ita mentioned affect of bath or shower on sleep. What my physical therapist told me (so can't vouch for scientific accuracy) is that baths or showers both relax and energize. But the energy lasts an hour at most, while the relaxation last longer. So what it is worth, the rec is to finish showering or bathing a little OVER an hour before bedtime, for optimum sleep benefit.

Hmm, the most recent news include crawling on his stomach (no corner is now safe! And no matter how much we clean the floor, the front of his clothes is always a mess of dust), developing a taste for eating shoes (and getting to them no matter where they are, see above re: crawling), preferring what the grownups around him are holding to any toy held and waved in front of him in failing attempts to distract him, and still making us wonder how we won the biggest lottary ever and lucked into having him with us.

Baby! Yay!

The crawling/dust thing reminds me of my favorite-ever chindogu item - the Baby Mop [link]

Jess! How is your own lovely baby? And her older brother?

[Edit: very useful cleaning-the-house item! The DH joked about glueing a mop to the front of some clothes - he's be tickled to know he's not alone!]

I love hearing the news from Nilly! And the baby dust-mop is brilliant.

edit: Dude, post #69 in thread #69? I feel like I just won some kind of lottery.

As everyone else has said, it is unpossible for you to give offense, Nilly, but we'd love to see more of you.

I don't know why the Swiffer people don't make disposable baby clothes out of Swiffer material.

Best alarm clock ever?

Staying up for the thread rollover was not a good idea. So tired. And today has been a bit of a shitstorm. My 9:00 meeting involved a shouting match. (I wasn't involved. I just sat wishing I had not come in today.)

In the middle of my panic, my agent sent me an email that she loves the sample I sent of the new book, and wants the full proposal and another essay in the next two weeks to get out to editors before publishing shuts down for thanksgiving.

Ever so cool I say "sure."

Ever so reality, I threw up. I'm going to do it and get it done and be fine, but I can't convince my stomach that it's fine and we do this and there's no reason to let my brain tell me I'm worthless and talentless and it's all an elaborate practical joke. My brain is not allowed to be an asshole this time. I'm just not having it. Fuck you, brain. We have a book to get out into the world.

Allyson, that's great news. Allyson's brain, buck up!

We have a book to get out into the world.

That's excellent news, Allyson! Congratulations.