We are not out of the woods yet, but we are getting there. Today I cleared another hurdle. Theseus has been clearing hurdles of his own as well. Continue to keep your fingers crossed for us, please.

Somewhat related: poison ivy is no longer itchy/terrible, now just a small group of discolored blotches on my forearm. Unless you are looking closely, you might not even notice them. Hopefully they will vanish completely in the coming week - we have a wedding to go to next weekend! (Which is also our 5 year anniversary.) I have nothing to wear. Jeans are probably out of the question, right?

Additional, somewhat related: vicious cold is going away, albiet s--l--o--w--l--y. I'm now weaning myself off the NyQuil addiction I developed. (kidding)
    

Some facts:
- Austin will be 6 months old next Friday
- My breastfeeding goal was 6 months
- The fall semester of school has started
- Theseus' school schedule requires Austin to be in day care twice a week (9 hours total)
    

I have a long post in my head, waiting patiently for my hands to type it out. The last few days Theseus' laptop cord was broken and I hate my own laptop, so I couldn't post anything. Tonight I finally turned on my laptop (we have a new cord for him, also) but my throat is KILLING me and I just want to go to sleep.

This 4-day weekend went by entirely too quickly and I am dreading going back to work tomorrow. Also tomorrow is the beginning of my school-week, so I'll leave at 8 a.m. for work and won't return home from school until 10:30 p.m. Then right to sleep, to go back to work fro 8 a.m. the next morning. I have school three days a week, and only Tuesday is that bad (home by 7:15 the other two days), but still - a long day for me, and a long day away from Austin.

Rushing through these classes while he's still young and won't remember - this is the right thing to do, isn't it?

:(
:(
:(

I'm convinced of this. We lost power during Irene because of me. Theseus is a little bit responsible, too.

It started about a month ago, when I misplaced my wedding ring. (!)
     

All of these things happened this week! (the tomato was happening for some time, actually)
     

We had an exciting weekend! And it all involved food. Hmm, I'm sensing a trend...

Friday night Theseus returned from the grocery store with supplies to make our own ice cream. He bought me an ice cream maker for my birthday two years ago that we had never used, which we placed in the kitchen sink and put to work. Thirty minutes later: homemade vanilla ice cream! It was incredibly good. I say was, because it didn't last long enough to be photographed. He added it to peach flambé and whipped cream (also homemade). It was divine. Next time he wants to try a mocha chocolate chip, but I think the citrus orange recipe from our ice cream maker's website looks really yummy. And now you know we made 2 quarts of ice cream and ate it all in less than 3 days. Don't judge us!
    

Some things I did today:

- Played Rock Band with my office-mates at lunch
- picked two acorn squash
- found a recipe for salsa made from cherry tomatoes
- read 5 poems by Robert Frost
- listed my Bio texbook and Theseus' Anthropology textbook on Amazon
- immediately sold my Bio textbook (woo hoo!!)
- tried to soothe a very angry baby for two hours

Some things Theseus did today:

- washed a billion cherry tomatoes in preparation for yummy salsa
- took his PreCalculus final
- made some delicious moo shu vegetables with soba noodles
- found a watermelon growing in the garden!
- signed the baby up for daycare in the fall (two days a week) :(
- was awesome. all day.

Theseus: "Imagine how much more interesting this English paper would be if I were drinking!"

So - Theseus is out right now, taking the civil service exam for fire fighters. I'm very anxious/excited! He's been looking forward to this for over a year, but because of the deployment, he is just now taking it. I hope he places well!
     

I don't know how long this will continue (hopefully not long!), but Theseus and I have identified a pattern: every late afternoon/early evening, after eating but before bedtime, Austin freaks the heck out. For a few minutes, nothing in the world can make that baby happy. We talk to him, rock him, smooch him, and after 10 minutes or so he settles down and falls asleep. It's actually a lot less stressful for us now that we expect it and can see him spinning himself into The Evening Wail.

Now that we've got him figured out, though, he'll probably abandon this routine and take up another one. He's full of surprises that way. Did I tell you he let out a single, creepy laugh last week? He creeped himself out, too.

Ok, I was going to write some more but now I have a grumpy husband. So. I'll write some more tomorrow.