I have a cold. But I'd rather write in diaryland than sleep or do homework, so here it is.

Baby poop is suprisingly varied. So much so it takes up a certain amount of conversational time that we used to reserve for intelligent things like current events, gossip, etc. Now we talk about baby poop. Especially now that the boy is on solid foods- our baby food conversation has been elevated to new heights.

With solids comes constipation. Or at least new effort in expelling waste. The little boy makes this ridiculously funny face, grunts, and his face turns red. Repeat until a stinker fills the air and you know he's made himself another dirty diaper. We are trying to keep track of when he poops just because it makes us feel like better parents. We have developed a system of discussing his poops. Just as tumors are often related to size-equivalent citrus fruits, we describe his poops in terms of the size animal that may have produced such a poop. For example, today he had a large cat-sized poop. Sometimes it's a rat poop, other days it may even be big enough to be a dog poop. According to his granny, every time she changes his diaper it's at least a dog poop, verging on elephant. I beg to differ, only because I know the dog poop days are few and far between. He's actually most apt to have little rat poops that are powerful nuggets of stink. But granny babysits for free, so we keep our commentary about her poop size assessment skills to a minimum. ("it would have been a small cat poop if you had actually changed it when he made it... six hours ago!!!")

He likes to wiggle everywhere now. I can't hold him for very long without him whipping around my body from side to side to see every single thing 360 degrees. He's also trying to crawl, but he hates being on his belly, so there is a clear conflict there. I'm amazed by how hard he works at mastering these skills. They don't happen so easily, I'm learning. One day he strts to crawl and we think he'll definitely be crawling by the weekend. But learning doesn't work that way- it's much less linear. One day he'll rock back and forth on his heels, then he'll regress for a week and practice rolling onto his back. Then he's back to the heel thing for another few days. I see now that learning anything takes time and effort and isn't necessarily the easiest thing in the world. It makes me want to be a little easier on myself when I don't pick up a skill right away. It's hard work learning to be a person, you know?

Yesterday we had a wonderful day. We went out to go for a walk and ended up joining the annual Love March for Martin Luther King jr sponsored by the local baptist church. It was the boy's first Love March. Then we walked to the natural history museum and talked to the life-sized dioramas of large mammals: Look Mahko, a buffalo! his response: cha cha cha cha (whispered). Then we went home and I took a long nap with him. It was so nice to have some time with my boy that was slow and relaxed and without pressure. We played and laughed and practiced crawling and walking and cruising. He slept well, I slept well, it was perfect.

We learned last night that our friends who were expecting had a miscarriage. I don't even know what to think, except total sorrow. I sometimes feel guilty that we have this boy when there are people out there struggling for even the glimmer of a future child. When I nursed him after that phone call, I think I held him especially close and let him sleep in my lap a little longer than usual as I counted my blessings. We had such a great day yesterday, the vivid sorrow of a lost baby only illustrates just how fortunate we are.

I do need to get to work here, people. But it's nice to check in. FYI for anyone in the diaryland digs ring- I will be closing it in the next few days. If you want to be in the new ring, check the digsboards.