dragon already just love each other to pieces. Amelia's intensity sometimes freaks out Dragon, but I think usually it just delights him. He likes her, and she likes him.
(As a bonus for you, I've been trying to come up with a single word to describe each child, and I think I will describe Amelia as intense. That's her word, for sure. Dragon is harder, probably because he's so young. For now: delightful. But other words that come to mind are sweet and happy. He's delightful--full of delight himself, and good at filling others with delight. We'll see what I come up with when he's a little older.)
Ah, darn. The childrens are waking up from their slumber. Doom!
Love and Girl Scout cookies,
Jenna and tot and baby and husband :)
