Happy birthday, Xander! And other cool stuff.

I can't believe our little boy is a year old already. How did that happen?! I brought in cupcakes to daycare today, so everyone could celebrate. We had a mini-party in the park on Saturday, too. One of our friends took most of the pictures, so as soon as she gives me the CD I'll post them with a narrative. Suffice it to say that Xander is very, very happy with some new toys, he stuffed lots of cake in his mouth, and he sat on everyone's lap at least once.

And this isn't birthday stuff, but I have to share two amazing things that took place at school. One: when I was in CA with Xander I missed out on a Talmud class. They went to the library with my friend the rare book librarian to look at Talmuds from the 1500s and up, and analyze their evolution. Well, I just got a private make-up session, with just myself, the prof, and the librarian! It was wonderful.

And two: after class on Monday one of my favorite profs and I were chatting about education, and I mentioned that one topic I love has never been offered in a class. I want to learn not the Talmud itself, but about its context: what was the Hellenistic world that formed the perspective of the rabbis? What did the Greeks and Romans think about the rabbis, what did they think about the Greeks and Romans, how did the surrounding culture influence the way they viewed philosophy, gender, class disparities, the calendar, Christianity, etc? He told me that I was right, a "world of the rabbis" course had never been offered before, but if I could drum up support for it, he would teach it. I immediately sent out an email to the student body asking who would be interested, and seven people wrote back. Early yesterday morning I emailed him this, he brought it up at a meeting with the deans yesterday afternoon, and today in class he told me that it was a go! The deans are supportive of the idea, and now he wants to meet with me privately to talk about my ideal curriculum and to decide if it's feasible for Fall 2010 or Spring 2011. I'm so excited, and it happened so fast, my head is still spinning.

And the third good thing of the day: Jonathan got home early from work! Hooray.

All in all: happy baby. Happy mommy. Happy daddy. Even the cats are purring.