Good Monday

Well, today was a good Monday, as far as Monday's go.

I'll get to that in a bit though, I guess I should give the weekend update first.  (I really do need to actually post something over the weekends.... but they fly by so very fast!)

This weekend we had a few good adventures.  Saturday after Gak got done with work we went on a bit of a splurge adventure.  He has decided that with his return to EQII and finding the new guild (Deciples of Misanthrope, who happens to be a very cute purple and green dragon...) he really doesn't have the time, energy or desire to play another system.  That's fine by me.  We have a Wii I don't play anywhere near enough and I get confused just looking at the X-box controllers.  So, instead of a 360 Gak decided to invest in a new army for Warhammer.  (Hmm... I wonder if I'm supposed to be posting this... he was going to surprise everyone and I can't remember who he plays with actually reads this... oh well, not the first surprised I've ruined in the last two weeks...)  I'll compromise, I won't tell you which army, but I will tell you that he spent about $130 on models.  Yes, he has to assemble and paint these himself.  So, we'll see how long it takes before he gets them to a fieldable state.  He did get to put several together today at work and prime them... yes... it was that slow.

Anyhow, the second place we went was next to Babies R Us, so of course I pop in there while Gak and Boo look at toys.  I picked out several nice things that were on sale for the summer.  Unfortunately, I could only pick up about half of them because their credit card system went down right then and I only had $25 in cash on me.  Oh well, I can pick up other stuff later.  And besides, I need to check out Good Will and Salvation Army since we've got both around here.  That and it's almost yard sale season, hopefully I'll find some good stuff there.  I keep getting out bid on eBay, so I think I'll give that a rest for a bit.

After our shopping fun we head across the street (sort of) to an Old Country Buffet.  Boo did very well.  He found out that he likes croutons when we started running out of O's and he'd polished off his own jar of dinner.  (I just have to watch him with them as they're a little slow to dissolve and a little big...)

Sunday was mostly a lazy-ish day.  The big exciting news was our semi-weekly trip to the Q-mart (we tend to go in spurts, several weeks in a row and then nothing for a month or so...) and a trip to Staples for a new headset for me.  Boo and I did walk over to the park.  He almost enjoyed the swing, was confused by the slide and very distracted by all the people.  I did run into Dave, Ali and fmily for a few minutes.  No, I don't have any pictures, but that's because Gak didn't go with us and I just couldn't play and photo at the same time.  Play is more important.

Anyhow, on to today.  Work was work and it went fairly well.  I managed to get quite a lot done.  I'm not sure how much of it was what my boss wanted me to be working on, but while not all of it was training, it was all stuff that needed doing now.  The real good part of today was this evening.

You see, Wednesday is Mom's birthday.  Bob and Linda had expressed a desire to get together with Mom some Monday when she was here.  Well, as luck would have it, everyone was free this evening.  (Gak still went to the game, but I did give him the choice and it really didn't matter to me which he chose...)

Boo was in a semi-cranky mood for a good bit of the evening, but was a very good boy through most of dinner.  We had a very nice meal thanks to Mom being able to put it in the oven while I was at work.  Boo did melt down a little bit after dinner, but was quite content to raspberry and giggle and play for a good 45 minutes after changing into PJs and not being able to focus on a bedtime snack because he was being distracted by people.

Anyway, I'm exhausted and am about to go "THUD" in bed.  I hope the rest of the week is this nice.

Peace to all and may the visits be friendly and the family close.

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Almost by accident, I found out that today is a very important day.  Today, The Very Hungry Caterpillar turns 40 years old!  And in June, Eric Carle, the creator of this wonderful book and many more, turns 80!

As you can see, we're a big fan of the Caterpillar.  Aunt Becca and Uncle Jon gave Boo a copy for Christmas.  I thought him wanting to eat the book was very fitting.  I've enjoyed this book for a long time, I've used it at the nature center when teaching and now, I get to read it to my son.  We've got some of his other books as well.  The pictures are great.  They're fun and "loose", child-like without being childish or too silly when they shouldn't be.  I really do need to add to the collection, there are so many good ones.

I'm not going to go into the whole work thing.  I'm ignoring it as best I can while trying to get things done.  I've had a week of Mondays and well, it hasn't been fun.  But, today is Friday and I've got the weekend in front of me.  Hurrah for that!

Anyhow, I'd best get back to work.

Peace to all and go read a picture book!

Boy News!

Let it never be said that my boy isn't strange.  Boo is finally getting teeth.  (This could explain some of the random crankies the last week or so...)  But, unlike most babies he isn't getting the front bottom two teeth, but the front top two teeth.  This could be part of the reason that I didn't notice until they're almost all the way through.  I mean, it's a little harder to see his upper gums than his lowers...  The only real reason I noticed is that he was yoweling at me yesterday evening when I went to give him a snack.  I thought I'd noticed something over the weekend, but I thought it was just the light hitting off of some drool just right to look shiney.  Nope, the boy is getting teeth.  I'm impressed how well he's handeling it, it's gotta hurt, but he's just been randomly cranky off and on.  I'm also half surprised Dr. C didn't say anything Monday at Boo's follow-up from the Amox.  I guess he figured we'd already seen them.  No, I don't have pictures yet, the camera was in the car and he hasn't cooperated much since.  I'll try.

This picture is from GrammaSue on Monday.  You can see Boo playing his favorite game of "empty the toybox" on his new floor.  It really adds a lot of light to the room with the bright colors.  I like it.  Boo really seems to like his new floor too.  We switched the places of two pieces of furniture and it looks like there's a ton more space in the living room.  Amazing!

Anyhow, I'm still getting the hang of editing the video files I'm getting with my new little toy.  Here's my first attempt that didn't create a file that was a million MB big.  I have a few others I really need to edit and get posted.  I may just have to start using YouTube to host these.... I don't know why I'm so reluctant to do that... maybe because it's the "cool" thing.  Actually, I know I can post some video to Flickr, but I don't remember what file types or sizes they allow... I will have to investigate....

Anyhow, I've got to finish getting ready for work before Boo wakes up.

Peace to all and may your surprises be good ones.

P.S. because I'm adding video, the time stamp does not reflect totally when this actually gets posted it's taking forever to upload the video...

Stolen Creative Meme....

I responded AND thieved this from Abi because it seemed really cool!~

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year (2009).
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something over the internet. It may be a mixed CD. It may be a poem. It may be a felt mouse or a triple-chocolate cake or a handful of origami wish-stars. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! (not me either)
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

Here's the fine print:

You can respond even if you aren't tagged. 

In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own and make 5 things for 5 others.

Some additional restrictions specifically by me(Addey):
-Please email me your addy at wolfpawz@hotmail.com in order for me to send said item to you. 
-I am creative, but I work slowly (and have a 9.5 month baby), so just be assured, it will be mailed by Christmas 2009.  No other guarantees for timeliness will be made.

Welcome To the "Blogosphere"

Two quick items, one short post.

Firstly, my brother decided after being addicted to my own blog (why??) for 2 years or so to finally get around to getting one of his own.  If you actually know him, you'll see that it totally fits his personality.  Go, read, chuckle and smirk.

In other news, our tax refund came through Friday!!  Can we all say huge sigh of relief?  We were expecting a nice big chunk and actually got it all.  This includes the "stimulus" we were supposed to get last year but never did.  So, we have started to stimulate, at least a little.  Most of it is going to various bills to pay off early, but we're having a little fun too.  I picked up a little 5 Mp digital video recorder that uses SD cards.  I don't want a full-blown one since I'm really only interested in taking little clips of my boy to share with family near and far, mostly over the web.  I'm still playing with it and once I get something acceptable, I'll post it.  We also started picking up Boo's summer clothes (he's just getting into the 12 month size now) at a 50% off sale they were having at Carter's.  We also picked up some foam tile flooring to turn half the living room into a boy-friendly play area.  Yes, you'll get pictures soon, once we've cleaned the floor, moved a few things around and put the tiles down.

Like I said, we're splurging on a few things and getting other, needed, things taken care of.  Next up are eye doctor's appointments for me and Gak and some long neglected repairs for the truck.  I've already squirreled away some into the savings account to give us a bit more "cushion" for the year.  Once the eyes and the truck is taken care of, we'll see what's left and what else needs attention, probably more bills (and most likely an X-box 360 for Gak since he sold his old one and has been itching for it recently, but that's already factored into the "splurge" fund.)

Well, I've got to get the laundry together and stuff so I can abscond with my son so Gak can clean the floor and move some furniture.

Peace to all and may your weekend be full of pleasant surprises.

One Moment...

I've had a lot going through my head this week, but no time to process it or write.  I've had 6 customers in all week for training.  It went very well for the most part.  I think at least one customer got a warm fuzzy that they didn't have before and one gained a bit more confidence in us and the other four were already satisfied and left with a good bit more knowledge.  They all appreciated the business manager stopping in and saying hi and being the friendly guy he is.

There's also been some bad news at work, there will probably be a "reduction in force" in the production area since the "pipeline" is only about 25% full for the rest of the year.  And the business manager said "anyone who's not worried about their job in this economy isn't paying attention to what's going on", or something to that extent.  He's right, there's no such thing as a "safe" job right now.  If you're not pulling your weight and then some, someone else can and will probably be willing to work for less just to get a job.

Anyhow, something happened in Gak's part of the family Monday.  I'm still processing it and I don't have all the information.  I'll write more about it later, but suffice to say it involved a cousin he's not close with, a 10-week-old baby's death and other possible bad things.  It's not a warm fuzzy thing in the slightest.  It makes it easier and harder because it was family we're not close with (I don't think I've met the cousin in question...).  It's easier because it's just that much more distant but harder because it's family I don't know if that makes any sense.

Like I've said, I've got a lot bouncing around in my head about this and I just haven't had the time or energy to process it.

I'll share when I do though.  Hopefully this will be a nice and easy weekend, but I really have no clue.

Peace to all and may life make at least a little sense and your projects turn out well.

Daylight What??

To say I'm not a fan of daylight savings time would be accurate.  To say it totally confuses the life out of my son would be an understatement.

Yes, he is his grandfather's boy....

Actually, for the most part, yesterday was a pretty normal Sunday.  He slept in a bit... until almost 9 instead of his "normal" 8 or 8:30.  His meal times didn't make much sense to him.  Nap time was confusing, too.  We did go to the Q-mart for a little bit and he was very happily (or very seriously depending...) just riding around in his stroller looking around and trying to figure it all out.  (Good luck, I still can't figure that place out...)  We went over to Aunt Kat's as well for a bit.  

Then 7pm Eastern DST hit.  Now we have very confused and cranky boy.

We get home and everything is fine for a bit.  He eats his dinner.  (Mind you, he'd been eating all day and I wasn't sure he could actually eat anything more....)  He plays for a bit while Momma finishes up making her first attempt at Sheppard's Pie.  (Not bad, needs a few tweaks and should have drained the beef before putting in the gravy... it wasn't as lean as I thought...)  Then it's "8:00" so Momma gives him a "bedtime" snack of milk and tries to put him to bed.

Cue 1 hour plus of crying, comforting, playing and eventually sleeping.  To say he was totally ticked about being put to bed at 7:00 by his body would be an understatement.  Not that I blame him, I was having problems falling asleep at my "normal" 9 pm.  Oh well, in a week we'll all be used to it and then we'll be in for another shock come fall.

Urg.  Why do we do this??

Anyhow, this should be a busy week for me at work.  I've finally got my first week-long seminar again.  It has been a year since I've held one.  There wasn't one in June since I was on leave and no one picked up the ball (or the marketing...).  September and December both got canceled due to no attendance (read marketing... do you sense a theme here??).  This should be interesting.  I've got 2 internationals (Canada and Ireland) who have decided to stay for the whole week, even though the second half of the week really has nothing for them.  I'm not even sure I've got the Irish regs and I'm not very familiar with the Canadian ones... other than they're somewhat similar to ours.

We will see.  I just have a feeling of impending doom at times.  It will be nice if I can pull this off without much of a hitch and "prove" that I know what I'm doing.  (I some days don't think that I do, but have been very lucky just winging it for so long now...)   Like I said, we will see.

No new boy pics at the moment.  The few that I've taken are still on the camera.  And speaking of the boy, he may be trying to wake up, which is really odd... either that or I'm hearing things again.  His cough seems to be a bit better now, but he's doing this strange gasping inhale thing a couple of times a day now.  Not quite enough for me to panic because he seems fine overall, but enough for me to bring it up next Monday at his followup appointment.

Anyhow, I'm off to try and get ready for work.  Wish me luck this week.

Peace to all and may time not to funky things to you. 

Where Was I?

You know, I've had several great blog posts running through my head this week.   But while I was in the middle of pumping.... or at 2am and I just can't see getting out of bed... or in the middle of a meeting.  Of course, when I get time to finally write, there's only the smallest shred of what I was thinking about.  (And, in two cases out of three, I couldn't exactly take notes...)

I think the nursing strike is mostly over.  He's nursed well the last few days, but we'll see how the weekend goes.   He still won't take a bottle with Gak holding him, but will gladly take it lying in his bed.  (We've got to get him to take it sitting up... or even learning to get to sitting by himself... oh well, it'll come in time.)  I've managed to get more milk in him the last few days than in recent times.  I think that might be why he hit a bit of a flat spot in his growth curve between last month and this.  Anyhow, I'm not sure how much the Amoxyl is doing, but the cough is back to "normal" (whatever that means) and the snot is mostly gone.  Not the normal major 110% improvement in 3 days I normally see with antibiotics, but who knows.  We've got another appointment next monday and we'll see then.

Work has been grumpy and non-productive at best, a bit of drama at worst.  I've effectively had my hands tied to not do some things that would greatly help next month, and groused at for things out of my control.  Ugh.  That and I've had a few other fun tasks assigned to me.  (I only say that half sarcasticaly.  I actually enjoy them to some degree....)  But, it's been a trying week and I'm so glad for the weekend.  I get the feeling that this is going to be a trying year and I'm beginning to wonder if we've got the right management in place to handle it.... I mean, I like who we've got, but I'm not sure they're right for the kinds of changes we've got to deal with this year... Only time will tell.  I hope I'm just being overly negative again and we'll come through shining and impressing the pants off of everyone.

Anyhow, I've got to finish getting the laundry together and get Boo and Gak out the door so we can do laundry and Gak can go to work.  No idea what else is on the plate for the weekend.  Hopefully a little low key, but we will see.  The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so maybe we'll go to the park or something this afternoon or find somewhere neat (and cheep) to go tomorrow.

Peace to all and my the bugs leave you alone and work not try your patience.

p.s. spell check isn't working today...

9-months and Other Sundries

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time, so I'll have to keep this post short.

It was a cranky weekend for most people involved.  Saturday Boo was a bit cranky and clingy and very sleepy.  It just wasn't a fun day.  We went down to see what the other vultures had left at Circuit City (not much) and a few other errands after Gak got off work.  Boo was fine, so long as he was held.  We ended up having dinner at Panara Bread, which was quite yummy.

Sunday, he was a major cranky butt and decided he didn't care how tired he was, he wasn't going to nap and would much rather scream.  That and he decided he didn't want to nurse during the day.  He's started not taking a bottle for Gak in the day, but I was hoping that was just a timing issue of his "real" breakfast and when they had to head out the door.  Now I'm beginning to wonder.

I went to BJ's on Sunday after a quick family trip to the Q-Mart.  I spent way too much money, but I probably saved us a good bit on groceries the next several weeks and Boo won't need diapers again for another month or so.  We didn't get any dragon pictures Sunday because he was such a tired, snotty, fussy little boy.  I like to try and get happy boy pictures because, well, most of the time he is a happy boy.

Yesterday was his 9-month doctor's appointment.  And lots of snow.  That does figure in to the picture.  Boo had been snotty and coughing a lot more over the weekend and sounding a bit soupy in general.  Well, as usual the prognosis is that his lungs are clear.  His doctor wasn't happy to hear that his cough never really did go away after last month even though it did calm down a lot and stopped waking him up after a few days.  She wasn't happy to hear it's back and how often he's coughing.  So, we're on his first round of Amoxycillin.  He's not too happy with it, but he hasn't spit it back at us yet.

Oh, for those keeping track, our boy is now at 19 lb 5 oz and 27.75".  He's now down in the 25%.  I'm not sure if this is because of his major transition to solids, his lack of wanting to nurse in the last few weeks or if he's just slowing down.

Let me take a little side trip into the whole nursing thing for a moment before I get on to the rest of the cranky day.  For the last few weeks he hasn't been taking a bottle after his 10am "breakfast" and before Gak has to walk him to day care.  No big deal.  He has been managing to get about 10-12 oz in him during the day and nursing both at 7am before I leave and at around 8 when he goes to bed.  Well, Sunday he only nursed morning and night and only got about 6 oz with cereal during the day.  (He'll normally take a bottle or a bottle and a half for the ladies at day care in the afternoons...)  Yesterday, he even refused to nurse at bed time, but screamed instead until I put him in his bed.  Therefore, he got a whopping 6 oz.  That's no where near enough.  I have no idea what's going on.  It just started and of course I'd told his doctor in the morning that he was getting around 18 oz or so most days.  AARGH.  I need words!

Ok, on to the rest of the day.  It snowed.  Therefore, GrammaSue was stuck and couldn't make it up.  No big deal, we can take him to day care.  I had to go to work because of a WebEx training meeting with a potential customer.  I could have done it from home, except the snow was supposed to be over the weekend, not yesterday so I didn't bring home my computer.  So, I call the day care and tell them Boo will be there.  Then, after his doctor's appointment, the snow is getting worse.  So, I call work and make other arrangements for the training and call the day care to say "never mind".  Well, in the next hour or so, the snow lets up considerably.  I take Gak to work, Boo falls asleep in the car, so I decide to go down to work (after picking up his meds) and at least rescue my computer.  I am stupid and try and do the meeting any how myself.  Boo is having nothing to do with this.  He didn't want to play nicely on the floor or on my lap.  He also decided to fall off my chair the second after I put him down and looked at the computer.  (I was standing in front of the chair, but he managed to miss me completely and plop on the floor.  He's ok, just a little shaken.)  I had logged in both from my computer and George's as me, so when I left I couldn't just turn off my computer and take it with me, since I was the one "running" the meeting.  He wouldn't nurse in Julie's office before the meeting.  (She was smart and working from home.)  The sales guy on the call was being downright rude about me trying to work with Boo around.  Boo wouldn't nurse when we got home or a couple of other times I tried.

Needless to say, I was feeling like one of the worst moms out there.  I'm not the worst on the planet, but I sure wasn't a good one yesterday.

Oh well.  Here's hoping today is better.

Well, I've got to wake Boo, give him his meds and see if he'll nurse *fingers crossed*.

Peace to all and may you not have cranky days.

Edit:  Nope, Boo didn't want to nurse this morning, screamed bloody murder actually.  Gak managed to get an ounce or so into him from the bottle and managed to get some fairly thin cereal into him as well.  He was not a happy camper until after he ate something and then all he wanted to do was bounce in the bouncer.  No idea what's up, but here's hoping it's just something minor and things will be better in a day or two.

Relief?

Well, wouldn't you guess that very shortly after posting that last update, I finally had a conversation with my boss?

Figures.

At any rate, that meeting went so much better than the last.  Once he was fully aware of exactly where I stood and that yes, there is an end date in mind for the travel "ban", it was much better.  I still have a TON of things that he wants to see improved/worked on.  I'm OK with that because it gives me direction.  It also tells me that I'm not the only one feeling like the whole training gig needs work and in what areas.  I'm still not looking forward to traveling again any time soon, but alas, it is part of my job description.  If I don't like it enough or if it gets to be too much, I do have options.  I can try and petition for a more permanent job description change or, more than likely, I can attempt to find another job either within or outside of the company where I won't have to travel.  I'm just hoping there will be a few occasions where I'll be able to take Boo with me.  Of course, that'll mean I'll have to travel somewhere where I've got friends or family who are both able and above all willing to watch him while I do my training.  Either that or be able to take Gak with me too.  (Of course, that's a little more problematic since if he's not at work, he's not getting paid, so a double whammy...)

So, yes, I'm feeling a good bit more positive today.  I'm still swamped and not sure how to get un-swamped, but I'll get there.

I'm just glad it's the weekend after today.  I could use a couple of down days just chasing Boo.

Anyway, just thought I'd let all 5 of my readers know that everything seems to be heading in a better direction at work, or at least not as bad a direction.

Peace to all and may meetings not be scary and things work out in the long run.