Link Roundup

"I want these two hypocrites to apologize to all of my gay and lesbian friends who want to be able to marry the one they love, rather than being scapegoated as threatening traditional marriage. Seriously."

Amen!

I am so glad I was born in a country with good healthcare. And I am fortunate to have access to the healthcare I needed while I was pregnant. There's so much I can say but it's easier for you to just think for yourself:

"Childbirth in Tanzania." (no gory pictures)

"It’s not easy to hear the truth, that your child is indeed different. Some parents do not even hear the doctor’s words: “Your child has superpowers.” It is natural to feel afraid, and even to seek a second opinion. But it is within every parent’s power to handle such an occurrence. Indeed, you will likely come to find your life with a superpowered child an enriching one, in addition to never fearing street toughs again."

Phew! Questions answered. via The Morrissey Chronicles.

"here isn't enough money to go around, and to try to help everyone a little bit—to observe the principle of universality—isn't as cost-effective as helping a few people a lot."

Sometimes the solution isn't fair. via Alkaline Earth.

"And then we dismantled the most ancient of human laws, the law against usury, which had existed in some form in every civilization from the time of the Babylonian Empire to the end of Jimmy Carter's term, and which had been so taken for granted that no one ever even mentioned it to us in law school. That's when we found out what happens when an advanced industrial economy tries to function with no cap at all on interest rates."

Good read on the current economic crisis. via Alkaline Earth.

And finally, here are some pictures. The Peanut absolutely loves his exersaucer. We call it his office since he always looks as if he's working pretty hard and having way too much fun.

Some Insights

I finally have made time to read. And now it's my second favorite thing to do. I have read a couple of books already, a couple of mystery thrillers: Coffin Dancer by Jefferey Deaver and Fatal Voyage by Kathy Reichs. They were both great books and I often stayed up too late to read a few more pages. Now I'm reading a Skeleton Crew by Steven King. I've read The Mist - great story but I didn't like the ending. But as the husband said, there's no better way to end that story. Now I am reading The Monkey, and I'm surprised I haven't had nightmares. Stories about children's toys gone bad really scare me. Always have.

I installed Quicken on my laptop and have started to track our finances beginning in June. I am super excited about this it's almost scary. Maybe I should have been an accountant. I want to track every single penny we spend. Hopefully I won't drive my husband crazy. On the plus side, this will help us decide whether we're financially stable enough to have one of us become a stay-at-home parent.

I'm on Facebook, but not on Twitter. I checked out the twitter page today for the first time, and it really stressed me out. It took me a while to get on Facebook, and now I love it. I'm always thinking of new people to look up. However, I don't think I can handle another online social network application/website/whatever you call it.

The Peanut has woken up only once during the night for 4 of the last 5 nights. Wow! We are excited. I, on the other hand, wake up a lot more, for various reasons. We finally stopped bedsharing and put him back in the bassinet in our room and the first night, much to our surprise, he only woke up once. I woke up 3 times, because I was used to it and I really needed to nurse. But I waited it out and only had to feed once. Monkey was really annoying last night, scratching at the door, and whining to come into our room. We've been kicking the cats out of our room because Monkey and Fattie keep jumping into the Peanut's crib. Monkey is bi-polar and she could easily scratch the Peanut and Fattie is, well, he's almost 30 lbs. So if my body is not waking me up, it's the kitties. But at least it's not the Peanut and that's a good thing.

The husband survived his first day back at work. He's quite bummed that his paternity leave is over. He did an awesome job taking care of the Peanut and I'm so glad that he got to stay at home. I think all daddies should stay at home for a few weeks. And if you live in CA, you can even get paid for some of the leave. I had my concerns when I first went back to work and left the boys alone. I was mostly worried about the Peanut missing me and the husband not knowing how to soothe him. The Peanut did miss me but the husband found his own way to soothe the Peanut and everything worked out. Now I see my husband going through the same emotions that I did when I went back to work.

Bits and Pieces

For the second time in his life, the Peanut only woke up 1 time last night and slept 7 hours straight. I, on the other hand, woke up about 4 times, wondering why the Peanut had not yet awoken and to check on him. The funny thing is that we had been bedsharing once again for the past week (we enjoy bedsharing so much we can't stop), and last night was the first time we put the Peanut back in his bassinet. We'll probably have him sleep in his bassinet again, and we'll see what happens tonight.

As I was leaving for work one morning last week, I noticed the husband was setting up the xBox and projector to watch a movie:

Me: Oh, what movie are you guys going to watch?
The Husband: Jackass.
Me: Ummm, I don't think that's a good movie.
The Husband: No, it's a good one, it has good music.
Me: Ok. (and I walked out the door)

When I returned that evening, it turned out that Jackass was in fact not a good choice. Oh well. Live and learn. But the Peanut had been watching a lot of Cosmos. Whenever Carl Sagan is on the screen, the Peanut starts talking back. It's soo cute.

My mom and the husband teamed up to care for the Peanut last week. I think it was a good week for everyone. The husband goes back to work on Monday and he's already missing the Peanut. The transition is hard but it does get easier as time goes by. My mom will be flying back and forth every week to take care of the Peanut this summer. Then we'll have to figure out what we do...daycare, nanny, stay at home mom/dad...decisions, decisions.

Well, that's it for now. I'm so glad it's Friday. I'll try to get more pictures up soon.

Coolness

Getting ready to go swimming.

He really likes his shades.

I'm tired!

We Haven't Laughed This Hard Ever

Sorry for the poor video quality. We have a high-def camera but can't figure out how to make better quality, but smaller sized videos. This one is about 2.5 minutes long and the image gets better when we turn on the light about 30 seconds into the video. Be sure to have the sound on. Enjoy!