Daniel has been home for a week and is doing well. He’s sleeping in his playpen (which is better than our bed), he’s tolerating his shots (though he still cries), his bloodwork came back looking good, and his follow-up appointment with his doctor went well. And yet… I’m still flattened with exhaustion.

[+] I’ve dealt with the various social agencies this week that determine Daniel’s eligibility for a social program to pay our hospital bills and I meet with yet another person next week to continue the process. Monday, I was treated like I was trying to defraud the government by one of the people I had to interact with and Friday, they were nice to me. It was like they understood that crap happens to people sometimes and this was one of those things. I’m hoping that I get treated well by the person I meet with on Tuesday.

[+] Jon was installed as pastor of Metanoia Lutheran Church on Sunday. We had a number of clergy there and my evil twin and my sister-in-law came up for it as did one of my college friends. I didn’t know how Daniel would handle it but he did well… with some bribes of yogurt snacks.

[+] I saw a link to an article called The Lutheran Landslide on the National Catholic Register and discovered that one of my seminary professors, Dr. Michael Root, had converted to Catholicism. This doesn’t surprise me — he was one of the BIG people in the ecumenical movement in the ELCA and with the decisions made by Churchwide Assembly in 2009, I believe that he was pondering in his heart how to remain faithfully Lutheran but disagree with the denomination. He was one of the most “Christian” professors I had and I can’t think that this was a decision he made lightly. I totally support him in it (not that it matters whether I do or don’t) and I wish him the best. His pastor (previous to him converting) blogged very gracefully about the conversion and even posted a picture of him at the mass celebrated in honor of his conversion. I am a bit disheartened, however, by certain Lutheran dissidents (Kris Baudler among them) who made snippy comments about Dr. Root not being a real Lutheran to begin with. (I’ve unfortunately had the experience of meeting Pastor Baudler and he is rather vitriolic and is puffed up with pride in his academic connections.) To Baudler and others like him: GET A LIFE. Dr. Root is twice the theologian (and twice the person) than you’ll ever be and I’ve never known him to be vitriolic about those with whom he disagrees. (This has nothing to do, of course, with the fact that he managed to keep me awake through two quarters of Systematic Theology at the most sleep-inducing class times and put up with me pulling myself up to my full 5 feet 1 inches and asking him in my sarcastic 21 year old way what we were talking about actually had to do with reality.)

[+] One of the Catholic bloggers (Jennifer Fulwiler) who I have found through my Byzantine Catholic blogging friend wrote a guide on understanding atheists for her Catholic readers that was based on her experiences as an atheist. (She has since converted and is widely-read and sought after as a speaker.) Well… PZ Myers of Pharyngula decided to refute her… in just about the most disrespectful way possible. Most of the 200+ comments are along the same line of disrespect. One cannot comment on his page without logging in so I couldn’t tell him that he and his minions suck. But seriously… is it so hard to be respectful? Not to mention… atheism has just as much of a wide spectrum as Christianity so Jennifer’s experiences are just as valid as Professor Myers’ experiences are.

[+] Currently, I’m dealing with a little bear who does not want to go to sleep and who has been exhibiting toddler rage for the last 30 minutes. God willing, he’ll go to sleep so I can watch COPS in peace.

[+] We are having to give him shots and I’ve done 3 so far at home. This isn’t making me a happy little lepicat but it’s better than the feeding tube.

[+] Daniel used to like baths — he now appears to be afraid of them. Oyyy… It might be that there’s pain involved or that he’s afraid of the sound of the running water. I climbed into his bath last night and tonight because I needed to clean him (first bath in almost 3 weeks last night and had to get the adhesive off his neck tonight). Hopefully, he gets used to them again.

[+] I had an excruciatingly painful migraine today, complete with nausea. Jon had to do bear care and it was hard because Daniel is not being his normal self. He’s much more clingy and on the plus side, he’s fallen asleep on laps today.

[+] I have to get taxes done in the next two days and go apply for Medi-Cal on Monday. I then have to go down and apply for California Children Services on Friday. I’m hoping they’ll accept me instead of Jonathan for that appointment. I’m also praying that we’re approved — it’s going to be a 5-figure hospital bill otherwise.

Daniel was discharged around 5:45 this evening.

Details tomorrow.