You may see the new and strange counter which has shown up with the reverse in layout now that Hallowe’en has been and gone. November is National Novel Writer’s Month. Participants ‘compete’ to see who can manage to write 50′000 new words on one piece of work before November ends. Given I’m a budding writer and found about this in 2004 I’ve participated each November since then. The first year I did terribly, due to finding out part way through November and also having grad school and wedding planning. Last year I did well considering I was also dealing with pregnancy, 40 hours of work, school and trying to move and managed, I think about 12′000 words. This year I have over 8′000 words and we’re only on the third day. I’m finding doing my writing at 6 a.m. when Declan is up and eating his breakfast and then down for his morning nap, and then writing a little more in the evenings when he’s gone to bed, is being quite productive. Plus, this year I did a LOT more planning than I have before, so hopefully we’ll be able to keep up this pace and actually WIN this year ^_^.

Moving on, family life and goings on:

We had Declan’s six month check up on Hallowe’en, and he got his shots. He did well, despite the fact that he fell and bumped his head in the early moments of the appointment. I think I was more shaken up than he was by that experience, which is not to say he did not scream the place down, and I followed suit bawling my eyes out. The nurse who came in from outside was a Godsend, she hugged me, checked up, consoled me and went to get the doctor the other nurse, who was admitting us, was a complete waste of space and had been unhelpful from the get-go. This is the second time we’ve had unhelpful-nurse and she’s been completely useless, so if I see her again I’m going to request someone else. The first time we were there for a weight check and she DIDN’T weigh him, even after she said ‘What are your concerns for this visit?’ and I told her the doctor wanted him in for a weight check (this was back in the first month when he wasn’t gaining properly and we were wanting to make sure there was NOTHING WRONG). Anyway, he’s fine, rubbery and bouncy, the nurse who came in to help went and got our pedi right away so she could check him all out and make sure, and he’s doing fine since, back to his usual hornory self.

He’s 19lbs 13oz now, and 28 1/4 inches tall. She commends us on our ability to test him and push him to make sure that he’s growing and developing, putting his toys just out of his reach and things, as to part of why he’s developing so well. He’s still ahead of average in the devlopmental stakes, very close to sitting up and also very close to crawling he will pull up on his knees and arms and rock backwards and fowards, and can army crawl or tumble to get things he wants. He’s also managed to get things Mum and Dad don’t want him to have, like managing to get into the closed TV cabinet and get the Playstation controllers out, so now we double and triple check that is properly locked before he’s allowed out of his chair for play time or something.

So far the only solid food he hasn’t really liked is carrots. He loves pears, bananas and sweet potato and doesn’t mind applesauce. We’ve yet to try peaches or squash. We’ve been advised to start offering him bits of broken up cheerios and other things along those lines to get him used to chewing as one tooth is breaking through on his bottom gums and another has broken the surface. I’ve been trying to get pictures but most shots have wound up with no tooth in sight buried under his tongue, because he does love sticking his tongue out.

In sad news I no longer qualify for WIC because Declan is six months old. I could have tried to re-cert but I know given I am no longer eligible for Medicaid it would have just been a waste of time. We do still get checks for his formula which is good because that’s $120 a month we save. This just means I have to readjust the grocery budget again.