A technicolor loony.

German artist Simon Schubert folds pieces of paper into beautiful pictures of, uh, stairwells. Each piece takes about a week's worth of work and can sell for up to $6,000.

Amazing stuff.

~~~

We were at Big Lots last week, and found a small cache of stuffed animals made by Carters for little kids. I offered a few to Charlie and she took to the bear immediately. We've named the bear Squish, 'cause when she comes in contact with the bear, she'll usually squeal, squish said bear to her and proceed to chew on it. We're thinking of getting a backup Squish, just in case.

~~~

Restless lately. Not quite mentally pacing, but getting close. Probably because I have a bunch of stuff I want to do and can't for various reasons, the biggest being my cold. The cold seems to be going away, so I have hope.

~~~

Oh, let me say, here and now, that the new Electric Company is *terrible*! It's like...a peanut butter and anchovy sandwich.

Why do they say they're going to revive something and then do something utterly different, keeping only the name? If you can come up with a new concept and script, you can come up with a new name.

~~~

W00t! The Chickenfoot album is being released on the fifth of June rather than the ninth. The site plays music/video at one, but it is easily turnoffable.

Chickenfoot is Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani and Chad Smith. I'm *really* looking forward to this.

~~~

I do so love Rob Thomas.

The support of legalizing gay marriage is in no way meant to change the ideals of the section of Christians who believe that homosexuality is a sin. But we should refuse to let other people's ideals shape the way we live our lives. Each of us has a short ride on this earth and as long as we stay in our lane, and don't affect someone else's ride, we should be allowed to drive as we see fit.
~~~

Tony awards are on the Seventh of June. Musical geeks, mark your calenders!

~~~

We have calls in to Charlie's surgeon...I'd *really* like him to get back to us *now*, so we can schedule the removal of her port.

She's been taking all her food by mouth for more than a month now, and could not be more ready. I think it's more like six or seven weeks, but I was so busy counting ml. and oz. that I completely lost track of the date. Yay Charlie! I'm so happy that this is something she outgrew.

She's sort-of outgrown the Periform Aperture Stenosis as well. Her nasal canals are never going to be as wide as is average for her age, but as long as she gets the stuff squirted up her nose every morning, she's good. We have to remember to mention her pituitary gland at her medical appts, but so far it hasn't done anything odd.

Oh, and remember me asking about reflux meds? We cautiously took her off those quite a while ago, and she's had no problems at *all*.

To sum up, WOOO-HOOOOOOO!

Via bkwrrm_tx, Project Runway is finally coming back!

~~~

Last week, Jeff and I caught a PBS program that was nothing but Gershwin. If you get a chance, watch this. Rhapsody in Blue is the last piece, and it is remarkable to witness.

Also, if you're a Tom Petty fan and can catch his episode of Soundstage, I highly recommend it.

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Hey look! Mrs. PiggleWiggle's house!

~~~

I don't like most April Fools' stuff, but I am fond of the goofy fake news stories. Not all of them, of course. The clever ones that took more than a moment's thought.

This is my current favorite:

Shocking Split Rocks Comics World: Alan Moore Abandoned by His Beard

It's more than just the headline...the article is great.

~~~

Damn but time passes quickly. I'm writing on Wednesday and all of a sudden, it's Friday.

Also? It was a month today that we brought the baby home. She'll be four months old next Friday.

Sometimes, quickly becomes warp speed.

~~~

Charlie gained enough weight and is thus no longer a patient of the home-visiting nurses (I can't remember the name of the place, only the name of the place that rents us her feeding pump). Yay!

~~~

I was nine when I started puberty (that's when the boobs started growing in, and probably the hips. The period gave me a break for a couple more years), so I wanted to get Sammy a good book to give her a solid foundation. Luckily, the boob fairy hasn't come to our house recently (if I'd ever had a chance to want boobs, I might not dislike mine the majority of the time), but better informed than weirded out.

We've talked about puberty and sex and periods and so on for ages, but it's always good to have a book to page through. And it may give her the language to ask some questions she wasn't sure how to form.

I remember taking out loads of puberty books from the library, both girl and boy versions, 'cause I wanted to know what was happening to them, too.

The one I found to start her off is It's Perfectly Normal which is perfectly marvelous. It's accessible without talking down, there are people of all shapes, sizes, colors, ages and ableness throughout the book and I think it's going to spark some interesting conversations. But even if it doesn't, she has the info now, and can either ask me to find her more or go looking on her own.

There were a few books I was thinking of getting, and the final reason I picked this one was the reviews on Amazon. The good reviews were wonderful.

The bad reviews? Were kinda scary. I have a feeling some people were sent there to make them, as a few of them mention the same things, such as "one of the only sections without cartoons is the one on abortion" and "the book was given away by Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider)". They also equated knowing about something to doing it, but that's pretty common.

My favorite thing about the book? Besides the section about sexual abuse ('cause we needed to have that conversation, but I didn't quite know where to start without scaring her to death. She knows that nobody's allowed to touch her without her consent, but this gives me a better jumping-off point) is the fact that they stress, in more than one place, that a person always has the right to say no, even if they're right in the middle of something. That alone is worth the price of the book.

And, in closing, I feel the need to yell "Nudity is not the same as pornography, you twits!".

Thank you.

~~~

I came up with a song for Charlie.

"Leap, leap, leap like a lemur
Leap, leap, up and down
Leap, leap, leap like a lemur
Leap all over the town"

With appropriate jumping where necessary. But, as with all things, I got kind of bored...so there are variations. We currently have "Marm like a marmoset", "Goo like a Charlie", "Photosynthesise like an Oak Tree"(that one's challenging) and "Gaboon like a viper". Yes, snakes still do creep me out, but Gabooooooon is a great word.

Sure, my brain may be turning to mush, but I'm havin' a good time while it happens.

~~~

Gotta go, baby's awake.

The Boppy? Oh yes, it rocks and is worth every cent.

~~~

I used to be somewhat addicted to Flixter's Never-Ending Movie Quiz. But I got over that.

Now, I'm somewhat addicted to the Never-Ending Book Quiz at GoodReads (I'm Myschyf there).

Oh well.

~~~

Charlie seems to have outgrown her lactose intolerance. Cool. :)

~~~

What she said.

~~~

I'm sitting here, typing, while my baby daughter sleeps in her Moses Basket (with stand) behind me. Hell yes.

Especially since I was wondering if she'd get home before she outgrew the basket.

Yesterday, she turned three months old. It was also exactly a week after her surgery.

She's doing so very well. I kind of expected her to freak out a bit in the first days she was here, because it's so different than what she's used to. But she didn't. She's pretty laid back most of the time. I do think that her being in the pediatric ward rather than the NICU helped immensely. Jeff, Sam and I were able to be there together, and so she got used to us *together*...and used to Sam in the first place, as the last time they'd been together was Christmas day (flu season began in earnest and the NICUs closed to kids under twelve. Because cold germs don't stick to people that age and older ;).

Sammy is so good with her, and does a good job of treating Charlie like a *person* rather than an interesting toy. Yesterday, I was rawther exhausted and Charlie was awake. So, Sam came in and sat on the bed, to hang out with Charlie while I dozed. She read to her and talked to her, and even got her back to sleep. I was highly impressed.

It has been a bit difficult to get into the rhythm of a new baby in the house. If we'd brought her home straight away, there wouldn't be any problems, but the gap between her birth and her homecoming have upset the...natural progression. Oh, it isn't horrible in *any* way, it's just taking a bit of time to find all the steps to this dance. We're getting there. And, I think we're still all amazed that she's finally here, with us.

She's the most vocal infant I've ever been around. Last night, we were repeating "oh" back and forth, and she actually says Goo. I'd always thought that was a myth.

Her doctors aren't worried about apnea any longer. YAY!

She's eating more by mouth now than she ever has, and is very enthusiastic about the whole thing. I dislike feeding her via the tube, but I'm getting very good at it (it really isn't difficult), and we have mountains of faith that she won't have it too terribly long. It isn't really the tube I don't like, it's the constant worry that I'll do something wrong and hurt her while she's connected. We've done very well so far, and I don't see any complications in our future. That's really not going to make this worry go all the way away though. Oh well. At least it's a *real* worry.

~~~

I would love to know why the software that transfers music from my computer to my mp3 player takes at least twice as long to do so than just opening the player *on* my 'puter and copying things that way. It isn't changing the files, just moving them, so it really makes no sense. But, it's a good reason not to use that program any longer.

~~~

The last time I had an infant, my keyboard was the standard kind. I've the split kb now and can attest that it is far easier to type while holding her. I'm not sure why, as the keys are in the same places, and there are the same number of them.