Three weeks gone and no posts from me - so sorry! Truthfully I have half of a ranting post completed, but it's so old now that, well, whatever. I finally have a free moment to blog, so I will try to get everyone up to date on me, Griffin and everything else. For organizations sake, and for the sake of time constraints since I only have a little time alone in the office and this is the only alone time I ever have now, I think topic headings are in order. They will probably help you to skip around to the sections you actually care about anyway. Here we go...

Griffin's Health
You may remember that Griffin had bronchiolitis. You may also remember that he had brochiolitis twice. What you don't yet know is that he also ended up with his first ear infection. It seems like every two weeks, we have another sickness. Thankfully, he is a wonderful medicine-taker and he is more than "on the mend." He's definitely feeling great and back to his smiley, happy, giggly, silly, standing self.

Griffin's Development
Speaking of standing, Griffin likes to stand now. He gets help of course, but this help is only to keep him from falling over like a plank of wood. He can hold his own weight on those meaty little legs and I can actually take my hands away from holding him. Don't worry, I'm not taking my hands away completely from him. They are there around him waiting to grab hold again if need be, usually with his arms lightly resting on them for balance. He occasionally rolls from back to front, often laughs, is able to grasp toys and bring them to his mouth and tries to help turn the pages in his books. He will even close his book when he's ready for bed whether we've finished it or not, rub his eyes and whine/cry until I put him in his crib. This generally happens at 7:30. He gets up for the day at 6:15. And wakes up once during the night. Please don't hate me.

He also smiles often - especially at Daddy and me. It just melts my icy-cold-I-don't-want-to-get-out-of-bed-at-1:05am-five-minutes-after-my-"shift"-starts-for-the-11th-night-in-a-row heart to have him see me and smile so happily just because I'm in the room now. Similarily, the other night he was having trouble getting to sleep and would give a whiney type of cry until I came in and stood next to his crib while putting my hand on him and staying there until he fell asleep. It only took a minute or two for him to get to sleep. He did wake up once more a few minutes later, at which point I just went in and stood next to his crib without putting my hand on him. He saw me, smiled, rolled over and fell asleep. He did a similar thing about a month ago, but that time I kissed him on the forehead, he smiled, rolled over and fell asleep. I swear he's the sweetest baby ever!

Other Griffin News

• He tried rice cereal on Saturday. He finally pooped again today. Perhaps prunes are in order for the next food.
• His 4 month well baby check up plus shots is tomorrow night. I will update as soon as I can with his new stats.
• New pictures will be coming as soon as I get a moment to pull them off the camera. I know where the card reader is this time, so I really only need a moment. Well, then I have to post them. Soon. Promise.
• I'm contemplating spending approximately $60 on an Easter basket with liner for Griffin. It would be his only-ever Easter basket. Am I nuts to spend that much? Please comment your thoughts on this so I can decide ASAP and either order it or find a different option.

Me
Getting more sleep has helped my insanity drop from "high-alert! she's gonna go postal!" to "is she serious or just loopy?" level. This is a good thing. I hope that in time, I may get back to my previous "silly" level. We shall see.

I vehemently hate with being a working mother. I drop my heart off in the morning and don't get it back until I get home. Living 1/3 of your day without a heart sucks.

I want another baby already. Griffin fills my heart completely, but there's a nagging at the back of my subconcious that tells me to give it another go and don't make the mistakes I already have with Griffin. I haven't made mistakes WITH him per se, but with maternity leave, breast feeding, etc. I guess I partially want a redo with infancy, partially the possibility of having a VBAC and partially it's because if we have another baby soon, we can't afford daycare for both and we'd have to make it work with me staying home. Damn. I feel guilty saying I want another baby. I don't want Griffin to ever feel like he's not enough for me, because he totally 100% is. I always wanted three kids. I have three - one here, two above. Moving on...

Daycare
Not so happy with them anymore. Let's do some math.

If New Management = five teachers fired + only one teacher hired + one of Griffin's teachers in India for three weeks + computer system broken and remaining unfixed + marble sink FELL OFF A WALL flooding the center and injuring a teacher = short staffed stressed out care takers who fear that speaking up about their concerns or washing their hands will result in unemployment, or x,

And x + y > z (for non-math folks: x plus y is greater than z), with y being the asinine amount of money paid to the center and z being Mommy's happiness and comfort level with the center,

Then why the F am I paying y for z when x is not worth an F?

Random
Have you ever seen the People of WalMart website? This was not taken at WalMart, but at a Rite Aid. Still, I think it qualifies as similar.