Rice Krispies

I guess I'll do an update before I get back to work. I've been transcribing a lot. My goal is to earn $1,000 each month, and to do that I only need to type 25 pages each weekday. It's not a problem as long as I stay on top of it. I fell behind, and I've been struggling to catch up ever since. I'm very close now though, so I'm feeling good about it.

Two days ago, Aislin had her six-month doctor's visit. Some of you may be thinking, "I thought she was older than six months." Well, you're right. And thanks for paying attention. You have something on your nose. :) She's actually seven months old, but I was about a month late in scheduling her four month appointment, and these two visits include several shots so they have to be adequately spaced apart for medical reasons I don't quite follow but it sounds believable enough so I just go with it. This time, Kate was able to come. It was really great to have her there. For some reason, and I can't figure this out, Aislin doesn't like getting shots. I don't know. But with Kate there, she just started nursing as soon as the shots were over, and Aislin calmed down and went to sleep. She provided much more comfort than I was ever able to on my own. At her last visit, I just had to carry her out crying. The contrast between the looks I got then and the looks we got now isn't as stark as you would think.

Lately, she's been having a hard time sleeping through the night. We asked the doctor about that, and she recommended rice cereal. When we were going to go to the store and pick some up, I asked Kate if Rice Krispies would do it. Sadly, I was totally serious. Kate laughed until she cried and said if I bought Rice Krispies, I would never live it down. She would make fun of me for the rest of my life. Turns out there's "Rice Cereal" next to baby formula and baby food down the baby aisle. Yeah, because I frequent the baby aisle so often. How was I to know Rice Krispies aren't the proper rice cereal? Doesn't every kid love snap, crackle, pop?

Anyway. We got the cereal, and Aislin loves it. We were totally lucky there. She eats it and eats it. And then, and this is the greatest part: She sleeps. She sleeps for hours on end. She still wakes up, but it's not every hour like it was. We're so grateful to you, rice cereal. Even if you don't snap, crackle, and pop.

Apart from transcribing, I've been trying to play a game Ted loaned me called Red Dead Redemption. It's set in the wild west. It's a fun game and everything, but between the baby and transcribing, I don't really have time. Any time I do have is spent trying to organize the new apartment some more. The study looks a lot better. I'm surrounded by books, and they're organized. It's great. Behind me, there's still a bunch of boxes full of stuff, but the room is much more navigable. It'll be great when it's done.

Speaking of done, I finished the book I was reading, High Fidelity. Yeah, just like the movie with Jack Black and John Cusack. It had a lot of things in common with Rabbit Run, which I detested, but I enjoyed this one. I think that's because, despite himself, the main character is easier to relate to. It seems to be a trend, though, in literature. The protagonist who is a child disguised as a man, or rather, the man who still feels and behaves like a child but has grown-up responsibilities and sometimes aspirations. These are the two camps I've found: The man-child (High Fidelity, Rabbit Run, Choke), and The libido's last gasp (Everyman, Toward the End of Time). There are probably more in-between, but I haven't read any recently.

I'm a little surprised Luke isn't online right now. He's got a radio show on KPSU that's really good, and he's normally chatting while he's playing music, but not today. I have to tell him Red Horse is closing. It's totally lame.

Okay. Well, until next time. Check out the movie trailers for Cowboys and Aliens and Green Lantern. I think they're pretty great.

Moved! The baby -- she has grown

Yes it has been a while. I have plenty of good reasons for this, and also plenty of new items in the meantime. Let's get started.

We successfully moved. We're very happy and excited about it, and our new place has many advantages over our old one. It's much bigger and has much more storage, has a larger dining room, and the parking lot is never full. It's also a townhouse-style apartment, so it's two levels. There's no one above or below us, only on either side. The walls seem thicker, too.

On the other hand, there's no dishwasher, there are no bodies above and below us to help keep the apartment warm, and we suspect our next-door neighbor is a ward of the State. He's kind of creepy. Ted and I thought he was homeless and scoping the place out when we first saw him. He's kept to himself, though; I'm not worried about him.

Aislin can now sit on her own, though she needs help getting into a sitting position. She doesn't crawl, although she desperately wants to. She'll lay on her stomach and come so close and then get frustrated she's not moving anywhere. On her back, she'll push with her feet and scoot. When we put her on her stomach now for tummy time, she just rolls over and scoots around instead of crawling. She's amazingly ticklish and laughs when Kate or I tickle her. She not only sticks out her tongue and gives Bronx cheers, she also makes a hissing-like noise while she's smiling that often leads into laughter. It's like that noise we make when we sort-of laugh at something. You'd recognize it if you heard it. She screams. She coos. She takes glasses of your face and ties to suck on them.

She's also been eating some solid food. Kate's fed her peas, and they make her diapers a disaster area.

I should get back to work. I've got a transcription that needs to get done, so I need to get after it. Now that my computer is set up (with a swanky new desk to boot) I should be able to make posts more regularly.