Nap News…

Liam has slept for seventy minutes so far for this morning’s nap. I am very pleased. It has, however, made him late for his Friday with his grandma.

I don’t know how much longer he’ll sleep, though, with all the banging from the people upstairs who are moving a second batch of heavy furniture out with no respect for the walls in the stairway. Good thing the stairwell is being scrubbed and painted after they’re gone. Which ought to be Sunday, by the way, and we are pleased about this because it means we can leave the car in the driveway all day.

Death And

We got our taxes back from our wonderful, wonderful new tax guy in order to sign them and mail them off today.

2004? We took a bad hit. We expected this.

2005? The government owes us lots and lots of money.

The upshot? After we balance what’s due and the refunds, we owe the government under $500.

I love our tax man, I do. I am considering baking him cookies. Because wow, going through the forms when HRH brought them home yesterday… there’s no way I could have done this myself. And everything seems to be in order.

Once we hear back from the federal government confirming our 2004 taxes, we can finally apply for the child tax benefit. And we’ll be able to set up Liam’s education fund as well.

Because It’s Shakespeare!

And really, quiz or not, how can I resist taking a quiz whose script compares me to the unamed summer’s day of Will’s sonnet? Particularly one whose FAQs, when asked how accurate the test is, reply “In every way save the ones of accuracy. Or comparison. But, chances are, you are lovelier than a summer day. For a start, you probably represent minimal risk of bees, sudden tourists or skin damage to those near you.”

Thee Summer Day Score
Name Owldaughter (134) Friday 12th May (159) 0 : 1
Loveliness Lovelier Lovely 1 : 1
Temperature 98.6° F 60° F 2 : 1
Lease 34.74 years 0.59 years 3 : 1
Complexion 4 : 1
Owldaughter is more lovely, and probably more temperate, than a summers day
Compare Me To A Summers Day

Daffodils!

After a couple of good nap days, today has been a complete disaster with Liam waking up after twenty minutes of sleep on the dot every time, at that brief awakening point before the sleeper sinks into deeper sleep. HRH took him for an hour-long walk, and while he didn’t nap it mellowed him out, and that plus a bottle once home again seems to finally have put him to sleep. We’re currently at half an hour of nap and counting. Thank goodness, because Liam was getting as frustrated as I was about the lack of sleep, poor kid.

And I forgot to record that he said “Mama” the other day. Go figure.

Liam and I went grocery shopping this morning, and on the way out of the store I saw a man at a little table with two vases of daffodils. Every single year I manage to miss the cancer-awareness daffodil fundraiser. Not this year!

I chose two that had only begun to unfold, and one that was still a tight bud. It’s so warm that they’re opening already. I love them; I so rarely have fresh flowers in the house. And since they give out stickers now instead of pins, Liam has a daffodil sticker on his cap.

And there’s Liam now, waking up after forty minutes of nap. Well, that’s twice as long as he’s slept any other time he’s been put down in his bed. Every little bit helps.

Feeds

The feeds seem to be wonky at the moment too. Hang in there, loyal subscribers; we’ll get things back up soon.

UPDATE: Okay, the new feed address is http://www.owldaughter.org/blog/?feed=rss2. Bloglines at least isn’t catching on (no idea if other newsreaders are or not), so I’ve entered the new URL manually there. You’ll have to update your subscriptions on your own, it would seem.

Moderation

You may be noticing that all comments are being held for moderation. One of the major issues I was having with MT was the amount of comment spam it was generating, and the poor methods of handling that spam the new version MT had. In WP, you have to have been approved at least once in order for your comments to be posted without moderation. So hang in there; if you’re a regular trusted commenter you’ll be on the approved list in no time once you leave a comment at some point.

Liam News

HRH finally saw Liam pull himself up to stand by the coffee table last night. And, of course, today was his first movement-related ouch: he pulled himself up, overbalanced reaching for (what else) a cat, and hit his head on the corner of that coffee table. It had to happen; both his parents did it at least once as babies too. Liam caught the edge of his eye socket, but other than a red mark that’s a bit swollen and injured pride, he’s fine.

I think I forgot to mention that the pacifier is a thing of the past. His original one was getting worn at the bottom of the bulb from those new little teeth chewing on it, so I took it away and tried to give him another one of the same design. He wouldn’t take it. Apparently to the other one was worked in just so, and he wasn’t going to accept any substitutes. So he cried a bit at bedtime for two nights, and then la la la, it’s like he’d never had a soother, ever.

We have a new car stroller courtesy of his paternal grandparents (thanks!), and it rides like a dream.

He loves playing in the sun that comes through the front living room windows in the morning, and he loves watching the shadows things make, too. Thank the gods for spring. Walks are ever so much more pleasant. And the sun that pours into the house at various times in various places makes me want to curl up in the sun puddles like a cat.

We’ve ascertained that Maggie actually plays with him. Now that he’s mobile, he galumphs after her wherever she goes. In the kitchen the other night she had him doing lengths of the room for half an hour, simply by strolling to the back door, sitting down and watching him galumph towards her, then sidestepping and walking past him to the kitchen table while Liam drags himself around and heads off towards her again, cackling with glee. He slept beautifully that night.

Okay, enough of an update. I don’t get online much any more thanks to the New Improved Mobile Baby, so when I do I throw a bunch of stuff down into the journal to keep at least somewhat up to date.