#sitto

Debunking Myths About Low Back Pain Inspired by Sid Anandkumar's TED Talk: "Low back pain: myths vs. facts"

This is literally the worst thing I have ever made and ever will make

I love him

Ditto Sans (aka Sitto) belongs to me

This will be a short entry my dear Zena, as I continue to dedicate all my entries to you, in this the first year of your life.

Short because I am rocking the phone/stylus combo and because your daddy's head is a bone-bowl full of pulverized mush. Brain goo, you could call it, if you were to crack it open and peer inside; not that you could, weak and puny as you are.

Although, one of your aunts once cracked her father in the head with a frying pan as he slept on the couch, just for the hell of it... so I suppose I'll have to start watching you soon, despite your apparent feebleness.

I'm exhausted Zena. Your brother was a gremlin last night. Quite literally: when I put him to bed he was as angelic as little Gizmo, then he pissed himself sometime past midnight, soaking both himself AND his bed, and was and inconsolible mess from that moment onward. I had to take him into bed with me as it was too wee in the hours to change a tiny bed, and he thrashed and rolled and flailed till Sitto -who's leaving tomorrow!! Nooooo!!- blessedly came in and scooped him up sometime this morning, affording your dad some sleep.

It might not have been so bad if I hadn't already been up till about quarter to three out in front of a roaring fire debating and discussing all manner of issues and philosophical queries with my mountain friend last night. 

As I told him when he left, I don't know why we bother to keep meeting, it seems like we've solved all the world's problems several chats ago. At this point we mostly just review and repackage past points. Still, it's great to have access to another human mind who's capable and quite willing to take a conversation to any and all places and go as deep as a mind possibly can.

But with all actions come their consequences and a rough night with Blaze, coupled with my choice of chat over sleep, certainly put me about 10 steps behind the 8 ball right from the get go today. 

Still, it was a great day. I went with Blaze to my sisters place today to celebrate my nieces 19 th birthday. My whole family was there, which was nice, as we haven't all been together and speaking for some time. Blaze also got to spend some time with my other new little niece, who he has a bit of a love|not-too-sure-about relationship. It's quite funny watching them interact.

And there you have it my dear. A short and sweet entry, as advertised. My head being in the foggy state that it's in, I will now take this opportunity to go to bed at a decent and responsible hour, so I'll have enough strength and energy to fetch all those tissues for your mother tomorrow night after Sitto leaves. 

Grim times ahead!

It's tough to say which will leak more tomorrow night, her eyes.. or her boobs. 

Zena,

I don't want to speak for your mother just yet, but personally I am more than willing to admit that when I woke up this morning I was pretty much beaten. Not broken mind you, it would take more than a few sleepless nights to best a Fire Dragon, I'm sure you can imagine; however, a severe and unrelenting beating by you and your brother I am more than happy to admit to at this point in the game is what I felt when I woke up this morning. 

Cute as you both are, I'm considering having you sent off to a lab of some kind where you can be studied with advanced techniques and tools. Nothing too invasive you understand, but someone needs to find out what you're both running on that allows you to function at near full capacity for at least 23 hours of a day. Inexhaustible, you kids are; you for the milk, forcing your poor mother to basically walk around with her boobs hanging out, and Blaze for just the sheer entertainment of life, which he refuses to substitute for sleep even when his own body calls for it! 

Inexhaustible. 

Well your parents most certainly are not. I think your mom is in with you trying to sleep right now. She'd mentioned having a headache just before I'd gone outside to work, about an hour ago. When I came inside your Sitto and Blaze were sitting on the couch watching some streaming educational cartoons on our Roku and the door to the bedroom was closed. I was informed that when she got home from taking Blazer for a walk she heard you crying upstairs but didn't bother coming up to check. 

And why would she? You cry for one thing my dear, and it's milk. Well, also from all the gas you've got inside you, that you refuse to have burped out... but that's on account of the milk so again, you cry for but the one thing. 

I tried to nap earlier but didn't time it well enough.

You see I could have gotten some good sleeping in when your mother took Blaze out to run some errands this afternoon and Sitto was here to watch you. Instead, I decided to go out and get some work done; a poor choice, considering how tired I was when I stumbled into Blaze's room at 7:00am to get him. I tried once again to take him into bed with me but it was no use, he wasn't having the realm of the unconscious anymore and was fired up and ready to go throw more things haphazardly around the living room, with velocities increasing daily. 

Instead, I waited until after your mom got home with him and about an hour after I'd put him down to nap. Yes, right about the time he'd be waking back up needing me to look after him was when I decided to go up and sleep. Apparently in the half hour or so I managed to sleep I missed my parents arriving to drop off our Costco loot. Thank you to them for making both the trip in and the delivery out here. It looks like we're all set for Blaze's birthday tomorrow; though there wasn't much to do, it's going to be pretty low key as I said. 

Speaking of birthday's, your eldest cousin is celebrating her 19th birthday today. Bailey Pinch is 19 friggin years old today. Wow. I hope she enjoys whatever she remembers of it, being off work as I know her to be today. I kid of course, she's not the type for all that nonsense and will no doubt spend her 19th birthday studying quietly for her own self-improvement at a library somewhere.. or perhaps sitting in meditation at the side of a small pond.

Ha! NOT! 

I won't say anything so cliche as I can't believe she's 19 already.. because I most certainly can believe it as I have watched her achieve it over the course of the past 19 years. Though I wasn't home all that much her and I have always had a very close relationship and a pretty special bond. She's a great young woman (almost said kid) and if I still looked forward to anything these days -trying to stay present as I do...- it would be to merely continue to watch her fully mature and develop and enjoy what will now be a much closer geographical relationship. 

I'll be heading over to your aunts place on Sunday to celebrate it with her, though you and your mother will likely be hanging back home. You're too weak my little worm!! You're not yet 10 days old!! Though I should let you know that by this time in Blaze's young life he was laying on our chest raising his head up to look your mother right in the eye. No comparisons at all my dear, your father recognizes you are very different human beings and that any judgement of good or bad in any stage of development is illusion. 

Having said that... you're still so fragile! 

The Lebanese tradition is that babies aren't taken out of the house for the first 40 days of life. That might have something to do with the flood those many years ago.. though they say it's more to make sure the baby's had enough time to get settled in the world and build up their little immune systems. I have no idea if the logic is sound but I do like the basic idea; especially when I pick you up and you still feel like your going to snap five different ways in my hands!

Anyway, that's all your father has in the tank tonight.   If it sounds like I'm complaining at all it's only because I'm dramatic by nature!! I wouldn't change a thing in my life right now and am thankful for all that I have on a daily basis. 

Still... if you guys just slept a little bit more...