The semester is fully underway now. A new rhythm is starting to develop in the household. I love my classes -- so happy with the content and my professors. And, yes, I can see the first crunch ahead around Valentine's day: a paper, a test, and the last day of the group at my placement - all within a matter of days. I'm really glad my Field Application is done, so I can just focus on my placement, classes and family.

The group that a fellow student and I have been co-facilitating at our placement has been a wonderful experience. Since it's a pilot group, we have been developing our own curriculum. Yes, it's been alot of work, too. But we have learned quite a bit about both the diagnosis of ADHD and group work. I feel really fortunate that my field supervisor gave us the opportunity to do this group.

Even though there is quite a bit going on outside the home, I've been distracted by family events. First of all, we have the tween sensation, the Hannah Montana 3D movie this weekend. Who could miss THAT. 'Should be a real scream, according to The Washington Post. I hope everyone is healthy -- we have had some difficulty in that realm this past week.

But the larger distraction has been the hamsters. The kids each got one for Christmas and one was pregnant, so we have a litter of 9, well 7 now -- 2 did not make it. : ( The girls greeted me at the door as I came home from my placement one night yelling, "Mommy, mommy, red things came out of Brittany's butt." My husband added dryly: "Congratulations, Grandma." He never was fully on board with the hamster thing.... Anyway, we thought we had two females; they were together in the cage at the store with several others. My girls did not want "boy hamsters" - "Yuck, Mom!" We've kept the two hamsters in separate cages since we got them, with the exception of the first 15 minutes while we were setting up their new homes. We had debated in the store having them "live together," but quickly realized we had made the right decision to separate them (originally to prevent them from getting "too stressed out") because they did not get along. Brittany, aka mama hamster, actually bit Millicent on the face in the course of things. I did read in the hamster manual that if the female is not in the mood she can be quite nasty to a male who makes a move on her. Since Brittany has actually proved to be the friendlier of the two (Millicent bites if you try to touch her at all), we have wondered whether Millicent is, in fact, a he-she. My older daughter is horrified at this prospect and refuses to accept the possibility. Although this whole thing was not planned, it's been a nice little biology lesson for my girls, who will turn ages 8 and 10 this spring. They've watched Brittany nurse and care for her babies round the clock. Pretty quickly (which is a good thing in kid-time) the babies have sprouted hair, opened their eyes, and started moving around the cage. Apparently we need to get rid of them soon because we do not know if we have boys/girls and they are sexually mature by 7 weeks.... Anybody want a free hamster?