Time-Out #1

This morning we were forced to give our son a time-out. I don't think we overreacted.

It was about 6:45 AM and he started really thrashing about... so much so that Karin could not sleep. We tried to reason with him. We tried to negotiate. Then we warned him. Finally, we counted to 3. "One... Two... Three." We all know what happens after "three".

There was an issue with enforcement, however. Given that our son is still officially "in utero" we have to speak to him through Karin's skin. And, since we don't have an ultrasound machine in our bedroom, we may have been speaking to his face or his toe or his tush. He did settle down after the time-out and Karin was able to get back to sleep. How's that for parenting? I don't know what parents go on about. It's all so simple.

We had a great time in Florida last week. I'll be posting some pics of the little boy enjoying the pool and the beach. He really is easy to travel with and is a pleasure to be around. He has a marvelous personality.

The Indignities of Pregnancy

I'm guessing that there are indignities of pregnancy that I don't even know about (and I'm not about to pick up a book to find out what they are). It does look extremely uncomfortable to have that huge weight cantilevered 10 inches ahead of you. And sitting must be really awful.

And the discomfort doesn't stop there... What about the fact that you have a human being living inside you? That's disturbing on so many levels. First of all, you're not even supposed to have microscopic worms living in your body... and you have a giant multi-organ being in there. If it wasn't so common, I would be quite certain that Karin was from outer space. I will protect her from the villagers, if necessary.

Plus, there is the whole animal kingdom aspect of it. For anyone that is not religious (of the true-believer variety), this really proves that we are animals. I mean, either you believe that God created man and established the whole messy reproductive process from scratch... or you have to believe that we evolved from animals and part of our DNA just could not come up with a better way to do things. So we stuck with it. I mean we walk upright... We speak and smile and wink and shave. We can invent things like tiny blow-torch lighters, and jet airplanes, and silly-putty. But the reproductive system really has not changed much over the past few million years. Sexual practices seem to change quite readily, but the rest of the biological part of reproduction and birth seems to be quite similar to, say, that of a wildebeest.

Today Karin had to take a diabetes test. She was forced to drink 50 grams of glucose, sit for a grueling hour of ensuing nausea, and was finally rewarded with a blood-draw. That's actually what started me thinking about the indignities that Karin is currently forced to endure.

I'd like to extend an extra-special welcome to those in Abu Dhabi and in Třešť (town in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic) who I see are now reading this blog.

I'm going to embed the poll in new posts for a couple of days so it doesn't get lost in the bowels of past-blog-posts-lost right away. If you haven't voted, please do so now (for a brief background story please read the Dec 16 post below):

'Tis The Season

I do feel moderately jolly this morning... probably because we are headed to Miami on Thursday. Going to Miami is a benefit of periodically making our way onto Harry's agenda. He will be in South Beach partying like a rock star and we will see him briefly each evening when he awakes to play with the children, before heading out to vanquish South Beach. It's fun for everyone.

Poor Karin is going to have to endure two longish flights each way. It is becoming even more unpleasant for her to fly. We all know what's wrong with flying... long lines, intrusive security, packed planes, unsanitary conditions, crappy air, hostile flight attendants, no food... I could go on. The point is, that it's significantly worse for Karin with her aches and pains and sensitivities to odors and light and omni-present nausea.

In other news, we have to send a demand letter to our landlord. If you look back to the September posts in this blog, you will see a bit about that issue. We did vacate on September 28 of this year but our landlord has yet to return our security deposit. I have been holding off sending the demand letter because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Time is up, however.

I had drafted a legal letter to him last week. When I showed it to Karin, her response was, "That's harsh." So I scripted a more friendly and cheery demand letter to him. Now K thinks that perhaps we should wait until after the holidays so as not to intrude on his family time. I'm more inclined to send the "harsh" letter now. However, I'm willing to listen to reason. Please help us decide (Note: poll will only allow one vote from any given computer):

Discussion

Jaime: What are your current symptoms?

K: Hmmm... Let me see... What have I been complaining about? [pause] Well, I have backpain while sleeping...

Jaime: Pain while you're sleeping? Is... Is that what you said?

K: Yes, my back hurts while I'm sleeping.

Jaime: I see.

K: And my thigh also hurts while I'm sleeping. [pause] And there is tons of movement, which is cool.

K: Oh, and the fatigue and heartbeat are still there.

K: You should write about the "National Geographic" comment too.

Jaime: Really?

K: And I've been having nausea and heat flashes. [pause] I've only really been craving citrus - oranges and grapefruit. [pause] And I've really been enjoying yoga.

Jaime: OK, let's go get dinner.

Pregnant Sisters-In-Law

Escape Attempt Recorded On Video!