I, for one, welcome our new Companion Overlords.

Rebecca Saxe has a theory. Her theory is that there is a region of the brain that is involved with moral temperament and this region particularly affects how we judge the actions of others. She describes it in a lot more detail in her TED talk, but one of those details that stayed with me was her experiments on how this sense is developed in children.
( How does this work? )

So for some reason, I think that by February 28, 2010, I can get myself in good enough shape to climb up all 94 flights of the John Hancock Building to raise money for respiratory health. This despite the fact that:
1. I have no athletic ability
2. I haven't regularly exercised in quite some time. When did I graduate from high school?
3. I have no athletic ability
4. I just had a baby
5. Have... no... athletic... ability...

But I've been climbing those stairs at work every day. Ok, we don't have 94 flights, but we have a few. And I've at least glanced in the general direction of the treadmill. Wish me luck!

If you want to try it yourself, registration is Monday.

The story of David's birth is quite amusing because I realized I was in labor only after I had started my work day. Rory's story was a bit more simple.

I felt pretty rotten on the previous Sunday, so I thought maybe I was going in to labor then, and Monday wasn't much better. However, by Tuesday, I was feeling much better so then I figured I had food poisoning. By midnight, however, the nastier contractions started again. I downloaded an iPhone app and tracked them for a bit (yup, there's an app for that). They were pretty far apart and irregular, so I went to sleep. I figured any contractions I could sleep through weren't real labor.

The contractions that I felt starting at 2:30 am? I couldn't sleep through. So off to the hospital we went. Aurora was born a few hours later. The end!

She's a good baby. Sleeps a lot. David did, too, but David wouldn't let anyone put him down in his crib. Rory respects our space which makes activities like "eating," "sleeping," "showering," and "blogging" a lot easier (so far).

Yogi was supposed to lose a little weight because he was a bit on the heavy side. But with the pregnancy and other stuff, we hadn't really noticed how much weight he'd lost until he went for his check-up earlier this year. Too much, it turned out. The vet detected a thyroid problem. He'd been border-line for a while, so that made sense. We started him on some meds.

The meds didn't help him gain weight, however. The other cats had become antsy with the pregnancy and the big ones were picking on Yogi, keeping him from his food bowl. We isolated him to eat, and he began eating really well. But even with the meds and the more calm mealtimes, he wasn't gaining weight. Back to the vet, where they found a tumor, and not one that could be treated. Yesterday, the tumor ruptured. There wasn't more we could do for him, so we said good bye.

He was a good kitty who always wanted a scratch on the chin, an irritating kitty who was the master of the directional purr, not something we wanted to hear at 3 am, a beautiful kitty. He was Cat of the Week when I picked him out at the Humane Society in 1996, when he was 2.

We've had 4 cats for a long time. It's so quiet with just 3.

The vet sent us flowers. David immediately knocked them over. We've talked to David a bit about death, preparing him for Yogi, but he's not quite getting it. He thinks maybe Yogi went off to be married. Rory doesn't get it, either, but she's only 10 days old.

And who doesn't? Latest pictures here.

David stuck a flower bud up his nose. He had to go to the ER to get it out. From Seth's posting on Facebook:

Yeah, we walk into the (completely dead haha) ER, and sit down at admissions. The intake tech looks at us, sees nothing spewing obvious bodily fluids, and asks what she can do. I look at David and say "Can you tell her what happened?" he says "I have a flower stuck up my nose and it never ever come out." She hurt something laughing I think, and... Read More David says "Its not funny! It hurts!" Nurse was quite kind, gave him a mask to 'cover' it. Doctor didn't flinch, everyone thought he was cute. They have a specially designed suction tube that sticks up there and latches on, AND specially designed boiler plate for the exit papers... "Your child has stuck a __Foreign Object__ up his nose. He/she may experience..." David was really good about the whole thing, and has repeatedly confirmed no more sticking up of nose (or into ears!). I did tell him to tell me right away next time, since he apparently did this /last night/, coughed and sneezed a lot, then fell asleep.

I've been ignoring my LJ in favor or Facebook and Twitter. But they aren't great places to write reviews.

( Spoilers! (kind of) )

Let's see, what's new:

He's learning to count past 20.
Thanks to ctrlalttabby, he has his own toddler bed. He might even be sleeping in it right now.
He still has some issues with potty training.
Still doesn't eat a lot. He finds most foods incredibly suspicious.
Has more Cars toys than any 3-year-old should.

Here's some pictures.

Blurring the boundries of political satire.