BLARGH

NJ started day care 28 days ago.

Her first day care cold surfaced the following week. That lasted for a few days, and the cough that came with it has stayed behind and intensified to the point that, like clockwork, she'd had hacking fits around midnight or 1 a.m. every night for close to a week now. And they last a long time. The pediatrician says it's just that, a cough and nothing more. But it sounds like NJ's a two-pack-per-day smoker.

The Wife was pretty sick over the weekend, too. It didn't last long, but it was brutal.

Me? I've had a stuffy head and nasty cough for going on three weeks now. A couple of days ago I was unfortunate enough to catch whatever The Wife had over the weekend. Yesterday I went to bed at 4 p.m. I've mowed through more Sudafed, Tylenol PM, cough lozenges and other medications in the past few days than I did in the previous calendar year.

All of this I blame on day care.

What's in my lunch box? Disease, virus, bugs, sickness. Have some, Daddy!

Funny How Time Slips Away

NJ had her 9-month checkup today -- 28 inches long, almost 22 pounds, and no shots this time -- and a little while ago the obvious dawned on me: she'll be a year old in three short months. Before Garrett Gilbert takes a snap as a starter, even. That is right around the friggin' corner.

Yikes.

A belated happy birthday to, as my Uncle Billy Clyde so astutely dubbed him, the King of Texas.

The Storm Before the Storm

Not a good day.

NJ went in for her four-month doctor's appointment, which was great until it came time for the shots. One in each chubby little thigh. This upset her greatly, of course, and the rest of the day was pretty much one big crank-fest. No afternoon nap. This pushed bathtime and post-bathtime feeding up by more than an hour. NJ wasn't ready to go to bed an hour early, so when that time came she cried and screamed blue murder for forty minutes while me, The Wife and her parents tried to eat dinner two rooms away without freaking out. Finally, probably thanks to her crying fit exhaustion, NJ fell asleep. I checked on her and the look on her face wasn't the usual sleeping-angel stuff. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. We had a similar day on her two-month doctor's visit and the next day, it was as though her mind had been wiped clean.

Not a good day for The Wife, either. She goes back to work tomorrow (rehearsal for Dad Solo is over: It's showtime), and she's very bummed about leaving NJ. She'll take her parents to the airport in the morning, then drive to her office, and then she'll probably call me to see what's going on.

Not a good day for me, although I had the best of the three. I've been a little on edge. I'm a little nervous about my official debut tomorrow. NJ's crying jag this evening put all sorts of ugly notions in my head. Like, that's what it'll be like for nine straight hours tomorrow. Gulp.