tongue-tied

Thanks for the sympathy on my pitiful last post. Things have definitely improved. My friend is home from the hospital where she belongs, my grandmother's estate is two weeks closer to settled, and while I can't say there are any positive developments on my mom's health, she hasn't had another Scary Incident either, so that's a good thing.

The last couple of weeks came with their own new challenges - most notably, an incapacitating lack of sleep. I've heard horror stories about perfect sleepers turning into night owls at 10 or 11 months, but for now, I'm clinging to the hope that it's just teething. (Please God, let it be teething.) Of course, this does little to improve my mood at 11pm, or 1am, or our new wake-up time of 4:30am. We've moved bedtime earlier. We've moved it later. We've tried PJs of varying warmth. We've given tylenol. We've withheld tylenol. I know we are soooo lucky with how E normally sleeps - the past week has done nothing if not made us grateful for the past 5 months - but man I'm tired! I think we're also on the cusp of walking, so that may be screwing his sleep up as well.

But enough about that. I've had things on my mind I've intended to post, but the sleep-deprivation is making me feel like I can't express myself. I've been a terrible commenter lately, too. In one instance, I saved a post to reply to "when I had enough time to do it right" and then it got completely outdated and I finally ended up sending a note over email after that thoughtful blogger took her time to check in on ME. In another, I wrote a novel of what I intended to be support, but it just sounded like a bunch of rambling assvice when I read it back to myself so I deleted it without posting. *sigh* I'm going to do better. Maybe.

In other news, I have a new profile picture! It's actually the first time I've ever had one. How totally lame is that? I realize that most of you are probably reading this via some kind of feed so I'll save you the trouble of clicking over to my blog to check it out because, seriously, my blog layout is as boring as it gets and so not worth leaving the highway for. It's a dandelion. Over the past week or so, I've adopted dandelions as a symbol for E, if only in my own mind. I like having symbols for things. I guess a lot of people probably do.

I think it's interesting how these associations form. I'm intrigued by blog nicknames, too. I always wonder how those nicknames came to be. Were they impulsive or the product of an exhaustive brainstorm? Do they stem from an IRL nickname? A hobby? A physical characteristic? I have flirted with the idea of moving to nicknames for M and I, but I can never think of any I like enough. I have one all picked out for Elliot though: The English Muffin. Unfortunately, he's the only one of us that doesn't need a nickname, since I've already shared his name with you. Figures.

So back to the symbols... M and I do dragonflies. Well, that's our symbol, I mean, and it came about in a totally accidental way. When we were planning our wedding, I had a bunch of DIY paper projects and I wanted a rubber stamp I could use on everything to tie it all together. M and I went to the craft store not having any idea what we were looking for but hoping we'd be taken by something. I found a stamp of a dragonfly that seemed pretty and simple so we took it home and it found its way onto most of our wedding elements. It's funny to me to think that we didn't have any particular attachment to dragonflies before that because we sure are swimming in them now. People understandably assumed we were "into" dragonflies since they were featured so prominently in our wedding, and the dragonfly gifts have flooded in ever since. We have dragonfly everything now. Fortunately, I do like dragonflies and I usually like the aesthetic of things dragonflies are featured on, but I think it's funny that this association came about in such an incidental way. I mean, it could have just as easily been starfish or pineapples or a fleur de lis. The art store happened to stock a cool dragonfly stamp, and the rest is history.

And now we have a dandelion in the family, or more precisely, the incarnation of a wish granted. I figured a dandelion was more fitting (or at least more attractive) than a wishbone. :-)  M (our resident gardner) will likely kill me for this and I recognize it lacks originality, but I think it suits him; my very own sweet little wish come true.