10 days to my deadline! All my colleagues at UW who have to write similar proposals are feeling the heat, but along with some stresses and snappiness there has also been an incredible sense of camaraderie. Many of us have been in at the weekends, and last week we ordered in some pizzas and had a proper lunch break together. As we are all struggling with the same "federalese" instructions it is good to hash things over and try to figure out what DC actually wants from us. Apart from the opaque academic requirements ("please indicate how students achieve an increase in their language ability by one level" - no further guidelines on what this "level" may actually be), misunderstanding of which may actually lose you your funding, there are the practical instructions which are similarly unclear: "You must send in 3 copies though 4 are preferred". "It is helpful if you preface appendix 1 with an index though it is not a legal requirement". And I have 108 pages of 10-point instructions of this nature to comb through to make sure I haven't missed instruction 354c section 23 on page 87: "stapled proposals will not be accepted". It is a miracle I am sleeping at all.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, everything is great. The poor man has been spending inordinate amounts of time with babysitters so I try to do good stuff when we do get to hang out together. I have also booked an overnight stay in April at a waterpark where all the slides and rides are preschool-appropriate, but I can't tell him quite yet as he'll want to go NOW. I'm really looking forward to it and he will be so excited! The hotel is in the waterpark so you can just go swimming whenever, and then there's the nice snazzy room with big tv to spend the evening in. If it's fun I'll go again and organise a trip with friends as they have a spa and things there as well so it would be good to have an option for shared childcare, but on this trip I just want to be alone with him and spend some quality time together.

This morning we went to a coffee house in a suburb to listen to Lucas' old daycare teacher play the dulcimer, an Appalachian string instrument. That was really fun, and he was thrilled to see her again. The coffee house has a big traintable so it was double bingo as far as Lucas was concerned. Many of the people there seemed to enjoy Lucas'obvious love of the choo-choowains as much as they enjoyed the music. Lucas had the traintable pretty much all to himself the whole time. At one point a girl of around the same age made a half-hearted attempt to join him, but he glared at her so hard she beat a hasty retreat. I was going to chastise him for that but then I figured I'd probably do the girl a bigger favour by letting her learn as soon as possible not to be intimidated by men. In the afternoon I had to go into work so Lucas went to play with a friend, until around 6. He has been really good about spending so much weekend and evening time away from me.

A few weeks back we were invited to a third birthday party, as you can see on the pics. The dinosaur pinata was a big hit, as was "pin the nose on the dinosaur". The next day I told Lucas we were going to go out on the lake. "Boat?" he asked excitedly. "Walking", I said, thinking that would be far more thrilling (I was excited!). "Oh maaaan" said Lucas, in his super-disappointed tone of voice. We did go for about 5 minutes and saw the Lady of the frozen Lake. He then came into the office with me and watched a DVD while I worked.

Lucas has been trying to be Mommy's little helper at home by helping me do the washing up as well as the hoovering. I got one of those little dustbusters which Lucas loves using. He excitedly goes round pointing out "yucky" so he can go clean it up. He is doing well at school, is pretty much accident-free in the potty department, and has an intense love affair with a 5-year old classmate called Teddy. Teddy has resigned himself to the fact that Lucas can't do anything without him, and we even have been on a few playdates at Teddy's house. Teddy's mom gave us an old table and chair set for toddlers, but one of the chairs can't be used according to Lucas, as it's "Teddy's chair". Teddy has also introduced Lucas to Superman, which means Lucas now charges around the house looking like Hitler on steroids.

Tomorrow we're going to the St Patrick's Day parade, and then on the way home will pick up my brand new 24-gear bike with trailer for Lucas. We are both totally thrilled at this new mode of transport. Pics to follow soon!