We're doing more remodeling (downstairs bath and maybe new flooring downstairs), and looking for recommendations. Anyone know:
- A bathroom remodeler (tiler, especially)
- someone who has had cork flooring installed (wondering about durability, online is mixed)

Happy Birthday, Malcolm!

I don't have a cute pic, though - we have been very lax in our picture taking lately.

So, Ash has been sick. Started a week ago Friday, and I had that one right along with him. Sucked - exhaustion, nausea, runny nose, fever. Brian caught it Tuesday and slept 30 of the next 48 hours. Ash seemed to get over it by Wednesday, so we let him go back to daycare on Thursday. Friday, his nose is running more. It eased up Saturday and Sunday, but this morning he scared the beejezus out of me. About 6am, he woke up, coughing and crying. He wasn't getting much air in, and he was shaking, so after a few minutes of holding him, laying him forward and patting his back, I headed out the door for the emergency room.

Five steps out the door, and he's breathing ok.

I slowed down and checked, and yeah, he really is breathing ok. He calms down, nose is runny, but everything seems to be working again. I head back in and start the day, though taking it a little easy - he's still in his pajama top at lunch. We did a little steam room in the bathroom, a little food, a lot of lap time. Headed to the doctor, and she said he's got croup. Alternating cold and warm air is the first step in treatment - check. We also got some drugs for the inflammation of vocal cords and ear infection, but he'll be at home for a few days. He seems mostly ok, but tired.

I am having a hard time concentrating.

On the lighter side, we've been singing to him every evening for hours - to the point where I just got some recordings of me singing and am playing them over and over. WotB is STUCK in my head FOREVER. He's also been hopping. I'd have video of Ash, zenhack and me in the kitchen hopping at each other, but we were busy at the time. Maybe we'll get someone to take it at Tgiving.

Like treeish, I have wandered into facebook. It is an unfun interface, but I found my Souixsin! I missed her. That alone makes it worth it.

Despite being quite warm and a little fussy today, Ash hopped for the first time! Cool.

BLEAH. I'm sick - not a painful, stuck in bed, unable to move sick, but more a miserable, tired, runny nose, nauseous, fever sick. Ash is too, but zenhack is not. Ash and I both slept >12 hours last night. The doctor says it's not swine flu. We've cancelled all appts today and tomorrow anyway.

He is, however, his father's child. He took my hand, put it on his head, and started to move it - demanding head scratching.

I go take shower now.

Meep's post has some really good autism spectrum stories (and a cute kid video). I was, especially intrigued with the news that a couple with some autismish traits are likely to have a kid with the traits, but more intensely. That would SO be us. Wired was kind enough to provide an AT quiz: norm is 16, 80% of those diagnosed with autism scored 32 or up. I got a 27, and am completely unsurprised. I based a lot of my sociability answers on history before Ash was born - what I consider to be 'normal' me. I have gotten less comfortable socially since then.

I wonder if some of the 'epidemic' of autism is that kids' brains become more neurotypical as they get older, so that there's a lot of adults who would have been dignosed with autism 20+ years ago, but wouldn't now. Not me, though - if anything, I was more social as a young child.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

Just an update - two weekends ago, I was sick and missed a great bday party. At least I got to hug one of them later... This derailed any elaborate costume plans, though I had pretty much given up a week before that. On Halloween weekend:

1) I took Friday off long time ago, in case of any fun plans. I didn't come up with any, so I then planned to spend a couple of hours working on the cement base for a foundation joist. Then my mom tells me that my uncle and a cousin are in Fayettenam for one night only, so I give up on the foundation, get groceries and haul Ash down to grandma's. The abundance of beards confused him.

2) On Saturday, we realized the water in the basement wasn't going away - it was getting larger. It's a sewage backup, mostly on downstairs water, which we don't use much. However, after two loads of laundry, suddenly the bedroom floor was soaked. zenhack and I cleared the room of all the computer stuff and called the plumbers. zenhack spent all day on this, and was too worn out for partying later. I am usually asleep by 9pm, so me partying was not an option.

3) On Sunday, we pulled up the carpet, threw away the padding, bought a dehumidifier (yay craigslist) and tried to dry out the carpet.

Brian almost has me convinced the carpet is unsalvagable, which means we have to decide: cheap carpet from Habitat Reuse, installed ourselves, or jumpstart the renovations we've wanted to do from day one. I hate to buy something that will be replaced in 3 years, but we've got a long list of expensive things that need to happen before we can rent the place out. Homeowner's insurance appears to cover sewer backups, but there's a $1K deductable - the old stuff that was there is not worth anything like that. But if we have to install a new pipe from our house to the road, we'll probably put in a claim. Our downstairs livingroom is so packed, but at least we finally started moving stuff upstairs.

Wulfpak - I am so glad you are not waiting for us to finish this. Silver lining...

Also, neither zenhack nor Ash got my cold - that's pretty awesome. Or maybe it was just allergies.

Ash is enjoying preschool, and today he finally ate something there!!!!!!!!! It was driving me crazy - 9am to 4pm on just two cups of milk.

See y'all in a few weeks, I hope...

So, if your kid gets his or her foot stuck in the toilet, try dish soap before you call 911.

My mom keeps giving me peppers. Most are not hot. One today was hot, and it's on my hands. I've washed them 5 times, and I still just got burning lips when I brushed my hands over my mouth. And this is after I had to rinse my eye with milk. Wah, wah, wah.

Wah.