I hardly post these days, mostly because of business.  We’re mostly in waiting mode for the nubbin, and we’re having a hard time coming up with a name. We just need to sit down and figure it out, but it’s so easy to say “lets do it tomorrow”. Jyotsna is a trooper – she’s extremely tired, prone to heartburn, sleeps poorly and is ready for the proverbial fork. 9 more weeks to go, at least. I need to get my ass in gear and paint the nursery, sometime in the next few days. We’re heading down to Florida for a family wedding at the end of the month. We normally wouldnt given the  proximity to the due date (it’s close to the month cut off, but only by a couple of weeks), but the wedding is for Jyotsna’s cousin who we are very close to. Plus we’ll see her parents and it’ll be warm, all pluses.

Work is going. My clients keep on piling work on me, which is both good and bad. The good is money, the bad is that I always put all the business development stuff I need to do on the back burner. There is only so much time in the day.

I’m continuing to write, in fits and starts. Submitted a story to a contest, got a rejection. Still, my publication last year (and getting selected for the “best of” anthology) buoyed my spirits enough to realize that I just need to continue work at it. Twasn’t paid, but a credit is a credit. Baby steps.

Anyway the following was my  latest post on Annika on her blog:

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I have many faults, and one of them has always been my seeming inability to get with any sort of routine for very long. I bore easily, you see. I’m fairly sure that I’d be diagnosed with some sort of ADD if I pressed for it, though I have learned coping techniques (hello to-do lists!) to make me at least some what productive.

Annika, like most toddlers, is a study in both change and routine. On one hand, she thrives on routine. Moreover, Jyotsna and I manage to keep some semblance of sanity when she sticks to her routine. Wake at a certain time, breakfast, morning nap, lunch, afternoon nap, snack, dinner, bedtime. Her day had these touchstones that she could rely on since about 9 months or so. If she gets too far from her norm, she decides to exercise her operatic range to the detriment of the hearing of everyone within earshot.

On the other hand, she’s constantly changing. *Every* day is something new that she learns and demonstrates. She’s turned into a Beyonce’ fan, throwing her little hands up whenever Beyonce commands her during a viewing of “Single Ladies” on You Tube. She’s learned to blow on food when it’s too hot, just by observing that’s what we do.

Unfortunately, her schedule is evolving too. She’s starting to drop that first nap, a development that we’re both highly ambivalent about. That morning nap anchors the entire day – when it’s off, the entire day is off. She’s not ready to drop it completely, which means every day is starting to be a bit more variable. When she does drop it, it’ll actually make life a little easier – many of the activities that we want to do with her (library story times, local play classes) seem to be at times that are at loggerheads with her morning nap, so dropping it will open up a lot of opportunity. But we’re not there yet, and the transition isn’t exactly fun.

I also know that in about 9 weeks all sense of schedule and routine will be blown apart with the advent of Shah 2.1. (or 2[1]?) At least for a few months, until a new normal emerges. Which will in turn change into something else, but that’s what they call Life. I suppose my inability to settle into a routine – normally a huge liability – gives me at least a slight leg up on coping.

Here’s her doing the Single Ladies bit, while keeping General Mills in business by her Cheerio consumption: (click on thumbnail to open the movie:)

From Annika Videos

And her having fun in her new tunnel: (again click on the thumbnail:)

From Annika Videos