I even skipped the wine last night, that's how crappy I felt.

Here's to feeling cautiously optimistic that I'm not coming down with "The Matts" after all. Woke up feeling rather refreshed (well, as refreshed as I ever feel at 6 am) and the boy seems his usual energetic self. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the silverback huddled under the covers. I suspect he's down for the count which means it's up to Yours Truly to juggle baby wrangling/house cleaning/Christmas shopping/guest entertaining/callback auditioning for the next few. (Baby, meet Sesame Street...)

In other easy-to-type-up news (I'm telling you, that birth story is taking days) the boy finally drank out of a sippy. I love how breezy the books are about the transition from bottle to cup - "Start giving him milk in the cup at meals!" - like Little Dude won't notice the brightly colored, fantastically chewable/throwable item at the table. He isn't drinking much (1 oz. over the course of lunch and snack) and is definitely resistant to the cold cow nasty (he makes blechy noises and tries to wipe the milk off his tongue) but the kid's a sucker for applause which he gets in spades whenever he brings the cup to his mouth. Now I have to figure out how to keep him from Jackson Pollock-ing his food all over the floor. "NO" just gets a laugh - ooh, the burn! - and removing the food ends up being counterproductive, seeing as how he's going through a picky phase and getting any food other than Cheerios down his gullet is a feat in itself. (Insert collective nod of recognition)

But he's cute! (Have I mentioned?) And less stingy with the kisses, which makes up for plenty of grouseables. At the age of almost-1 he's fully mobile, if not exactly walking (or even close to walking, truth be told). I see these little-little tykes chugging around on two feet and wonder if I should be encouraging it more, which is what I wonder about almost everything. I saw a mommy at a callback doing the whole early reading thing with her baby. Not only was she reading book after book, she was then quizzing her toddler about the stories. The fact that the child was pre-verbal didn't seem to make much of a diff. I'm all for communicating with your child - get those neural pathways flowing! - but considering the fact that I'm entertaining my boy with my feet in a vain attempt to keep typing doesn't exactly earn me a gold star this morning. Speaking of irresponsible parenting, I probably ought to go feed the kid before he chews through his toy box...