yummm

There you have it - and I found some others along with these, so I'll post them up over the next couple of days.

Thank you for everyone's help with our little financial crisis! It makes a huge difference. My parents and Mike's grandma have helped with the bills, ans Mike's parents will be covering our hotel in Ohio, so we have fewer things to worry about. Here it is on Saturday, and all the utilities are still running. Not a single creditor has phoned - normally it's one after another on Saturday mornings. It's nice. No-one has been completely paid, but the extra cash allowed us a little more room to negotiate, so most were willing to work out payment plans that worked for both of us. It's amazing how far behind you can get with a strike. It was four months of paying nothing but groceries and the mortgage. Nothing else could get paid. Well, once a month the student loans had to get paid, which is why the mortgage bounced a few times. But really, food and shelter, and everything else was forced to wait. We always intended to pay them, obviously, but when they all swooped in for the kill at the same time, it got very overwhelming! So thanks again to everyone!

John is doing well. He's teething badly, but is still in good spirits most of the time. He's having a lot of trouble sleeping at night - the pain always seems to affect him much more at night. His babysitter says every now an then, he clutches his mouth and screams, but for the most part is still a happy guy in the day. I think it's two coming at once - the eye teeth on top. His top gums on both sides look really swollen.

Daycare is still going well. He's only had one day where he didn't want to go. Liz reached out for him, and normally he reaches back and they go off to play, but on Thursday, he clutched to me. It worked out OK - I just stayed for a few minutes to get him settled in. When I left, he was smiling and playing. Liz thinks he's great, and is happy to have him - she says all the time how well he fits with the group she's already got. He likes all of the activities, and joins right in. He loves circle time! She said he climbs onto her lap and claps along to the songs they sing. Sometimes he sings at home - I think he's probably singing the songs he's learned. He's always been a bit fan of music! He really likes her daughter - her name's Megan too - I think she's 11. John aparently latches on to her all the time. Likes her to carry him around, and she's happy to oblige. She changes his diaper and feeds him - they're good pals. The 5-year-old boy really likes him too. Every morning when I get there, he yells "John's here! John's here!" and runs around the room. So it's going really well - much better than I expected. I guess it's just a matter of finding a good match.

He's been doing a few new things. He points now! I don't know if someone taught him to do it, or if it's one of those things that just appears when it's ready to appear, but he points at EVERYTHING!! When I carry him, 90 per cent of te time his finger is straight out in front of us. It's fun - sometimes he points to specific things, like a tree. So we go to the tree and talk about the tree, while he pokes the tree. There are some things we can't do that for - like ceiling fans. He just keeps pointing, and looking at me as though I should fly up there to give him a better look.

He's getting really chatty now, and it's getting easier to figure out what he wants, with all his new signals and pointing, even though words haven't come yet. "Da" is very obviously Dad, not just a random noise anymore. As part of our bedtime routine, John has a bath, followed by a little playtime with dad, so near the end of his bath some days, John says "da" over and over again. And when we're in our bedroom, if he's going to Mike's side of the bed, he'll say "da" on his way there. He still only uses "mama" as a distress call, but I guess that's ok. At least he knows who I am.

Work is going ok. We'll finally be back to full staff again on Monday at the paper - everyone's been taking holiday time. Mike's happy to be back and is looking forward to overtime shifts being added in the next few days. The pay is slow in coming. It turned out that his first pay was even lower than we expected - it was only 2 days anri.p. d the signing bonus, so it was very small. But the light is still on at the end of the tunnel, so things should be back to normal by the end of summer. He has a licence now, too, which is a huge weight off our minds.

What else? We're looking forward to Vicki's wedding next weekend! It'll be a fun trip. It'll be nice to see everyone and spend some time with John. It feels like I never see hime now, and when we are home, I have so many chores to do, I never get to spend much time with him. This working mom thing kind of stinks. I don't think this is what the women's movement had in mind - we have to work AND do all the household stuff, while strangers raise our kids. It's kind of a bum deal.

Anyway, I had better get John some lunch!