Brief life update
Got smacked with some ungodly fatigue the past few days, not really sure why. "Seeing double" kind of stuff, ended up being out Thursday and part of Friday, and then sleeping a good five-hour chunk in the middle of Saturday, too. It took double my usual provigil dosage just to get through a four-hour HR presentation on Friday (OK, that one's a bit open for jokes, I realize). Otherwise moderately ok; finally stabilizing on the mood front, I think. I'm having enough aches that I'm thinking about talking to my GP about switching from Mobic to a Celebrex, and the eczema on my hands is acting up pretty surprisingly strongly, but nothing else too weird. Oh, wait. Problems adjusting focus vision-wise, both up close and far away. Hoping that clears up as I adjust to the Trileptal, but I need to remember to tell them about it at my next visit. It was really obnoxious at the HR thing last Friday when I had to watch a lot of stuff on projector.
Anyway, back at work today, and getting caught up. Need to see where things are at with Kenyon stuff; I've been almost entirely out-of-touch since Tuesday.
On the positive side, life at home is really, really good. We've gotten things almost entirely rearranged to make space for Holly, Chad, and Kidlet (he's usually only here a few days every few weeks, but I want him to feel at home when he is). Grafton's going out of town for 10 days, and possibly for a 3-month contract job after that, but he's packed up his studio all ready to shift to the back house, and then the front house will be quite thoroughly kid-proofed (we're not moving the studio just for that reason; we're reclaiming the room for a bedroom for Holly, and moving the studio to a space that has a sink, but it works out well in the kidproofing arena). Liv's working through her stuff in the back house, I already rearranged the front house attic last week and have been moving extra stuff in there. Chad and Holly have both been helping out with chores and errands, which has been a great help to the household overall.
My room with Chad and Kidlet has become the "kids' books and toys" space, and I've been sorting through everything by age range (it's taking a while; my collections of both are pretty ridiculous). And Kidlet totally dug the play mat/rug (cityscape) I found for him, so I'm psyched about that. He's getting the hang of that being "his space", and it's become a really nice retreat when folks want to watch something non-animated on the main TV, or Caleb's working from home and needs quiet. And it'll be even friendlier once we get these on the wall! I couldn't pass 'em up; octopuses AND turtles!
This was a Kidlet weekend, so we took the chance to give him a full tour of both houses, along with explanations about why he wasn't allowed in certain places ("this is someone's private space" or "this has things that aren't safe for you", basically). He's also become a championship strawberry-finder, although so far he just picks them and feeds them to whomever is about; we can't convince him to eat them himself yet. He was also really excited to pull up a big fat carrot from the front garden, although we had to explain to him why we didn't want him to pull up everything right then. *chuckle* And he's been getting really good with the critters, learning to be gentle, and learning to tell the dogs "No!" when they do something he doesn't like. We also had Holly's part-time dog Boris over this weekend, so it was a full house, and this morning he was sitting calmly on the floor in the living playing with his toys, surrounded by dogs and not the least bit bothered by it. One of the things we've been doing at the end of each weekend he's up here is talking about everything he did well that we're proud of, and it's a new tradition I'm really enjoying.
We've also come up with a bungee-based childproofing on the two gates out of the yard, which makes me happy. He isn't ever out of our sight, but I know he can work the regular gate latches, and that makes me nervous. Tight bungees up high should resolve that issue, without making things difficult for us when he isn't here. Otherwise, the triple-divided fenced yard we have is pretty ideal (the whole property is fenced, but there's also a fence between the front yard and the midyard, and one between midyard and backyard -- this has long been handy in dealing with the dogs, too).
I still need to find a better fix to the basement door, though. I realized today, when I had him close it after me so the dogs didn't follow me, that the lock for that door is on the outside -- it's a push-button handle. He was fiddling with it, and I tried to emphasize as strongly as possible that he should never, ever, ever lock that door. Poor Caleb will be a sad, sad Panda if he gets locked down there. I think I want to replace the handle altogether with a non-locking version, and then add a bolt-lock accessible from both sides, but high enough he can't reach it. That'd be much better than the current childproofing we have, which can only be easily locked from inside the basement. On the downside, it involves pulling down the door to drill the new holes. Maybe I'll just go with another door monkey instead; I'm already planning to order one for our bedroom door. I'm still replacing that lockable knob, though.
Anyway, back at work today, and getting caught up. Need to see where things are at with Kenyon stuff; I've been almost entirely out-of-touch since Tuesday.
On the positive side, life at home is really, really good. We've gotten things almost entirely rearranged to make space for Holly, Chad, and Kidlet (he's usually only here a few days every few weeks, but I want him to feel at home when he is). Grafton's going out of town for 10 days, and possibly for a 3-month contract job after that, but he's packed up his studio all ready to shift to the back house, and then the front house will be quite thoroughly kid-proofed (we're not moving the studio just for that reason; we're reclaiming the room for a bedroom for Holly, and moving the studio to a space that has a sink, but it works out well in the kidproofing arena). Liv's working through her stuff in the back house, I already rearranged the front house attic last week and have been moving extra stuff in there. Chad and Holly have both been helping out with chores and errands, which has been a great help to the household overall.
My room with Chad and Kidlet has become the "kids' books and toys" space, and I've been sorting through everything by age range (it's taking a while; my collections of both are pretty ridiculous). And Kidlet totally dug the play mat/rug (cityscape) I found for him, so I'm psyched about that. He's getting the hang of that being "his space", and it's become a really nice retreat when folks want to watch something non-animated on the main TV, or Caleb's working from home and needs quiet. And it'll be even friendlier once we get these on the wall! I couldn't pass 'em up; octopuses AND turtles!
This was a Kidlet weekend, so we took the chance to give him a full tour of both houses, along with explanations about why he wasn't allowed in certain places ("this is someone's private space" or "this has things that aren't safe for you", basically). He's also become a championship strawberry-finder, although so far he just picks them and feeds them to whomever is about; we can't convince him to eat them himself yet. He was also really excited to pull up a big fat carrot from the front garden, although we had to explain to him why we didn't want him to pull up everything right then. *chuckle* And he's been getting really good with the critters, learning to be gentle, and learning to tell the dogs "No!" when they do something he doesn't like. We also had Holly's part-time dog Boris over this weekend, so it was a full house, and this morning he was sitting calmly on the floor in the living playing with his toys, surrounded by dogs and not the least bit bothered by it. One of the things we've been doing at the end of each weekend he's up here is talking about everything he did well that we're proud of, and it's a new tradition I'm really enjoying.
We've also come up with a bungee-based childproofing on the two gates out of the yard, which makes me happy. He isn't ever out of our sight, but I know he can work the regular gate latches, and that makes me nervous. Tight bungees up high should resolve that issue, without making things difficult for us when he isn't here. Otherwise, the triple-divided fenced yard we have is pretty ideal (the whole property is fenced, but there's also a fence between the front yard and the midyard, and one between midyard and backyard -- this has long been handy in dealing with the dogs, too).
I still need to find a better fix to the basement door, though. I realized today, when I had him close it after me so the dogs didn't follow me, that the lock for that door is on the outside -- it's a push-button handle. He was fiddling with it, and I tried to emphasize as strongly as possible that he should never, ever, ever lock that door. Poor Caleb will be a sad, sad Panda if he gets locked down there. I think I want to replace the handle altogether with a non-locking version, and then add a bolt-lock accessible from both sides, but high enough he can't reach it. That'd be much better than the current childproofing we have, which can only be easily locked from inside the basement. On the downside, it involves pulling down the door to drill the new holes. Maybe I'll just go with another door monkey instead; I'm already planning to order one for our bedroom door. I'm still replacing that lockable knob, though.