I have my wii! It was reasonably easy to set up, and I've made a handful of Miis and played a couple of games. Big fun.

I dropped of my nephew at daycare for a while for my sister, and she didn't prepare me for the trauma that first day (to me; he was fine two minutes later). I probably cried longer than he did. He's 27 now. Not sure how the hell that happened so damn fast. Actually, he had settled for her at drop off by then. I think it was just the change up to the routine that threw him. Aw.

Anyway, my point is, I'm sorry for the parents that have to go through it. Rough enough as an aunt!

Hil, if possible get one of the Neilmed kits. Not the Neilmed Netti pot but the NeilMed original. The original works like a Netti pot only better. That is it squirts the water from Nostril to Nostril and if you follow instructions it is works in an almost foolproof way. The saline solution they give you is half baking soda and half salt.'

And yes it is a scam in the sense that if you can find a really good Netti Pot as a delivery system you can make your own saline/baking soda solution and do the same thing. But just about every pharamacy sells the Neil Med kits (which include 50 packets of saline solution). So if you need something now, pick one up then search at your leisure for something more permanent that lets you not overpay for baking soda and and salt and plastic squeeze bottle. (The real benefit of the kits is the plastic squeeze bottle which is probably just as cheap to make as standard bottles of saline solution but works about 50 times better as a delivery system. In short they did some good product engineering and are charging a lot for it.)

I have a squeezy bottle neti pot. I used it a little while ago and it helped a little.

This is just allergies. This is just allergies. I will be perfectly healthy this week when I'm preparing for the conference, and I will be perfectly healthy next week when I am giving my talk and having interviews, and it's OK if I'm a little sick next weekend when I'm doing touristy San Francisco stuff, and I really don't care what happens the week after that, but for this week and next, I will be perfectly healthy, because this is just allergies, and I'll take some Zyrtec and go to bed and wake up tomorrow feeling perfect.

{{JZ}} I hated that part. The daycare where the boys went had cameras in the office where parents could go and watch the child after the parent left. Most times I checked the boys were already playing before I made it to the office. Still ripped my heart out even knowing it passed as soon as I left.

Emmett would wail and cry after every dropoff for about two years. It was sucky and stressful and always left me a bit of a wreck at my desk.

His next school had a good system for dropoff. You'd drop them off through the front door and a teacher would take them around to the back yard where they could see you down the alley way waving gooodbye but couldn't cling to you. That worked better just by creating a ritual to the goodbye.

{{{Moms & Dads}}} I'm in awe of you guys.

in other news, champagne is chilling for the cyber toast of the happy couple.

Apparently I sent my dropoff parent home summarily on day one of Montessori. My sister put up such a fuss that they almost took her back home. Both mornings are enshrined in our personal mythos(es?). And I think my parents count both as fail.

That is the parental conundrum. You want them to be sad you're leaving them somewhere but not that much sad, no - that's too happy, nope, too sad again. A little bit sadder. A little bit happier. Little too sad. Little smile? Play with that girl there. Nope - too much play, show a small frown. Just a skosh happier.

PERFECT! Now I'll just go get in my car/bus/office and cry that you don't need me quite as much as you did yesterday.

Now my throat hurts. And moving my head at all makes my sinuses hurt.

Just allergies just allergies just allergies just allergies.