5 Weeks

Right now I'm sitting down to my 11 am breakfast - cereal today, as usual - while Rob and Buggy nap. She was up twice last night; Suze says that it is not uncommon to have to take two steps backward to take one step forward, so I am still hopeful. Besides, how can I be discouraged when I can watch Rob kiss Olive's little head before he goes back to sleep (to the strains of a spirited Wee Sing song with kids singing a round about "vinegar and pop" - undoubtedly an adaptation of a raucous drinking song, but I'll leave it alone)? Those two are quite the pair; I'm dreading June 22nd when she and I take him and Zoe to Reagan International Airport to see them off to Alaska for two months. Ugh.

Speaking of Rob, he and I have been in the early stages of working on some children's books. In the past week we've had two meetings where we've successfully outlined the plots and worked out page breaks for two books, with a third in the works (its premise is more complicated so it's taking more time to hash out, but it's about a Baird's tapir who's an aspiring actor who sets sail and gets marooned on a tropical island. Clearly we've been sucked in by the Lost craze, but it's a little different from that, of course). Once we get the text fully written, I'll begin the exciting task of illustrating them. This is something we've been talking about doing for a while; I'd considered getting into children's books for a long time, and had even illustrated one that was professionally bound but never published (a gift for the author's niece), and Rob's a real children's book afficionado, not to mention a very clever and imaginative writer, so it's great to actually start plugging away at this. If my job involved staying at home all day working on stories and illustrations and could be around Buggy 'round the clock, I'd be quite happy. Leaving the house for work is for the birds.

Tonight Rob's town band rehearsal was canceled, so we're staying in tonight, which is nice, but also means that Olive won't have her weekly birth-time shout-out from Gene Nichols. Bummer. We'll have to have our own celebration at home.