SAHD blues

This has never been a blog about being a stay-at-home dad. There are plenty of such blogs out there, many worth a read. Still, I recently was made aware of this song from A Prairie Home Companion, and feel compelled to share the lyrics. They're really spot-on as to how it feels out there some days.

I bundle up Moira and Kate
And take them to ballet which is great
And I sit and read a book in the hall
And mothers do not talk to me at all.

They sit down at their end and I at mine
And they glance my way from time to time
And those little glances really hurt:
I can see that they are thinking: per-vert.

Read the whole thing and listen to the song here.

Grumping, yesterday

Wow, I've been ignoring this blog for five days, and frankly that last post is a little . . . light.

There's been no news on YA MS the First, and I suppose I've been holding off on posting until I had something to report on that front. I also suppose that's a silly reason not to post anything at all.

So I'll talk about Sam. I haven't in a long while, it seems, so it's a shame I'm going to report about the WORST DAY EVER.

Yesterday, Sam woke up up startingly early and essentially refused to go back to sleep. By the time Beth left for work, he was switching off between hysterics and on-the-verge of hysterics. Finally, sheer exhaustion got the better of him and he slept, but it wasn't enough to make up for the chaos that preceded it.

That means for most of the day, Sam was an overtired and cranky grumpster. I won't go into details, but boy, I passed OUT at bedtime last night and I think I slept right through to Beth's alarm. Sam, by the way, has been asleep essentially since bedtime last night, and here it is almost 9. So perhaps and hopefully today will be back to business as usual.

In other news, I went out last night to Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe, which is not actually called that, and tried to work, but it was hella crowded and I got nothing done in the 30 minutes I was there, frustrated, and so I came home. I believe Beth will be going out, with Sam, to do some knitting this evening, so perhaps I can get some writing done right here at home during the quiet.

Not much else is new. I joined a nice MNSCBWI group on facebook and have had a couple of bites at the idea of a YA crit group here in the Twin Cities. So there's that.

All right, little else to report and I should get Sam's breakfast ready, since I'm sure he'll be up at any moment.

Sam is okay

Today was Sam's first unscheduled "Holy crap, is he okay?!" appointment with the pediatrician!

Turns out, yes, he is okay! The problem, such as it is, is that his breath smells very slightly (to me) of vinegar, particularly right after he wakes up. The smell is stronger to Beth, but of course my sense of smell (not to mention hearing) is pretty weak.

ANYway. Long story short, brought Sam in, he got his ears and throat and schnoz checked, and some blood drawn from his middle finger (he's much better at that than I am; I nearly passed out watching him have his blood drawn, while he didn't even flinch), and is in perfect health. The good part is I got a sneak-peek at his current weight, since he's due for his well visit in a week, and Sam has broken the fifteen pound barrier! That means, among very little else, that it is time to lower the mattress in his portable crib, from bassinet level to pack-and-play level.

Thrilling.

In other news, I may be too late to change my current class's grading method to pass/fail from letter grade. This is a shame, and I am hoping to convince the registrar's office to make an exception. Why is there a deadline on something like that anyway, really?

No other news, really. The Richard Peck DVD I raved about last week is for sale at SCBWI's website, which is still heinous in most respects. And I have not gotten any responses to my plea for a crit group in the Twin Cities specializing in YA and middle grade. Perhaps I'll post a similar plea on craigslist. Hm.

And holy crap, if I haven't mentioned this already, it's been in or near the 40s here in Saint Paul for the last, I don't know, several days. It even rained! Most of the snow is GONE. I do realize, yes, that this merely a reprieve, but it's SUCH a welcome reprieve, I can hardly express my joy to you.

Aunt Ellen will be here to babysit in a couple of hours, then I'm off to downtown. Ooh, just remembered: the prof had our class moved. I have no idea where it is now! Better find out. . . .

Updates

Well, I skipped the weekend, which means I'll have to pick it up to maintain 5/week in here. Shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, an update on YA MS the first. Last night I slammed down about 3000 words for Lily (mostly a party scene; I think the drunkenness comes across). With any luck she'll be finished up on Wednesday, when the in-laws will be here to babysit at noon, and I'll be in downtown Minneapolis for about five hours with nothing but writing time on my hands before my first class of the semester. (Have I mentioned my slowly ongoing teacher's license in this blog yet? I'm not sure. Anyway, it'll be a few years, at this rate, which is fine. If I have my license done by the time Sam can hit kindergarten, I'll be happy.) So, that five-hour block will probably cinch up Lily, and then I can reapproach Noah, who I think just needs a few tweaks.

Simon, too, is waiting for tweaks, but that will be essentially a couple of hours and a strong cup of coffee. I'm starting to feel more confident about getting this done before the trip to NYC. (Especially with ongoing help from the in-laws.)

This morning, I was hoping to get some work done. Sam, however, had other plans. To think I once I had a knack for getting Sam down for naps. Lately, whatever skill I had seems to be gone completely. Today, when he showed tired signs just before 11, all hell broke loose somehow. It took an hour of shrieking and screaming before he fell asleep, and here, ten minutes later, he's already waking up again. I think maybe he'll go into the swing now.

Grumble, grumble

I am in no mood to update this afternoon.

I have a wicked cold and cough, a Nyquil hangover (I think there's an ingredient in Nyquil, aside from the alcohol itself, that, as it wears off, puts you in an especially bad mood), and an infant son who is bucking all the rules of the schedule.

Of course, my mood is bad from within, and I am not blaming Sam for it.

Wanna know a secret? When Sam is obviously tired, and I'm obviously being a grump, and Sam keeps spitting out his pacifier and therefore won't fall asleep, and then he looks up at me and laughs, I sometimes think, Stop laughing at me! Pathetic, ain't it?

I want to thank the people at Blogger for not citing "ain't" as a misspelled word. Kudos.

Next stop, Eric Stevens Town, where Mr. Stevens has just submitted his latest Jake Maddox title to the good people at Stone Arch. I should be using this afternoon's free time to work on the mysterious (apparently) YA MS. But, as I noted above, I am in no mood.

I hope I find the proper mood soon, though. It would seriously suck if my big day of writing tomorrow was wasted simply because I'm being such a sourpuss.

I bet you're thrilled to your toes that you bothered reading this entry!

Monday morning quarterback

At the moment (or anyway at the moments surrounding the few moments I am taking to write this blog entry), I am working on the next Eric Stevens writing as Jake Maddox title. It's the story of an eighth-grade football team, and their fight to beat their longtime rivals. Their rivals have won every meeting between the two in the schools' history. Who will triumph this year? I'll give you one guess.

The writing is going fairly well so far, oddly enough. Football, as I've previously mentioned herein, is not my thing. But hey, that's what research is for, I suppose.

And speaking of Eric Stevens, the Stone Arch Blog is updated as of this morning for the new year, and it includes a link to the new line of Superman and Batman chapter books that company is putting out. Eric Stevens wrote two (the Superman/Metallo title, and the Batman/Clayface title). Those were fun but stressful to write, since the licensor is so heavily involved at every stage. The website for the DC tie-ins looks really great though, so I recommend having a look.

And speaking of websites that my wife is responsible for, here's her new blog!

Once Sam wakes up, I'll have to put this work on the backburner, so I better get back to it right away.

WTB house in warm climate PST

Yesterday was a good day, in at least a few ways, but not so good in one way in particular.

On the plus side, I wrote a chapter and a little in Lily's section of the YA MS. It turns out she's a load of fun to write, and way smarter than I thought she was. Besides the productivity itself, I was able to do some writing during the day, while Sam was napping, which is always great. And all it took was a split-second decision*: I think I won't play Assassin's Creed right now. I think I'll open Word. Totally worked! Then Beth was nice enough to let me run out to DBC after supper and get even more done.

Sam was a pleasure to be with, too, for most of the day, and even let me shoot a couple of videos.

The negative side? Cold. SO COLD. PAIN COLD. I am so done with winter already, which is a huge shame, because (A) I live in Minnesota, and (B) WINTER HASN'T EVEN OFFICIALLY STARTED YET.

Today, Sam and I will very likely go to the MOA. You say, "MOA?! So close to Christmas? Are you MAD?!" Yes. But that's irrelevant. I don't think it will be too crowded during a weekday. Plus? Opa! for lunch. But we have some things we need to return to MOA-only stores, so it has to be done. And I could use a nice long errand to get out of the house.

*Anyone else remember the Split-Second Decision assembly in high school or maybe junior high? In that presentation, the split-second decision was of course saying NO to drugs! Yay, Nancy Reagan!

Sniffles

I've got a bad cold. I think Sam might have it too. He's had a fitful morning of sleep since his mom left. He wakes every 5 or 15 minutes and cries for a few seconds, then turns over and falls back asleep. This is pretty much how I slept most of the night, so I'm assuming it's a symptom of the cold.

In other news, my first-ever graphic novel manuscript is . . . late! But not by much, and I hope to get it done by lunchtime, or during lunchtime, depending mainly on Sam. I have 6 spreads left to go, and then I can spend the remainder of December concentrating on my YA MS, and pitching new ideas to my editors over at SAB.

Sam is having a fuss right now, so I better check on him. Not much else to report right now, anyway.

Achoo.

'Tis the season

Time for more.

It's Thursday, which means in a few hours begins my evening to work seriously on the YA MS. In related news, I pushed through about 2000 words of that sucker yesterday. I'm not sure how many of those 2000 were actually any good, however.



It snowed today quite hard for maybe 5 minutes. Of course, I was in the car, driving, during those 5 minutes. But it was very pretty, and Sam was out in a real snowfall for the first time, albeit briefly as we walked through the parking lot when the snow began.

By the way, despite the name of this blog, or perhaps owing to the scenario to which the name of this blog alludes, our Christmas tree is up, as is a wreath on our front door. I'll post a photo of the former soon, I hope; we're planning on having it in our holiday photo. Think we'll get a card printed up to send out this year? I have my doubts. We never seem to get quite around to it.

Your opinion, please: When I was on my way out earlier, I spotted a woman, very bundled up, with her toddler son (presumably) wandering from house to house. At first, it appeared she was collecting recyclables for their deposit value (do they do that in Minnesota? I don't even know), but upon closer inspection, I realized they were in fact going through the numerous bags and boxes my generous neighbors have left out for today's charity pickup (by the Epilepsy Foundation, I believe; they want your new or gently used clothing or household items). This woman's infraction made me angry, and a little confused as to whether I was right to be angry.

So this is what Mondays are like.

Well, today has been one crazy ride. Samster the Hamster was a whirlwind of fussing, grumping, and shrieking his little tonsils out, and, get this, all without any discernible cause! I know! How rude.

(I hear him stirring from his afternoon nap, but I really want him to hold out until Beth gets home in about 30 minutes. It might happen.)

So yeah. Rough Monday. So it's an especially good thing that I had a fairly rejuvenating weekend. I spent much of Sunday at Bruegger's, getting some freelance writing done, and working a bit on the ol' YA Ms. I think I might have finished a chapter of one of the new novellas. It's kind of . . . I don't know, lewd? But I think it's fairly appropriate to the character. Digressing.

Anyway, post Bruegger's, I was off to Menard's, which is one of the classiest places to buy plastic sheets to cover your windows for the winter. They have a live pianist between the moving sidewalks. Super, super swanky.

I also investigated that paint that turns any wall into a chalkboard. Did you know they can tint it any color you want?! We're going with black. We're that crazy. (For those wondering, this is for the tiny section of wall in the kitchen just as you enter. It will be a chalkboard, corkboard, to-do list, grocery list, coupon board, menu type of thing. I think in a few years, Sam will get a kick out of drawing on the wall, too -- in nice, eraseable chalk.)

Mmhm. He's waking up for reals. Wish me luck.

That's Entertainment!

Sam likes his mobile to a degree I never could have predicted. Seriously. He's as close as he knows how to get to hysterical with laughter, which at this point is mostly smiling and going "Unnnh!"

Home Alone 4: Pig in the City

Not much to report, as usual.

Today was the Fourth Day Alone with Sam. It went fairly well, I think. It was a long day, certainly, but I am getting better at picking up Sam's signals; I can identify hungry, tired, and post-evacuation pretty easily--almost always before the deafening high-pitched streaking begins. It doesn't usually last long, though, if it does start; my throat starts to hurt, you see.

I'll be alone with Sam again tomorrow, and Thursday. Beginning in two weeks, it will be every day when B starts her normal work-at-the-office-every-day schedule. Shame. Why aren't we more Canadianesque?

I haven't touched my YA MS since the meeting last Friday. I just don't know where to start fixing this thing. I mean, I can pad it; padding I know. But I don't feel like that's what it wants. A few ideas I've had include an opening passage that completely breaks the fourth wall and sets up the piece a little better; opening with a poem is fine, but the scene at the clothing store feels a little in-the-middle of things. B suggested adding another, shorter novella, connected but not, a la Franny and Zooey. I don't know what to do!

Also we went to BN last night and I picked up two books by John Green: Finding Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. I'll read them in my normal slow fashion and get back to you.

Sam the man, bein' Sam, doin' things without a plan

Sam's been a little harder to please ever since he got his shots on Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon is noted in a previous entry. Yesterday, Sam was sort of on the verge of crying or crying pretty much all day. We didn't see many smiles from him.

This morning has been a little better, but the last hour, hour and a half has been on the rough side. I think he's feeling overtired. Hopefully I can get him to sleep.

Over all, though, I'm starting to think that getting any writing done when Beth isn't home might be a pipe dream.

SAHD

Today is my first day as a full-time stay-at-home dad. It's so far not very difficult. As a matter of fact, most of the stress I'm feeling comes not from Sam, but from this sense of foreboding in my chest: Things might get very difficult any second now.

Like when Harry wakes up and needs to go for a walk. That might be complicated.

Or there's the writing deadlines I set for myself; one to finish by end of day Friday, the other to finish by end of day next Friday.

But mostly Sam's been a picture of easy baby. Right now he's asleep. The two fusses he's busted today were easy fixes: eat, and change. That's easy. It's not like he's screaming in my ear and exploding diapers.

For now, I'll just be thankful he can't walk yet.

Which reminds me. The Times says I better stop forgetting to add the vitamin D to his bottle.