PL, day 3

I'm currently enjoying the sound of a spring shower through the open window--or at least I would be enjoying that if there wasn't a police cruiser going through a nearby street wailing his siren on and off. Oh, and the persistent buzzing jangle of chainsaws. It seems that one of my neighbors is getting dead tree limbs removed by professionals. They've been at it all morning.

But, I'm in shorts, enjoying fresh air in an airy house. Hannah is dozing in her swing after a lunchtime 4 ounces. The dishwasher is empty; the laundry is almost up-to-date, and I had a good walk this morning.

You may recall that I pledged to blog more and walk every day during my paternity leave. So far I've done pretty well. I can't say that my blog posts have been scintillating descriptions of excitement, but at least I've churned out something every day. (I've just got to either find more interesting things to do or use better adjectives.) My walking has been a bit less steady--though only a bit less. I walked on day 1 and Hannah cried most of the way. I never found the opportunity to walk on day 2 since grocery shopping and early afternoon napping took precedence. Today, we hit the sidewalks around 10 am while the sun was still out. H. obliged by sleeping the entire time--a first!--and I took advantage. Normally I only push her patience up to the edge of our neighborhood and back down again--about 12 to 15 minutes round trip. But today I ventured outside the street boundaries, down the block, and around a back street entrance. I managed to listen to almost all of NPR's "Fresh Air" podcast during the trip, so it took about 40 minutes. I was very pleased to get out and get some vigorous effort and air completed.

This evening Sarah has her first official soccer game. (I'll be sure to provide a picture of her in her awesome jersey.) But I'd better take a picture before the game, because if they do play, it'll be on a muddy field. I wonder if they are going to call it off, but I can't assume anything. If they do play, I hope the field isn't a total disaster, because that might slow Sarah's enthusiasm down a bit. (I don't think she's a big fan of being muddy.) But, we'll see.

As always, tune in later to see what happens next. Sorry, no new dreams today since Hannah slept straight on from midnight to 6:30. (That was an unexpected gift!) Also sorry that I messed with my blog HTML last night, adjusting the look of a few sidebar designs and text colors. As a result, my label cloud isn't functioning properly. I'll carve out time this weekend to search for what I did wrong and hopefully by Monday all will be right again.

PL, day 2

Last night was hectic, but successful.

I got the girls to their dentist appointment a few minutes late. We had to drive from the daycare back across town, through the beginnings of early rush hour Westerville traffic--which isn't much except for around our building/interstate exchange--and to the dentist, which (logically?) is tucked away inside the Sears hardware section of the mall. (We had to shift family dentistry thanks to new HMO regulations.)

But got there I did, with all three girls. Then things ground to a quick halt. The first thing I had to do was rapidly fill out paperwork while Hannah voiced her displeasure. Grace did a good job of trying to entertain H. while I quickly scribbled. But the other patrons had to put up with some squalling. It took a while for Sarah to get called and even longer for Grace. Lynda showed up about halfway through to help out, but it was still about 1.5 hours before Sarah was finished, changed into soccer clothes and the two of us were off to her practice.

It was a pretty, if chilly night. Sarah did a great job at this practice. She was much more engaged than I've seen her in the previous practices, going after the ball and even kicking it into the "goal." I wonder how she'll do at the first official game tomorrow night (if the weather doesn't postpone it).

By the time practice was up, quick dinner was eaten, and we were home again, it was time for a shower, homework, then twenty minutes of reading and coloring for both Grace and Sarah. Lynda--a bit due to circumstances and a bit due to urging on my (and her mother's) part--didn't do any work last night.

I was up with Hannah a few times during the early morning hours. You can read about the oddities of that here.

This morning was uneventful. Hannah has been very good so far. We made it to the grocery store and back this morning without too much drama. She cried a bit, but slept through a lot of the trip. Since I've been home, she's been sleeping, which allowed me to put the groceries away and eat my own lunch.

In non-child news, today is the opening day of the Master's golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. I've been to the Augusta course once. While in college, my infamous roommate G acquired "press" badges from his Augusta-living father. So, we were able to walk the course early Saturday morning before the weekend tee-offs began. It is a very pretty course and I would like to go back sometime when I can actually watch the players competing. But just being there was pretty fun. The fact that we had CBS press badges could/should have led to some interesting shenanigans, if we had pressed our luck. I guess it would have allowed us access to some media places . . . at least until someone got wise and came after us. But we were good boys and didn't tempt the fates. (G's dad was volunteering with CBS during that week, as some native Augustinians (?) do.

Well, that's it for now. Hannah will be waking up for her lunch soon and then it'll be closing in on time to pick other kids up from school.

(Ain't my life interesting?)

More help on surviving the LOST hiatus

Only a few more weeks until the final five episodes of LOST season 4 arrive.

(LOST will return on April 24.)

But there is lots of fun stuff out there to give you a LOST fix.

********

Every fan of the show knows that the situation and plot is confusing.

But did you know that YOU aren't the only one confused?



(This is what happens when castaways refuse to talk openly to one another. Mass confusion!)

Charleton Heston, RIP

I know that Moses returned to the great gun range in the sky this past weekend. I know that I am not being timely with this post, but, well, I guess I have no excuse.

But when someone this Hollywood famous dies, all eyes rightly turn to Mr. Cruise.

I admit that I didn't have a good explanation for why Tom would take out The Omega Man, but then Shirtless reminded me of a crucial point. Maybe Cruise wasn't the trigger man this time. Perhaps one of his Scientologist minions did it. This made some sense to me, especially when it was pointed out that there have persistent rumors that Will Smith was introduced to Scientology and might now be a Scientologist.

Think of it. Will (I Am Legend) Smith is one of the most respected names in Hollywood. Everybody loves him--even me. But, if he had fallen under the Scientology spell, then who knows? And given that Smith's most recent big time film was I Am Legend, which was a remake of Heston's Omega Man, then things begin to mesh in what you could call a convincing way . . . but maybe not, since it turns out that Smith is trying his best to say he is NOT a Scientologist.

So, what to believe, right? I mean, for every post or website saying that Smith is a Scientologist, you'll find another saying he's NOT a Scientologist. The Internets are not for trusting, I guess. Look at me after all. Periodically, my straight laced and all true blog is infected with the Tom Cruise insanity.

And if you can't always trust me, then obviously, you can't trust anybody.

But, if you use this as an excuse NOT to accept that big Hollywood film . . . well, I won't blame you. Besides, anything might trigger Cruise.

PL, day 1--w/ AFTERNOON UPDATE

Well, it has begun . . . and well enough so far. (No one has caught on fire and I've only had a little bit of formula burped up on my shoulder.)

Yes, Hannah isn't really spitting up--projectile emissions and such. She never has. But, it was a funny moment at her noonish feeding when she made a slightly different sound then normal and I felt a slight warmish wetness on my left shoulder. I made the comment to her that it would serve me right to get her when she starts a pattern of spitting up. But, no . . . just a minor reflux.

She's swinging away in her swing--as one should in a swing--dozing. She's been bothered with what seems to be slight congestion the last few days. I don't know if its just a bit of a cold, a reaction to seasonal change, or (worst case scenario) an allergic reaction. But, she might not sleep soundly or for very long as a result. I may have to dash off the keyboard any second now . . .

. . .

. . . well, not yet anyway.

Took Lynda's mom to the airport mid morning. Pushed Hannah in the stroller for a bit, taking my time getting back to the van. She has no appreciation for airports, architecture, escalators, sculptural, or the mechanisms of transportation. Frankly, no one at the airport did. But, it was an outing and us stay-at-home dads need our outings. (Just wait, soon a trip to the post office will be a thing of beauty.)

Lynda's mom got off without problem--I think. (Except for the minor problem that Skybus went Chapter 11 mid visit and she had to purchase a return ticket on a different airline, but hey, she learned something about appreciating modern transportation, right?

(Hannah cries . . . told you . . . more later?)




It is now LATER.

Hannah did not take her noonish nap, so I took her on a walk up and down the street instead. She did not appreciate this. She showed her displeasure by fussing and crying through major parts of the walk--which only took about ten minutes at most. Still, I ignored her protests and kept walking. How else will I shed my hibernation weight and fit into that swimsuit later this summer?

When we got back from our short walk, H. continued to fuss. I let her go for a bit, thinking maybe she was just cranky, but it didn't die, so I gave her an afternoon bottle. She's been showing a reluctance to finish an entire bottle the last few days. Either her congestion is making drinking and breathing simultaneously difficult (that would be problematic, right?) or . . . well, I don't know what else it could be. I can think of all manner of things--allergy, sudden dislike of Similac, general obstinacy, has decided she doesn't want more than two oz. of food during the middle of the night, she's lycanthropic--it could be anything. Being a parent of an infant tends to be a lot of guesswork, I think, no matter how many children you might have. Each of them reacts to stuff differently.

But, right now she might be drifting into a needed nap. She's been mostly awake since 10 am. And I'll be waking her up soon anyway to pile back into the van and get the girls from school. Then it's off to get their teeth cleaned and then it's directly to Sarah's soccer practice. Somewhere in there Lynda has promised to arrive and liberate Hannah from the mix and I'll take S & G to practice, then to a quick dinner. Then home, homework, baths, books, bed.

That's the plan anyway.

I'll let you know tomorrow if stuff works out as indicated.