It's quiet.

Josh is at school and I finished working early. I will be working with other moms this afternoon preparing our stuff for an upcoming consignment sale. I haven't decided whether to pick up Josh on the way or let him stay in school until later. He would probably love for me to pick him up early.

Yesterday we had a bit of a traumatic moment in the backyard. If you've been to our house you know we have a deck in our backyard that's a couple feet off the ground. Rusty nailed a trellis on its side to keep Josh from crawling under the deck, but he managed to fit through it. I was keeping an eye on him while in the kitchen- next thing I know, he's out of sight and crying. Rusty crawled under the deck and helped him out. This weekend we're going to try wood lattice to keep him out. It's moments like this that make me wish we had a backyard with grass instead of a deck. The deck is great for parties and holds up the hot tub, but it's not much fun for kids. He can't play with sand (some would get lost through the deck cracks), he can't examine bugs in the grass, roll around or dig in the dirt. Well, we have some dirt under the crate mertil, but that's not enough.

Today was odd. Not in a bird flying around the house way, but in the timing of things. Josh woke up with a slight fever that quickly became over 104 degrees. I gave him Motrin and waited for it to take effect. Once it did, we ran errands and played for 15 minutes at a park. He went down for his afternoon nap at the usual noon time. I had some energy to burn so painted a large portion of the living room wall "gleeful" green (from Sherwin-Williams). Against my better judgment, I decided to lay down for a bit instead of eating lunch. Josh woke up at 2pm but was still sleepy. I also woke him up entirely in the process of making my lunch then realized he had fallen asleep on my shoulder. O-kay. Quick to adapt and capitalize on extra snooze time for myself, I grabbed my new book* and laid on the couch with him.

Josh napped on my chest until 5:30p!!

Essentially, he napped five and a half hours! A record nap time I'm sure. No wonder he doesn't want to sleep now (Rusty's sitting in the hall to keep him in bed). I'm hoping the epic nap was what he needed to fully recover. He did have another fever after his nap (about 101 degrees) but felt fine otherwise. Well, not entirely. He coughed so much at one point of the evening he barfed a little. But that was a mechanical problem, not viral.

Needless to say, I didn't get much done today other than the morning chores and keeping the boy alive (and asleep). Tomorrow I plan to work at least a half day. I'm taking Josh to Coughs & Cuddles, a daycare behind Plano Presbyterian Hospital that takes sick children while the parents go to work. Apparently they take any sort of illness and charge only $6. I know Josh is super-needy when he's sick but it's been almost a full week and I'm getting restless not working.

* Oh yeah, my new book. Today I bought "Made to Stick" by Chip & Dan Heath. It's a communications book about how to get a message to stick in the minds of whoever you're communicating to. I read through 75 pages while Josh napped this afternoon. So far it comes highly recommended to anyone who is a manager, marketer, mom or something in between. Here's the NPR interview I heard before buying the book.

Just when I thought Josh was getting better and recovered from his cold, things turn south again. Either he relapsed or he caught Rusty's cold imported fresh from a business trip in California. Both of my guys have the sniffles. Lucky me- I haven't caught their germs yet and don't plan on it.

Rusty & I went to the DSO last night again. The performance overall was good. I enjoyed the Ravel pieces best which was the second half of the concert. First was Tzigane for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Vadim Gluzman (who I dubbed the Elvis Presley of violinists), then we ended on Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloe.

Josh spent the evening at Nolan's house. He played well, ate well and went to sleep on time. Although he was awake during the drive home, he went back to sleep within minutes in his own bed. AND he slept well waking up only twice. Speaking of, here he is awake from his nap.

Josh is better today- mostly. He's drooling profusely though. We suspect he's teething. Add teething to a cold and you've got one slobbery wet cranky child. Last night was brutal. He slept two hours at the longest stretch waking every hour or more until pre-dawn when we crashed on the couch together. So far no breathing problems! I'm hoping he'll be well enough to go to school tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Today has been very productive for me.

I worked from 9-4pm like a mad-woman on a mission to complete a project thrown to me last night. In the last hour of work, the school Josh goes to calls me to say he has a fever. Drat! I pick him up in record time, dashed to the store for more crackers (we were out and he LOVES Toasteds), then got him home. Not even ten minutes of being home he falls asleep on my shoulder. I laid him down and he's been out since then. I finished my project while he napped and now have some spare time.

Since Rusty's not going to be home (he's working in Irvine, CA this week) and Josh will likely go to bed late and/or be up a lot, I'm about to make great use of my time by snagging a bite and resting/vegging while I can. I hope his cold is short and easy. We'll see tomorrow!

Josh attended his first birthday party as a toddler this morning. His friend Sydney turned two today. The kids (and some parents) played at the Wiggly Play Center in Frisco. Josh had fun the first hour but then got super cranky so we had to leave a little early. He feel asleep on the way home and normally this is where a story ends.

Except...

Some time during Josh's nap he barfed up some of the juice he drank at the party. We have bathed him and fed him and are doing laundry. Other than a low-grade cold he's working out, he doesn't seem much effected by an upset tummy. In fact, he's playing with his new toy sunglasses, a party favor from Sydney's mom. Oh wait, now they're broken. But he's still playing with it.

Anyway, I'm hoping the upset tummy is an isolated incident from too much sugar or coughing a lot.

For work, I'm testing out SugarCRM. It's not the best open-source program I've found, but it doesn't require a server upgrade and it seems to cover the basics. Shopping around for CRMs hasn't been much fun but it's necessary to help Dan improve his business.

Questions People Keep Asking Me

So how is the new job?
It's going fine. I feel a little lost at times figuring out who's who, how things operate and what's going on, but I'll catch on quickly I'm sure. I enjoy what I'm doing, enjoy who I'm working with and love the ability to work from home.

How did you find the job?
It came about from an offhand comment I made to our financial advisor, Dan Bramschreiber. I mentioned to him that I would be looking for a new job soon to do something in the marketing field part-time. He told me he needed someone to work on his new website he plans to launch and an upcoming newsletter. The conversation evolved into a casual offer for work that I accepted after a couple days of contemplation.

How often do you work?
I work three full days a week on average on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. That's about twenty-four work hours. Josh goes to school those days and stays home with me Mondays and Fridays. The flexibility in my job is awesome: if I work during the weekend, I take back that time during the week. Monday this week Josh spent half of his day in school meeting his classmates and teachers so I worked for three hours. That extra time on Monday covered my dentist appointment today.

How does Josh like daycare?
He doesn't mind it after he gets over the fact that I leave him there. He's pretty upset when I leave him but happy as a clam when I return.

Is he sleeping better and is he more tired?
The jury's still out on that one.

Do you miss having him around?
No, because I keep myself busy working. I couldn't have done this any sooner than now. I waited until I was really ready before thinking about working again. I enjoy eating lunch without multi-tasking or guarding my plate.

Has Josh gotten sick yet?
Not yet. He's got a slightly runny nose but his friend Nolan might have donated that last weekend.

Waiting for dinner. Josh is climbing furniture. Here's my chance for a quick post.

Josh spent three and a half days in school this week. Preston Park Montessori Academy was the best daycare solution I could find in the area for part-time enrollment. He seems to like it by the end of the day. He has a ravenous appetite when I pick him up. I learned quickly to arm myself with a granola bar, Nutri-Grain bar, graham crackers, and the like. For lunch today, they fed him potatoes, jam, green beans an peache with milk. He had snacks twice with goldfish and cup cake (celebrating a class mate's birthday). The morning drop off is still rough though. He clings to me with all his strength crying and begging me not to go. (If you haven't seen Josh in a while, you'd be surprised at his strength. Being an expert toddler climber, he can lift his weight easily.)

Dinner time. More later.

Today was Super Bowl Sunday. We had friends over to visit and watch the tube with us. Some good commercials, a couple great, the game was ok and everyone's company was well worth the clean up afterwards. My top three favorite commercials were:

Combos- Fever

Bud Light- Hitchhiker


GM- Carwash Dudes



Other notable mentions were the CareerBuilder.com ads, most of the Bud Light ads, The Snickers Kiss, Sierra Mist Beard Over, and the Doritos Crash. The Ford commercials all sucked, Coke was mild, and Chevy was lame and GoDaddy.com was a repeat of last year's idea. I'm surprised at who did not advertise: AT&T, Pepsi, McDonalds, to name three.

Overall, this was a superb day, especially for Josh. We visited Rusty's parents late morning, Josh napped for 2 hours, we had a decent turn out of guests, Josh had fun playing with grown ups and his baby friend Nolan, and the house wasn't totally wrecked afterwards. Tomorrow should be busy the first half of the day. Josh & I are meeting with mom friends for breakfast at Ikea, then playing at Stonebriar mall, lunch and nap, then Josh will spend the afternoon in daycare while I begin to toil with marketing for The Helix. Hopefully Josh will sleep soundly tonight. We all need some rest.

Got a job as Marketing Director! Woot! Yay!!

Company: The Helix Financial Group (Yeah, I'll make the website look prettier over the coming months.)

I'm working part-time- three full days a week. Josh will be enrolled into daycare next week.

Early mornings are better. We have a system: Josh still rouses out of bed around 5am everyday, but now we lay in his room on the floor while he goes back to sleep. I'm not sure if it's the company or us monitoring him to stay in bed that works, but when he goes back to sleep he's down for another 2-3 hours. Now we're getting up between 7-8am.

This week Josh turned 21 months old. In the coming few months we'll be exploring how to get him off the 'binky' (he calls it a 'ki-ki'). Ideally I'd like to do it before his second birthday. I need to get ideas on how best to do this. I read somewhere that letting your toddler be involved in the process of getting rid of it helps them understand that it's really gone. Like burying it. Or flushing it. Or throwing it over a canyon edge. Then it will likely take 2-3 days (or more) for him to get the idea that it really is gone and to cope with the change. Meanwhile we're practicing drinking from a cup without a spill-proof lid. So far so good as long as I don't put too much in the cup. Otherwise it becomes too much temptation not to play with it.

Josh has three phrases he can now say:

1. Where is it?
2. There it is.
3. All gone.

And no, he still cannot say 'grandma'.

In other news, I'm tempted to take a road trip with Josh to Corpus Christi to visit grand-folk. I'm still toying with the idea so no firm plans yet. Rusty will be out of town for a few days and I dread being home alone during that time.

Josh's cold did indeed turn worse yesterday. He developed wheezing shallow breathing (bronchiolitis) around 3am warranting breathing treatments. Yesterday I gave him breathing treatments every couple of hours. He was miserable, the poor guy. Nose constantly running, no energy, coughing, wheezing, and a very slight fever around late morning. He spent almost the entire day resting on my chest or lap, or being held as I walked around.

I had my own battle- still do. Something in this house is causing my allergies to go crazy. Every 15-20 minutes I sneeze, eyes water up, nose constricts, mucus builds up... then it all relaxes until the next allergic reaction. I'm not sure if it's a plant, mold outside from rain last week, dust, some weed pollen?? Whatever it is, it's adding to the challenges of taking care of a sick toddler. It's tough to get Josh to sleep when all of a sudden a huge sneeze erupts and a quick grab for Kleenex distracts him.

Today should be better. He already has more energy and has less of a runny nose. Hopefully he'll have more appetite. Maybe I'll actually get out of the house today.

Josh has a cold. Since it's January, this is a great time to start counting how many times he gets sick in a year. Last seemed like a lot, but then I normally don't get sick 6-10 times a year like most toddlers. This cold is mild so far. Runny nose, sneezing and crabbiness. So far no breathing problems. We expected him to sleep like crap last night. Usually when Josh has a cold he's restless. We expected he'd be up at least four times. Surprisingly not! He did toss and turn shortly after he went to bed. So I slept with him on the couch in hopes that keeping him elevated would help drain his nasal cavities. This worked fine for about two hours until he started tossing and turning on me. I laid him in his own bed and he didn't so much as peep the whole night. At 6:40-ish he woke up fully rested and ready to run. Rusty, on the other hand, did not sleep well. He says I hogged the bed, stole the covers and took turns snoring with my cat. I deny these allegations.

Looks like the so called "winter blast" is going to rip through town again this weekend. Being couped up inside with an overly active toddler will be so much fun!

We're still teaching Josh to put himself to sleep. I'm fairly consistent at night time in keeping him in his bed to go to sleep. But in the early mornings, especially 5:30, I break down. I'd rather hold him on my chest and snooze for an hour on the couch than lose sleep trying several times in vain or getting up so early. I got more than an hour nap this morning from him. It doesn't help him learn to put himself to sleep but it makes me feel better getting that extra hour of sleep. I think I would be better at these early mornings if I weren't waking up several times to put him back to bed or to sleep each night. Last night I was woken up 4 times helping him go back to sleep. By 5:30 it's no wonder I don't want to budge. When Rusty's shoulder heals better I'm going to propose that one of us gets up throughout the night to get Josh and one of us gets up early in the morning. I can't do both and it's not fair anyway.

The project for this weekend: teach Joshua how to say/sign "please".

I'm loving the book David got for me this Christmas: Lamb (The Gospel According to Biff, Christs' Childhood Friend) by Christopher Moore. The main character is a riot and the stories are just as outrageous. I love how this book does not take religion seriously, it just tells a good story. The book refers to "the Savior" from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Yeshua, which is Joshua; the book is narrated by Joshua's friend Biff. Classic example of why this book rocks...

"Joshua, you're the Son of God. You're the Messiah. That implies- oh, I don't know- that you're a Jew! You can't eat bacon."
God doesn't care if we eat bacon. I can just feel it."
"Really. He still feel the same way about fornication?"
"Yep."
"Masturbation?"
"Yep."
"Killing? Stealing? Bearing false witness? Coveting thy neighbor's wife, et cetera? No change of heart on those"
"Nope."
"Just bacon. Interesting. You would have thought there would be something about bacon in the prophecies of Isiah."
"Yeah, makes you wonder, doesn't it?"
"You're going to need more than that to usher in the kingdom of God, Josh, no offense. We can't go home with, 'Hi, I'm the Messiah, God wanted you to have this bacon.' "
"I know. We have much more to learn. But breakfasts will be more interesting."
"Go to sleep, Josh."

In other news, I've polished my resume and cover letter. It was a tough task with all the cobwebs on it and tarnished brass. But it looks fine now. Fit for any employer of interest. Thing is, before I can go sticking my neck out for jobs, I need to do some research about daycare, Montessori school, in-home care, and other options for Josh. I would like to send him to Montessori school but it's not cheap (~ $1100+ per month). Daycare isn't cheap either but it's a little cheaper. Some daycares teach some basic skills (colors, shapes, sharing, music, etc.) much like the schools do. I need to figure out what my options are, who has a spot to enroll him, and how I can transition him smoothly to a new routine. This is will be the hard part. I don't really want to drop him off in someone else's care but I also don't want to be a stay-at-home mom forever either. Unless something big happens, I feel the need to go back to work and contribute to our income in some way. This will be no simple task. I fear I'll be exhausted with the juggle.

Ice ice everywhere! It's the "Winter Blast" that the news is all over this morning. There's frost and sleet on the ground, but it's not a disaster. Certainly not worth shutting down the city for in my opinion.

Josh snoozed with me on the couch this morning. He woke up at 5:40. We had breakfast, juice and played a bit. Then I rubbed his belly and tried to teach him the word "belly". He thought it tickled at first then got droopy eyed. So I rubbed his belly and coaxed him to lay down. Next thing I know, I'm snoozing in and out of sleep with him resting on my chest. Rusty snickered when he woke up to see where we were, then kept super quiet. Josh napped a whole hour with me. As for me, my ankles were cold and I obsessed over whether Josh was cold too. I went in and out of sleep but it was enough to help me feel more rested. woot!

We're on our way to a play date. Ethan & Signe are moving to College Station soon so this is their last time to host a play date.

Josh has been waking at 5:30am these days. It totally sucks butt. Luckily Rusty has had a bit more energy in the mornings and has taken care of Josh an hour before me. Everywhere I read online says it's normal after converting to a toddler bed. Last night I tried to keep him up late oping he would sleep in. Nope. Didn't work. I might as well embrace this change and put to sleep early (like 7:30-8pm) and go to bed early myself. The thing that sucks the most about being up so early is, well, lots of things: lack of sun, not enough sleep for me, nothing to do until hours later when the rest of the world wakes up. I'm whining and rightfully so.

New milestone: Josh can now feed himself with a spoon all by himself! He's been practicing with oatmeal in the morning and other thick foods. Yesterday evening he surprised us at dinner by digging into his veggie pasta O's all by himself without dropping it all over the place. This afternoon he had a rare treat: whipped cream! I had to have some caffeine and he wanted some too so I gave him his own cup and a spoon. He was very happy to lap up the cream by himself while I enjoyed my own rare treat.

The weather is going to get cold and icky so we'll be stuck to indoor activities tomorrow and the weekend. Today he went to Jump Town and, as expected had a total blast. Tomorrow is library story time then play at the mall with his buddy Vincent. (pictured above)

2 minute update while Josh is playing peacefully him his room.

I've been dusting off my resume and job site profiles this week. As I put it to friend Preethi, I don't want to stick my neck out to employers until I'm ready. So I'm taking the whole month to polish off my resumes, cover letter, portfolio (the one I don't have put together yet) and other job tools. I plan to interview with my blue hair until I either land a job that requires a conservative appearance or until it's obvious that blue hair is not to my advantage. I would prefer to keep it, but we'll see.

I visited Kim yesterday delivering baby gifts. Her due date is in February but she's likely to have that baby any day now since she's already dilated and having contractions periodically. She's taking a risky approach to natural delivery. Her insurance doesn't cover the hospital she wants to deliver at so she's going to labor at home until the last possible moment then rush to her preferred hospital for an emergency delivery. I applaud her idea and hope she's successful. She and I both hope she doesn't get stuck delivering in the car. That would suck.

Josh is done playing alone.

Josh has become an early bird since we moved him from a crib to toddler bed. Now he wakes up before the sun at around 6:30am. It's driving me crazy waking up so early after months of sleeping in until 8-ish. I've pushed his bedtime back to 8pm so that he'll get the sleep he needs. Before we converted his bed, he would stir early in the morning then usually go back to sleep for a bit. Or he'd play in his crib while I snoozed a bit. But now he can spring out of bed the moment he's not sleeping. I hope the newness of his new bed will wear off soon. I look forward to the days of sleeping in until at least sunrise.

He's also shifted his appetite over the last few months. He wakes up starving (like me) and usually has a bowl of oatmeal. Then after a couple hours, he has breakfast number two, usually fruit or yogurt or cereal bar or something like that. Then it's lunch time two hours later, just before his nap. I'm sneaking in vegetables with his spaghettios or serving up half a grilled cheese & ham sandwich or doling out diced veggies with breaded chicken. Spaghettios are his favorite though. Then another snack after his nap and light grazing until dinner. Dinner used to be level with dinner. But lately he's only eating a snack's worth of food. A few bites and he's done. He still make him sit at the table with us even though he's not eating much with us. We want to teach him that dinnertime means we all sit down together until we're done. That lesson comes in handy when we find ourselves out to eat or at someone's house where we can't let him run around unattended.

This week will run as normal then next week I'll begin the process of job searching. I'm fairly set on finding some work and putting Josh into daycare or Montessori school or some other arrangement. I want to start contributing financially and keep my mind sharp.

Darnit. His awake from his nap already. He went down at 12:45. I guess today is just too exciting for him to sleep. Bummer for me. There goes my free time.

Happy New Year!!
What's in store this year...

February 17th begins the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar
For Western Astrology, this is year belongs to Pisces
This year is designated as International Polar Year
Matt & Oana will tie the knot
Quinh & Son will have a baby
Matt & Sam may buy a house
Joshua will start daycare or Montessori school

Gobs of rain today.

I took Josh to the mall to play since it was so wet outside. It afforded me a chance to also do some post holiday shopping, though I didn't get far on account that Josh has no patience.

I learned recently that Play-Doh can be used to dampen the sound on super noisy toys! Josh got an Elmo Tool Bench for Christmas from his grandparents. The only problem is that there is no volume control and when you're standing next to the speaker (like all toddlers would be), it's effin' loud. So I stuck some yellow clay into the plastic volume holes. It's still a little loud, but it's not deafening.

I'm supposed to pick up Emily from DFW soon. Her flight got diverted here on account of the storms in the area. Apparently she's really upset because she was on her way to meet her boyfriend's family in DC before going back to the Navy in Chicago. She's probably bummed that she won't get to spend time with him. While I'm sad she's missing time with her dude, I'm secretly thrilled that she's staying the night with us. I miss the days when she lived here and we could goof off anytime.

This converting from crib to toddler bed is a time consuming transition. As I'm sure many others will be. Unless Josh is asleep or falling asleep, he has a tendency to get out of bed and either play or run to another room. I have a stool outside his room that we sit on waiting for him to go to sleep. If he thinks we're by the door, he won't get out of bed and eventually goes to sleep. So far this technique works and sitting by the door takes anywhere from a few minutes to almost half an hour. Luckily we have enough light from the master bedroom to read a bookwhile we wait for him to fall sleep. I'm hoping this will help him to go to bed, stay in bed and put himself to sleep.

Time to get Em'.

What a whirlwind of a Christmas! Quick run down of the happenings, then I'm off to nap...

Friday- Left for vacation the very day after Rusty got over his cold and Josh stopped wheezing his cold. We spent the night in Amarillo where we got a call warning us about impending snow on the mountains.

Saturday- We decided to risk it and left for Ridgway, CO anyway as scheduled- we encountered no problems! Josh got car sick at the last 20 minutes of the drive. It was totally gross!

Sunday- Refreshed, we trekked up the mountain to Telluride with Cameo & Lee where we shopped, ate and played.

Monday- We left Ridgway for Boulder taking I-70. It took us all day. We stopped at Alysia's for a break before going to Jeff's house.

Tuesday- Pretty boring. Josh played at Pearl Street Mall, we bought books & coffee. Josh napped 3 hors then we met Laura, John & Alysia at a brew pub. Later, we stopped by my grandmother Betty's for a visit.

Wednesday- the snow was coming down fast so we decided to go to town quickly for food in case we got stuck in Jeff's bachelor pad. We got down from the mountain fine but quickly realized we wouldn't be able to go back. Leaving our stuff at Jeff's, we made hotel arrangements and checked in. I had 2 white Russians from the bar efore we walked to a grocery store for necessities.

Thursday- I walked to Alysia's to retrieve my phone that I forgot and a couple other things. She took me to my car parked half a mile from the hotel to shovel it out. That afternoon Rusty found someone to take him up te mountain to get our luggage. yay!

Friday- despite everyone's warning, we decided to leave town for Plainview. We brunched with Laura & John then headed out. The roads were fine but slow between Denver & Co. Springs. We hopped onto US-50 which was great until La Junta, where the day's slushed turned to ice & snow pack. It was slow going, but we had no problems. We made it to Plainview at 2am.

Saturday- We wake up, have breakfast, shower, play then head out for home. The trip home was uneventful- as it should be.

Sunday- My mom flies in to join us for Christmas. We cook for everyone at Rusty's parent's house and open gifts.

Monday- We return to Rusty' parent's house for Christmas dinner and open a few more gifts left over. Josh decides he can climb out of his crib so we convert it to a toddler day bed. We're all getting used to this change.

Tuesday- Mom & I have breakfast at Ikea then I take her to the airport in the afternoon.

Wednesday- Shopping and gift exchanging.

Thursday- That's today! Josh got his second round of flu shot, I developed Christmas pictures, Josh played at the park and now he's sleeping.

And so will I soon since Josh woke up several times during the night.

Josh is sick with a cold again. I think he got it from his friend Micah after being watched for a couple hours during my dentist appointment Thursday. As usual, and unfortunately for everyone, his breathing has become labored requiring vapor breathing treatments every couple of hours. This really puts a damper on our weekend plans. We can't get a Santa picture if Josh is sick, no family portrait like I was hoping to do, and we'll miss a holiday party tomorrow. Josh won't eat anything and only sleeps an hour or two at a time- even at night. So I'm exhausted, Rusty is napping and Josh is just miserable. :(

Having a bit of blue hair has been fun. I get compliments from people I wouldn't expect. Waiters. Cashiers. Nine year old girls. A 2 year old at the park pointed to my head and said "blue hair" to her mom. I got the color redone to be more blue and less blue-green. At the salon a lady asked why blue? Because it's a bold color. And I like blue. When it fades it doesn't look like a highlight gone wrong- it looks deliberate. There's no question that I intend for some part of my hair to stand out. Rusty says it makes me seem young because it's playful.

My dentist appointment today was not fun. I was supposed to lose a metal wire retainer (called a lower bonded retainer, cuspid to cuspid) that runs behind my front lower teeth and have a cracked tooth patched up in the back. My dentist numbed my right side and started working on removing the wire, which is supposed to be a quick and relatively easy procedure. Instead, the wire retainer took forever to remove due to an excessive amount of cement and bonding. And then she discovered a small cavity at the bottom of one tooth where the cement and wire concealed it from x-rays and check ups. So her attention shifted to the newly found cavity. I got numbed then on the other side of my mouth. By the end of the appointment I felt like my tongue was as big as a foot. And I had that feeling I was drooling, even though I wasn't. It's a weird feeling for me to feel my bottom teeth from the back again. I can feel the cracks between each tooth and the smooth backs of each tooth. Especially my canines. My dentist felt bad for me having to endure a painful removal and to have a cavity that I couldn't have prevented and now have to pay for it's treatment. She said the workmanship of the wire retainer was over-engineered and wondered why people do stupid things like this. Sadly, it's not the first time a dentist has inflicted tooth problems on me. When I was 12 I was eating a cookie when parts of a tooth crumbled out in my mouth. Alarmed I told my mom who took me a dentist. Turned out some dentist capped a cavity on the tooth when I was 9 but didn't clean it out very well so it decayed slowly over time until the cap had nothing left to hold onto- hence pieces of tooth falling out in my mouth. This is all very gross and probably not what you want to read about. It's a lesson though. That doing a hasty job, not taking the time to something right, can have a major repercussions years later. Especially in dentistry! I still have a cracked tooth that will be worked on next month.

We're planning to take Josh to see Santa for the first time this weekend. Secretly I hope I get a good picture of Josh crying on Santa's lap. Not because I want him to cry but because I think it makes for a cuter picture. (That's my dark humor talking.) But if we get a happy smile that would be good too. Personally I think it's a little creepy all these kids sitting on some old dude's lap. I know, I know... from the kids' perspective it IS Santa their talking to. The older kids know it's someone who will pass on the list to the REAL Santa after the mall gig. I've never been all cheer and gung-ho about Christmas as an adult. Somehow by next year I'll have to change my tune for Josh's sake. For him, this will be the biggest time of the year. And it's my job as parent to play it up. Until then- I'll bah hum bug it while I can! :-P