Quick baby update

Saw the obstetrician today. I'm still on bed rest - at least until my next appointment, mid-January. And I've had morning sickness so bad that I have actually lost 4 pounds while pregnant. Unless things change quite dramatically, I will be on bed rest until baby is born. At best, I may at some point prior to baby's arrival be allowed limited activity, but it sounds like it would be very limited. The prognosis isn't great just now. We hope baby doesn't come too early. I'm staying very still.

At least baby's growth is on track, and things seem to be going well from that end. My body is creating the problem. But there does not appear to be any problem with our child. So we sit tight and hope that I can hang on.

Things have been quiet here lately

I am aware. Time for a few updates.

I'm about 16 weeks pregnant with #2 now. Already on bed rest, and have been for over a month now. I'm bed resting until at least 20 weeks, and we'll see from there. There are complications and, if they do not resolve, I'll likely be on bed rest until delivery. I'm due end of May. Bed rest is boring. There's not much that I can do. I miss work. It's hard to get to the computer. It's tough to blog. The worst part is that I can't pick up J. I miss cuddling my little boy. Thankfully, I have a supportive husband who has been taking good care of me and J. I just wish I could contribute. But I can't.

We went to Maui for a week in September. That's where we learned that we were expecting #2. It was a fantastic trip! Thankfully, the morning sickness didn't start until we returned. It's been pretty bad, though. I can't keep down even my prenatal vitamins. I'm concerned about proper nutrition for baby. But I'm doing my best.

On the J front, potty training is going well. J is rewarded with a sticker for sitting on the potty, and he receives an extra sticker for peeing. He usually gets two stickers. But he's not yet telling us when he needs to go, so he's generally wet between trips. I hope he will be trained soon. It would be helpful.

Also, we have managed to wean J from his "Ne-naw" (aka soother). He was only having it during naps and night. But we explained to him on Monday that Ne-naws are only for little tiny babies, and he's a little boy now and much too grown-up for a Ne-naw. He barely even squawked about it. Honestly, it was more tragic for me - my baby is growing up!!! But it needed to go, so it is gone.

J likes all kinds of books and toys now. He will often play with things that aren't really his toys. We have to monitor for safety. He has claimed one of our Halloween decorations - a silver skull - as one of his new toys. Apparently, J does not find this gross-looking thing particularly scary. We are having trouble getting it back into storage, since J keeps hiding it among his other toys. J also loves the design that is on the back of one of our rocking chairs. He thinks Design looks rather like a face, and he has conversations with it, shares toys with it, etc. Ah well, a couple of imaginary or inanimate friends never hurt anyone.

J enjoys singing. His favorite song is still "Mighty Machines", but he also enjoys "Jingle Bells" and "Mister Golden Sun", among other little tunes. He prefers to sing in a gruff and grumbly voice rather than his usual sweet little voice. He sounds rather like a Sesame Street monster when he starts up, I swear. But it's very cute.

Now, onto the school front: I'm almost through my stats class. Thankfully, when I was put on bed rest, the teacher turned it into a distance ed class for me, and I have managed to get good grades while lying still on my couch. It has not been a really tough class. I've got enough marks to pass the class already, and a couple more projects to complete still. Hopefully I'll be able to complete them. I've gotten doctor permission to take a winter class also, provided it too is distance ed and can be completed while I lie down. So I'll be taking Finance next. It's a long process to get my designation, but I'm sure it will be worth it once it's all done.

I'm tired. I'm bored. Send emails. Phone me. Whatever you've got to do. I'm relying on others for entertainment now. So go on ... entertain me!

I will now end this post with a things you never thought you'd hear your child say:

J: Kitty is eating my skull!!

Things you never thought you'd hear yourself say

H & T: (Singing)

Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear ... skull ...
Happy birthday to you.

Birds of a Feather

J loves birdies. Sometimes, he gets confused about what they are, but he loves them nonetheless.

**********

J: (Pointing excitedly) That's a penguin!
H: (Looking where J is pointing) No, J. That's a magpie.
J: Ooooh ... magpie.
H: Yes. Magpie.
J: No magpie! PENGUIN!!
H: Okay, fine. It's a penguin.

**********

H: J wanted to tell you that he gave rocks to the birdies on the piano.
T: Oh. ... Wait. What birdies on the piano?
H: Well, he thinks those wooden monkeys up there are birds.

**********

H: Are you magical?
J: No!
H: Are you magnificent?
J: No!
H: Are you magnanimous?
J: No! I'm a magpie! ROAR!!!!

911 Emergency

My friend, Morgan, posted this on her blog. It was so funny, I just had to share it here.

Enjoy!

911 Emergency

Camera shopping

Lazy salespeople bug me. I swear, the woman was standing about 4 feet away, doing absolutely nothing. She was pointedly eavesdropping on our conversation, noticing that we were serious shoppers, and observing that we were having trouble with floor models that were not working. And she didn't even say "May I help you?" She deserved what she got. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

H: I think this camera looks good.
T: Me too.
H: Good price, huh?
T: I think so.
H: Should we get it?
T: No.
H: No?
T: (loudly while staring at lazy salesgirl) I refuse to buy a camera from a place where no salesperson comes to ask if we need help! Look at her, just standing there staring at us! Listening to us talking about how the batteries in the display models are dead so we can't see how they work, and doing absolutely nothing! And we're the only people in here! What is wrong with her?! You know, we're friends with the manager. I'm gonna go call him right now, so I can tell him that she's a great big ...
H: Uhhhh ... We should go.

**********

No camera case requires weatherproofing that badly.

H: Look at this camera case!
T: Well, it's nice. But ...
H: It has a raincover!
T: Uh huh.
H: Check it out! See? It has a raincover!
T: It's $500.
H: Yeah. But it has a raincover!

**********

So many modes, so little time.

H: Interesting. This camera has a "Food" mode.
T: Quick! Throw it at the food court! Maybe it'll fetch us a snack!
H: No. It's for taking pictures of food.
T: If it doesn't make me dinner, I don't want it.

**********

Eventually, we found a suitable store. We bought a new digital camera. It's nice. It has a case. The case has a raincover. The case was not $500. Because we are not crazy.

**********

Yes, Holly, I see the irony. We have a camera, and absolutely no time to upload pictures, burn CD's, or send an email. Cry me a river.

Discussions and Desserts

We'd eaten dinner. We were having apple pie for dessert. H and I were reading sections of the paper. J was playing with his food and not really eating it. Jazzy and Jiver, the kitties, were scrounging under the table. All a normal evening. And then ...

J: (singing) Three blind mice! Three blind mice!

T: This ad really irks me.

H: (referring to a help wanted ad we saw last night) Why? Does it have a prostitute in it?

T: No. But listen to this:

"Cherished traditions and simle pleasures! $585,000
Over 2700 sf of ... "

H: SIMPLE pleasures?!?!?!

T: Oh, you got that, did you? Was it the $585,000 or the 2700 square feet that got you?

J: Three blind ... uh-oh ... J dropped apple pie on Jazzy!

Puppy-Hit-You, and other animal tidbits

J's Memaw stopped by the other day. She gave J a boxing kangaroo from Australia.

T: Is that a kangaroo?
J: No! Puppy!

J has affectionately named his kangaroo "Puppy-Hit-You". Even though he now seems to accept that it is in fact a kangaroo rather than a puppy, he still calls him "Puppy-Hit-You". He loves his kangaroo, and uses it as a pillow when he sleeps. Such a sweet little boy!

**********

On the subject of naming conventions, we found a second smaller snuggly stuffed panda for J to hold and play with. He loves both of his pandas, though the original Panda is still his favorite. He went to visit his Grandma, and he took both pandas with him.

G: (Pointing to the newer panda) Oh! And what's his name?
J: Other-Panda.

My son, folks. Cute as all get out, but not terribly creative just now.

**********

J has learned all kinds of animal sounds. He has learned that sheep say "Baa", and pigs say "Oink". He has learned that lions say "ROAR" (and since this is his favorite animal sound, he has attributed it to any silent animal, also. Who knew giraffes and kangaroos say "ROAR"). He has learned that goats have horns and that sheep have no horns. And he has named his little stuffed sheep "Sheepy-No-Horns" just to bring that point home. But he can't quite get the goat noise down.

T: What does a sheep say?
J: Baa!
T: What does a cow say?
J: Moo!
T: What does a piggy say?
J: Oink!
T: What does a goat say?
J: Sheepy-No-Horns!

**********

J can consistently count to 4 on his own. But then he often gets confused. It is clear, however, that his favorite number is 7.

J: 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 7 ... 8 ... 7 ... 5 ... 7 ...

While we know that he can consistently count to 4, he doesn't really seem to know what the numbers mean. He does not relate "one" or "two" to the actual number of objects present. We trust that will come eventually.

We were out for a short time this evening. We passed a woman. She was walking her dog. Just one dog. And she was by herself.

J: (Pointing out the window at her) Two puppies!
H: J, that's not very nice.

**********

J answers any "Are you a ..." type question with "No! I'm a baby!" For example:

T: Are you a big boy?
J: No! I'm a baby!

The other night, we were driving in the car. J was trying to order us around ... typical 2-year old.

H: Stop being so bossy.
J: No! I'm a baby!
H: Are you bossy?
J: No! I'm a baby!
H: You're bossy.
J: No! I'm a baby!
H: You're a bossy baby.
J: No! I'm a ... I'm a kangaroo!

Time for myself

Today, my chiropractor asked me if I was making any "time for myself".

I'd like to have answered yes. But I'm not quite sure what his mysterious phrase means.

Thoughts?

Things you never thought you'd hear yourself say

T: Help! My shoes are stuck together!

H: Do you love me despite the whole "Polish" thing?

(No, H is not being a biggot here. He was hooking up some software and, when it asked him to choose a language, he hit the wrong thing and picked ... Polish? Czechoslovakian? Who can tell? ... And then, he couldn't fix it because he doesn't read ... whatever language that was ... and the menu was naturally in the newly selected language. I was displeased.)

I love Sesame Street!

A little dazed

T: I don't understand this section of the ITA. It says I'm supposed to determine the amount by which the total of taxable capital gains for the year from dispositions of property exceeds the amount by which allowable capital losses for the year from dispositions of property exceeds the allowable business investment losses for the year. You see, I think it's the multiple use of the word "exceeds" that is confusing me.

H: (standing in the door, glassy-eyed and holding a plate of catfood) Mush?

Da Face!

J makes a particular face quite often. It's a shy, mischievous little look that we think is extremely precious. We want to remember it, but we've not been able to get a photo of it yet. Finally, our friend Morgan managed to snap a shot of J making "the face".



A little closer now:



She also got a shot of him feeding his Panda Cheerios at a dim sum brunch. Shame little J wouldn't eat anything other than Cheerios, though. (Of course he wouldn't; why would he?)



On the growth front, J has reached 23 lbs now! He is still below the weight chart for his age, but his height is improving, and he is now just above the 10th percentile. So if we can just get his weight to follow suit, he may be okay yet.

After a rather long absence

I'm back!

My computer crashed out for a while. Then it returned to almost normal. Now, after some minor tinkering by me, it is back up to near full capacity, and I can blog again! Not only that, but I can return to work on the magical mystical picture CD for my fantastically lovely sister-in-law. Assuming no more crashes, she should get it ... soon.

Highlights while I've been gone:

About a week and a half ago, J peed in the potty for the very first time! He has yet to repeat his feat. But he has peed on the floor twice, while pushing the potty around in the nude. And he has tried several times to use the potty as a hat, a step, and (if you'll believe it) a bed.

J now requires two soothers - a blue one, and a yellow one. He must suck on one and hold the other. If one is missing, he becomes quite irate. I have no idea how to wean him from the soothers.

I passed my Economics course with a 92!!

I'm still hurt from the car accident. I have a couple of slipped discs in the low back, which make all activity (sitting, walking, etc.) really painful. I'm seeing physio twice a week and chiro 2-3 times a week to try and remedy this situation. There is some nerve damage that has resulted from this, and I need to go for an MRI and nerve conduction studies to see the extent and also what can be done to fix it. I don't know when the tests will be just yet.

The garage has electrical, thanks to our very kind friend Darren. He rocks! Now it just has to pass City inspection, and then we can cover over the trench in the backyard. In the meantime, watch your step!

We have picked flooring for the house and have hired someone to install it. We have no time and wouldn't know where to start if we had to do it ourselves. Work should commence mid-June.

Our new furniture came in early. Now, we are really crowded, with way too much furniture in the living room. But the new TV is out of this world! I never thought we'd own anything like it. It's very cool!

Saw Spiderman 3 at the IMAX. I liked it a lot! Of course, I was a bit disappointed at the whole Venom thing. But a movie night out together, just me and H? Oh yes ... the movie was fantastic!

J's vocabulary is really picking up. He has realized that H and I have voice dialing on our cell phones, so he thinks life just works that way. Now, he grabs the main phone in our house and just gives it instructions - "Call Grannie" - and waits for a response. When we phone someone, he insists that he must talk to them. His conversations consist of "Hi", and then a quick survey of the room, explaining everything that he sees in very excited tones - "Panda; Wagon; Sippy; Thomas ..." You get the gist.

Tonight, however, J decided that he would only speak in gibberish. H tried to understand and decipher. The discussion went something like this:

J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: What?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: What's by the wall?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: A satellite dish?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: On the siding by the wall?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: I have no idea what you're saying.
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: When did you learn to speak Korean?
J: Shee shu shooda ba da wah.
H: She sells seashells by the seashore?
J: Yah!

Um ... no ... I don't think so ...

I'm workin' on it

I'm supposed to send my beloved and most patient sister-in-law a picture CD of J. I'm bad about sending pictures, and my sister-in-law loves to scrapbook so she needs them. Besides, she lives quite far away and would really enjoy seeing photos of her little nephew from time to time.

Every time I promise to send the pictures, things come up and I get so busy I can't find time.

Every. Time.

Tonight, I sat down and spent some time going through all of our pictures. Holy man, are there a lot of them!

I have one more large folder to go through, one more collection to upload from the camera, and likely a couple more Sears picture CDs to copy over. And I should also try and see if I can get any from my M&D's computer, since they've got a lot of good shots of our little guy.

Soon, Holly. Soon, you shall have your picture CD. Of course, there may be more than one!

Because everything is better in French

T: Do you want french toast, or hot dogs?
J: French hot dog!
H: Le bow-wow?

You know what's worse than ...

You know what's worse than being supremely negative and pessimistic?

Being right!

Karma in action

I went to work on Monday. Business as usual. I'd worked all weekend too, and was just starting day 8 of my likely 15-day stretch at the office. As I walked through the parking lot, I was approached by a young man who was obviously in a bit of a tough spot. He stood about 10-feet away from me, not wanting to frighten me but desperate for help. And he explained to me that he'd run out of money in our city and was $18 short for a bus ticket to go back home. He'd been walking around all night, had gone to the police station, and had just been trying to stay safe. And now, he was walking through the parking lot offering to wash cars in order to get the money. I said "Don't wash my car; let me see what I have".

Sadly, I didn't have a $20. But I had a $5 in my purse, that I gave to him. He seemed like a nice fellow, and anyone can get down on his or her luck. I hope he managed to drum up the rest of the money he needed to go home.

Then I headed into the office. Where I found that my lost $45 earring had been placed neatly on my desk sometime Sunday night/Monday morning.

Karma rocks! Now, if someone would just return my lost flashdrive ...

J, you are 2!!!

J will not tell us his age. He refuses to talk about it at all. He does not even acknowledge that he has an age. Apparently, J is ageless.

H: How old are you?
J: NO!
H: How old is J?
J: NO!
H: Are you 2?
J: NO!
H: Are you 1?
J: NO!
H: Are you 3?
J: NO!
H: Are you 75?
J: NO!

Time passes ...

H: Did you have fun today?
J: Yeah.
H: Did you play?
J: Yeah.
H: Did you lie on the floor under a towel?
J: Yeah.
H: Did you play peekaboo?
J: Yeah.
H: Did you eat soup?
J: Yeah.
H: Was it good?
J: Yeah.
T: Are you a bunny?
J: Yeah.
H: Are you 2?
J: NO!

Time passes ...

H: And there were how many little bears?
J: Three bears.
H: Sitting on how many chairs?
J: Three chairs.
H: And how many little kittens?
J: Two kittens.
H: And how old is J?
J: NO!

Clearly, he is a force to be reckoned with.

**********

In other news, I have to work tomorrow again. April is rough for me, and I have to put in a lot of overtime. It's been a long week. I'm still feeling sore. And I'm extremely temperamental. Cranky, if you will. Medication ... car accident ... stress ... exhaustion ... there's no need to decide. I couldn't, even if I wanted to. I swear, the entire house reeks of cat pee, and I just can't wait to get rid of this carpet and lay down the nice laminate flooring we've bought. I lost one of my expensive earrings today, which ticks me off something fierce. This is my lot; metal allergies make jewelry costly, and it's a nuisance when it gets lost. And tonight, J decided to sit in his little plastic sandbox wagon which is not sturdy at all; it toppled and he put his tooth through his little lip when he landed. And now, I have reflux. It's been a rough day. Next week is going to be terribly busy. And I can't wait for it to be May!!!

Breathe ... sleep ... tomorrow is another day ...

Another day of work ... oh well ...

The physioterrorist hates me

Yes, I was prescribed physiotherapy to deal with the injuries from the car accident.

Seems I'm hurt pretty badly. Many headaches, ranging from minor to migraine. Some blurred vision. Terrible pain in my neck, back, ribs, hips, thoracic cavity. Pain when I walk, especially up or down stairs. Pain when I change position, like from sitting to standing. Pain and numbness in the arms and hands. Weakness in hands. Loss of grip. Loss of coordination. Loss of dexterity. Muscle spasms. Burning sensation in shoulders and between shoulder blades. Restricted head and neck movement. Sleep disturbance. Exhaustion.

The muscles in the neck are badly injured, and the injury can be felt by just touching my neck. There are lumps the size of apricots that bulge outward. My shoulders hurt so much I want to cry. I keep having to take codeine to deal with the pain. But I can't take it during the day, so I have to function without pain meds until nighttime. I use anti-inflammatory cream, heat, ice, jetted baths, pounding showers, and the codeine to try to deal with the pain. And I see the physioterrorist a couple of times a week. He's mostly doing manipulative therapy just now, and is focusing on trying to correct my loss of strength issues. The therapy hurts pretty badly, too. But I guess that's normal. I move very slowly these days; if I walk faster, my hips go out of alignment and it hurts even worse.

This kind of thing would have to happen at tax time, wouldn't it? I'm far too busy at work to have pain interfere with my day. And yet, it does. I guess there really isn't much I can do about it.

I feel helpless.

The J and the Jellybeans

Jellybeans are J's favorite candy. Apparently, they are manna sent from heaven. They must be. I have no other explanation for why he will eat them when he eats absolutely nothing else.

The Easter Bunny left jellybeans (and a few other special treats) in a basket on J's slide on Easter morning. J insisted on jellybeans for breakfast. We insisted that he would not have jellybeans for breakfast. It's hard to know who won the argument; he ate a paltry few jellybeans and refused all of the other food we tried to give. Did he have jellybeans for breakfast? Or did he skip breakfast entirely? Who can tell.

After the early morning Easter fun, we went to get bloodwork done. J and I both needed to get bloodwork. We reasoned that the lab would not be busy on Easter Sunday, everyone assuming they would probably be closed. We were correct; there was no wait at all.

I've gotten used to the whole bloodwork thing; being anemic, they check me often. But I'm not good with anyone poking a needle into my little boy's arm. J screamed and cried. H held him. I sang to him and tried to comfort him as best I could. Three nurses held his arm and tried to find a decent vein. Eventually the blood was drawn. J's reward was, of course, more jellybeans. And a nap; he'd really tired himself out fighting with the nurses.

J received finger puppets, jellybeans, Hershey's Kisses, a couple of sports balls, and the cutest stuffed bunny rabbit ever for Easter. He was a happy little guy!

Today, J's daycare celebrated his birthday. They let him wear a construction paper hat with a big "2" on it. And we took birthday cake for his class to share. Very cute! If we can ever convince J to wear his hat again, we'll post pictures. He refused to wear it when he got home. He's really not a "hats" kind of kid.

Things you never thought you'd hear yourself say

My contribution to the details of yesterday's party:

"Finish your chips; then you can have some fruit."

Also:

"J, stop doing ... whatever it is you're doing, that's bad."

Happy birthday, my sunshine!

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. Busy, busy. 'Tis the season, you know.

Yesterday was J's second birthday. We had a party in his highness's honor. A few close friends came by. A few others couldn't make it. Some family came. Some couldn't make it. Such is life for a child born in April. Sometimes, we're bound to hit the Easter long weekend.

I actually got yesterday off work. (Shock! It was tax season! And I took a Saturday off!) I worked Good Friday, though. And a little bit today also. But yesterday, I hung out with H, J, and a few well-wishers.

J enjoyed his birthday party tremendously. He especially enjoyed playing with his little friends. Robbie came from daycare along with his mommy. I'd never met her, and I quite liked her. Sadly, she's moving away soon. She seemed so nice, and I'd love to add her to our circle of friends, but she'll be all the way across the country in a few short months, so I guess it's just not meant to be. Draya, Brandon, Michael (the "big boy" of the group), and J's two little cousins came and played with him. The new slide we'd bought J was set up in a corner of the living room, and it was a big hit. The kids all seemed to have lots of fun climbing up and sliding on down. Robbie loved playing in J's ride-in car, and Michael and Draya both seemed to quite enjoy his motorcycle.

There was pizza, and J had a chocolate and custard "Bob the Builder" birthday cake, topped with Bob and Wendy stampers filled with edible ink. He played hard, ate nothing ('cause that's what he does), enjoyed all his new toys, and eventually went to bed a very happy little guy.

As Lee said: "The party was a success, because J didn't cry during Happy Birthday".

Thanks, guys, for making the day so special for us and our little sweetheart!

Happy birthday, my sweet little man. I love you so much.

It's a political statement

Need something lighter?

Ribbit.

Beavers and Ducks!!!

Have you ever seen "Bandits"? Remember that scene, when Billy-Bob Thornton's character woke up screaming absurdities? That character now lives in our house.

These are the latest phrases that we have awoken to. J randomly screams these things, and then falls immediately back to sleep. Here we go:

Blue nenaw!
Mommydaddy!
Grannie gone!
TV on!
Dirty bum!
Panda coat!

("Panda coat" is a personal favorite).

**********

On another note ...

You know you order in too much when:

You are all sitting at the dinner table, having a pleasant meal. Suddenly, the doorbell rings. At the sound, your toddler perks right up, lifts his head, and yells "Pizza!"

Seriously annoyed

I have concluded that both Home Depot and the manufacturers of their special order blinds are equally useless. Tonight was so ridiculous I had to laugh. I couldn't stop. It was just so incredibly stupid! H is angry. He cannot laugh just yet. I'm sure someday the sheer insanity of the situation will win, and he will see the humor. Really, there is no option.

Seven blinds ordered, paid for, and picked up. So far, we have tried to install five of them. One of the five is okay. The others have glaring defects.

One is over an inch shorter on one side than the other and hangs at a bizarre lopsided angle. Two have controls mounted too far to each side, so they cannot be hung with the brackets supplied (the controls are in the way of the brackets), and one of those has a broken cord. And one doesn't come down at all; the cord simply does not work.

We still have to check the other two. But we took back the four with known problems and asked that they be re-ordered in correct form. And I can't even begin to describe the series of incompetent blunders that we encountered in the next two hours while we tried, desperately, to get this done. It was so ridiculous I broke down into hysterical laughter and just couldn't stop. H is still not laughing. I hope that he will see the humour in the situation ... someday. Just now, he doesn't see it.

I won't detail the evening here. It would be too long. But just know it was probably the dumbest and most ridiculous thing I've ever experienced. (And yes, that includes the guy who once told me that towels were too heavy for a towel bar.)

Toward the end of my two hour experience at the Home Depot, some poor sot came up to customer service and said: "I'm here to pick up my blinds". And I just started yelling "Don't do it! Whatever you do, don't buy your blinds here! Just run! RUN!!!" (I'm not even kidding; I actually did this. And the people working on my situation actually understood my frustration and laughed outright. It was that bad.)

It's still not all done. It's only half done. The return has been processed. The re-order will need to be done tomorrow. Apparently, the only person who knows how to do this works days. Convenient for us, no?

No.

I hate whiplash

My neck hurts. My back hurts. And I have a nice strong headache right over my left eye. One-sided headaches always freak me out a bit. But I do get them from time to time, and they've never been serious. Just painful.

I would go to the chiropractor tomorrow if I didn't have to work. But since I have to work in the morning, I'll just take some pain medication now and go to bed. Hopefully the pain will dissipate overnight. And hopefully the pain meds will wear off so that I am not all groggy all day tomorrow.

'Night.

All the colours of the rainbow!

Yesterday, we heard an interesting sound.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

We found J standing in the entranceway, several crayons in hand, making pretty lines on the wall.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

We took the crayons away.

I turned around, and noted another spot where J had drawn on the wall in what appears to be ballpoint pen.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

Very dark ballpoint pen. And lots of it.

Neither crayons nor ballpoint pen wash off with ease. Not even with toothpaste, my tried-and-true remedy for removing marks from walls.

Scritch. Scritch. Scritch.

I am pleased that we have to repaint anyway. Otherwise, that would be a shame.

We sat down in the living room. J played. And a few moments later, we heard:

ScritchScritchScritchScritchScritchScritch...

We ran over to the entranceway as fast as we could. But it was too late. Big blobs of beautiful crayon color were already on several new spots on the wall. I don't know where he keeps finding the crayons. But our entranceway walls are now lovely shades of green, purple, blue, and black, thanks to our budding young artist.

Thanks, J. That beige was tired.

An open letter to the woman in the red car in the Timmy's line

Dear Kindhearted Lady:

I wish I could find you to tell you in person how much your generosity and kindness meant to us today. The fact that you chose to buy breakfast for the strangers in the car behind yours in the Tim Horton's line is an unusually thoughtful gesture. And ordinarily, this in itself would make a person's day. But you have no idea.

This morning, we were driving to a restaurant to have breakfast out. As we were safely stopped at a red light, our young son having a catnap in the back, we were suddenly struck from behind by another vehicle. The impact was intense, to say the least. We were pushed forward about 15 feet into the van in front of ours, which was the first in line at the lights. The impact that we had taken was so strong that this second impact pushed the other vehicle into the intersection where there was, thankfully, no oncoming traffic.

Our baby screamed and cried in the back. I reached for him, took him out of his carseat, and cuddled him until he felt better. But I was already very sore and stiff. H and the two other drivers exchanged information, and we all agreed to go to the police station together to report the accident.

We spent a considerable period of time at the police station. Once we were through reporting the accident, we left. We thought it best if we went to the doctor to have ourselves and little J all checked out. We were particularly concerned for our little boy, J, who is not quite 2 years old yet. We knew that he would not withstand the long wait at a walk-in clinic without having some breakfast first, and so we first went to the Tim Horton's drive-thru to pick up some breakfast for ourselves and our little boy before we went to the doctor to check on our injuries.

And that is where you came in and absolutely made our day. Thank you so much for your kindness and your generosity. You will never know how much this small gesture meant to us on this particular day. You are a wonderful person, and we appreciate you so much.

Once again, thank you so much.

**********

For those of you reading this who may be concerned, the verdict from the doctor is that I have a whiplash injury. J's carseat did its job, and he appears to be just fine thus far. We have replaced the carseat, as we all know that carseats, just like bike helmets, are only made to withstand one such impact. H is showing no negative effects as of yet, but the doctor says that soft-tissue injuries can take up to a month to rear their ugly heads.

So I am now on Codeine for pain, and may need some physio to treat the injuries. Wheeeee!

And I still absolutely adore the woman in the Timmy's line, who I don't even know and likely will never know. I think she's just the sweetest thing ever! Since we cannot repay her directly, we will repay her kindness to others.

Coolest baby ever!

But once it's fixed, I'm definitely takin' my new van there

Can you read that? If not, is this better?


You couldn't just say "The carwash is closed"? Or perhaps "Closed for maintenance"? Oh heck, no. That kind of thing isn't detailed enough. Carwash signage just isn't complete without providing sufficient detail surrounding the potential "fiery explosions". 'Cause that oughta really help drum up business down the road.

Get me New York! Stat!

J loves to talk on the phone. And he also loves pens and calculators. So I suppose this picture was only a matter of time.

Exam is done!!

I feel quite strongly that I passed that. I can already see areas where I messed up. And there was one question that totally threw me for a loop. I know for certain that I have lost a good five marks on the obvious stuff that I missed. But I passed, and that's all I care about!

I took every blessed second of that exam. And I didn't get to double-check anything. So I hope I did things right the first time.

So there ya go. Done Level 1. And I have next term off of school, which will be really good. Woot!

**********

In other news, poor little J is all sick again. He has a very bad chest cold, and has been coughing a lot. I forgot to call daycare today to let them know he wouldn't be there. So I feel pretty badly about that, but such is life. I'll phone them tomorrow and apologize for the oversight.

I hope J's cold is just the typical thing. But it's right down in the chest, and it makes me a bit nervous. I do not like the sound of that cough.

On "Interesting Trades"

So ... Do they support burgers? ... Or can you trade them for the burgers? ...

Thoughts?

H singing to J

While holding J's little plastic dinosaur, sung to the tune of "Flipper":

They call him Dyno, Dyno,
King of Juras-sic.
No one you see
Is grander than he.
And we know Dyno, Dyno
Is made of plas-tic.
Ain't it fantas-tic.
Dyno he be.

Some like it cold

J's daycare has one of those big play-kitchens in it. It's in his particular room. J quite enjoys playing at the kitchen. It seems Panda finds the transition room a bit warm, and prefers to sleep in the refrigerator. When H picks J up, J usually has to get Panda from the fridge.

Pandas prefer cool temperatures, you see.

And I won't tell them your name

J has learned to say his name. Finally. T is ecstatic. His newfound skill comes in spurts, however. Tonight, we were chatting with the neighbours:

H: Can you tell her your name?
J: Puppy!
H: Come on, J. Tell her your name.
J: Yellow Nee-naw!

(For those who are wondering, Nee-naw is J's word for his soother. He has a yellow one, and a blue one, and he calls for each by turn.)

**********

Today, J lost his Panda. He was at daycare. I went to pick him up, and it wasn't there. But the good people at daycare understood Panda's importance to J. They stayed late and just tore the whole place apart searching. Eventually, they found Panda. They called to let us know that Panda was there. T picked him up on her way home.

I am very impressed with the good people at J's daycare, that they would put themselves out like that over something so small as a child's lost teddy-bear. They really care about J and his little friends, and it makes us very happy.

**********

On the subject of daycare, J has a girlfriend at his daycare. Her name is Bridget, and she always helps J to get dressed to go home. Coat ... hat ... mittens. Then they kiss good-bye. She is a very cute little girl. T thinks she just believes J is a special little interactive doll she can play with. But I know my son, and he's quite the lady's man.

Still working on the pictures thing

Check the "New This Week" menu for a selection of photos.

Hope you enjoy. I'll try to update with pictures on a more regular basis. No promises ... but I'll try ...

Conversations of the car

T: What is a high-speed Internet free breakfast?
H: It's a breakfast where you're not allowed to use the Internet. Obviously.
T: I see.
H: Yes. Because it's family time. No computer.
T: But you can use it if it's a low-speed connection?
H: Yes. Because then you have time to talk while waiting for your downloads.
T: Oh. Well that makes perfect sense.

(Pause)

T: I thought it was a virtual-breakfast kind of thing. Where the breakfast is free, but you can just look at it on your computer screen with your high-speed Internet connection.

(Pause)

T: I stand corrected.

Things you never thought you'd hear yourself say

"Do you think anybody is passionate about multi-family residential construction?"

Faaaaaading

Reading my Economics. Dry, dry, dry, dry, dry.

One more exam review audio lecture to listen to. Eleven more past and practice exams to run. Not quite enough time, I don't think. Something will have to give. And I've got to take a break, 'cause I'm falling asleep here.

H and J are out with J's Grannie today. She just got back into town last night and has been quite badly missed. We have her magazine rack at our house still, and J will periodically run over and drag it into the living room while calling for Grannie. I hope they are enjoying their afternoon out. I'd love to have gone to visit with her also, but I couldn't spend an afternoon away from my books at this stage of exam prep. Soon, though. Very soon, I will be done my exam. And then, my time will be more my own once more. Well, aside from the whole tax season thing. So really, come May I'll be on better ground. I think.

I am so happy that I have next semester off of school! I really needed that break. But I'll be taking Tax over summer. It will be good to get that one over with. But it sure will eat into my summer enjoyment. :(

Okay. Busy week ahead. Back to the books now. Ick!

How do I operate the ...

I'm going to try to post this again. I tried earlier. But it just showed up as a blank post. Stupid new Blogger!

Anyway ...

J loves playing with his "Moto", which is his word for "remote control". He doesn't much care which remote control it is. If he can have more than one, so much the better. J dearly loves his "Moto".

J: TV-uh On!
H: You want the TV on?
J: TV-uh On!
H: Okay. Turn the TV on.
J: TV-uh On! (turns the TV on)
H: Okay.
J: TV-uh On! (turns the TV off)
H: Okay.
J: Book!
H: Book? You want the instruction manual?
J: E-Yeah!

J and his motorcycle

Most of you probably know that we got J a little motorcycle for Christmas this year.


J has now figured out how to ride it. He prefers to go backwards as opposed to forward. He loves the siren sounds that he can make by pressing the little button on the handlebars.

It's still too cold for J to take his motorcycle outside. So he rides it around the living room instead.



Ain't he sweet?

Definition of irony

I just read a blurb from one of my old friends. Seems she found some old vials of fertility drugs this morning, while searching for eggs.

It made me giggle!

Oh no you di'int!

People, please!

My Economics textbook and lesson notes are outlining the various trends in the labour force. And it is explaining that the rising labour force is largely due to the increase in the number of women in the labour force. And it explains several reasons why more women have entered the labour force. And most of them, I can accept. Except:

"The retail and service sectors of the Canadian economy have grown, which has provided more jobs opportunities for women, especially for part-time work."

Why just for women? Can't men also work these kinds of jobs? And don't some of them want part-time work too?

Whatever.

I've got the power

Lights are on.
Heat works.
Good.

Observations for the evening:

We have a lot of candles.
You should always know where your candles are.
And your lighters.
And your flashlights.
And batteries.
We know where all of these things are.
Thankfully, they are all very conveniently located.
Candles do not give off a lot of heat.
Forced candlelight does not provide romantic ambience.
And you can't study with the lights off.
Houses without furnaces cool off rather quickly in winter.
Noses and toes get cold quickly.
Many quilts and blankets are helpful.
Use all of them to keep your children toasty warm.
Time estimates are wildly inaccurate.
Inaccurate time estimates really annoy us.
Annoyance further dampens any potential romantic ambience.
The power company is really quite useless.

And cold computers make horrible noises!

Another school update

I am now only 5 submodules behind! If I can just swing completion of those between today and possibly tomorrow night (some of them are pretty long), I will still have just over a week to prepare for the exam.

It's not a lot of time. I've cost myself almost a full week of exam prep. But I think I can pass this, if I can buckle down and work hard.

The trick will be to manage my exam prep, the onset of the busy season at work, and my family and not stress out.

I am soooo looking forward to a term off of school!

I woke up irritable

This does not bode well for a good and productive day.

J was up three times last night. Eventually, he went back to sleep. But by then, neither H nor I could sleep properly. H got up to go and play on the computer. I eventually went back to sleep, and so did H. We both slept late. I had bad dreams. I awoke really angry, because of something that happened in my own subconscious. Stupid, but I couldn't do anything about it. I left the room to study. J saw me, and flipped out.

And now, I am blogging when I ought to be studying.

But my foul mood is dissipating. H and J are both up now, and I can hear H through the wall in J's room. He is dressing J for the day, and singing "Smooth Operator" like a children's song. It makes me smile.

Okay, that's enough. I'm going to get back to my books now.

Meh

I'm not 100% sold on this new Blogger update. I like the "labels" feature, which I think works a bit better than my old way of doing things. I can get behind that. Sure. But they really want me to udgrade my template to a new and improved one.

If I try to upgrade my template, then I lose all of my dearly loved customization. Every last part of it. And there's a lot of customization here that I really want to keep. So I'm not terribly interested in upgrading my template.

But if I don't upgrade, then I'm stuck with this feature where my "labels" show up as part of my post. And I hate the way it looks. I just can't figure out how to fix it.

My solution was going to be to upgrade to this new and improved template, but keep a copy of my old template and paste it into the new one. But this didn't work. Apparently, my old template (which works just fine) isn't coded very well, and Blogger won't accept it unless I make the coding all nice and neat. I don't know; I think the coding's just fine in the good old template. It works, and has everything (aside from those blasted "labels") exactly where I want them.

I think the solution will have to be to wait until after my exam, and possibly after tax season, and then try to "upgrade" to the new template and add all of my customization back in. In any event, until I can find some time to work out a solution to this pesky dilemma, the "labels" shall continue to show up as the end of each post and look really stupid.

I have more important things to worry about just now.

Like father, like son

Suave. Debonair. Smooth.

Years ago, when I was in my early twenties, I was in a bar, drunk as a skunk, and I decided to hit on this stewardess:

H: Hi! My name is H, and I'm really drunk! It's my birthday! Do you want to join us?
Stewardess: ... Umm ...
H: Hey! I have a suit just like that one! Only it doesn't have a skirt ...

Well, tonight J took a page from me on how to flirt with women. We were eating dinner at a Boston Pizza, and J was doing his thing and flirting with the little blonde waitress.

She came over.
J smiled at her.
She admired his smile.
J dipped a french fry in ketchup.
She admired his skill.
And then ...
J missed his mouth entirely, and stuffed his french fry up his nose.

So the difference between me and my son is that for him, this kind of thing actually works. 'Cause not only did she continue to talk to him, but she actually gave him two cookies when we were leaving.

Smooth, J. Very smooth.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Never mind me. I'm just studying right now. But I'll be just fine.

Okay. I think I understand now. So what you are telling me is that the demand curve slopes downward and to the right? Wow! You know, it didn't sink in the first 9,876,008,867 times I read it. But this time, I think I understand. Must be how you wrote it this time, in exactly the same way you've always written it before.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Again.

It's so riveting that I am involuntarily yawning. Always happens when I am being intellectually stimulated like this. Thanks a bunch.

Now, which way does the demand curve slope again? Oooohhhh, yeeeessss...

Dear ISP

Please explain yourself, as I fail to understand why my homepage prominently displays an ever-so-creepy picture of Hanibal Lector front and centre. Nobody wants to see that. Especially not first-thing in the morning or late at night. And I am quite certain there are more pleasant things you could have come up with for me to look at.

I would appreciate it if you would remove the scary and demented picture immediately, as it has been up for an exceptionally long time and is seriously creeping me out!

No love,

Hating My Homepage

School update

I am now officially only 19 submodules behind.

Woot.

One more submodule, and I will have completed module 7. I have almost half of module 8 done already, so that will put me at two and a half modules behind.

If I can get some really good study time in this weekend and complete all of my modules, I may be able to get enough study time in to write the exam. If not ... I think I'll have to try to write anyway. My program advisor (finally) got back to me today to advise that I would qualify for a deferral, but that they don't recommend I take one as I'd lose my 93% course mark, cost myself $80, and apparently students who defer generally do poorly on the exam. So I'll do my best and try to go ahead and write.

Only a 53% on the exam ... just 53% ...

Starting to become a theme ...

Positive spin

J received his first report card today. Comments included:

"J is an expert at dumping bins of toys".

He is doing nearly everything that a child in his age group is expected to do. He has trouble sorting colours and shapes, and he doesn't walk up and down stairs with support yet. But otherwise, he is coming along nicely. He is really little to be trying the walk up and down stairs thing, anyway. He's smaller than most kids his age; we don't really encourage that particular move just yet.

The best time to shop

T: ... and then I'm going to go study.
H: I thought you needed to go shopping.
T: Yes, but it's Sunday and the stores don't open until 11:00 or 12:00.
H: But that's the best time to shop - before the stores are open. There are fewer crowds. And you don't have to pay for anything.

Again with the school

10.5 and 10.6; exam prep; exam mid-March - I need 53% on the exam to pass the course.

I don't want to defer if I don't absolutely have to. I'll try my best. No guarantee.

I have yet another sinus infection. My head hurts. My face hurts. My teeth hurt. But I have to study.

I'm in big trouble.

Weekend in reverse (more or less)

Because the most important thing mentioned in this post just happened, I'll start there.

One of my best friends talked to me tonight. Her dad is in the hospital with chest pains. I want to go over and offer comfort, but she has assured me that she is being well looked after. There are some friends who live nearby, and they should already be there. And my friend's husband is also on his way home. I wish I lived closer to her, but I'm on the opposite end of town and she needs someone who can get there quickly. I will pray tonight, that everything will be okay. I hope to hear that he is just fine.

We have a family funeral tomorrow. H's cousin passed away earlier this month. So it's a sad weekend.

We have begun to make the large purchases that relate to our basement development project. We bought a stackable washer/dryer unit yesterday, and today we bought the furniture that will go downstairs (it's back-ordered, so we should get it in 6 months). I am thankful that we were able to get enough cash to look after all of this. Also, I am thankful that there are sales going on. We got much nicer furniture than we had anticipated, because we happened across a half-price leather sale at a store that was throwing in a Samsung big screen TV on certain clearance items. (And accommodations for 4 days in Cancun as well, though the flight may be a stretch.) We have a few more big-ticket items in our basement budget (bathroom fixtures and such), but will continue to look for sales. So far, we are managing to stay under budget. But of course, we've only just begun to shop. A couple more purchases like we made today could start to push the envelope; we'll have to be more careful in the future.

Today, J was feeling better at last. So we met my birth-mom in Red Deer. She gave J an early birthday present - a Tickle Me Elmo. He really loves his new toy.

Yesterday, we got our new van back. Certain repairs had been necessary. It is in good form now, and we are happy with our purchase.

My voice has returned. I can sing again, though I still have a bit of a rasp. But I'm still really tired.

Behind in Economics. Still. I don't know if I'm going to catch up in enough time to write the final exam. I'll do my best, though. Hopefully I'll get through it all. I'm taking next term off from school; I need the break.

I had a very happy day today. But I am sad just now. I am worried about my friend and her family. She is very special to me, and I want her dad to be okay.

He will be okay.

Peel me a grape, you bastard!

Another day, another trip to emergency.

J is still sick. He stopped throwing-up on the weekend, but has continued to have diarrhea something fierce. And he was very lethargic, not urinating as much, and just generally acting listless and very different from his usual happy little self.

He was so obviously dehydrated there was no missing it.

So we spent many hours at emergency with the very moody and irritable J, who made insane demands the entire time (read: title to this post). There was much screaming. J at us. Me at nurses. (Okay, I didn't really scream, but I was annoyed and it showed; I swear it can't take 2 hours to clean a room in ped's!)

Much monitoring of J's condition will be necessary over the next little while. Electrolyte solution must be pushed with might and main. And hopefully, he will start having normal bowel movements again very soon.

**********

I am exhausted. Long day at work. Long evening at emerg. Long night of studying. Submitted my quiz, and amazingly got full marks. But I accidentally screwed a friend over when I gave her faulty advice on her quiz that ended up costing her half a mark. I feel badly about it, because I was very sure of myself. But I guess things have changed over time, and I've been out of the loop for some 3 years now. I should not pretend to know the law any longer; it changes too fast, and I haven't kept up. For the future, I must remember to liberally use those three little words: "I don't know".

Stoopid me!

**********

Miserable. Moody. Tired. Worried. Anxious. Busy. Exhausted. Angry. Guilty. Panicked.

Zzzzz...

Daddy's Little Helper

Tonight, J helped H unload the dishwasher. J pulled out each piece of cuttlery, all of the dessert plates and saucers, and all of the bowls, and handed each item to H. And each time, J said "Thank you" as H took the offered item.

After the dishes were put away, J decided to sweep the floor. He had a great deal of fun.

J has been very sick of late. He is no longer throwing up, but is still quite ill and extremely lethargic. Tonight, while helping H, he was more animated than he's been for days. I was happy to see him smile once again. I have missed his smile.

Could make for an interesting video game

"The car has an accelerator and a brake. The accelerator and the brake work, but not very predictably. The driver cannot be sure how strong or how delayed the response to its actions will be. Also, to make the ride more interesting, the driver has only a rear view. The road just traveled can be seen, but the road ahead is invisible.

The objective is to drive the car at a constant speed over a terrain that alternates between uphill and downhill. So sometimes the accelerator must be applied, sometimes the brake, and sometimes neither."

This is a passage from my Economics textbook. If it were a video game, I could see myself obsessively playing it for hours at a time. However, since it is just a description of the Bank of Canada's role in making monetary policy by increasing and decreasing interest rates, I find it rather monotonous. I think I shall fall asleep now.

Cut to ...

The movie is ending. The music is swelling. And as we cut to the close-up of our heroine ...

Tommy Lee Jones: You're just as beautiful as your mother.
H: Her nostrils are uneven.

Man loves the moon

J loves the moon. He will look up at the sky, point, and say "Moon! Moon!" Any light in the sky - be it the moon, the sun, or a streetlight - is the moon to J.

J's favorite book is "Goodnight Moon", and he sleeps with a copy tucked under his arm. He insists that it be read to him three times each night, just before he goes to bed.

J's grandma and grandpa have returned from a two week trip to Hawaii. They brought back a book for J called "Goodnight Gecko", which features many pictures of the moon. J loves his new book. He was bringing it home with him, and we asked him to say bye bye to Grandma. He turned to her, and said: "Bye bye, Gecko". She corrected him rather quickly.

J's grandma also took a picture of the moon in Hawaii for J's amusement. She says it's a silly picture, of the night sky, but that she thought J would like it. I am glad J has such attentive and wonderful grandparents.

J has another stomach bug today. Vomit and diarrhea. Poor wee man! He came home today, threw up several times, and went to bed for the night. I hope he feels a bit better in the morning. Just at the moment, we are doing laundry.

My stupid chest cold still is not completely gone. I would really love it if it would leave right now. It feels like it's just going to hang on forever. I'm so tired of coughing. And, while I can talk, I still can't sing. It's ticking me off.

One last note: H and I have purchased a minivan! It's a 2002 Chevy Venture Extended, gold in colour, fully loaded with relatively low mileage. We like it. A lot. It will serve us well.

The Name Game (Again)

J has made many new friends at daycare. Today, we received a list of the names of all of the children in J's class. We need to get Valentines for J to give his classmates.

I read the list of names out loud for J. J repeated each child's name for me. Even the hard to pronounce varieties. He smiled happily as he told me the names of each of his friends.

However, he cannot say his own name as of yet. And if I asked him to repeat his own name or those of his two best daycare friends, Bridget and Ava, he decided that this meant we were at the end of the list. But he wasn't finished! So he pitched a fit and called for "More! More!", and made me start over at the beginning.

**********

We are in the market for a new vehicle. Things are in the works, and we may be getting our older car replaced pretty shortly. It is now old enough to drink and vote. Too old for a vehicle, really. It has served us very well for its life, though, and so we have some mixed feelings about it. But we have concluded that it is time.

It's a good thing.

These are a few of my favorite things

J's favorite food is rice pudding. His favorite colour is yellow. His favorite friend is his panda bear. His favorite non-panda related toy is his yellow schoolbus (it has the wind up and move feature). If it is not available, he enjoys any other cars, and really loves all of the matchbox cars that L&P gave him for Christmas.

J enjoys his Mr. Potato-Head. He likes putting the features in odd places, pointing at them, and explaining them to us. "Nose", he will say, even though the nose is positioned squarely on the top of Mr. Potato-Head's head.

J loves the kitchen fireplace. He refers to it as the "Hot", and always insists that the "Hot" be on when he is eating.

J also loves Cheerios. He calls them "Cheetos", and would eat nothing but rice pudding, Cheerios, milk, cookies, apple turnovers (affectionately termed "apple-cookie"), and potato chips if he were allowed. Getting nutritious foods into our little guy is a lot of work, since he only really wants to eat junk. But we do our best. At least, he should be gaining weight given his preferred foods!

J thinks cleaning up is great fun. Sometimes in the middle of playing, he will suddenly announce "Clean-up", and put all of his toys away in their proper bins. Then he dumps them all out on the floor again.

J adores vehicles, Pooh bear, puppies, kitties, pianos, and daycare. He has two special little friends at daycare - Ava and Bridget. He calls for them regularly.

He loves books, and usually refers to them by color or content ("Blue book", "Blue ball", "Puppy", "Man", "Tractor", "Bumble-bee", etc.)

J has learned many niceties at daycare. He says "Hi" and "Bye-bye" to everything. He also says "Please" and "Thank you" for every nice thing that he wants or that happens. And he recently realized that shoes should not be worn in the house.

He has gotten more independent of late. He tries to put on his own socks, feeds himself with a spoon whenever possible, and prefers to sleep by himself rather than to snuggle. If he needs something, he will ask. "Help", he says. And then, we are expected to step in and offer assistance. He goes up and down the stairs by himself now, preferring to slide down on his tummy like a toboggan rather than to crawl down step by step.

This week, I caught J trying to use his crib activity centre as a step to get out of the crib. I removed it. He misses it.

I must go now. J is getting into stuff again!

The Cupboard Conqueror

J has figured out that certain cupboards in the house belong to him. Basically, if there isn't a lock on it, he can play in it. This pretty much means tupperware and ... um ... dish towels, maybe?

Tupperware makes a good toy.

It's 79%

Well, my FA3 marks were released. I passed. I got 72% on the exam, bringing my grade to a 79% overall. It's a lot lower than I'm used to getting in these classes, and certainly a lot lower than I would have hoped for before I'd actually written the stupid exam. And it means I most certainly will not get a scholarship for this year's studies. But it also means that I don't have to take the class again, and for that, I am grateful.

The exam was a lot harder than any of the past exams had been. Most of us didn't do terribly well.

My 79% is a pretty decent grade, really. I won't be terribly irritated by it.

The only thing that's a bit frustrating is that they round our grades to the nearest whole mark, and I got 79.4%. I'm a bit annoyed at missing the 80% by 0.1 of a mark!

In any event, that class is done. I'm way far behind in my current course, due to having been ill for a while (more on that later). If I can get caught up, I think I'll pass this class too. And that will put me at 8 courses down. Of course, there are a total of 25 courses. Quite a long haul in front of me still.

More on "Love"

This morning, while having a cuddle:

T: I love you, J.
J: Love you, Panda.

I am really starting to take this personally.

**********

I had a very sore throat yesterday. Today, it is not anywhere near as sore, thanks to copious amounts of lemon with honey and chicken vegetable soup with garlic. But it has gone down into my chest, and I have laryngitis again. I sound just delightful, I assure you.

Lots of steam. Lots of soup. Lemon with honey. Halls cough drops. Cough syrup. Hot baths for aches and pains. Naps whenever possible.

I need to do some studying, but I'm too sick to be able to do much of anything. And tomorrow, I'm back at work. I can't afford another sick day, so I have to go in whether this is still happening to me or not.

At least J appears to be feeling better. He ate half a hotdog for lunch. This is more than he's eaten in days. Score!

On Love

Driving in the car, on our way home from getting J's haircut:

H: I love you, J.
J: Love you, Daddy.
T: I love you, J.
J: Panda!

I am trying not to feel snubbed ...

Non sequitur

H and I were driving home tonight, with J asleep in the back. We arrived at the house. H got out of the car and opened the back door to get J.

H: Hello sweetie. Are you awake?
J: (Opening his eyes) Pink piggie. Oink, oink.

My J is sick

Terribly stomach-flu type sick. Vomiting on the couch and in the car kind of sick.

Today, he threw up after trying a small taste of grape jelly. Refused Digestive biscuits and toast. Held down nothing but milk. Ate one single Cheerio for dinner. Had a 3-hour long nap, some nasty messy diaper issues, and is now in bed for the night.

Obviously, today was not good for daycare. So I was home with J. I am glad I have a job where they are so understanding about this stuff, but I really wish J weren't sick so often. I feel like I've missed an awful lot of time from the office ever since J started daycare. I've missed time because J's been sick. I've missed time because of my kidneys - stone still hasn't passed, in case you were wondering. I've missed time because of exams. I've missed time because of the furnace. Just generally, I've missed time. And I'm tired of missing time.

I'm off two days a week for the rest of January and the first couple days of February, because J's schedule requires it. I knew about it well in advance and am taking vacation days. That much is fine. But I wish I didn't have to miss all the other time leading up to it.

I'm a mom, a student, and I work full-time. It's a lot of stuff to juggle. I knew that. I know that. I think I can handle it. I just need for outside forces to stop interfering. And I don't know how to make that happen.

Work is busy. I have files to do. I need to be there to do the job. I want to do the job to the best of my abilities, to learn, and to advance. I'm good at the job, and I have a lot of potential there. I think they see that in me. I just need my life to come more in control so that I can exercise that potential and actually work my usual hours on a regular basis. It's important. But how do I make that happen?

I feel frustrated.

Feel the heat

Oh fudge!

I'll never get through everything I need to get through this weekend. We have appointments tomorrow. One that I forgot about until this very minute, and one which is repayment of a large favor that was given us. I am looking forward to both appointments (the afternoon one moreso than the morning, but whatever), and I have absolutely no desire to give up either of them. And I won't. But somehow, I need to get through a module and a half of really dry Economics readings by Tuesday evening so I can complete my quiz. And I'm just not sure I can do it with the time that is left.

H has been functioning alone at work all week, and will be by himself for much of next week again. He is very stressed out, and could really use a bit of a break. But he's going to need to be J's primary caregiver for most of the weekend while I try to do some homework, and he's not terribly pleased.

And to add to our current attitude problems, we're having some sort of furnace-motor problem. At least it's stll working. Trying to stay positive. Some days, it ain't easy.

Updates 'n' stuff

J can say "Love you" now, among many other things. Sometimes, we can tell what he's saying, and sometimes it's so mangled we have no idea. But in time, we'll be able to understand it all. I can't wait! His chatting is really sweet, and we really enjoy all the talking. But while his speech is improving, he still doesn't eat well. At least, not for us; however, daycare says eating is his favorite passtime. I'm just glad he's getting nourishment somewhere! At least we know he'll always eat grapes.

J is rather accident-prone these days. He currently has two fat lips, from falling at daycare while reaching for various toys. At home, he'll run headlong 'til he falls down. He's a tough kid, though, and is never down for too long.

In other news, my car is still not working. But I am hopeful that it will be returned to working order shortly and I'll be able to get around a bit better.

H's foosball table (which ended up costing us only $15; score!) is assembled in the basement now. It's red with black legs and black and white graphics, and it has a beautiful high-gloss playing surface and the cool old-fashioned red and white foosball table rods, featuring players with faces and uniforms. What an amazing find!

I have had a headache for 3 days now. Tonight, I also have a sore shoulder and stomach/back pains. The back pain thing is starting to feel more normal now, and I suspect it will continue periodically until the whole kidney-stone extravaganza is done. But as to the rest, I blame the blizzard. We have a whole lot of snow, and really cold temperatures/wind-chills expected. And my body always responds negatively to weather fluctuations, so it's no wonder I feel a bit miserable just now.

I hope the weather stabilizes soon. Preferably, it will stabilize at nice balmy temperatures!

They say you are what you eat ...

... the other day, I saw you eating jerk chicken.

Coincidence?