The new lab? niiiiiice. We're mostly moved in, adjusting to everything being in a new place, and enjoying it.


Mom has an offer on her trailer. The buyers are going to give her some sort of contract, will pay cash, and want to move in as soon as they can. Saturday is her birthday, so I'll take her to lunch, then we'll start taking loads of donations and trash away. She sold the place partially furnished, so other than her personal items, the bed and dresser, and whatever stuff she wants me to take, the rest will thankfully stay.

Peanut has turned into such a little chatterbox. Each evening on our ride home, he tells me about the ducks, geese, swans, buses, trains, cars, trucks, bikes, and anything that catches his eye. I love listening to him. He still has some adorable mispronunciations, like kunk for skunk, popcorn for popsicle, tiss for kiss, and pillar for caterpillar (as in the Very Hungry one). When he's naughty, I tell him he's "not being nice" and he'll immediately give me a kiss and hug. When he gets screechy I tell him it hurts my ears and he insists on a "tiss" for each ear, then tells me "all better". I love him so much.

Mom and I have reached a truce. I called several days ago to see how she was doing. At first she was frosty, so I knew she was still pissed. She may have a buyer for her trailer and expressed uncertainty about moving into the ALF. I asked what her alternative might be and she responded she'd like to move back to NC. Bad idea as she has only one friend there, no family, no support. I asked how she would find a suitable place and she said she would take a bus to Asheville then use taxis to get around. She said she'd ask her therapist/social worker to put her in touch with a social worker up there. Ummm, no. Her therapist is great, but the other social workers she's had (via the hospital) were overworked and pretty much useless. They usually have little to offer and Mom always falls into the cracks. It's always the same - her disability check is too much for her to qualify for most assistance, but not enough to cover assisted living housing, meds, doctors, etc. I asked why she thought going back to NC would be so great and she responded that she has no support here. Touche. We had a good conversation about why I can't handle her attitude, that I'd like to help but don't want to be bossed/sassed/treated like crap. I'm trying to work on my patience with her and she's trying to work on the mouthy bit. She sort-of apologized for the mean crap she says, with the disclaimer that she doesn't always know she's doing it. Whatever. Peanut, Hubby, and I took her to the grocery store this weekend and she started in on something, but I pretty much tuned her out.

And now for the daily bedtime update: Peanut fell asleep within about 15 minutes of going to bed and didn't get up until 1ish. I had no idea he was up and around until I heard him shut our bathroom door. I have no idea what that was about, but I put him into our bed and we zonked back to sleep.

He's forgiven the dog and is back to hugging and kissing her. The boo-boo foot still hurts, but he's handling it much better.

The bedtime situation is progressing two steps forward, one step back. We were on a roll of several really good nights. Then Hubby was called into work last Sunday and worked into the wee hours every night last week (which involved investigating a suicide, an accidental death, and assisting in the manhunt after a state trooper was shot during a traffic stop), which threw Peanut off. He came home from daycare with a fever Monday night, which didn’t help, either. He did OK at dinner, but he wanted to cuddle/be held for the rest of the evening. Changing his diaper/taking his temp was a nightmare with him screaming “MommyDaddyMommyDaddyMommyDaddy”. By 8:00 he ASKED for Mommy bed. (Holy crap he has never asked to go to bed before…and bedtime at 8:00 is like soooo infantile. He must have felt like shit.) I lay in bed with him until he zonked out, then vegged in front of the TV. The next morning when I got him up, he cried to be put BACK IN BED. By the time he was dressed and on the couch in front of JoJo, he was back to normal and ready for the day. (I’m still reeling over him 1) asking to go to bed 2) it being an hour earlier than he usually goes to sleep and 3) asking to go back to bed.)

The fever turned into diarrhea, so I stayed home with him for a couple days. He must’ve been having some killer intestinal cramps. Every so often he’d start to cry, grab his tummy and cry “Boo-boo tummy.” That was my cue to rub his tummy until he felt better. The diarrhea finally tapered off over the weekend. We managed to avoid diaper rash until he returned to daycare, and now it’s raging. I still wonder how they manage it – he had at least 4 days of the shits with just a hint of redness and after one day at daycare, he came home with full-blown rash.

By the end of the week, though, I got him back into a bedtime routine and was able to take the baby gate down. One of us still has to sit/lie in the hallway where he can see us, but he’s mostly staying in bed. He still wakes up between midnight and 2 to come to bed with us, but we seem to be resolving the bedtime battle.

Last night, the f*cking dog scratched the shit out of Peanut’s foot while playing. Every time he’d bear weight on it, he’d cry then yell “Lily BAD!” This morning was no better, Hubby padded Peanut’s foot with an extra sock, and Lily was still getting dirty looks from one pissed off little boy.


Work is fun – we’re moving into our new lab digs. It’s a nice, clean, bright, and big space. On the not-so-fun side, I’ve been roped into giving an informal seminar in a couple months. Gah, I hate those things. I don’t do all the spiffy cool molecular shit, so it’ll probably be a snoozefest for everyone.

In the first week of this new year, I've learned that 3 friends are pregnant. Most exciting is that one of my dear high school friends is pregnant with her first. When I last saw her this past fall, she mentioned that she felt ready to start a family. I'm thrilled for her.

When I mentioned it to Mom, who got to know this friend well back in h.s. days, her reply was something along the lines of "Well, she and her husband are at that time when you think about kids. They aren't getting any younger." She can shit on anything.

Night two of our new bedtime routine worked very well! Peanut cried as we put him to bed, asked for a bazillion toys and required a Big Boy baba before he would stay in bed. Hubby took hallway-sitting duty and Peanut was out in about 15 minutes. Hubby tried to sneak away before the snoozing started, but Peanut was onto him and whispered "Daddy, sit down" each time. He's such a cutie. He slept on his own until nearly 2 am, then came to our room.

Hubby worked another one of those crazy cases yesterday. An injured woman was transported to nearby Big City Hospital. Given her injuries, the doctors guessed she was either hit by a car or fell out of a moving car. She admitted to doing drugs before the incident happened, don't remember nothin' and ain't sayin' nothin'. No one knows if her injuries were accidental or purposely inflicted, but the case is closed.

As much as I think the whole War on Drugs deal is overblown, it's sad to see that the majority of cases Hubby works, from disputes to robberies to murders, can be traced back to someone's drug addiction.

Peanut's bedtime went as well as could be expected - it wasn't bad. At 8:30 we announced it was bedtime and he broke down in tears. Hubby conned Peanut into letting me brush his teeth while he sat on his airplane. It worked! He opened his mouth and everything. He zoomed around the living room as we attempted to read his Night-Night story, then I put him in bed while Hubby installed the baby gate. We explained that he needed to stay in bed, but we'd be just a room away.

Of course, as soon as we were out of site, he was at the gate, binky dropped in the hallway, wailing away. I put him back in bed, replaced binky, snuggled him up with blankie, and left. Hubby and I replayed that scene several times. Finally I took a cue from Supernanny and sat in the hall and pretty much ignored him until he fell asleep. By 9:30, he was snoring.

Unfortunately, he kept waking up and Hubby put him in bed with me around 11 or 12. The little stinker slept soundly after that.

I haven’t felt much like writing. I was off work last week (one thing Big University really does right) and it was fairly uneventful (not a bad thing at all). Christmas was OK. We started doling out Peanut’s toys the Thursday before X-mas, one per night. I think when my dad was a kid they did something similar between Christmas and Three Kings Day. He’s mentioned “Little Christmas” before. Our family and friends were very generous to him again and he has a bunch of cute plane and transportation-themed toys including a little Jay-Jay set, a transport plane that carries tanks and trucks, a fire helicopter complete with water cannons, an RC car and bulldozer, and the favorite, this year’s He$$ truck and helicopter. We’ve replaced the helicopter’s battery 3 times so far.

A couple weeks before Christmas, I started going through his old toys and separated out the ones to put in the attic and ones to donate. A mom and her kids that fell into bad circumstances are living in the church rectory, so I asked if she’d like toys for her youngest, who is just 2 weeks younger than Peanut (she has 5 kids and one on the way. I can’t imagine how exhausted she must be – she has a wonderful attitude but looks absolutely beat down). She was happy to have the toys and I spotted two of the younger kids playing with them after church!

Mom was a downer over the holiday. She spent an extra day at our house, which was a day too many. We got into a stupid argument Christmas Eve over laxatives. I told her just to pick whatever and I’d pay for it, she kept searching for something cheaper, and after 15 minutes of hemming and hawing, I wanted to get out of there. Christmas Day she got her feelings hurt because I wasn’t sure if she made enough stuffing and was talking about making extra and neither Hubby nor I wanted to eat the fruit-concoction pie she made. (Last year it was the nasty jello-whipped cream-fruity thing. It’s become a tradition.) So I took her home before we even started dinner. I was livid, she was pissed, we didn’t speak at all during the car ride, it was bad. I called after dropping her off and found she has been in a lot of pain, so making the food was a big effort. But rather than tell me, she pulled the pouty act as usual. I told her well before Christmas that she didn’t need to prepare anything, yet she insisted on it.

We brought leftovers to her that night and visited with Best Friend and her family. That was one of the best parts of the day.

I took Peanut into daycare for partial days on Weds and Thurs and got some housework and chores done. Thursday I finally had the massage and facial Hubby got for my birthday. It felt wonderful, but they’re using new facial products and the damn stuff gave me a rash. Eh, I shouldn’t complain. I still enjoyed it.

Peanut and I visited Mom again during the week and sort of made up. He was so excited to see her and insisted on holding her hand while we went for a short walk.

We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve at Best Friend’s. The kids had a blast running around and getting into loud trouble. We left around 10:30 and Peanut finally fell asleep in the car (bedtime last week was between 10 and 11 pm most nights. Not good.)

New Year’s Day we hung out with other friends and Peanut had a great time with the kids there. We stuffed ourselves on a delicious meal – our friend came down with a stomach bug on Christmas Eve, so he missed out on all the good Christmas food. We scored with a big replacement dinner.

Now we’re settling back into the usual routine. Peanut moved into Sullen Teacher’s classroom. So far so good. He’s happy and she’s making an effort to be better. We’re trying to get the sleep issues resolved (getting him to stay in his own bed over the holidays went out the window. I was too tired to get up several times a night or sleep on his floor.) It took about 90 minutes to get him to go to sleep last night – Hubby fell asleep propped against Peanut’s bed. Hubby had a little discussion with Peanut this morning about the importance of a good night’s sleep, sleeping in your own comfy bed, going to bed early so you can wake up in the morning for school, and that we’re going to work on getting him to bed earlier. To which Peanut replied “No!” So we’re putting the baby gate up in his doorway tonight. He can climb out of bed all he wants, but he will not be joining us on the couch or chasing cats around the house. Tonight sounds like a good night for a bottle glass of wine


Oh, the Nativity set is even cuter IRL. Of course, Peanut just wanted to play with the palm trees and lob all the people.