February 05, 2008

Killian Earns His "Tractor"

So, I've broadcast my excitement over the event and now here are some pics of Killian relishing in the spoils. With the completion of his potty training, he earned himself a battery powered Yamaha Rhino - deemed by him, his "tractor" because the next door neighbor's kid has a John Deer similar vehicle. He was quite thrilled and managed to deplete the battery twice on his first day. The pictures are of relatively low quality taken by a cell phone. Beware as he buzzes around the cul de sac at a speed of 5 mph! That's right, we took off the speed restrictor. Madness!



February 04, 2008

Goodreads

I was introduced to a pretty cool site today, Goodreads. The link to my page on the site is here. Pop on, join up and add me to your friends list there. Basically it is a site to track books that you've read, books you plan to read and share ratings and recommendations with friends.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On

Ok, this will be of interest to only those who are parents or grandparents, but Killian pulled off his first full day of no diaper (not counting overnight pull-ups) and clean "big boy underwear" for the entire day with no bathroom prompting by a parent on Saturday. Every time he went, it was his decision that he needed to go. It was awesome! I didn't have to change a single diaper or a set of clothing! I think he's actually got the plan down now... finally! So, happy times here. As a bonus, if he keeps it up, he'll likely get the tractor or truck (battery powered and kid size) that he missed out on at Christmas this week. Woohoo!

February 01, 2008

Week 7 & 8 Weigh-Ins

Ok, I have a few things to talk about in this post.

First, my weigh-ins for the past two weeks. On 1/23, I weighed in at 191.5, a nice 3.5 pound drop from the previous weigh-in. In celebration, I managed to gain a pound over the next week, weighing in at 192.5 on 1/30. Boo. Still, 11 pounds down overall thus far, 12.5 to go.

Next on the agenda is a sad note. As I walked into the restroom in our office building the other day, I saw the following note laminated and secured to the wall: "Please Flush After Using". Seriously? I work in an office building of 200+ people. A headquarters of professionals and that note needs to exist? The saddest part is that it probably does. I have, on occassion, walked up to a urinal that remained in a "used" state upon my approach. I'm baffled. My 3-year-old knows to flush the toilet when he is done. In fact, it's probably the part of the whole event that he looks most forward to.

Which brings me to my next point. I don't want to talk too soon, but I think we are well on our way to potty trained. Killian has spent the past few days in underwear instead of pull-ups. A few accidents have ensued, but it has been a success for the most part. I can't *wait* to say goodbye to diaper changing. Come on kiddo...

Now onto surgery recovery. All goes fairly well. I got the stitches out last Monday, 1/21. I had to go in to have the incision drained yesterday, but that should be the end of it. It was doubtful that I would have even had to go in for that. The remaining discomforts are pain directly around where the incision was when pressure is applied, of course. General tightness of muscle around the area as healing progresses. Again, of course. The unexpected pain is that which feels like sunburn several inches out from the inscision. My shoulder blades are super sensitive to touch. It hurts when my shirt drags across them. It feels exactly like my skin is raw from a burn but no visual cues. The doc explained that it is radiating pain from nerves that they had to cut and cut around and that it should heal over time. It's kind of like a ghost limb. There's no way to alleviate the discomfort, which is the part that sucks. However, it's not so bad and I can pretty much ignore it. It's more freaky than anything. The best news is that my back definitely feels improved overall and the discomfort of having the mass there is definitely relieved.

I have picked up playing City of Heroes again on the PC. I'm playing with a group of guys that meet every night and our cooperatively working our characters up to level 50. It's tough to meet every night, but it's a fun time and a good group of guys, so I'm having fun with it. I've also been playing Rock Band on Xbox 360 with Rich & Scott whenever I can. It is much to the fun. I'm playing drums, Rich is playing lead guitar and Scott is bouncing between vocals and bass. I can play drums on medium through almost all of the songs we've hit so far, but can only step up to hard on the simplest songs. In any case, it is a blast! I would highly suggest checking it out if you have the means.My step-dad came down a couple of week's ago (the day of my surgery, actually) and helped us (ok, helped Bobbie) clear out a ton of dead trees and brush. We bought a small 8-inch battery operated Black & Decker chainsaw last night with a giftcard from my dad and step-mom (thanks, guys) at Lowe's to cut up the remainders into tiny enough bundles for the city to pick-up.