Colin moved some of the pics. Reposting with correct urls.

Lessee. First there's the fuzzy Tardis:

( With cat for sizing )

( Door off but better angle )

Then there's this baby (for both grandmas: more at Colin's photobucket, all from the last 2 weeks):

( April 28th, showing off his latest fashion accessory )

( He inherited his talent for putting his foot in his mouth from his mother )

And a video:
( My son the skirt chaser )

So I came home from my workout with mom today, to find Colin NOT feeding Joseph. Specifically, Joseph lay on the playmat, holding his own bottle and drinking from it, while his dad was on the couch fidgeting with his new phone. Eeeee. (Colin's had him hold his own bottle, mostly, with help, but always in his lap before...)

He's also getting closer and closer to crawling, occasionally getting into push up position or being on hands and knees for half a second or so before one end gives out, and he can sometimes support himself for a minute or so while sitting (and for a few minutes at a time, I've only given him gentle pushes to keep[ him from tipping over, while he does most of the work. and he's getting closer to figuring out his stacking toys, though mostly to take apart. And he plays more and better on his own.

Milestones usually aren't instant changes, I knew that, but watching the steady progressions, the week to week changes that are smallish, sometimes subtle, are more awesome than I thought. (Mom, as a physiotherapist, says this is just the sort of thing that fascinates her, then admits she barely remembers this time with me or Jeff.)

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Saturday night, I slept in my own bed, not in the nursery. Joseph woke twice before morning, and I got to him quickly, and it seemed to go okay, so I figure it's likely to be a recurring thing soon.

LAST night, otoh, Joseph slept late, slept poorly, woke multiple times, and seemed to be hungry, not just consolation nursing on virtually all of them. My longest sleep in the past 24 hours was between 2 and 4:30 this Afternoon. (the next longest was between about 1:30 and 3:00 AM.) So: his singular wakings through the past nigh two weeks seem less likely to be growth spurt, because if *this* ain't one, then something is horribly wrong.

Sleepy. And he's asleep now too. Time to try to nap.

The tv, music and book reviews just keep being put off...

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So: we have Joseph's passport and baby sunscreen, and I've been making sure Joseph is good about wearing brimmed hats. My mother in law says she has a swimsuit for him, and someone else has an umbrella stroller. I'm already kind of planning the packing, though it seems to me that most of the rest is stuff he *has*, or stuff like diapers that, beyond the air travel and the first day, it's advised to buy on site where possible. My in-laws say they're looking into renting a crib or place for Joseph to sleep. I've been reading up on air travel with an infant. (Nothing, I think, will remotely help in advance.) He's had his first two immunization shots, and the pediatrician says he doesn't need anything else shot-wise for Spain. Colin got travel insurance and was doing a fair bit of looking into the place etc.

What might I have forgotten?

Well, there's context.

My in laws are having their 50th wedding anniversary. They decided that what they really want is to travel with their children (and sole grandchild) for two weeks in early-to-mid May. After some discussion, Spain was the chosen destination, specifically Malaga (one of the obvious nearby stops should be the Alhambra). Since it was planned and paid for well before he was accepted(I was teasing Colin for looking at travel sites the month before Joseph was born, because it seemed then to be a bit less of a priority), Colin's job is good with the early time off. Our accommodations are apparently more townhouse than hotel, which I hope means comfortable. I'm both looking forward and fretting. I'm not expecting it to be much like travelling pre-baby, though I've been told it's easier than with a toddler.

Anyhow, I hadn't mentioned it because it hasn't really felt real yet. But of course, the reality check is, we're leaving in three weeks. It needs to become real rather fast.

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Since I sharted this in February...

Here's all the short answers left:

( Read more... )

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News to amuse: As of Good Friday, we have a fuzzy TARDIS in our living room!

Okay, for those of you who don't know: when I moved in, Colin wanted a cat scratching post the cats would scratch. So he made a wooden box about the size of a bar fridge & covered in carpet to sit in our living room. (it had a door in it and was used for storage). The cats loved it: used it and slept on top of it: the whole shebang. Now, obviously as time got on, this got, well, scratched up. It seemed due for replacement.

Plus, last summer we got an actual bar fridge, which between the renos and all, was sitting in the middle of the living room being a pain. Colin looked at that, looked at the scratching post, and noted they were the same size. So, he thought he'd build a replacement that, instead of being a mere storage box, would house the fridge. It ended up a bit bigger than really intended; some of that is the carpet, some Colin's overbuilding, and some just how it had to be. But the cats already approve. The door in the front isn't properly fastened yet, but it can be pushed into place and looks pretty good...for carpet. (lest anyone think my husband an idiot instead of just quirky, yes, of course the back is well-vented.)

Photos when Colin gets them onto photobucket.
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A minor worry: Joseph has been waking hungry in the middle of the night more often. This is sometimes considered one of the possible signs of getting ready for the start of foods other than milk/formula. Or, since he has none of the other symptoms yet, a sign I might be having supply issues again? I "ran dry" before his bedtime once this week and Colin ended up giving him a bottle. (Technically, since much milk is made on the spot, this isn't quite accurate, but I wasn't producing enough to keep him happy until the next let-down). While it was also a day I ate dinner late and might not have drunk enough fluids, I hate to think I'm running that close to the edge that a late meal or a bit more water could make an issue.

Grr. I hate stressing about breastfeeding. For one, after the first few weeks, it's been pretty easy 90% of the time, and going as it should.


Last: Likely nobody but me cares, but I made some amendments to the diaper post, most of which come down to: I recommend the AMP diapers more than I did. I had a look at their liners, and what they have is not only larger than the flannel liners made for me, but thicker and more absorbant. Not to say I can't use the homemade ones, but simply doubling them up has made the diapers leak significantly less. I still wouldn't use them for an overnight sleep, but I'm Much happier with them.

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We had our second thunderstorm of the year late last night.

The first thunderstorm was last Monday, signalling an end to the two weeks or so of Absurdly Good Weather* (Though it wasn't for a few days more that it dropped below zero even at night). It was in the evening, so I took Joseph out to the back door, held out my arm so that he could see the rain pouring down onto it by the motion detector light, then when the light was out, he could watch the flashes in the sky and hear the thunder. What with the snow only just gone, this was his first sight of rain, too.

For the one last night, in the wee hours, I'd have preferred to have slept through it. But Joseph had woken at quarter to one and didn't sleep again until 3:00. Or rather, he drifted off in my arms several times then refused to stay down when I put him to bed; he probably fell asleep the last time at 2:45. Some of this was my fault; there was one time I'm sure he would have if I'd given him the soother, but I'd lost track of it. And one time I decided to change his diaper knowing it would send him from almost-sleeping to full awake -- and it turned out not to be wet.

He also just seemed hungry. That hasn't carried over to today; well, he's been hungry, but in usual times and usual ways.

But at any rate, I sat in a dimmed room, baby (finally!) drifting off in my lap, and held him for an extra long while while the storm rumbled its way along, until I was sure it was fading. Because I didn't want to just get him in the crib and have a thunder-roll scare him awake. if he's held, he's calmer. No surprise. It would have been pleasant without -- actually, was pleasant, in spite of -- the urgent wish for rest. He'd had two and a bit hours' sleep before that, plus the several drift-offs in my arms. I had at best 45 minutes.

We did catch a bit of extra nap in the late morning. But now he's down and I feel like I couldn't sleep, though maybe I should have tried. Also, no telling if this is 1/2 an hour or the next three.

I almost always end up nursing him to sleep even when he's not quite so intently hungry. I do think that should change sometimes. But A) I worry that his long sleep will be shorter if he doesn't eat well before it (He often wakes up giving every impression of starvation), and B) I haven't found other tricks that work regularly that don't involve a lot more stress and a LOT more time.

Well, I was going to write about music, but I think I can save CD reviews for later. I may try to nap after all.
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* March 9, the river trail closed. No big surprise; the weather had been teetering around freezing (and thawing, natch) for a while, and shot over freezing even overnight a couple of times right around then. But a few days after that, it went over 10. Then into the 20s until the 19th. We had full thaw in a week; by the 15th it was very officially snowless. By the 19th, the ice on the Assiniboine wasn't just full of open water holes, but outright broken.

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Yesterday we (Colin & I) got to go swimming with another friend, which was mucho fun (Though she's not available again for about a month. While there, I met a mom of a 6 month old, and asked her when she'd started taking him to the pool. She said the lifeguards had told her anytime after 3 months is fine, and she actually started at 4 months.

Which Joseph is today.

As of yesterday, I think we can also officially say that Joseph is learning how to deliberately roll over from his back. It's pretty definite today, though he still doesn't do it often. And he did it once back to front, but with a bit of an angle lending him accidental assistance (he was on a pillow).

He's been refusing to let me pull him up to sitting or balance him sitting against me -- he keeps making me pull him to standing or hold him standing instead (And occasionally arching back into a bridge, which has to be hard on him). Which is kind of cool, but I still think he should be willing to learn to sit... we've been able to hold him standing for a while, but it's getting stronger; he can support his weight now, he just needs someone hanging onto him for balance.

The cats are getting more attention from him. And it's backwards from expectation. Élise is running away as soon as he gets close, and Irina the timid is putting up sometimes with his hands in her fur (so long as there isn't too much pulling or drooling), and when Colin was holding him standing, walked right under his hands in her self-petting mode (Naturally, she stopped when I grabbed the camera, so the video is pretty boring. Also partly sideways because I'm used to static composition.)

I have an awesome baby. He sleeps through the night, he's only sometimes fussy without an obvious cure (and even then, it's often over-tired or over-stimulated), and he smiles and laughs a lot. I've said twice this weekend that if we have another who doesn't sleep or is colicky or anything, we won't know a thing about how to cope.

He napped off and on for over 2 hours this afternoon, which I naturally feel guilty about wasting catching up on internetty things and not at least writing-related stuff. (The writing meme stuff I'm actually almost finished in spite of having posted none of it recently. I'll put it up in chunks if anyone tells me they're curious.)

Been catching up on reading some short fiction when I've had internet time; mostly recent Viable Paradise sales, partly to save me having to think hard about which ones to sample, and partly because there was a sudden rash of them. For real books, I just tried Julia Quinn because I was in a mindless romance mood after reading depressing Carol Berg stuff (Her last two series', the Lighthouse Duet, and the Collegia Magica one I just finished, have been really good, actually, but she puts her characters through the wringer and then some.) Anyhow, turns out the book I picked up was good light comedy as well as a regency romance, and it made me genuinely laugh several times (The dreadful gothic novel the characters read helped). And kind of made me want to try more of hers. In the meantime, though, it convinced me to finally start Frederica, a Georgette Heyer that seems to be high on everybody's list, and will probably hit many of the same notes, but even better written. (When Heyer misses, it can be genuinely painful, but when she hits, she's got it down.) And when I feel like reading aloud to Joseph, I just started Winnie-the-Pooh, which I'm positive was read to me as a child but of which I remember nothing but the stuck-in-a-hole-for-overeating-honey episode which I'm actually just about to reach. It's a weird combination of over-twee and pretty close on to actual child logic.

One of last week's three agency queries already came back a no (The others were snail-mail and therefore most likely haven't arrived in New York). Mildly personalized, which is nice as rejections get. I didn't expect more than that.

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So, the happy first:

Raechel Henderson is reopening Eggplant Productions as an e-book publisher. In its earlier incarnations, Eggplant Publications was home to Jackhammer, a small paying e-zine of good reputation, at least among Rumour Millers (I liked reading it before I submitted to it, but they did publish my first story), Jintsu e-texts, a novella publisher, and a number of other small odd projects (An earlier incarnation of the current "miscellanea" -- fragments of works from a nonexistant library -- and other such things)

And as part of her reopening, she's republishing The Illusion of Steel in December. This time, with an advance against royalties. I'm still fond of the piece, too; we'll see if Raechel wants any tweaks, but I think most of what I'd change now are little copyediting bits, not parts of the story or people.

(Looks like she's also rereleasing Lori Ann White's Etta Mae's Little Theory, of which I was rather fond as well: probably in August or September, though there's no exact date. So try it, too. Nothing like mine: mine is multi-generational melodrama and enchanted swords in a high fantasy world, hers is all about body image and psychic powers in a modern one. You don't get plump protagonists nearly often enough.)

AND it reminded me to get some snail-mail queries out.
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So, last Thursday was pretty much dreadful in all ways: I had either a 24-hour stomach bug or food poisoning. HUGE thank you to mom for babysitting; I got to spend much of the day napping, and only had to stir to feed him (and drink water and try to keep some food down). Colin felt a bit cruddy himself (Though that was it for him), so she came back for part of the evening, too.

The rest of the time between then and now was pretty normal; Joseph was fussier for a few days than is his habit, but it seemed like that was related to his barely napping during the day for 2 days straight (and sleeping shorter hours at night; he went to bed at 1 Am both of them), not anything specific wrong. He still saw the doctor yesterday about a number of little things, all but one of which are just fine. (And he behaved very well there.)

The doctor is a bit concerned about his weight; he's down to being in the 55th percentile, while still up around 90% for length. But he's eating all he asks for, and sometimes for consolation. I'd say I hoped it was aftermath from Thursday (He needed to be supplemented a bit, because a mommy who wasn't keeping down food wasn't exactly producing her usual amounts) except that it's been slower than it used to be for weeks now. He still looks plump, if not as plump as some babies, and healthy, and behaves happily enough. Even his no-sleep fussy days still had sessions of smiling and play. He's still awesome.

Anyhow, other than that, we had a good dinner with friends Sunday, a decent game session/visit with other friends yesterday, and we did make it, if a bit late, to the Healthy Baby family get together this week. So both Joseph and I have had some good visiting time and chances to see people other than each other, mom, and Colin.

Colin's work goes well enough; he's still in training, so sometimes he needs to seek out things to do, but he says he's finding them, and so far, there aren't any real complaints about him (Apparently, one woman thinks he's "too calm" and this bugs her. Er, yeah. You don't want to see him stressed again...)

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Sigh. I started an entry back on the 19th. I'll excerpt this bit from it because it's the only one of real interest.

"went to a concert last Friday with Iulianna, Cristina, Bearaich, and Anthony. Colin hadn't been interested, so he stayed home with Joseph, who apparently behaved well.

The opening act was noteable to me for being a skilled guitarist, a decent singer with a good voice, and for having a decent self-deprecating patter - and totally failing to interest me. The main act was Chic Gamine, who started as four female vocalists and a drummer (who's said he feels a little offended when they're called, as they often are, an a capella band). At this concert, the singers also used a guitar, keyboards, and a fair bit of additional percussion, but the voices were still a pretty solid core. They traded off lead vocals and patter duties (and, evidently, songwriting). Overall a lot of fun and worth it. I got antsy during the encore, as it ran longer than anticipated, but as I said, Joseph was good; when I got home, he was already in bed."

Note that the concert, even then, was over a week ago: the 10th.

Most of the rest of the time between has been taking care of Joseph. He's now three months and a bit. He's getting more adept with his hands and feet, but it's bit by bit; no big milestones. He's amusing me by being fascinated by our stained glass window. Looking at it, he'll smile and look away, then look again. (I figure this will be useful information if he needs soothing in church again, but he's missed the last two weeks; today just for waking too late.) He sleeps 7 hours some nights, less on others. I try to talk to him, to do things with him, but there are times I space out on the computer while he's eating, times I need to run and get things (And must remind myself that "playing alone" IS something he needs to learn; though he lasts longer if I'm right beside him.) We bought him more toys, and I've doodled him the equivalent of flash cards with things for him to look at (Simple Geometrics on one side, more complex faces and animals on the other; if nothing else, it was an excuse to doodle, and I do miss doing art) -- but I still worry sometimes that he's getting bored already (He shows no sign of it). We've managed a few more visits out, which is a plus; he loves to see other babies.

That's about it. My last two facebook comments probably say much of the way life feels, including random focus on trivialities, frustrating things, and a bit of fun with word play:

These were:

Okay. The disposable diapers we have happen to be decorated with pictures of Sesame Street characters (Ernie, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Elmo(twice!)), each with an iconic baby toy. Based on this, I have to ask:

Why does ELMO have the Rubber Duckie????

and


"Lenora Rose () is nostalgic for the days before the default state of coitus became "interruptus"....

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... by the older meaning, at least. :)

I don't know when hand preference develops for real, or if this will change. But.

Joseph has a play mat from which two toys hang overhead. On the right was a toucan that jingles. On the left, a white tiger hanging by its tail, holding a ball between its paws. When the ball is hit hard enough to spin right, it plays a tune.

Joseph naturally got pretty good at hitting the tiger, often making it sound and usually only hit the toucan by accident - or reaching across with the left. I thought this might mostly be because the tiger hangs noticeably lower. And I thought it might be worthwhile to give him a better chance at developing aim with the right*. So I switched them around.

And he hit the toucan more often, usually while flailing for the tiger with his left(he was looking at the tiger, to be sure.). You could pretty much read his expression of, "hey, I used to be able to do this" the first times, and he fussed more quickly out of frustration.

But now he's solved the problem somewhat (and seems pleased with himself), and is hitting it again, and sometimes even making it sound.

With his left foot.

Which is extra tricky as he's hitting it from behind (and from the opposite side), and if the ball spins backwards, it doesn't work.

I'm cheering him on - hey, any skill development = awesome. And he is still flailing his hands, too, so he may get that method yet. But still. Sinister**?

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*NOT to "fix" his handedness if he is a lefty, I think that's a hideous thing to try to do, like trying to "fix" eye colour would be. But he will need to develop both hands. Also, crossing the midline and still smacking it with the left is also cool.

** I am aware that my excessive fondness for this pun denotes a flaw in my character. I accept it. Sinister's the common-usage term used in Serpent and Soldier, too (With the pun still extant,. though in their case, "Left-handed" is still the primary meaning, with "Creepy and dubious" distant second), so I've grown used to it, since Theo's left-handed.

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But first, help! Stop me before I buy pretties!
Which pretties?
This one?
or maybe
This one?


8: Descriptions of all other important characters

Daunting even with the emphasis on important. This is probably the last of these to be absurdly long, and mostly for trying to cover both books.
( Read more... )

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Happy-making: Mom and I went to Curves Friday so I could get started on a formal exercise routine again. They give you an assessment on your first day, wherein they set up goals and all. So I was asked how much I thought I weighed. Because my stomach is still a bit loose and a different shape from pre-pregnant, I gave an estimate around where I was at 3-4 months pregnant.

Later, she measured, and I came out to be 18 pounds lighter than I thought. A bit below where I was when I *got* pregnant. (a coworker in the summer said she'd thought I lost weight, not counting the baby belly & bust, but since she hadn't seen me since December 2009, I wasn't ready to believe. Mom had said the same, but I figured that the post-birth sitting still a lot and being encouraged to eat heavily for milk production purposes -- which reinforces extant bad portion-size habits -- would do away with it.)

There's still the issue of general health and in-shape to consider, since my current exercise is the occasional walk (sometimes with extra weight attached, I grant you), sitting on the fitness ball to pump or to calm Joseph (he likes to bounce and my arms get tired doing it manually) and leg warm-ups to prevent losing sleep to RLS (Incidentally, there is very little in day-to-day life worse than Restless Leg kicking in while nursing. You can't move that much. Thank god for the need to burp the baby, because I can get up, then, and even do some stretches). In short, I could still use gym sessions, if not as badly as I feared.

And it will help keep mom going, too.
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Rather silly obsessiveness:
( Twinkle Twinkle Little Star )

Somewhat more purposeful obsessiveness

I wanted to minimize disposable diaper use, limiting it to longer trips outside the house. So, between my mother-in-law, a friend, and a local company, we have three different types of cloth diapers, and in the case of the ones that need wraps, a few more still of those. Not one is without some issue. (And yet I'm hesitant to stop; I still don't like the landfill issues with disposables, plus, in one case I'm out some money, in another, someone else's time and care. I don't want to shop for yetanotherkind and be out more money.)

( Diapers make argh -- only of interest to people looking for a good type of cloth diapers )

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I don't have time to write short, it seems: doing these fast made them run long...

5: Main Character Bio:
( Ketan Tolkagift )

6: Main Villain Bio
( Melottia Selovasdottir Vrashdivesk )

7: A third important character's Bio
( Theokoi Jansein, Duke Maulder )

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Important YAY before the babbling begins.

COLIN GOT A JOB! Well, they're writing up the letter of offer. But it's for more than he was making at his last workplace, and he's thought all along that it sounded interesting. And yes, at this point, I *could* manage for the day without him, so long as he's willing to help in the evenings. (Besides, if I desperately need a hand, Grandma Eleanore is often willing...)

So I started a post yesterday when Joseph finally went down for what looked like it would be a long nap at 7ish, which would have been his first *real* nap since morning... from which he woke in 20 minutes, and proceeded to stay awake until just after 1 AM. (I'd resolved that if he wasn't drifting off on his own by One, I *would* get my walk in, taking him out in the snugli to get him to rest. But he was starting to settle by then.)

From which he woke at 7:25. (Which meant Élise was sitting on the floor looking at me intently, and immediately meowed for breakfast.) Which is a record easily for longest sleep in one stretch. (5 1/2 was the last confirmed. There was one that might have been 6, if you excluded a 10-15 minutes wakeful session to change a diaper.) And slept again hourly or less through the morning -- which meant I got eight hours, albeit not all in one stretch, and a shower. He had TWO other actual naps this afternoon, and is down again now. (I hope not for too long, or he may not have a sleep in the middle of the night, but I'm hoping long enough for me to eat supper and risk a walk. There are bottles in the fridge.) Someone suggested another growth spurt, but I didn't think he was feeding much more than usual, since he kept stopping eating to look around and/or play, even when he was the one to start the feeding.

Unfortunately it wasn't his *only* record broken yesterday, but the other one had to do with those terrible bodily fluids; skip this paragraph if that bugs you. But really, he did get his longest distance of arc from change table across the floor. (Yes, we cover him up in case. He sprayed off the cloth. I was just too far away to prevent it, though I did get it back in place.) THAT felt much more like an "argh, welcome to motherhood" moment than the long hours of not-sleeping did.

Sigh. He does need to learn to play a bit more while I'm in the room but not holding him, or even while I leave it for five minutes. He can, sometimes (not today; he seemed unhappy unless held ALL afternoon), but often he either starts fussing soon, or can only be kept quiet by continuously winding the mobile. I can only take so many repetitions of "Winnie the Pooh" before I decide it might be worth it to pick him up.

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No, really, I'm not all mama all the time. Just mostly. :P The writing meme post is coming right after this one.

We did do the SCA event last Saturday (We meant to at least go to the archery range Friday night for that part, and just both of us got distracted and busy.) Colin made Joseph garb to match his; late period pants, shirt and hat, though not pluderhosen. Not for what he admitted would be worn about once before they don't fit him. And we got to talk to a lot of people, and pass the baby around, and introduce him to the other baby and toddlers (This "Other people my size" thing is still pretty awesome to him), see court (where Joseph decided it was time to eat - conveniently just *after* he was called up), and eat feast uninterrupted since he opted to nap. And had friends over afterward for some more chatting and drinks.(I had to wait until Joseph was done eating and pretty clearly asleep to have the drink part myself. OOps.) And we're planning a turkey dinner tomorrow. And a possible game night Sunday or Monday.

BU there are still days I feel very housebound.

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The real-life update.

So at my baby shower, a friend mentioned she had some old cloth diapers and the like she could bring me. I said, sure.

She came with two full plastic tubs and about six plastic bags of STUFF. A few blankets, a massive number of washcloths, diapers in sizes from preemie (Which we could never have used) to large (Which he won't fit for over a year), and one tub's worth of clothes of all ages. We CANNOT possibly use it all, though frankly, the bulk of the stash (The diapers) will indeed be useful, if not all yet or even soon.

But I was going through it in the living room during some of Joseph's naptimes and playtime without-mamma (Which latter is extremely minimal, it seems, unless there's another person about), sorting into sizes and to-be-laundered bundles, which means there are piles everywhere...

... so of course this is the day the photographer came. He managed to find room to do a shoot anyhow, but I did feel as if the house was massively worse even than its usual state. I couldn't think of a place in the house that was clean. The nursery's not BAD, normally, if I make the -bed, but there are still all kinds of bags from the baby shower of not-put-away or no-place-to-put-away things. (Maybe the bathrooms - my mother in law did a scary good job there, for which I am immensely grateful). He was gracious about it, as well as very skilled at making the sorts of noises and faces that make Joseph laugh (I'm getting better, but I think my friend Shelley still wins the funny faces award.)

(The photographer is a quasi-free deal; we get one free 5 x 7, and have to buy any other prints we want, but of course he didn't take *one* photo. And yes, I am probably going to ask to buy a few others... But I knew that going in.)

So. More laundry. More stuff to put away, or not, as the availability may be. We need more big plastic storage tubs. And eventually a toy chest, though truth be told, he didn't get that many toys yet.

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