tonight... tonight

It's a special night for me. I am spending my night sleeping on the floor of the home office tonight. I get to share the same room as 3 computers, a fax machine, a couple of desks and 20 years of garbage. And by garbage, I do, actually mean pack-rat garbage. My room (the office) also contains the wonderfully faint aroma of bile that has been masked under an umbrella of Febreze. That would be the bile deposited by one sick child this afternoon... a couple hours after leaving a similar deposit in her own bedroom.

The one in her bedroom managed to cover the floor for about 4 feet in length and get a good 9 inch corner of her matress, her stuffed monkey, herself, 2 sides of the crib and quite possibly a doll lying on the floor. As an encore, she decided that the shag carpeting in the office wasn't quite dirty or smelly enough, so she covered the maroon carpet in a layer of thick, white vomit. She also managed to cover a large portion of my lower body, as she was sitting in my lap. I've now been vomitted on by a child. I've been looking forward to this day, and it was only a matter of time before it happened.

So, the sick child is in bed with Nat and I'm on the floor. This cold/flu that she's had is extending well into it's second week, and seems to be threatening to stretch into week number 3. Tonight is the third floor sleep for me. The first failed attempt included a queen sized air matress as my bed, which ended up being leaky and left me with substantial back pain. Failed attempt number 2 started on the couch (not even close to being long enough for me) before I moved to the office floor where I actually slept on a thick comforter. Yes, that is my bed, and as you can imagine it's not exactly plush. Tonight, the luxury of having found a 1.5 cm thick foam matress to put under my comforter has me thinking I'm going to be in heaven. That's right... I am living the dream here.

And so, I leave you for the comfort of my bed on the floor. Good night, and sweet dreams.

goodbye sleep... I miss you

Well, the child kept me up most of the night again.

About 10 days ago, I decided that I was going to make a very solid attempt at solving some of Sennen's sleep problems. Most notably that fact that she doesn't ever sleep through the night... and rarely has in her first year. So, I decided (since she was keeping me awake most of the night) that I would toss my patience into the ring and see if I couldn't wait her down in her own bed. Normally, she goes to sleep in her own bed, and then when she wakes up screaming, gets moved to someone elses bed.

The result: Success. She no longer screams to be taken into anyone elses bed. Also, she has done almost 13 hours straight through the night. Last night was the first real deviation from this schedule where she insisted on waking up at 2am and playing in her crib with me watching until 4am. And now she's up at her normal time. I expect a long nap this morning... the question is when.

I will never mock another parent who says that parenting is tough. This dwarfs every other job I've ever done, and it's 10x worse when you have to be "on" all day long in order to keep them happy when they are having a bad day. Her cuteness on good days makes it all worth it.

Now, my time on the computer is extremely limited lately, but I have managed to find myself some new music, which shouldn't surprise anyone.

The first band is a new one from 1 (or more) of the Blink 182 guys. Angels and Airwaves is nothing like Blink, but a more progressive/poppy type sound. It's probably radio friendly, but I don't know if it will be played on mainstream stations. "We Don't Need To Whisper" is a fantastic album, and I recommend everyone check it out.

And now for something completely different. Seeed. Somehow 11 Germans decided that they were going to make some bass heavy Reggae/Dub style music infused with a Hip-Hop flare (without sounding stupid). It's absolutely fantastic. And, the vocals are in english. Their third album, "Next!" is just fantastic... but so is everything else they have done. It's catchy as hell and nothing like what I normally listen to, but Sennen is a huge Reggae fan and dances her ass off (yes, she is only 1) to this shit, so it's been bombarding my ears for the last month.

I have a ton of pictures of the area that I'm trying to get around to posting, but it's taking me a long time to get that done. I'm sure it will happen soon.

Later from BC.

Small update

Well, I never have time for anything computer related anymore. Or, anything for that matter. My schedule is such a routine with Sennen that it makes it really tough to catch up with anyone.

I'm leaving for Victoria tonight. Nat and I are spending the next 2 nights at the Best Western in downtown Vic for a few days of freedom from the little one, shopping, dining and drinking. We have gotten ourselves into a pretty crappy routine since Nat gets up for work at 4:30am almost every morning, and we hardly have any time together. Usually it's about an hour a night after Sennen goes to bed, and then one of us is usually falling asleep on the other. I now see why romance kind of falls down in the priority list once kids come along. It's extremely tough to get time to spend with each other and actually make something of it. We're not having any problems other than lack of time together.

I'm trying to get in touch with people, and will make more of an effort via email later in the week when I get back from Vic. Sorry to those that have emailed me or tried to call me cuz I just suck with my time right now. I'll be in touch soon.