Posting at half past four in the morning, with a sole hour of sleep under my belt and an unconscious baby on my lap. Why? Not insomnia, to be sure. Squiddle has been sick (fever/congestion/cough) since Wednesday, and just as he started to get better, Jazzy caught it yesterday. And you can't explain to a baby why he feels crappy and can't breathe. And the only place he seems to want to sleep in on someone....

Going to try to sneak back to the bedroom and see if "between Mummy and Daddy" is a close enough compromise that he won't wake crying. Again.

ETA: Nope. No dice. Apparently only the Mummy's lap/desk chair combo lets Jazzy sleep. Joy...

Jazzy has taken to randomly screeching like a pterodactyl. Squiddle never did this! It doesn't seem to be linked to unhappiness, though, so we're figuring it's just him testing out his vocal chords.

He has also taken to banging on things. This evening I pulled out Wonderful Husband's doumbek and let both the boys have a go on it for a while. Then Wonderful Husband took over and started playing an actual rhythm. Squiddle's comment: "You're making me dance!" :)

Hot weather arrived and with it, flea season. Yech. The cat has been Advantaged and I'm working my way through washing the everything-that-can-be-washed and vacuuming the everything-that-can-be-vacuumed. And squashing every flea I can catch. :/

I've also been working on quilts in a dual-purpose sense. Firstly, going through my vast collection of Works-In-Progress/UnFinished Objects (WIPs/UFOs) and getting some of them done (I'm aiming for one a month) and simultaneously targeting those which will neatly become Christmas presents. For further details, see my quilting blog.

Jazzy is now crawling forward and pulling himself to a stand so I'm having to go through the house with an eye to re-babyproofing it. Squiddle continues to be a bit of a threenager and had a wonderful meltdown at a Chinese restaurant the other day over wanting soup. Which we were ordering for him at the time! Fortunately the waitress also had a three-year-old and went and put in the order for the soup first and then came back to take the rest of our order. (And it was really good soup, too.)

And I've been working my way through rereading Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court and Too Much, Texas books. So, quick book review time!

Title: Yarn Harlot: the secret life of a knitter
Author: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Length: 219 pages

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Title: From Here to Home
Author: Marie Bostwick
Length: 351 pages

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Squiddle is finally down for a nap. In his new castle bed! Which is very spiff:



It got assembled a week ago. And last Friday the convertible bed got converted back to a crib. So now the boys are sleeping in the same room. Well, the first two nights Jazzy woke with screaming fits around 2am and had to come back into Mummy and Daddy's room. But the last three nights, bar me getting up 3-4 times a night, they've both slept in the same room. Hallelujah...

First post at Dreamwidth! Not much going on, but a few amusing things to share. Squiddle, ever more articulate, told me the other day that "The moon is a planet made of cheese." And Wonderful Husband came up with the idea that the little mermaid wasn't really walking on knives and glass, just no one had told her not to walk on the Legos.

I'm taking care of things at my parents' place while they're out of town. Today that included deadheading the rosebushes I planted out front years and years ago. This was actually done in self-interest, as I'm cutting myself a bouquet of roses for my dining room table every week. Today also included weeding their vegetable and herb beds, during which chore Rey, one of their cats, tried desperately to get under my hands to elicit gentle caresses. I summoned the Squiddle to help. His exact phrasing was "Rey, you naughty kitty. Come out of there!"

My baby, all grown up and talking in complete comprehensible sentences. (Sometimes.) It wasn't that long ago that he was at "Wei, wheh ah yu?" when talking to her....

Of course, I was slightly less pleased by his opining that a snail was yucky. I mean, sure I don't want them in among my vegetables, but I'm even less sanguine about him disliking them because of... reasons. Whatever they are. I suspect Peppa Pig may be to blame for this one.

Not much going on at chez Stonham since we've all fallen under the flu crud to varying degrees. Wonderful Husband took today as a sick day. And even Jazzy has a snotty nose and a nice chesty cough going! But none of it is worth a doctor's visit - fortunately Squiddle's fever broke Monday morning, otherwise we would've hauled him in for poking and prodding. And he was miserable enough as it was.

Unfortunately, however, the fact that we're all sick has meant no playgroups and classes for Squiddle this week! So he's been bouncing off the walls at times, which has drained me down further. Today, though, I'm hoping constitutes a turning point.

This afternoon, while both the boys were napping and Wonderful Husband was vidgaming, I did another session of "tame the kitchen garden." The dead bay tree was put in the brown bin for yard waste, as were the ginormous kale plants. The bin is FULL. No more yardwork until Tuesday, I guess. Though I need to examine the bottom of the pot the bay tree was in, since it died of drowning - the pot clearly needs more drainage holes before I use it again.

The hundred-and-seven popcorn plants just started peeping their heads up today, and the peas/spinach/radishes/beets/lettuce/carrots/whatnots in the one bed I've planted are all neatly sprouting. As are the onion sets at my parents' place that I thought wouldn't sprout, so goes to show what I know! Tomorrow we're due for more rain, which makes me happy, but... I'd kind of like a dry week so the back lawn and kitchen garden paths could get mowed. Ah well. Grass is always greener and all that.

I also did a 10% water change on the fish tank this afternoon and will probably add in a few more critters tomorrow. Likely either a couple African Dwarf Frogs or half a dozen ghost shrimp, depending on which one excites Squiddle more when we're at the store....

Well, the Squiddle is sick, with what's probably the flu. We're keeping him dosed with kiddie acetaminophen and ibuprofen, and if he's still feverish and coughing and congested and miserable tomorrow, we'll get a same-day appointment for him with our pediatrician.

Jazzy, meanwhile, has probably got a milder version of the same thing - runny nose, but no fever or coughing. He's also, at four months, outgrown the six-month sizes of clothing, so today I'm digging out the nine-month bin....

Since my writing teacher told me I should write down the "out of the mouths of babes" stuff so I remember it in years to come....

Squiddle currently sleeps, most nights, under his blanket and one of the quilts I've made him. In the specific order "quilt down there, blanket up there." Very important.

Also, in my car his car seat is behind the driver's seat, so when we're driving and he asks me "what that?" I frequently have to guess what he's looking at. The other day I guessed "a billboard?" and he came back with "yes, dat a building board." ^_^

And, as of two days ago, Jazzy has mastered rolling over onto his tummy!

One little boy napping in his bed, the other napping on my left arm. I would like to be sewing right now, but I'm pretty certain Jazzy will wake if I try to move him.

Mt. ToBeRead is way too tall ATM, but I've gotten through another book I should blog about soon, as well as volume 8 of A Bride's Story.

In the background I hear the humming of the 28-gallon fishtank we took possession of from my parents yesterday. A thorough cleaning, new gravel, and running the rocks and plastic plants through the dishwasher has hopefully taken care of the snail infestation. I've added in a few live plants as well, and as they grow I hope to get more and eventually phase out the plastic ones altogether. Currently the tank is inhabited by four neon tetras and one catfish.

I am so very, very unhappy with the political state in the USA right now. I remember a few years ago a friend joked that what was screwed up in comic books was not the powers or outfits or interpersonal relationships - it was the politics. Such as Lex Luthor getting elected president and declaring Gotham no longer part of the country when it got devastated by an earthquake in the No Man's Land arc. At the time, I agreed and found his point funny. I'm not laughing any more. Time to get Jazzy his passport. Partly to visit his grandparents in the UK this winter, but also partly... just in case. In case things continue to go horribly, horribly wrong.