Jon was in St. Louis for a denominational pastor’s retreat so I had Daniel by myself this week.

— 1 —

Bathroom breaks were a privilege this week and showers were a luxury. Daniel was a little clingy. I’m usually home with him during the day but he knew that Jon was gone and I think he was a little afraid of me leaving as well. We’d play the “knock knock” game where I’d be in the bathroom and knock on the door. He’d knock back and this would let him know that I was still here. However, I didn’t get a shower until his nap on Wednesday. That night, he puked on me (as well as pretty much every surface in the house) and managed to remove the faucet head for the hot water in the bath/shower. I had to make do with Clorox wipes to clean myself up.

— 2 —

Daniel walked the length of the driveway TWICE while holding on to a leaf. His physical therapist calls this “Dumbo’s feather”. (I haven’t seen “Dumbo” in 20+ years but I guess he could fly while holding on to a feather?) Basically, he can balance and be confident if he has something in his hand, regardless of whether it’s actually helping him balance. The key now is to build his confidence so that he can do it without holding something.

— 3 —

The hardest time this week has been bedtime. Jon usually puts Daniel to bed while I chill, crochet, and/or work on NaNoWriMo prep. With him gone, I’m the one putting him to bed and his bedtime seems to coincide with my 9:00 shows. We watched “Hart of Dixie” together on Monday and “He-Man” last night. When Jon called to read Daniel his Winnie the Pooh story, Daniel gave me a look as to say, “Woman! You’re disturbing ‘She-Ra’!” (“She-Ra” comes right after “He-Man” on Qubo Night Owl.)

— 4 —

The NaNoWriMo is updated for the event this year. This is good because it forced me to get my mind back on my novel and choose a title. Given that I don’t have enough hatred built up to do a murder mystery this year, it will be chick lit. (They actually have “chick lit” as a genre on the NaNo website which kind of scares me.)

— 5 —

One of the corporate sponsors for NaNo this year is PangurPad. I’m sure that PangurPad provides great software and I may try a trial membership with them; but that isn’t the reason why they are unbelievably cool. The reason they’re that cool: their name comes from the 9th century Old Irish poem written by an Irish monk about his cat Pangur Bán. Why yes… I am that kind of geek. What was your first clue?

— 6 —

I’m taking requests for gratuitous killings again. (Sorry to Pisco and Anita — I didn’t get you killed off last year. I’ll kill you for free this year unless you want to donate to the cause.) I haven’t decided what the charity donation will be but I’ll announce it on this page as soon as I decide on one. (For those who haven’t read my blog during a NaNo attempt before, I’ll kill you off in the creative way you choose in exchange for a charity donation of some kind. One year, we did food bank donations and last year, it was to Daniel’s band for March of Dimes.)

— 7 —

I think we’ll have another He-Man/She-Ra marathon tonight. I’m sleep-deprived enough that I don’t know if I can deal with Daniel refusing to go down again (Thursday night) so I’m willing to wait until Jon gets in and can put Daniel down himself. This might mean some Qubo Night Owl watching but I think Daniel will probably consent to cuddle during that. He’s the age I was when He-Man was popular in the first place.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.