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flea1. mr. flea promises he has 2 hours left of work on his qualifying exams. He's worked on them a total of 10 days, minimum 8 hours each day. He took last Friday off to watch Casper. I've gone beyond being tired of the exams and am now resigned. And I'm not even taking them! Actually mr. flea seems to be chugging along and getting a lot of writing that he can use in his thesis out of it.
2. Things nobody should have to read in her baby book: comments by her father on what a good job the doctor did sewing up her mother's episiotomy.
3. I was born in 1972. Medical stuff that surrounded my birth that would be considered odd or fucked-up now: My mother got the contemporary equivalent of an epidural about half an hour before she was ready to push. Why? It was the hospital policy that newborns, even completely healthy ones like me, be kept in ICU for 24 hours and not given to their parents. That's right, my mother didn't get to do more than hold me briefly for 24 hours after I was born. My baby book includes a prescription from the pediatrician for feeding me formula and sugar water. Luckily my mother didn't take it. Though she did start feeding me solids at 6 weeks old. On the plus side, I was breastfed for over a year, even though my mother was in school or working and as far as I can tell hand-expressed milk which I drank from a teacup. All hail the modern breastpump.
4. In potty-training news, as will surprise nobody who knows my mother and me, she started trying to potty train me by about 16 months. She keeps mentioning her "low-pressure push" of the idea, which makes me (and I imagine would make her other children) laff and laff. I find it interesting, though, that the recommended age of potty-training has varied so widely. Now there are tons of almost 3 year olds who are not trained (my neice will be 3 in a month and they just started this summer) whereas my impression is that when I was a child it was meant to be finished by 2. I think some of this can be attributed to disposable diapers, but I'm really unclear as to where developmental (and physical) readiness really lies, and doctors sure as hell don't agree. We've had a potty around the house for several months now, and Casper talks about potty stuff and occasionally asks to sit on it. Has never produced anything until yesterday. My plan had been to wait until past 2 to get a couple of potty books and training pants and start trying, then back off if it seemed to be way early. But she's been telling us when she's pooped more and more often. I'm also worried about consistency with the nanny and Ellen - fall starts Aug. 15. (Hadas is potty-trained; she'll be 3 in October. Ellen, who's 28 months now, hasn't started.)
5. I feel really guilty for watching Entertainment Tonight with Casper last night. It was Celebrity Weddings, for crying out loud! But we were having a lovely time, lounging around and lots of hugging and happiness, so maybe she wasn't absorbing too much eeeevil. She certainly seemed to be more interested in learning how to stucco on Ask This Old House. (DX, that reads, "blah blah blah Ask This Old House.")
6. Rabbits have devastated my first planting of green beans, but the second planting is doing really well. Canteloupes are doing very well although I never did thin them. I never do, even though I know it's better to - I can't bring myself to pull up a happy and flourishing desired plant simply because it's an inch from another. I am a garden softy. Many set fruit on tomatoes but no ripe ones. Dahlias have bloomed by in a disappointing measly small way. Also having a small problem with Japanese beetles. Have been working on mulching the beds with compost from last year's pile - I moved the top of the pile over and have been slowly removing the bottom of the old. I wish it would rain - it's been threatening to for a week and hasn't at all.
7. We are temporarily stretched very thin, financially (this hapens every summer - some big annual bills, travel...) and of course as a reaction I want to buy things like crazy. Sheets, blankets, clothes for me, books and videos for Casper, eating meals out! (Garnet Hill has some great online sale stuff, if one of you has spare money.) It's when we have little money that I realize how little there is to do outside the house that is free in our lives. Outdoors is free, but we're in to the too damned hot and mosquitoey season. How much of American leisure time is spending, or window shopping to spend later, or window shopping to want to spend but can't afford.
8. Watched The Train Job and Bushwhacked. Inara doesn't annoy me per se, though the "tension" between Inara an Mal does a little. River annoys the fuck out of me. Wash annoys me a fair amount, too. You may all defriend me now after that last. Sorry. He's too over the top beta-geek-male.
2. Things nobody should have to read in her baby book: comments by her father on what a good job the doctor did sewing up her mother's episiotomy.
3. I was born in 1972. Medical stuff that surrounded my birth that would be considered odd or fucked-up now: My mother got the contemporary equivalent of an epidural about half an hour before she was ready to push. Why? It was the hospital policy that newborns, even completely healthy ones like me, be kept in ICU for 24 hours and not given to their parents. That's right, my mother didn't get to do more than hold me briefly for 24 hours after I was born. My baby book includes a prescription from the pediatrician for feeding me formula and sugar water. Luckily my mother didn't take it. Though she did start feeding me solids at 6 weeks old. On the plus side, I was breastfed for over a year, even though my mother was in school or working and as far as I can tell hand-expressed milk which I drank from a teacup. All hail the modern breastpump.
4. In potty-training news, as will surprise nobody who knows my mother and me, she started trying to potty train me by about 16 months. She keeps mentioning her "low-pressure push" of the idea, which makes me (and I imagine would make her other children) laff and laff. I find it interesting, though, that the recommended age of potty-training has varied so widely. Now there are tons of almost 3 year olds who are not trained (my neice will be 3 in a month and they just started this summer) whereas my impression is that when I was a child it was meant to be finished by 2. I think some of this can be attributed to disposable diapers, but I'm really unclear as to where developmental (and physical) readiness really lies, and doctors sure as hell don't agree. We've had a potty around the house for several months now, and Casper talks about potty stuff and occasionally asks to sit on it. Has never produced anything until yesterday. My plan had been to wait until past 2 to get a couple of potty books and training pants and start trying, then back off if it seemed to be way early. But she's been telling us when she's pooped more and more often. I'm also worried about consistency with the nanny and Ellen - fall starts Aug. 15. (Hadas is potty-trained; she'll be 3 in October. Ellen, who's 28 months now, hasn't started.)
5. I feel really guilty for watching Entertainment Tonight with Casper last night. It was Celebrity Weddings, for crying out loud! But we were having a lovely time, lounging around and lots of hugging and happiness, so maybe she wasn't absorbing too much eeeevil. She certainly seemed to be more interested in learning how to stucco on Ask This Old House. (DX, that reads, "blah blah blah Ask This Old House.")
6. Rabbits have devastated my first planting of green beans, but the second planting is doing really well. Canteloupes are doing very well although I never did thin them. I never do, even though I know it's better to - I can't bring myself to pull up a happy and flourishing desired plant simply because it's an inch from another. I am a garden softy. Many set fruit on tomatoes but no ripe ones. Dahlias have bloomed by in a disappointing measly small way. Also having a small problem with Japanese beetles. Have been working on mulching the beds with compost from last year's pile - I moved the top of the pile over and have been slowly removing the bottom of the old. I wish it would rain - it's been threatening to for a week and hasn't at all.
7. We are temporarily stretched very thin, financially (this hapens every summer - some big annual bills, travel...) and of course as a reaction I want to buy things like crazy. Sheets, blankets, clothes for me, books and videos for Casper, eating meals out! (Garnet Hill has some great online sale stuff, if one of you has spare money.) It's when we have little money that I realize how little there is to do outside the house that is free in our lives. Outdoors is free, but we're in to the too damned hot and mosquitoey season. How much of American leisure time is spending, or window shopping to spend later, or window shopping to want to spend but can't afford.
8. Watched The Train Job and Bushwhacked. Inara doesn't annoy me per se, though the "tension" between Inara an Mal does a little. River annoys the fuck out of me. Wash annoys me a fair amount, too. You may all defriend me now after that last. Sorry. He's too over the top beta-geek-male.