This Day

It's funny what, and how, toddlers say things. Alice knows the word "today". She uses it, sometimes. A lot of the time though she prefers to say "this day" instead. And every time I hear Viggo Mortensen giving his speech before the black gate in Return of the King.

Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Stittsville, of Carp, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Mr. Bunny fails, when we forsake our dollies and break all our toys, but it is not this day. An hour of smoke detectors (go beep beep beep) and shattered magnets, when the age of rocket ship rides comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we play and eat cheese! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you *stand, Alices of the Just East of Downtown!*

My head is not a normal place.

Finding it difficult to care

The level of stupid at work continues to astound. But as we're getting ever closer to B Day I'm finding is extremely difficult to care. Is it my problem if people would rather debate the java spec over a couple of days rather than spending 30 seconds fixing the issue despite them being on a super tight deadline? No. What is the consequence for me if I identify issues with other people's projects (which is part of my job), and they decided to ignore it. Nothing. For these cases it adds a lot of risk for something that's a trivial change. But no. What happens if people ignore warnings / tickets issued literally years ago and are biting them in the ass now? Not really any skin off my back.

As my boss mentioned about a separate issue, "they have to want it more than we do". You can only help people out so much. Then I turn back to the work that I am trying to get done.

*sigh*

Ah well. I'm sure that I can pick up where I left off when I get back. I'm sure the same tickets will be open. :-/

Tick tick tick...

The countdown is getting louder. We're T minus 7 days until estimated B Day. I feel a lot more relaxed, but calmly nervous. It doesn't really make sense. I'm less stressed about the unknowns this time because we've been through it once. I'm more stressed about the knowns. Weird.

Are we ready? Will we be ready? Yes and no.

Until The Event all I can do is make sure the phones are charged, there is gas in the car, and we're as well rested as we can be.

I'll save the panic for a later time.

Good times

Today was a good Date Day™. Went out for a tasty breakfast, then to not one, but two imax movies. Then home for a latte as a snow storm started. How to bring a Date Day to a close before daycare pickup? Well, I sat on the floor playing with a new lego set while Laura went for a nap. Perfect.

Toddler Harsh

On this last weekend we left Alice with her first overnight with her grandparents. It was the first time we've ever been away from her overnight and I knew that it would be hard on us (ya, on her as well). I didn't realize just how hard. My heart panged when I saw her empty bed or the open child gate in the morning. I paused when I saw her empty bed and had to take a moment. A squeak on the floor sounded like her cry.

Now, I'm glad that we did it. The idea that it was a dry run before baby #2 comes and if she was staying with them while the delivery was going on. Lessons were learned, plans adjusted.

Now, what I didn't expect was that she would refuse to hug me when she got home. She's been extra "two" the last couple of days. I can't help but feel that she's trying to punish me a bit. I didn't think that would happen until maybe when she's older. Maybe when she's four. Right now she's two.

She knows that things are going to be different very soon. Maybe she's just preemptively giving me a hard time. She's just that smart. :-/

Ah well. I know that when the time comes, she'll be there to lend a hand.

Tech worker on standby

As more and more things are computer based - home entertainment systems, heating / cooling, computers to connect to work, phones, cameras, etc, I find that I'm doing more and more "home support". It's not usually much, but it's more than, say my mother, would be able to do. More than I think a lot of people would be able to do. Most of the time it amounts to "jigging the handle" type of solutions, but it still takes a bit of knowledge.

For most people it's like living in a house with leaky pipes without a plumber. Luckily I'm a plumber (in this analogy).

Now, I'm not saying that people should be better at computers and trouble shooting. I'm saying that things need to work better together and assume a non-technical, unsupported user. Until that time, I'll just be going around with my crescent wrench and soldering kit stopping the drips.

Hidden Worry, Pesky Insomnia

As we're getting closer to Go Time for baby #2, I'm having a harder and harder time sleeping through the night. It's like sympathy Insomnia. Who wants that? If I was going to choose a symptom from the pregnancy, I think that I'd choose the part where you want to eat all the time. That's just me.

Oie.

So, in the mean time, please enjoy this picture which I call Toddler Gothic.