Recap

Haven't posted in awhile....life's been chugging along at a pleasant pace for the most part. Cara is into her third trimester, and the kid is growing and developing all according to schedule. We've picked out a few names we like, such as _________, _________, and __________. For middle names, we are considering ___________ and __________. People have been very good about not getting us really lacy and frilly girl clothes; Cara's mom is making a baby blanket in the shape of a dark red dragon, and Dave's mom is making one out of various black-and-white patterns (like zebra stripes, cow spots, checkerboards, and polka-dots) with hot pink trim. Our baby will either develop incredible visual acuity or go blind. We have our first baby class next week, so we are pretty excited about that!

Dave is in a protracted war of attrition with the Financial Aid department over at the medical school. Cara wants to be a stay at home mom, at least for the first few years, but the Federal office of Higher Education and Loans or Whatever will only give additional loan consideration for childcare if the child is enrolled in a daycare. They won't help you out if you want to raise your own kid, they'd rather pay you to have strangers raise them. What's more, because Cara won't be working, we need the extra funds more than a family where both parents ARE working, even IF they have to pay for daycare. I had a long conversation with an advisor about it, and she got kind of exasperated with me, and finally told me flat out that she thought I made an unwise decision in choosing to start a family at this point in my life. So the protracted battle became a Cold War on two fronts: one with Financial Aid and then another one with the Human Resources Department. One of my friends at school offered to print out some papers pretending to be a daycare, in order to help us get the loan. If I were a criminal mastermind, I would be able to swing some way to make it work, but in reality we'll probably just end up not buying any new clothes for the next four years and making our own baby food out of edible weeds growing in the vacant field across the freeway from our apartment.

I just noticed in this blog I switch between 3rd and 1st person quite a bit, sometimes saying "Dave" and sometimes saying "I." Ostensibly, it's because this is both Cara's and Dave's blog, and so Dave wants all of you to think that it's the both of us who are writing it, when in reality, it's mostly me. Dave. Or Cara. Hah! Now you'll never know.



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