Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of Feb 2006. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Tues, Feb 28th, 2006 (11:55am) Aaarrr! Today we present a guest weblog entry by: The Dread Pirate Aaarrr! greetings piratse have you had a good time salling? on that day kalen was away at nightschool. Mrs Aaarrr broke one ov her toes. have a great day with lots ov tresure. your frend Aaarrr. |
| Sun, Feb 26th, 2006 (1:15pm) Jasen Turns Two! Happy Birthday! Yep - my Baby just turned 2 years old. I have no clue how I ended up with such a cute little critter. It can't be genetics, can it? Cute doesn't run in our family. Jase is sweet and clever and generally well-behaved... except when he's tired and hungry, which causes him to explode like a time-bomb (He gets that from his maternal Grandfather, though.) He also does not talk yet, despite having hit the age where he ought to be able to put 2-word sentances together (like "Nice doggy" or "Mommy, up!"). In fact, he doesn't use a lot of single words. He's still around the same stage of language development that he was at age 1. Since this is a matter of some concern (especially in light of Connor's difficulties), I've got some appointments in the works: a Speech-Language Pathology assessment, an Audiology exam, and a follow-up visit with the doctor. Hopefully we'll discover that this is a minor developmental delay, or a result of middle-ear problems and easily solved with minor surgery... but if not, it looks like we may have a second special-needs kid on our hands. Bring it on, I say! I've engaged in many battles with government bureaucracy, fought my way through reams of red tape, hunted agencies & pinned down specialists, slain fears and rescued hopeless situation... and I can do it all again if need be. |
| Sun, Feb 26th, 2006 (11:55am) Love is... ...offering to get up with the kids in the morning, so your wife can play Sid Meier's Pirates 'til nearly 4am. (sigh) How did I end up with such a wonderful partner? |
| Mon, Feb 20th, 2006 (7:45pm) Family Day at Londonderry Mall Took the family to Londonderry Mall today, to enjoy the family day festivities. Kalen got her face painted (by a very familiar individual!), Connor enjoyed the petting zoo, and Daddy had fun showing Jasen the cool train display which Nalug set up. My favorite part was the members of the 501 Badlands Garrison which were roaming the mall, dressed as Storm Troopers and Lords of the Sith. Connor was brave enough to give a friendly StormTrooper a High-5, and Kalen posed for a photo with a couple Troopers, too. Kalen even said she wanted to be Storm Trooper when she grows up. Sure, she'll be a little short for a Storm Tropper, but I'd be the proudest Mom on the block. Pics: Kalen meets Stormtroopers, Face painting, Butterfly, NALUG display, Lego mugging, High-5. |
| Mon, Feb 20th, 2006 (6:55pm) Alright, so I did the Nohari window thing. Did I learn anything from it? I think so. Did it hurt? No - it was a little uncomfortable, but overall the responses I got were (I think) well-thought out and honest. Some people even emailed or Quick-Commented to explain why they chose the words they did. Some people emailed to explain why they chose not to participate in the Nohari experiment, and I can appreciate that. I even had a couple people email me with a list of adjectives which they would have chosen but weren't on the list, and I think that was particularly thoughtful. To be honest, the only thing which would really have hurt was if no one had participated. I'd like to think that I'm the sort of person who can handle criticism (I am certainly able to give it out). If my friends had refused to participate for fear of offending me, that would have spoken volumes. Some of my respondants suggested that I shouldn't be so negative, and emailed me a list of positives as well. For this, I thank you. I've actually spent a lot of time in the last few years contemplating and inventorying my positive qualities - I don't believe I could have survived the last couple years without an arsenal of positives - but I think I've made it through enough by this point that I can afford a more balanced view of things. The next few years (decades?) will probably bring more challenges, and I'd like to know which areas could use some work. Well, thanks again to everyone who participated, emailed, and/or emailed to explain why they didn't participate. |
| Wed, Feb 15th, 2006 (3:00pm) Several of my friends have opened Johari windows to help them get a better idea of their strengths. Or maybe they're just all lemmings. I am a lemming. But I am a dark lemming, so am opening a Nohari window. Please, feel free to follow that link and tell me what you think. For those who don't feel comfortable with giving criticism, you are more than welcome to use some random name which can't be traced back to you. |
| Mon, Feb 13th, 2006 (1:05pm) 2 Friends - by Kalen (age 5) So, does my child need therapy yet? :) |
| Sat, Feb 11th, 2006 (10:15pm) Arthur tells me that last entry (Feb 5) wasn't a Wednesday, and since he seems smart and can read (or so I'm told) I'll believe his interpretation of the calendar over mine. I changed it to say Sunday. Sunday sounds more accurate. So, my son got his stitches out. I'm a terrible nurse, and didn't even take my own kid to the clinic to do the suture removal - I just got Shades to hold him still while I snipped them out with unsterile instuments in the comfort of our own home - thus avoiding the 2 hour wait to see a doctor. I'm sure it'll get infected now, and he'll have horrible scars which will marr his perfect countenance and cause feelings of inadequacy his whole life long, but I figured I could deal with the guilt. Speaking of dealing with guilt, I've registered for Gen Con this summer! I shall now begin to prepare myself for the overwhelming guilt I will no doubt experience at the thought of leaving 3 screaming kids with Grandma while Shades and I go away for a week in August. Hrm. Okay. Guilt is gone. |
| Sun, Feb 5th, 2006 (10:50am) I do believe I just set a record: More than 2 weeks between posts! (There's only been a handful of times that I've gone more than a week between posts since starting this weblog in 2003, and never more than 2 weeks.) Of course, I had several brilliant ideas for posts, which have since evaporated. One had to do with the battle between the Intrepid Shapiro and the Fearsome Net Connection Monster, in which the Marvelous Maskwa makes a special guest appearance and saves our hero's life by beating the monster to death with a cross-over cable. Another was something work-related, but I had second thoughts due to confidentiality issues. There were a few kid-related posts lingering in the darker recesses of my mind, but those too have disappeared as my brain cells were forced to consume themselves in an attempt to escape the horror of living in a house with 3 sick kids, and a sick me. Why Shades even bothered to come home last week is beyond me. Our house is hardly a haven of comfort at the moment. So, here's a super-quick recap of important things which I might have posted about, given time and energy:
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