Heather Shaw

River at 8 months!

gryffyn@there.net — Sat, 12 Jul 08 06:55:00 UT

Well, in case you haven't heard (from Tim's blog or via Facebook or Twitter), yesterday went about as well as it could have. They put River under, which was harder this time because he wouldn't just lie there and let them put the mask on, so he sat against me while we he struggled, and the anesthesiologist caught his head as he nodded off and I struggled not to sniffle as I teared up in the sterile room. But! They only had to do an exam, and the exam showed that the left eye looked "phenomenal" and that the right eye, while not great, is at about half the pressure it was last time (17 instead of 35, whatever that means) and does not, at this time, need surgery. If both had been awesome, we'd come back in three months for pretty much the same thing, but since that right eye is borderline, we come back in two months. But! No surgery yesterday! No bug, not even a pirate, but a full-sighted babycakes! Yay! What a relief!

This week's photos, including some at the hospital, are up over at Flickr.

And we have two YouTube videos, too. The first is a very short of one where we got River to say "Mama" which he says all the time but we wanted to catch on film. He hasn't eaten in over six hours, which is part of the reason he was saying it so much. I don't usually respond by saying, "Yay!" but we'd been trying to get him to say it for the camera for awhile.

The second is Tim roughhousing with River and making him giggle in delight, despite the fact that this is one *hungry* kid. River's always surprisingly good at the hospital.

Stress and worry

gryffyn@there.net — Thu, 10 Jul 08 21:33:00 UT

Hi all.

So, I was hoping to get the pictures up tonight, but I've just been too scattered all day long, worrying about River's surgery tomorrow. Well, it's an appointment where they put him under to check his eyes, but looking at the right one, it's clear to us that he'll most likely need surgery on that one. We're hoping for a pirate (one eye) this time, and not a bug (both eyes). And, of course, we hope it all goes perfectly well (knock on wood) and this is the last surgery and he can get by without them from now on and he'll be a healthy, happy kid (knock on wood).

Anyway, just wanted to say sorry for not getting the River pics up. And to ask you all to think good thoughts or pray or whatever it is you feel comfortable doing to send some good energy our way.

Thanks.

River, week 34 (and other things)

gryffyn@there.net — Thu, 3 Jul 08 20:49:00 UT

Hey, the picture I took of sea turtles at the Maui Ocean Center is in the iPhone version of the Schmap Maui and Molokai Guide. No, I'm not sure why my last name is (the only one) in all caps. I don't think I submitted it like that.

A very busy week for me, filling in for my coworker while still trying to keep up with my usual day job. At home, in my tiny bit of spare time, I've been keeping up with the WiiFit every day. I'm not sure how much progress I'm making, though it must be some. I cannot believe how out of shape I am! Of course, a lot of it comes from the C-section, and the fact that I still don't have good core strength. It's hard, not being able to do exercises that I have, no matter how out of shape I've been in the past, been able to do (some of them well). Or have them just wreck me like this. My lower back hurts sometimes so badly I worry, but at the same time I need to do *something* to start getting that strength back there. And then there's my hip, which I'm in physical therapy for but has not felt right (always out of sorts, sometimes very painful) since the baby was born. I don't think I've quite grokked this whole major abdominal surgery, at least not the vastness of what that means to me as a person. It's hard to accept that your fan kicks will never be able to soar over people's heads again...

What a bummer that is! The truth is, even if my hip is never the same, River is completely worth it and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat to have him. So there.

River's been quite the little milestone baby, and he can crawl pretty well (he doesn't pick up his legs much, but drags them now with his knees bent, which is progress) and is, I think, working on standing while not holding onto anything. He'll pull himself up and stand for awhile, just hanging out, getting used to standing. And other times he pulls himself up an lets go, clearly trying to balance himself without having to hold on (he usually does this in the big bed, where it's soft landing for his little butt as he falls on it over and over again). If you put him down in the living room or office he will crawl over to the music center, get it going, then pull himself up to standing at it. It's very cool that he can go after things he wants now. And terrifying.

Anyway, his week 34 pictures are up at Flickr. Behold his adorableness!

The Magic of Aleister

gryffyn@there.net — Wed, 2 Jul 08 10:23:00 UT

My sister sent me this story about 5-year-old nephew, Aleister in email today, and it was so sweet and kind that I got all teary and just had to share:

"I had an incredibly fun day flying across the country with Aleister today, if you can believe that spending your day on airplanes and in airports could be fun.

"But seriously, on our return from Indiana, Aleister and I caught a 6:00am flight out of Indianapolis and arrived in Houston at 7:15 in the morning for a three hour layover. Lucky for us there was a kid's play area right next to where we got off the plane and so, having hours to kill, I didn't mind obliging Aleister with some play time. I settled into the comfy couches lining the play area and noticed there was one other kid there with his mom. The kid happened to have Down's Syndrome and was a little bigger than Aleister. He was twirling these long socks around and shouting very loudly with mostly incomprehensible words. Of course, Aleister didn't give it much thought and proceeded to climb around and begin playing. I tried to catch the mom's eye to give the usual "mom to mom, gee kids have so much energy, eh?" smile thing, but I couldn't catch her eye. When I looked over at the mom she just had this extremely uncomfortable look on her face, she was standing with her arms crossed, brow furrowed, and kept making faces at her kid as though she was extremely embarrassed by him. I felt for her cause although this kid's behavior didn't really make either Aleister or I bat an eyelash, I can't imagine what she must have gone through that would have created this uncomfortableness for her in regards to her kid.

"So, I sat there and read my book sipping coffee and Aleister played and then a really really cool thing happened. Aleister asks the kid if he wants to play. The boy didn't really make full comprehensible sentences, but he seemed open to the exchange. So, Aleister starts running to the top of this little toy bridge thing and then jumping off the other side and saying, 'do like this! do like this!' I try my best to not appear nervous, but the truth is I am a little worried Aleister might embarrass the mom further because I have no idea what the kid's capabilities are. But then I am pleasantly surprised as the kid also begins to follow Aleister around and does everything he does. He drops those long socks, starts smiling and saying 'wheee!' and before you know it the two boys are 'flying' the play area with arms outstretched and taking turns climbing things. Even better is the other boy turns out to be a bit of a comic and makes a show of climbing up things and pretending to fall down and him and Aleister have me in hysterical laughter. The other mother seems to relax. She is now smiling and laughing in wonderment. Her other, teenage son comes over smiling and sits down next to his mom and I hear her say to him, 'this is incredible! Jimmy never plays with anybody!'

"At one point, Jimmy picks up one of his long socks again and starts swinging it around. Aleister asks him, 'Can I play with the other one?'

"'Oh I don't think so, honey' the mother chimes in 'those are like security blankets to him. Nobody else is allowed to touch them.'

"Much to our surprise, the boy, Jimmy, not only hands Aleister the sock, but leans over and gives him a manly wrestling type of hug.

"Now, Aleister of course is a very kind hearted special magical kid, and my first intention in writing this email was to extoll his unique virtues as such. But the even more amazing thing that I have come to realize in composing this story is that, most children would have done exactly the same thing.

"This is the beautiful magic that we all start out with, the gift we're all given: The ability to see a potential friend in anyone and to bring out the best in others just by asking them to join us in some fun.

"Needless to say, it was a very beautiful beginning to my day and yet one more of the millions of moments that I feel so blessed to be Aleister's mother."

Two You Tube Videos of River

gryffyn@there.net — Fri, 27 Jun 08 11:40:00 UT

The first one here is only 16 seconds long and is pretty cute:

This next one we'll call a "Grandmother Special" and is 3 minutes of River standing and playing. Probably only of interest to his family, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it here anyway:

Have a great weekend!

River, weeks 32 & 33

gryffyn@there.net — Fri, 27 Jun 08 10:18:00 UT

A new batch of pictures of River from the past two weeks are up over at Flickr. We went to Indiana last weekend for a short visit, mostly to see Mom, but also got to see my old college roommate Colleen and her adorable daughter Tommy, and my college buddy Craig and his family (his very cool wife Jen, and their daughters Zamira and Lulu). A great time was had by all. Such a short visit, instead of feeling too brief (though, of course, it was) made Indiana feel that much closer -- as if I could just bop over to hang out at Craig's house any old weekend. Kind of a cool effect, really. And the weather was just amazing! Around 80 degrees all weekend, not too humid, a few small thunderstorms (I would've loved a big one, but after all the flooding they've had I was glad they didn't get one). I forgot how absolutely lovely Indiana could be in the early summer! I really really missed it -- that lush, green, growing smell, the tingle of ozone in the air when a storm is coming, the smell of fresh water in the air. And warm rain! And big raindrops that soak you each one!

Yeah, it's been a long time since I've missed Indiana for itself (I always miss the people). If it weren't for those winters, man...

While I was there, I stumbled upon a used WiiFit (well, I called around and the second GameStop I called happened to have a man *right then* trading in his used WiiFit!). I brought it home in my carryon (it barely fit) and started playing with it on Monday. So. Fun! I'm super sore and yet I *still* played on it for a good long while last night. Perhaps this will really get me fit? We'll see, but it's a good sign that I can't wait to get on it again.

River can now make his way forwards when he crawls, though not too fast. He can also pull himself up to standing and can even control it a bit when he falls. He's cruised a bit along my side as I lay in the bed, but he's not quite cruising the furniture yet. Soon, though.

River, week 31

gryffyn@there.net — Sat, 14 Jun 08 10:45:00 UT

A rather large set of adorable Riverness is over at Flickr. We think he's cutting tooth #6, so that's four on the bottom and two on the top! We might be using the baby dentist before too long! He's eating a LOT, and has so far had:

rice cereal
oatmeal
avocado
pears
bananas
peas
apples
cherry smoothie (only a couple of bites)
cherry juice (sour, but he likes it!)

I know I'm forgetting some. The avocado was first because it's really easy to get -- we often save a bit off our sandwiches in the restaurant and moosh it down for him to have with us! Ah, California!

He is working on crawling, and can go backwards fairly well, or can sort of launch himself forward, Frogger-style. He also, just yesterday, learned to go from on his belly to sitting up!

River at 7 months!

gryffyn@there.net — Sun, 8 Jun 08 09:27:00 UT

River, week 30 is up at Flickr!

Good week for pictures! Lots of solid foods, and a new "Popeye" face. All this despite some painful teeth cutting (he now has almost 5 teeth! 5!).

I uploaded this set late at night, so some of the captions/ titles are pretty silly. Sorry about that!

Cheers!

Photos!

gryffyn@there.net — Fri, 30 May 08 12:12:00 UT

I have a fussy baby so I can't go on about how much this past week has sucked, Wischolera-wise. But! I will quickly point out that I managed to find time during nap time this morning to put up pics from the last two weeks. If you want to see *all* pics of River and Wiscon, click here. If you're only interested in Wiscon, go here.

Ok, gotta run. Jeez, he is needy lately. Poor little dude!

Blowfish sale ends tonight!

gryffyn@there.net — Tue, 20 May 08 16:14:00 UT

I don't usually blog about work here, but I just realized that our big sale is ending tonight and that some of you might be interested in getting an order in before it's over. Just about all orders at Blowfish over $100 are 10% off, $150 or more are 15% off, and $200 or more are 20% off.

And, since I work from home on Wednesdays, there is little chance that I will see your order, so if you've been hesitant to order because you don't want to wonder if I'm smirking at you because I know about that double dildo, now's your chance.

You've got until midnight Pacific time tonight for the sale. Go forth and buy sex toys!

River, week 27 (now with video!)

gryffyn@there.net — Fri, 16 May 08 09:23:00 UT

Our first Mother's Day together! River tastes avocado, his first solid food! A fire in a pot farm across the street!

Pictures are here.

Cheers!

River at 6 months!

gryffyn@there.net — Fri, 9 May 08 10:28:00 UT

River is 6 months old! Woah! Check out his latest photo set at Flickr.

This week we had a visit from Jenn. River had his first swim lesson (he sucked his toes when he was supposed to be floating on his back). He discovered the cats. He tried oatmeal (and didn't like it). He gave me a real kiss on the cheek (open-mouthed gnawing, but it was clear he was trying to do it the way we kiss him). And, best of all, he's saying "Mama!" very clearly. I think he sort of knows it means me, no matter what Tim says (he's just jealous). At the very least, River knows that saying "Mama! Mama! Momma!" will bring me faster than anything else :-)

Happy 6-month Birthday, River!

Flytrap #9 ToC

gryffyn@there.net — Thu, 8 May 08 22:13:00 UT

Oh yes, I am very pleased with this issue. Allow me to present the Table of Contents for Flytrap #9:

"Kitchens" by Haddayr Copley-Woods

"Crushing Butterflies" by M.K. Hobson

"Fiddleback Ferns" by Sarah Monette

"Monstrous Love" by Jenn Reese

"War is Beautiful" by M. Rickert

"Domesticated Bliss" by Lori Ann White

Four poems by Catherynne M. Valente

Wham! Bam! Pow! by Erin Kelley

Life Among the Obliterati by Nick Mamatas

River, week 25

gryffyn@there.net — Thu, 1 May 08 22:08:00 UT

Twenty-five weeks already! We're celebrating half a year in a week!

New photos of River over at Flickr: River, week 25.

River, week 24

gryffyn@there.net — Thu, 24 Apr 08 22:49:00 UT

Wow, this week went fast! Another week of River photos are up over at Flickr!

Will try to say more later. Tired, and it's my night on.