Saturday, October 09, 2004

Eric had a strange incident today. He has this little toy that is a variation of the rings-on-the-stand. Only it has plastic stars instead of rings. He put his head down near the stand and started to cry and he sat up and there was blood dripping out of his mouth. He must have bonked his gums. He really wasn't terribly upset, but he wouldn't let us look at his mouth. He just shut it up tight and I think he actually said "No."

I'm sitting up listening to him fuss. We kept him up a little too late and he's having a terrible time sleeping tonight. But my going in there doesn't seem to help much. I think it might be his teeth. He is about to pop one of his canine teeth and it's pretty swollen and uncomfortable. Poor little guy. I just went in and gave him some ibuprofin. I swear it has some psychosomatic effect on him. Once he takes it, he settles down far faster than the medicine can take credit for. It's very strange.

We watched the debates last night. Bush was much better than he was in the first debate, and Kerry should have whipped his stupid ass again. But alas he let a few major opportunities slip away. The other thing that was AMAZING was Bush said "If John Kerry had been president we wouldn't have invaded Iraq and the world would be a lot safer." While I completely agree with that statement, somehow I doubt it's what he meant. It's not just amazing that he's that stupid, but that the main stream media didn't pick up on it at all. He really sad that. We were watching the debate on Tivo and I rewound it and it's really what he said. Why doesn't the press quote him on this?? Why don't reasonable people know he's a stubborn idiot that can't admit when he's wrong? There is steadfast and there is arrogant. He was arrogant last night. So, we'll see. I am still braced for four more years of Bush-HELL.

I think, in general it's very hard for people like myself to understand a worldview shaped by religious righteousness. A few years ago after John Salvi shot up an abortion clinic a group of pro-choice and pro-life women got together to see where they were coming from. The statement they issued at the end of it stated that the pro-choice women do NOT feel that there is a singular moral view governing the world and the pro-life women felt like there was. I think that's the crux of the matter. Non-religious people generally don't feel like there is singular morality that we all need to live by. And it's hard for us to comprehend people that want us to live by their religious morals.

Enough self-righteous liberal ranting for the day. Liberal is not a dirty word. To me it means open-minded and accountable.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Today was not such a good day. And it's only 9:30 and I'm kind of considering it a wash. I've been sick since Wednesday. I left work at noon on Wednesday and had a lovely time getting home waiting and waiting for busses and the T. Public transportation in Boston is SUCH a mess. I don't know why they can't at least have the busses run on time in the middle of the day when there is no traffic.

So anyhow. I didn't go to work yesterday. I had a slight fever and felt generally crappy and stuffy. It was one of the days that Rich is home with Eric so we got some family time with me in my getting-stinkier-by-the-minute-but-I-don't-care-because-I'm-sick pajamas, Rich and The Boy.

But Eric was a little cranky because his teeth are really bothering him. Then this morning he work up at 5:45 and cried and fussed until 8 and his advil kicked in. Then I brought him to school -- he was still a little fragile and he walked up to this older girl who was coloring on the table. She turned around an thumped him twice.

I took issue about this on a couple of levels. One, the girl was older and belonged in the two-year-old room. The other issue was that they didn't remediate it. They asked her if she wanted to go back in her own classrooms, to which she gave a typical two-year-old NO! And they kind of let it go. I glared at her and said "It's not nice to hit people." But I felt very helpless. The director was standing right there and didn't really deal with the situation. Rich is off talking to some guy at Fidelity so I couldn't get in touch with him. So, I did what any normal person would do and called my mom. She said to sit down with the director and try to understand the groundrules about having the bigger kids in the class with the littler kids.

I am not looking forward to this conversation.


Tuesday, October 05, 2004

I was late for work again this morning. That's two days in a row my boss has seen me do the sheepish-walk-of-shame down the corridor directly in front of his office. This morning Eric work up at 5:45 and came into bed with mom and dad. After 45 minutes of nursing/breakdancing we all fell back to sleep. Until 8:30. I got to work at 9:30 and the fact that I wasn't later was a miracle. The Commuting Gods smiled upon me on this Autumn morning.

Another amazing milestone or two this week. Yesterday when Rich and Eric were playing between babysitters, he started clapping his hands. SO cute. Today, Rich called to ask me some mundane question about what I need from the store and he put Eric on the phone and he almost said Hi, MOM. It sounded more like "hamma!!" But it was very cool.

This year is so amazing in general. I know so many two year olds you can have conversations with. And that's like 11 months away.

In other news, the Syracuse thing is progressing slowly but strangely. Instead of flying Rich out there, the hiring manager and HR person happen to be in Boston next week, so he's going to meet with them here. We'll see what happens. Rich was a little despondent over the weekend about his job search, but seemed much more upbeat by Monday. He did a whole bunch of follow up. I alternate between being completely stressed out about watching our savings account balance get lower. Then I know in my heart he's so brilliant and fabulous and that something wonderful will come out of this. So, I just need a little patience. Not many dads get to spend this much time with their kids. He's more fun than me. He gets down on the floor and plays and plays. I'm a little more exhausted by the time I see him, so I just play (as opposed to playing and playing).