parenting question

Not to turn this into a parenting blog, but holy crap I'm losing my mind. Any of you with children older than Joe go through a period at ~16 months where your child will not go to sleep without major fussing/crying? Joe has never been a great sleeper, but has been pretty good. Now, he wakes during the night and resists going back to sleep. He also resists being put to sleep initially. I'm not sure if he's figuring out the power of his own cries or what, but it's starting to take it's toll. I'm turning into a crazy(ier) person! If you have gone through the same thing, please tell me that it rights itself quickly. If you have not, please pretend. Thanks!

New Year (from Dan)

Since there hasn't been anything about new year, I wanted to post (a) what people have said to me and (b) my thoughts.

What I have heard is a strong push to not do NYE, and instead try to do something this summer. The main reasons I've heard are: 1) Amanda might be able to come and 2) Amanda might plan it. 

My thought is that Amanda's presence and Amanda's planning are two of the fundamental strengths of the BLD New Year, and that we appear to have moved away from these strengths in recent years for reasons that are not entirely clear to me.

I also think that NYE is a terrible holiday for people with young kids. You have little time off, you're cooped up inside b/c the weather stinks, you've already possibly been stressed by recent travel with kids, you're getting up at 6AM, so you don't want to also be up at midnight.

I would propose that, instead, those of us with young kids do what we want to do on NYE and go to bed at 8:30. And Amanda start planning in earnest the 9 1/2 th Annual BLD New Year's Eve party at the mid point of 2009 (~June 30) .

Thoughts? 

Dan

Yeah, softball

If my grandmother hasn't called you yet, you must not be on her rolodex of top 700,000 friends.

The Mazzuccos are having a girl! Despite the recommendations of the Doucets and the stern instructions of Marilyn Fasani, the Mazzuccos are having a girl, according to the reports of at least one technician at South Jersey Radiology Associates.

The father-to-be was seen tearing his hair out and issuing warnings to local fathers to keep their boys away. The grandmother-to-be was rumored to have purchased the entire girls' clothing section of a local Babies 'R' Us store. 

So, I thought I'd add a new post since there hasn't been a lot of activity lately. Of course my thoughts are frequently on Jaya, so I put a couple Halloween pictures on here for your amusement. We went to our neighbors'/coworkers' home as usual during our time here in Modesto. They are good Catholic folk and Notre Dame alumni (is that redundant?). They recently had a boy who they dressed up as Casey Clausen, Notre Dame's quarterback. We dressed Jaya up as a Redskins cheerleader. After putting them down on the couch for a photo together, their boy almost immediately grabbed Jaya's hand. It was pretty cute. I only got one photo in before he grabbed her hand so these two pictures pretty much sum up the progression. Note to self: keep an eye on that kid... You might also notice the Redskins baby booties on Jaya. I insisted she wear those because I bought them in 7th grade for my kid someday! I don't know why people say she looks like me... :-)

Late night amusement

I was reading the Daily D opinion pages tonight for some amusement before heading to bed. On a whim, I searched for "Kevin Walsh" and every column he wrote popped up for review. Kevin, I think you wrote a lot on abortion in college. In an effort to find something a little more lighthearted, I search for "Lincoln Willis" and "Dan Mazzucco". Ahhh, I miss sitting on the Collis porch, eating lunch, and reading the D. In an effort to bring you back a few years and help you recall some fond memories, I give you Dan Mazzucco's "Groups Don't Define Identity" from February 1, 1996. The only thing missing is a TPB reference...

http://thedartmouth.com/1996/02/01/opinion/groups/print/