Dear J

Dear J,

Today, you had your flu booster. You were a big boy, and you barely cried at all. Mommy was very proud of you. You were the smallest baby in the clinic. Mommy hopes your weight gain will pick up soon and you will grow a bit better.

Today, you tried a fruit mixture of bananas, grapes and plums. You seemed to really like it. Mommy will make sure you get that fairly often from now on.

All in all, it has been a good day. You napped well this morning, but not at all this afternoon. You played in your exersaucer. We played with your blocks, played patty-cake together, and Mommy even put on a small puppet show for you with your various Pooh Bear beanie babies. You were cheerful and sweet, and Mommy had lots of fun playing with you today.

However, Mommy must make one tiny little request. Would you please refrain from trying to do headstands during your diaper changes? You spread the poop so far you nearly required a bath immediately after your change! And somehow, you even got the poop all over the back of your little green Tigger jacket. It was on the outside of the jacket, too! I have no idea how you managed it, but I suspect the headstands might have had something to do with it.

You may do headstands after diaper changes, but not during. Deal?

Love you,

Mommy

That must really hurt!

Poor little J!

He is finally asleep. He's been really fussy today. He's just a big pile of tears and drool. I think his teeth are really bugging him. I really hope those top teeth poke through soon, so he's a bit more comfortable. I hate it when my little baby is in pain. (And, as an aside, his screaming is also painful for the rest of the household.)

He won't eat much when his teeth hurt, and that is just untimely since his weight has dropped off and we're trying to get it back up. I'm supposed to be feeding him 6 times a day just now (solids and breast milk), but I could barely get him to eat 3 decent meals today. He doesn't even want the breast milk! His little nose is all runny, and he just cries and cries.

I can't check to see how close the teeth are to the surface; if I put my finger in his mouth, he bites. Hard. He's drawn blood, in fact. So all I can do is guess. From his temperament and drooling (et al), I think they are close. Oh, do I ever hope so.

Also: H is sick. He never quite got over that Christmas cold that we all had, and it has come back in full force. A violent choking cough accompanies this current bout. I hope he feels better soon. He may have to call in sick tomorrow. Poor H!

For Rigmor

Well, you asked. How does one put links in a Blogspot account? Here's how I did it.

1. In "Settings" "Formatting", select "Yes" under "Show Link Field".
   
2. In "Settings" "Archiving", select "Yes" under "Enable Post Pages".
   
3. Decide where you want the links to show in your posts. Go into your template and, in the appropriate spot, insert the following (put in the angle brackets and get rid of the quotes, obviously):
   
   (In angle brackets) "BlogItemUrl"
   Filed under: (In angle brackets) "$BlogItemUrl$"
   (In angle brackets) "/BlogItemUrl"
   
   (Note: In my template, this is just after "posted by")
   
   
4. Get a del.icio.us account. (Install the buttons onto your toolbar for ease of use.)
   
5. Create a menu in your sidebar for "Filed under", where you will list your categories and link them to their respective del.icio.us pages.

Now, whenever you post and you want your post to be in a category, you will have to do the following:

1. Put the html link and name of the category in the "Link" field in your "Create post" screen.
   
2. Once your post has published, click on the "permanent link" (on mine, it's the time posted) that gets you into the post page.
   
3. On the buttons on the del.icio.us toolbar that you installed, choose "post to del.icio.us". Then complete the screen that appears, and choose "save".

See? Rather a headache, isn't it? But at least it gives you the categories you were after! (Assuming I didn't leave anything out...I hope I didn't.)

Best of luck with it, anyway. If you need anything else, let me know.

I'm not tired. And I can type with my feet.

frm , mv jhv vc bbnbn m gvv b f v 9mnl; ' xz md56 v l i b h n mnd xfv cn

Where is the international date line anyway?

H: It's almost time for the Thursday night line-up.
Me: It's Wednesday.

Make sure you are in your own course before posting questions! STOP IT!!

Don't confuse me by posting questions to the course tutor of my Level 2 course that pertain to your Level 4 course! Your "formulars" make no sense to me!! "Reduced cost", "shadow price", "generated report", and "PV tax shield" are not terms that I have learned at this point in my studies. They are not contained anywhere in my text! And when you ask a question about the "PV tax shield" that looks like this:

1) why to divide cdt by (d+t) and then multiply (1+0.5t) ?
2) considering SV, why to divide sdt by (d+t)?

while:
pv=cdt/(d+t)*(1+0.5i)/(1+i)
pv=(svt/(d+t))/(1+i)

all you do is scare the living daylights out of those of us in Level 2! I have absolutely no idea to what any of those letters refer. It is all gibberish to me. And it ties up the course tutor when he could be answering the legitimate questions of those of us who are actually taking his course.

So now, the course tutor has to try to find out where your questions came from. He won't be able to, since they are NOT FROM HIS COURSE!! But he'll try. Then he'll send you a private message to ask. You will, of course, be ignorant enough to not respond. And your questions will sit on the board for our course, unanswered, forever, scaring the people in this class who will believe they have missed something fundamentally important in their course.

This is MA1. You are in MA2. Stay in your own dang board!!

(Stupid person ... grumble, grumble ... slap you upside the ... mutter, mutter.)

More teeth, they are a-comin'

Diaper rash. Drooling. Red cheeks. Warm. Crying. Not sleeping well. Super-cuddly. Wanting to be held during naps. Looking sort of "spaced out".

Poor little guy! This must really be uncomfortable.

He cried through most of the night. I am in a fog. He sleeps now, at last. I must study. Or sleep. Can't decide.

Must study more today. Must get to grocery store.

Must ... zzzzzzzzz ...

Hot tip of the day

The word is "Formula", not "Formular". I can make allowances for a typo, but when you repeat the incorrect spelling throughout your question, I must object to your usage of Hillbilly-ese.

Now, say it with me: "Formula".

Skinny

J has lost weight, but gained length. The nurse is not noticeably concerned about it. We just have to feed him more meals and get a bit more protein into him, and check back in about a month. I've been following the feeding guide, but J is apparently a baby who needs more food than that. He's 14 lbs 12-1/2 oz and 25-3/4" long. My long and lean little boy.

His length is such that he is almost out of his infant seat now, so we will be moving him into the big carseat soon.

We checked out the preferred daycare today. It's expensive, but we are confident that they will provide the best care available. I am happy with our decision, but my pocketbook is a bit dissatisfied. Whatever; J is worth it, and we knew he wouldn't be free. A big part of me wishes we wouldn't have to put him into daycare at all, but another part of me thinks it will be good for J to play and interact with other children apart from us. I think he'll gain a lot of independence in a most pleasant environment. So I suppose it will work out; sounds good to me.

H's sister and her family left today to return home. We will miss them a great deal. The kids change so much each time we see them! I wish we all lived closer together.

The house is finally all clean. Except for the office, of course, which is still a sty. I hope to tackle that project soon. I feel really relieved and happy with the condition of the rest of the house. It's so nice to have things clean and neat! Such a fresh and welcoming environment. And we don't have to live in absolute fear that J will injure himself in some bizarre manner. I think we can keep up with the housework now; I hope so, anyway.

My motivation is shot

I should really be working harder on this course. I have a great deal to do still. I'm only about halfway through Module 3. My Module 4 quiz is due by noon on the 11th. But for some reason, I just can't get motivated.

Perhaps it's the holiday season. Or perhaps it is that the cleaning bug has struck both H and I (at long last) and we have noticed that the house is super messy and must be dusted immediately. Or maybe it's just that J has become so much fun to play with. Or our family obligations, which are a fun distraction.

But whatever the reason, I must buckle down and continue with my studies.

I don't want to.

In other news, H's brother is officially wed! The wedding was quite beautiful. They had a friend video-taping for them, and H asked me to try my hand at video-taping it also. My version is comical - sort of a Blair Witch Bootleg version, that misses certain things and catches others. For much of the vows, I was able to capture the back of H's head and occasionally one of the bride's eyes! I hope the other guy had more success getting decent footage. I did take some lovely footage of the twins playing by the candelabra during their mother's reading. I figured that I should capture that moment; it was really cute.

My parents graciously babysat J. He was well-behaved, but he has decided that he will no longer take a bottle; he wants the real thing or nothing at all. We got home, fed him, and put him to bed. Poor tired tyke!