Still sick today, so both baby and I are staying home. Just wanted to enter the latest stats as of 8/13/2004, at 25 weeks old (about six months):

Height: 26.5 inches

Weight: 18 pounds, 3 ounces

Head circumference: 45 centimeters

Big boy!

Monday, August 23rd, 2004

4:30pm

Julian's new name is Choppers. He has FOUR teeth coming in on top all at once, adding to the two he already has on the bottom. Unbelievable! They are razor sharp. We used to let him chew on our fingers...no way now! Remarkably, he only bites me a little bit sometimes when nursing, and only if he's *very* tired. But those few times are plenty, believe me.

I have to take a pic of these new teeth, they look so funny. He looks like he's wearing one of those inbred hick-looking fake dental prostheses, 'cause he just has four little nubs sticking out of his gums. Hysterical.

Today I did the unthinkable. I have a cold and feel crappy, so I called in sick to work and took Julian to daycare and had several HOURS of free time. No way! Of course, I spent most of it updating pics here and emailing instead of cleaning out my filthy car or anything too useful like that. But hey, updating this journal is important too!

Lots of babbling lately. He says, "Ba ba ba ba ba" and "La la la la" and even "Da da da da", but sadly, no "Ma ma ma ma" yet. He talks up a blue streak though...just starts talking and keeps going, like he's giving the Gettysburg Address. He sounds very important and serious when he talks, it's kind of hard to believe that it's not really words yet.

Dan and I watched the "Sign with your Baby" video yesterday. I want to start doing sign language with Julian soon. The gist is that babies can communicate with sign language before they can verbally say words, also it helps develop their language centers in the brain so that they end up usually being better at verbal language later on. Being able to communicate prevents a lot of frustration..they can tell you they want more of something, or that they are hungry or thirsty, they hurt somewhere, lots of things. Supposedly prevents a lot of tantrums around the pre-verbal toddler age. Even if it prevents one tantrum, that would be worth it!

So far I have introduced the signs for "milk", "potty" and "more". The milk one cracks him up. It *is* pretty funny. You open and close your fist while moving your hand up and down, like milking a cow. When I am nursing him I say, "You are drinking some MILK!" while I make the sign and he just starts laughing every time.

We're back on track with the potty. He's doing *all* his poops in the potty and many of his pees, which is great. I got him a new translucent blue potty, which he likes. I got sick of throwing away disposable diapers that had one or two pees in them, so now I just put a cloth diaper on him when we're at home. That way he will feel it if he pees, and learn to associate wetness with peeing. Plus that way I can tell immediately when he's wet, and change him. We use a lot less disposable diapers that way. Less waste and less expense. I really just use them at daycare and at night, or if we're going to be going for a long walk or shopping. I should be taking him potty when we're out too (I do it at daycare), but I'm lazy. No big deal. It's not an all-or-nothing thing, after all. The fact that he poops and pees on his potty at all at 6+ months still puts us way ahead of the average American baby, though significantly behind many Chinese and Indian babies, for example.

I have been giving Julian lots of diaper-free time lately. For some reason, it makes it much easier to know when he has to pee, I haven't figured out exactly why yet. Or maybe he holds it much better if he is naked? Anyway, we have more success with the potty when he is nakey-butt.

The other day I fed him some bananas for the first time, mixed with lots of breastmilk to make a sort of banana-y liquid. He liked it a lot, drank it off the spoon. Then we went upstairs to lie down and I could tell he had to poop, so I put him on his potty. He pooped, pooped again, and then pooped a third time! I'm talking some *serious* pooping! I put him on the bed on top of a cloth diaper while I went to go wash out his potty, and when I came back he had the weirdest expression. Normally he smiles every time he sees me enter the room (awww!), but this time he had a sort of shocked "Yuck!" expression on his face.

It took me aback, it realy did. I walked over to pick him up and found that he had pooped yet *again* in the minute it took me to wash out his potty. Luckily I had him sitting on the cloth diaper and not just nakey-butt on the bed, so it was OK, no leakage. I'm not sure what that was about. Do bananas give him diarrhea? Or was that just random coincidence? I guess I'll know the next time I feed him bananas from that batch. I froze some little cubes of it. Anyways, he certainly wasn't happy about sitting in his poop, that's for sure. Hey, who would be?

Work is weird. They are going to probably let my division die a slow sad death, because we make enterprise software and Yahoo! is not interested in making enterprise software. They just acquired Resumix as part of HotJobs, but they don't really want us. It kills me. We've busted our asses, turned this division around, have an award-winning product and lots of paying customers, but Yahoo! is going to let us die. They won't even sell us off. So I am looking around for another position at Yahoo! to transfer to. I did find a position as Photo and Graphics Editor for the News division, which would be so fun. I have to talk to the Hiring Manager and see what I can do.

I've finally worked out Julian's daycare schedule and he is flourishing, I would hate to have to go back to *not* working and taking him out of daycare! I think it benefits him to go to his school part-time and play with the other babies. And I woud really miss the professional environment and the money! So I have my fingers crossed that I can get other part-time work through Yahoo!, keep vesting options, keep adding to my 401K plan, etc. Think positive thoughts for me!

God, I feel so crappy. This cold is getting worse, not better. My nose is really running like a faucet. Now what? I need to get some work done tomorrow, we're coming up on Code Freeze at the end of this week. But I am sneezy and sniffly and feel like hell. I can't stand it when people come into work sick. I think that's how I ended up with this cold in the first place, last week the guy in the next cube over was complaining about how sick he felt all day...go HOME already, guy!

Well, if I feel sick tomorrow, I'll just stay home. I still have this bust-my-butt-for-the-company attitude and I really need to stop it. I probably took 10 years off my life working 80-hour weeks getting products out the door for years, and where has it gotten me? OK, I created one major award-winning product...but now I might be out of a job within a month or two. Thanks for nothing! My coworkers are quitting in droves, or watching "Kill Bill" over the internet in their cubes. So why should I show up when I'm sick?

I don't know if I'll take Julian to daycare again tomorrow. Nice idea, but it's kind of a hassle driving back and forth all day long. Take him in, come home. Go to feed him at lunch, come home. Pick him up, come home. It's 20-25 minutes each time, so I will have spent...gasp..TWO HOURS in the car today driving back and forth! That's crazy.

Wow...this day FLEW by! Yeah, all that driving, now I know! Already time to go pick up my little cherub. His nose has been running a little bit, but the powers of breastmilk have done their thing. At least my being sick has had a useful purpose...I'm creating lots of protective antibodies to keep *him* from getting sick.