Stickmouth

So things around here have been off the hook!!

One thing happened was that Gordon the Good got a stick stuck in the roof of his mouth. Cross ways. And we couldnt get it out. It was so bad that he was literally trying to scrape it out of his mouth and bleeding.

So Dave took him to the animal hospital... and was gone for about 15 months. He came back quickly because it took the docs about 20 seconds to get the stick out. And they didnt charge us. Weird.

And...I got sick.

Milka-what? I know, I couldn't believe it either. Because. I. Dont. Get. Sick. EVER. I cant figure out yet if it was food poisoning or sick...if that can tell you anything about my symptoms. I dont think it was anything I ate... however, I did try an Activia yogurt for the first time (they were on sale) the day I started feeling like death (about 12 hours before symptoms set in). In which case, I am going to film my own Activia challenge... called, "The first person that punches Jamie Lee Curtis in the face gets a cookie from me."

It was so bad, I atually went home from work on Tuesday and stayed out on Wednesday. Milka-what? I know... I dont miss work for being sick- probably because I am tough... like my Dad- navy man tough.

Crazy. In any case, I started to feel better yesterday afternoon- and made it into campus to do some writing on the dissertation (still trying to meet my deadline of sending off a complete first draft of the whole thing by the time family comes into town. Between the manic writing session and some time last night, I got ten pages done yesterday. I have two sections left on chapter 5 plus a conclusion and I am good to go (keeping fingers crossed).

The only bad thing about yesterday was that Nico was asleep when I got home. He woke up briefly around 11, but Dave got him. And he didnt wake up till after I left today. So, I've been more than 24 hours without any Nico snuggles :(

Speaking of which, he is doing the greatest thing lately. I am trying to condition him to pick up after himself... which means that when he is done tearing up books or toys or whatever, he should put them away. I fully dont expect him to be able to do this on his own yet... like, I better put these books away before I move on to these blocks. But if I sing the "clean up song" he should know to start putting the things away.

In any case, I never really learned the clean up song when I was a preschool teacher (because I taught the older kids). And basically it went like this, "Alright you monster beasts!! Lets get these toys cleaned up so we can have some snacks!!" Which worked perfectly well. So the "clean up song" goes something like:
"Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up, clean up, do your share."
There is more, but I only know this one line.

Nico recognizes it though... and takes it as his cue to start clapping. He is not interested in helping put the books up on the shelf, or the toys back in the bucket. But he will clap encouragement for you as you're putting the things away. I am going to try to get a video of it this weekend.

Also, where are we on pointy birthday hats for babies? I dont think it is a good idea- it just seems like an eye-pokey hazard. Maybe they are too little?