With local exceptions due to storms, the corn and beans look very good this year.
I just got a letter addressed to "Madame," confirming that the ancestral grand duchy has updated all my records. That process was so much easier than any of the US-based updates, I think not because of any attitudes around gender as such, so much as that European bureaucracies just don't have the same massive paranoia about fraud as their US counterparts.
Elke (who has started sixth grade at a performing arts school in downtown Oakland that lurid calls Hair Dye High) and I are now clear to get EU passports as soon as I get my new face, which is scheduled for November 15 and is exciting and terrifying.
I passed another covid test. Though I guess I wasn't really unmasked around others until Friday. Probably check again in a few days.
4: Do you have symptoms? Then I'd retest in a couple of days. If no symptoms, you probably don't need to retest.
We have a boatload of tests that are going to expire (even with the extended dates) soon anyway.
Maybe you could hand them out at Halloween.
I'm not going to suggest kids stick things up their noses again.
Interaction with two-year-old daughter:
Me: You can eat your dinner or go to bed. You have two choices.
Daughter: I choose three! I choose dance! *Starts twirling*
Get a piece of poster board, write a big '4' on it, hold it up, and say the judges won't let her advance to the next round.
Obviously, it works better if you have three or four judges.
Alive and well. My wife and I are excitedly planning a birthday excursion to the coast, which will involve an e-bike rental and two 40-mile bicycling days (from Monterey to Santa Cruz and back). I strongly suspect that the first day will be great... I'm a little worried about noodle-legs and bike seat pressure on day 2. But it'll be a nice get away, and the planning and route optimization is fun.
I met my 5-week-old niece! The parents are of course doing things one hour at a time, but I think they're handling it decently. I got to hold her a lot and noted for later reference that my thumb from ball joint to tip is the same length as her whole hand plus wrist.
13: your niece is the same age as my son!
Relatedly I just filled out the questionaire for my post partum video visit and am fairly sure I have post partum depression.I guess I kind of guessed that but the questionnaire was sort of unambiguous. We did the insane thing and drove down to SoCal to see partner's mother. Her fragility/pallor/shaved head is sort of viscerally shocking but she was very very happy to meet her first grandson. There's no question in my mind that this was the right thing to do, but packing and then leaving at 5 am to try and beat the sun through the Central Valley (only somewhat successful) really wore me down, and I was already worn down. So I tried to be pro active and message my psychiatrist, only to see they have been removed from the list of providers I can message. I guess I don't have a psychiatrist? The heat down here is absolutely mind boggling.
Baby still hasn't fully latched, so we're in this crazy pump and bottle feed regime. Baby doesnt really like it when I bottle feed him and takes twice as long so my shifts are insane. . . .there's barely time for me to pee in the whole feed diaper put down pump cycle, and that's with the hel pf the Snoo. I'm quite terrified of what will happen when partner goes back to work. And my family house is still a complete horder's wreck that's so terrible I can't really bare to have anyone over. Does it count as depression when there seem to be good reasons for it?
But the baby is very cute and is gaining weight and seems mostly healthy and only has inconsolable crying jags every few days, sofar, knock on wood. My feet no longer look and feel like soggy burritos. Also step-mother-in-law is being very reasonable and helpful and even made us a tasty dinner that actually fit my weird dietary needs. (Why is there so little salt-free vegetarian takeout. . . .)
Hope the latching and exhaustion get better. At least for us, once enough weight was gained, the baby got easier to feed.
Oh god, the pump-and-bottle-feed cycle was miserable. We ended up discovering posterior tongue-tie in the baby, which an ENT was able to correct with scissors in about five seconds, greatly improving things.
Oh, man, you poor thing. It's probably not productive to try and figure out the difference between "real" PPD and a rational response to a genuinely difficult situation -- just address it with anything that will make you feel better. Are there grandparents who would love to pay for housecleaners if that would be helpful and relieve your mind a little?
And what Nathan and Moby said about babies getting easier as they get older and more stable. Also, remember that if formula would make your life easier, it's available -- any benefits of breastfeeding over formula are small enough that it's hard to prove they exist, if they do at all.
Ile, my heart goes out to you. I'm so sorry.
I was just reading this post from a new mom who had an absolutely awful time with breastfeeding, and I offer it up just in hopes that it offers a sense of shared experience, even though the details aren't identical.
Is there any way you could swing a post-partum doula to come for a few hours, on a few different days for that first week your spouse is back to work? I've given this as a gift to new moms before, because that first stretch on your own is such an enormous mountain.
Two weeks until the primary and I'm ready for it to be over with. Right now the race seems like a toss-up. His endorsements are better, my media is better. I've got a new video up and radio ads start on Thursday.
Nice ad. Best wishes for you and your campaign.
ile, a couple of questions to answer at your leisure.
when are you back in the bay area?
would ready to eat/reheat & eat meals be helpful? if so list your (including partner's) dietary needs.
would a professional whizzing about to clean increase or decrease your stress?
would a professional (i.e., doula or similar) providing some support/relief increase or decrease your stress?
thinking of you. 💓
Ike, my sympathy. Pumping was so unpleasant and I continue amazed that no one talks about that. Seconding formula. Maybe for a feed a day?
Ile! Sorry about the autocorrect
So sorry, Ile, we had a lot of the same problems soon after the birth and they were wretched. Seconding dq's offers if there's anything that Bay Area local folks can do to help.
It's probably too subtle, but someone should try to make a political ad that plays on Smiling Bob.
All the subliminal penis imagery in American politics is angry. I think a positive message is needed.
I've just taken my second post-travel covid test and it came back negative. So I'm probably just immune and will never get any comeuppance for saying so.