End of First Quarter as Professor-Mama

On Tuesday, final grades were due to be submitted online, thus marking the end of Tracey's first quarter as both a professor and a mother. Even though the quarter itself went quite well, the grade submission was a disaster, mostly because of Tracey's laziness and some misinformation on EWU's website, but with a tiny bit of help from baby Maeve.

Tracey had put off doing most of her final grade calculations (two classes: 42 or so students) until Tuesday morning, counting on one of Maeve's now-standard 90- to 120-minute morning naps. By T's calculations, she'd be able to get the grades all done and submitted before Maeve woke up.

Of course, Maeve chose yesterday as a day not to take a nice long morning nap. She was up at 6 a.m. and down for a 40-minute nap every hour or so afterwards, leaving T virtually no time to do the grade calculations. In a panic, T called Brian at work, and he reassured her that she had until noon, not 11 a.m., based on the university webpage he was reading. Well, after many bottles, some crying jags, and a big poo-out, Maeve went down for yet another nap around 11:20. T believed she had just enough time to submit the final five grades, until she found that the system had been shut down. Apparently, 11 a.m. was the deadline, even though the website said noon. Many phone calls and hours later, she finally submitted those last grades, thus ending spring quarter 2007.

And Maeve took her nearly two-and-a-half-hour nap—a new record!—from 11:30 until almost 2 p.m. What a day!

Stayed tuned for some professional photos from Kiddie Kandids, coming up soon!