Are you a boy? I ask. He shakes his head no.
Are you a girl? I ask. He shakes his head no.
Are you an alien? I ask. He nods enthusiastically.

He is a genderless alien then

And in other news, we bought him this Clifford dog for Christmas and only now has he finally gotten the courage to climb up onto it. Yay, courage!

I just went into the basement to start a load of laundry, and walked straight through a spider web. Ick! I feel all creepy-crawly now!

The novel continues to be written! My first completed draft of the second chapter (I ended up writing the second chapter before the first, lol) is a whopping 42 pages and almost 14,000 words. So considering a 100,000 word novel, which I have read is a good limit/goal for a first-time novelist, that would put me at about 14% done! Yay! And that’s not counting maybe another 5,000 words in notes. Maybe it’s the spring weather? I think so clearly when I’m out walking, and almost always come back with a bunch of ideas to write down.

And now, let’s talk about sex, baby

Since my novel pretty much revolves around a group of particularly horny college kids (are there such things as non-horny college kids?), I figured I am bound to have to write some kind of sex scene at some point. I found this article on writing sex, and it was just hilarious! Must read! Even for non-writers. Sex is pretty funny after all

He said his first sentence today!

“Airplane in the sky.”

Brilliance, I tell you! Brilliance!

He is a big boy now, apparently. Maybe I should buy him a backpack and send him off to college? He wants to walk everywhere and does NOT want to hold my hand. He wants to play on the big kid park equipment, and does NOT want me to help him. He wants to walk straight off of a platform onto the rope ladder and he doesn’t understand why this might not work.

Oh, the fits this child can throw! If he is not ready to be finished doing something (the park, for example), he arches his back, goes stiff, and screams. Last weekend we took him to the park in his stroller and when it was time to go home he threw one of these fits.

So let him walk, hubby says.

Okay, walk then.

And this boy walked almost a mile! And even then he still threw a fit when we put him in his stroller.

And then we have throwing food. We also have a carpeted dining room, not by choice. I have tried everything I can think to try – time out, making him pick it up, a slap on the hand, no more dinner for you. He absolutely knows how to say “all done,” but sometimes for whatever reason, he just decides to start throwing things instead of saying “all done.”

In my 21 months and 14 days of parenthood, this is the first age I have found that was not “the perfect age.” I remember that every stage along the way so far has been so full of discovery and amazement at everything new. Not now. This new attitude is one development I could definitely live without.

Can someone tell me when it gets easier? And don’t tell me it’s when he moves off to college.

And now insert the obligatory “But oh, how I love him!” *eye roll*

Well, here it is. Everything is better in yellow I think. (It’s even brighter than it looks in that picture – the light is hitting it oddly there.) But it is bigger than I thought it would be, and this track pad is really going to take some getting used to. And after writing on paper as long as my baby has been alive, I’m finding my creativity a little stifled on this thing. That will take some getting used to as well I suppose, but I think there will always be some charm to writing in a paper journal with a good old-fashioned pen.

Question #1 is can we keep grubby little blueberry-jam hands off of it? This is going to be a tough one because he really really wants to get it. There are no games on this computer, I’m telling him, which of course is not true since his games are on the internet. I know if I let him play a game on this thing even once, it’s all over.

Question #2 is can we find a functional and cute laptop bag that will also hold my various folders, journals, and a couple of books? I have looked at Target already, and there was nothing either cute, or big enough to fit a 17 laptop. I didn’t know I was getting a big one. Oops!

#3, not a question, or to do with the laptop at all, why do telemarketers need to call eight times during Dylan’s nap??? Do they have some agenda against me that they just want to wake him up.

#4, I found a way to rig open the lens cover on my camera. And a good thing too, since I can’t afford to buy yet another new camera. Yay!

This is something probably only my writer friends will understand. The rest of you will probably want me committed.

My characters are talking to me. I find it hilarious that if any other person told you that they had people talking in their head, you might suggest a good shrink, but when that person is a writer, it’s all okay- or, well, accepted anyway.

I never experienced this before I started working on my current story. I always thought writers were exaggerating or flat-out making it up when they said it. But then I heard it myself, a father and son, had an entire discussion in my head. How about that?

That discussion, by the way, changed the entire ending of my story. I swear I don’t feel like I’m writing this damn thing at all. It’s writing itself in my subconscious. It’s just trippy. Maybe I do need a shrink, lol.