Bubbles

Max has this thing for bubbles and not in a good way. He just doesn't like them. He freaks out if you put them in the tub with him for a bubble bath. He likes to play in the sink with the soap until there gets to be too much soap/too many bubbles, then he starts to cry and get away. I think I finally figured out why. We have this Baby Neptune DVD that is one of the only Baby Einstein ones he will watch anymore. We don't watch it much but it is a good one to put in if he isn't feeling well or fussy or is over stimulated or needs to wind down. We watched it the other day when he woke up fussy from his nap, which thank goodness doesn't happen often because when it does...oh my. Anyway, since I work from home and since I didn't have any meetings (and hadn't taken any lunch or breaks for the day) I was out holding him and watching this with him telling about what was going on and labeling things for him. There is one scene where the puppet duck and the puppet octopus are "talking" back and forth and instead of words, bubbles come out of there mouths. After a few exchanges, the duck blows a big bubble that encircles the octopus who goes floating off. Max started crying and saying bubbles, bubbles, when he gets freaked out by them in real life. The light bulb went on for me and I explained to him that it was just pretend and was okay and stuff. He still isn't thrilled with them, but hasn't melted down again since then.

At first, I was thinking it couldn't be, but really I think that was the case. He has a very good memory. If we drive down the street where he goes to "school" a few mornings a week with his nanny, even before we get there, he starts saying school, school, school. If we start heading north anywhere near the train depot and train tracks, he will start saying train, train, train, train. His two favorite TV shows right now are Pat, Pat (Little Einsteins) and Wissy (The Wiggles). No longer am I asked to just put on The Wiggles, it is Kola (Koala) Wissy of which the Koala is 20 - 30 seconds of the entire 30 minute program, or Shh, Shh, Shh Wissy for the one where Betty Blue Grass (?) sings a song that has that in it. Or, I get Pat, Pat Beach for the Annie's Love Song episode which is on the beach, Pat Pat Cho Cho Hat for the Go West Young Train episode, where Annie (his favorite character) wears a cowgirl hat, Pat Pat Ducky for the Duck, Duck, xxx (forgetting the name) episode that is about a duck that has 8 ducklings but one gets lost. Anyway, you get the idea. Max knows his mind and remembers all of these things. He will want to watch something over and over and over, until I guess at some point he memorizes it all, and then he is ready to move on. Now that he realizes that you can reverse on the DVR, he will want to watch one particular scene a few times occasionally before he is ready to move on to the rest of the show or another show. I'm sure that I humor him too much in this, but figure that it can't do any harm in the long run, makes him feel like he has some say and control in his life, and I really don't mind most of the time.

Anyway, a long way to say that I really do think he remembered that scene he has seen so many times that I label as bubbles, he put two and two together and didn't want to get swallowed up in the bubble and go bye-bye.

I'm sitting outside watching the grass grow as I write this. Literally. I was getting worried since the back yard was still looking like a mud patch with no sign of grass (reseeded it last Saturday night)...until tonight. Yeah!! There is a chance I will have an actual lawn before my party in a few weeks.

In other news, I went in for an u/s today and have one follicle on my left measuring 15 so I am going to trigger Saturday night for an early Monday morning IUI. I would have preferred to push it a day or two more, but logistically it was just too difficult for many reasons. It should be mature by any standard by then and around 19 at time of trigger and 23 - 24 at ovulation, but I prefer to trigger at 24 since the last two pregnancies I had I triggered at 24. But, it will be fine. The truth is that if it is a good egg, that size/maturity should be fine. I'm just happy to be back in the game this month after being cancelled last week for no response.

There is a work story I could tell you about a conversation I had today with my boss. It was a good conversation on how he was going to follow up on a recommendation I made, but wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be bailing on the team and finding a new job if he did. I'm not very subtle and he knows things are pissing me off most of which have to do with his boss and his bosses boss who are planning on replacing him and bringing someone in from the outside. I assured him I would stick it out as long as he was still there, but making no guarantees if they brought in someone I didn't like or didn't think I could work. The con of the proposal is that I would get more work. The pro would be that my peer that used to be my subordinate that back stabbed me while I was out on maternity leave with Max with be out. Really, I am not so petty that that was my goal, but we need to cut expense and that is one way of doing it. I offered to be the leader to go, but he and I both know that he couldn't do that and would have to bring in someone new. This may sound arrogant, but I have the best people on my team and they would revolt, seriously, if they had to work for her. My team has very senior people on it and I treat them as such. Her team has moderately senior people on it and she treats them like new hires and babies. It won't really make things better from a day to day working perspective because I almost never talk to my peer and she never speaks up or offers opinions in meetings, she is like a non-entity at this point. And, I didn't set out to push her out, but it really is a good solution at a good time and I won't be sad if it happens. Anyway, enough about work other than to say 4 work days 6 calendar days until vacation.

One of these days, I'm going to do a post on how things seem to disappear into thin air now that Max is in my life.