sleep training

at 1.30am i got mr smear back to bed and turned in myself. then i got up to worry about firing the cleaning lady in the morning. nice.

thursday 13th:

almost an hour longer at my desk after posting, then going to bed... aaaand then up at six with everyone else, in spite of a brief attempt to sleep in a little

dropping off mr smear with a good feeling - better than the day before, that's for sure - getting a couple of things done then heading off to the gym for a brisk sudoku walk and a couple of minutes of pad work (gd made me proud). picking up a very happy mr smear, who competed at the top of his lungs with kmfdm as we drove to pick up gd, then started to fall asleep as we arrived home when we only had half an hour to go before viewing an apartment... we put him to bed and i stayed home while gd went to see the place

just falling asleep when she called with a positive review, struggling with a gap insurance claim

mr smear throwing tantrums for the rest of the day

taking mr smear to play with friends and finding help with our cleaning lady issues, rushing off to see another apartment (cramped and viewless, but nice complex), mom joining us during a quick shopping run, giving notice on our apartment, going to sleep as soon as mr smear was in bed

friday 14th:

getting most of a good night, still tired and grumpy waking up, a little harlock: space pirate before dropping mr smear off at school, rushing off to his screaming for me to get gd to her acupuncture appointment on time which turned out to be half an hour later, coming home for a brief respite before picking her up again and going to the gym, rushing out of the gym to pick up mr smear, run to the chinese store, scarf down toast with avo and rush off to my massage appointment.

a good massage and a positive inversion experience, returning home and hurriedly grabbing and dressing mr smear and rushing out to the park (i felt like i should have had a siren on the car) shouting and singing at mr smear to keep him from falling asleep

a pleasant half hour or so, then coming back home to dress and hand mr smear off to my mom and rush off to the temple - i'd thought we had a half hour more than we did - for a service that wasn't very inspiring but piqued my interest on a number of topics

dinner with mom and mr tantrum, getting him to bed (the struggle was real) and saying goodnight to my mom before settling in to american gods and chocolate and chai and falling fast asleep

saturday 15th:

a couple of times up but generally sleeping well and getting up at 8am of my own volition

hunter x hunter and delicious pancakes, seeing an apartment, sorting out a prescription and awkwardly navigating a pharmacist who didn't seem to understand me, heading straight down to the car to meet a mechanic and realizing - while he had the door lock mechanism in his hands - that we were late for the showing of peter pan at canal walk...

... arriving half an hour late but mr smear thoroughly enjoying what remained, meeting a bunch of other parents and discovering that mr smear's new best friend's father is an old buddy of dirk diggler's, a mall train ride and the excitement of sitting in a stationary car at the games arcade, chinese for lunch and a proper tantrum leaving the mall

mr smear went from screaming to sleeping in a minute, but we woke him putting him into bed and that was the end of any napping :(

hunter x hunter on a miserable afternoon, at least gd got him to eat a lot before bedtime but unfortunately that didn't prevent him from demanding feeds throughout the night

the disappointing season finale of american gods - the last few episodes really weren't as awesome as the first few - before turning in early, exhausted

sunday 16th:

a long, tedious night followed by a long, tedious morning; a quick mission to baby city and the plastic store before lunch, lunch, a long coffee with an uncooperative mr smear and an old friend (born the same minute), then waiting for my mom (was the friendly "grandmother" by the elevators flirting with me?!), visiting my great aunt and taking a pleasant walk (thoroughly enjoying the vegan ice cream at mojo market)

home, hunter x hunter and bedtime, finishing hidden figures (wow! wonderful film) and then working on my graphic novel landing page - finally happy enough with it to focus on other aspects

monday 17th:

going to bed around 3am after an hour or so risking a repetitive stress injury scraping all the family pictures i've posted to instagram so we can try to make a physical album

... aaand up at 7am...

a busy morning, learning that our cleaning lady's really sick on the same day we planned on giving her notice, dropping off gd at the acupuncturist and taking mr smear for a meander around mojo market, inadvertently joining a visiting group of teen rugby players for breakfast and giving beet box another opportunity to show me that i shouldn't buy their shakes...

a doctor's visit to assure gd that she's in good health, mr smear napping and me following suit, interviewing a nanny and dragging him out of bed for his portion of the interview: all of us very satisfied

doing various things while waiting for an onboarding meeting that wasn't going to take place for a while, including chatting with our apartment's property manager who appears to be on our side but with her hands tied by idiot landlord man and a secretive body corporate

a last-chance walk to the pharmacy to fill out a prescription for meds we'd run out of, a short time with my mom, showering mr smear (this screaming thing is nuts, i don't know if something's hurting him or not but if it is it doesn't make any sense)

work, long meeting, a little more work, bed

tuesday 18th:

another sleepless night, up at 6am to work for a couple of hours before starting mr smear's day with hunter x hunter and breakfast then leaving for the dentist; these hour-long appointments are consistently taking an hour and a half...

home for lunch, stressing over the nanny not communicating and certain we made a mistake in cancelling the second nanny's interview, responding really badly to the stress

taking mr smear out for some exercise on the promenade, two tantrums and feeling on the verge of a breakdown making me feel sure we're not ready for another kid... gd reassuring me when we got home, throwing myself into work while she entertained him until he finally passed out at 4pm

most of a work call uninterrupted, then a mix of business and dinner and minding mr smear until shower time... discovering that the reason for his cries the previous evenings were that the water wasn't hot enough!

mr smear singing along to my extension of "row, row, row your boat", after calling out "BOOK... OF THE DEAD" the previous night when we got to the necronomicon in c is for cthulu the night before: super proud dad ^_^

an episode of vikings (pretty cool) and both of us going to bed early

wednesday 19th:

mr smear only waking up at 4am the first time, getting up and spending a couple of hours trying to get a newly spun up azure virtual machine to download software (wtf?!), then going back to bed and being able to sleep in once the nanny arrived

waking up around 8.30am and working straight through to 1pm, minor interruptions by mr smear but mostly focused and getting a complicated puzzle piece completed

resting, dr who, cranial nerve pressure and dancing in the aquarium

feeding ourselves rice like grownups, and helping to pick it up off the floor like grownups, grain by grain

granny visit and a beer, trying to shower in accordance with the updated water restrictions, a smooth goodnight, most of another episode of vikings and an hour and a half meeting cut by cries from mr smear's room

thursday 20th:

awesomenauts, class diagrams, 2.15am to bed, 7am to rise, not feeling healthy or wealthy or wise

yokai, hunter x hunter, pancakes and coffee, gd's insanely delicious vegan cupcakes, coffee at bootleggers with an old friend who returned my mega memory cassette tapes that he'd borrowed when we were fifteen

back to square one with the nannies, primi piatti for the kids area and a good lunch, back home for an interview but the nanny got lost and meeting her began just as i had to get on an important phone call with a new hire; he would have had trouble understanding us even without the background noise, and i wasn't prepared, in addition to being thoroughly tired

mr smear breastfed to sleep but beyond a power nap not being able to take advantage because my feet began to hurt, desperate munchies (the last cupcake included), a little work before mr smear woke up

diapers off, a couple of attempts on the potty but mostly just peeing on me; goat simulator may not be good for children (or anyone), but it entertained us all nonetheless. struggling to get him to eat dinner, not struggling with the shower or toothbrushing for the first time in days

vikings, an illuminating chat with a coworker and bed

friday 21st:

a couple of rough wakeups during the night, one really upsetting but i think i handled it well

feeling much better in the morning, mr smear loving yokai and breakfast, a visit to the baby centre for weaning counseling and a vaccine, pleasantly surprised to hear that i've had the right idea all along

hitting the gym, then home for lunch and hunter x hunter, going down for a nap with mr smear and waking up to mr smear with a swollen sore leg and a nightmare fight with gd; a sour prescription pickup and promenade walk, my mom coming over for a short while and then dinner and bedtime and work

saturday 22nd:

going to bed just before 5am after a night of solid work, some awesomenauts and a bit of ftl

a couple of minor wakeups but mostly resting for five or six hours, getting out of bed to find the nanny had taken mr smear out for a couple of hours and enjoying an easy breakfast and coffee

sailor arriving for lunch with his girlfriend, everyone getting along famously, gd slicing her hand instead of the avocado, a great afternoon with mr smear receiving attention and affection from all sides, eventually saying goodbye and meeting up with my mom for a dusk walk, dinner and mr smear "wasting" gd's ramen, showering with fun music

my son and i rocking out together to enter sandman while drying him off was a lot of fun, minor moaning about going to bed, game of thrones season 7 starting strong, work and gaming (texas hold'em, puzzle agent and awesomenauts)

sunday 23rd:

until 1.30am

a 3am tantrum followed by a brief pause followed by a really big one, another break at 3.30 and finally back to bed just after 4

up at 9am! hunter x hunter and breakfast, followed by a great gym session when it was warm enough outside to use the grid; running fast and comfortably with motivation for the first time in a very long time, feeling really good and heading home for a shower and lunch; mr smear napping and us taking full advantage, waking up a little before him completely - but comfortably - exhausted

col'cacchio's for dinner, another two little playmates there keeping each other (and me) very busy, good food, generally good service except for the manager making us wait because his loyalty system wasn't working, quickly shopping - or waiting for gd to shop - "no row row row", "no tar", "no la la la"

the sudden, surprising and deeply unpleasant sciatica on my left side, home for a fast-tracked bedtime and my mom coming over to pick up gd and let me handle mr smear for the night; showing him around the empty apartment for his 10pm attempt to second-breastfeed before bed seeming to work

finally watching what the health in its entirety and being thoroughly impressed

monday 24th:

"self care" (gaming) until 1am

3.30-4am minor heartbreak, initially holding him but eventually getting him to lie down and moan himself back to sleep; for the next hour or so i couldn't sleep so i set about investigating why my computer wasn't sleeping

the loud banging on the front door at 7am scaring the bejeesus out of me (i'd accidentally locked gd out), taking a little while for my heart to slow down and then sleeping another hour before being dragged out of bed to drag mr smear out of bed

rushing through bad traffic to drop gd off, home for a short while then picking her up again, both of us exhausted (did we pick up a bug?), mr smear going down for a nap around lunchtime just as the building renovations commenced with non-stop jackhammer work that lasted until a few minutes after he woke up 2.5 hours later (grateful for that, i napped most of that myself) (they then fired up again a short while later)

key cutting, a pharmacy run and a home playdate with a post-tonsillectomy child out of commission and his little brother showing mr smear he wasn't welcome (child politics), a cold walk back to the grocery store, a big little shopping run and then dinner, shower and clean-mom's-laptop time before the last breastfeed of the day and saying goodnight to everyone

slowly building steam with my work, a couple of breaks for awesomenauts and texas hold'em

tuesday 25th:

all quiet until 2am, then an hour with mr smear that taught me a couple of lessons... in my desperation to get him back to bed i tried a number of things, and weirdly enough timeouts had the most impact. also, i need to minimize comforting him myself when his first choice comfort isn't around.

finally crashing at 4am, exhausted before the night began and having a busy morning ahead of me

up at 7am for an unpleasant misunderstanding, dragging mr smear out of bed for his first feed, the new nanny's arrival, missed breakfast and rushed coffee and dropping off mr smear and returning home to pick up his lunch and return to the school to drop off the lunch and drive to the car rental agency in the pouring rain with dangerously stupid drivers and pedestrians all around

starting the long earth while i waited
glove compartment contents for breakfast
pancakes, coffee and a month's worth of recruiters to politely decline
picking up a jovial mr smear, getting through lunch (keeping mr smear off the nanny so she could eat hers), eventually getting a bit of a nap before rls kicked in

electricity bill fiasco
enjoying books with mr smear
dinner and shower
mr smear singing along to "yeah, yeah, yeah, thunderstruck!" was AWESOME
driving the family to my mom's, hanging around while gd breastfed him goodnight, taking him home and getting him down in ten minutes by employing my new strategy (long may it last)

zombie state along with my pc (mistakenly locked myself in to a backup procedure that took hours longer than expected), going to bed and

wednesday 26th:

waking up with mr smear at 7am (O_o) (!!!)

hunter x hunter and mr smear singing along in japanese, crazy drivers, school drop off, work (and work environment annoyances), migrating git changes by hand, picking up mr smear late after getting stuck in fire traffic: his teacher is as excited as we are that he's now talking non-stop

no napping, harmonica and lunch and and eventually taking him to the park in desperation, a long chat with a neighbour, ruffians at the park, mr smear and the sandcastles (and figuring out what the little shovel is for), home for a chat with another recruiter followed by a dev meeting followed by investigating issues with my first project, gd letting mr smear crash at 6pm (living dangerously) while i did some quick grocery shopping, mom's brief visit and shadowslight coming over, gd and my mom leaving soon after i got mr smear to sleep and enjoying an interesting and wide-ranging conversation with shadowslight until almost 11pm

thursday 27th:

crashing at 1am
brief waking at 2am (no threats needed!)
up at 7am, dr horrible's sing-along blog and mr smear mimicking the foot stomping from it's a brand new day while singing "die!", dropping him off at school and coming home to stare glumly at unreadable legacy code while considering shadowslight's enticing pitch to work for him

lying down for twenty minutes before going out for another showdown with telkom, helpful dude agreeing that i've been overpaying

picking up mr smear, a short stop at home then heading to town to hunt down the south african visa authorities: first barrack street, then the absa building (i was shocked to find empty vfs offices with no bell, security was shocked to see me exit when they hadn't seen me go in), waiting my turn to find out that i'd moved on to the wrong building, finding the right building and struggling to navigate the entrance (security pointed to a locked turnstile, i was supposed to guess that the panel next to it was unlocked), the lifts (they claimed the floor i was entering was invalid, turns out there're two sets of lifts), and then being instructed in no uncertain terms that the waiting room was sitting only (i thought the security guard was going to put me in the naughty corner for offering to stand)

a helpful man, leaving via the wrong door (seriously?! it led to the same place as the right door!), another recruiter call (holy crap there're a lot of the buggers), home, the nanny bringing in a sleeping mr smear, a short break interrupted by another recruiter (what is it with these people?!) and mr smear waking up sooner than anticipated, a pharmacy run, gd's chiropractor appointment, another pharmacy stop then finally home
standard bedtime and falling asleep during the ghostbusters reboot

friday 28th:

another night sleeping, only i kept waking up every time mr smear talked in his sleep
mr smear not sick, but not well enough for school
the ghostbusters remake is awesome, clever and silly and lots of fun
running mr smear out in the park
lunch with my mom at her work and buying great book gifts
rushing home with gd annoyed by the challenge of finding baby changing stations
getting some work done
friday night service (52 weeks of annoying singing to go, but good sermon)
forgotten dinner
the case of the missing antibiotics: the horror of learning that mr smear had stolen them and the gratitude for gd finding them unused and in the trash
dinner, shower, bedtime, texas hold'em, work meeting, awesomenauts, work

saturday 29th:

until 1am

a couple of minor wakeups and a little bit of threatening timeouts followed by another night of keeping me on alert

up early, mr smear refusing breakfast, a big birthday bash, short nap time struggling to play ghost in the shell, giving up just as mr smear woke up, skipping a birthday party because we thought he was sick, but then it turned out he wasn't, a walk to the blue train, a ride and playing until the sunset cooled and it got chilly, dropping by my mom's, all of us going to our place for great chinese from downstairs and discovering that for a year we've been living above a really good restaurant

quick bedtime prep followed by a very unpleasant good night, a good hour of tension, a little ghost in the shell and passing out exhausted and uneasy

sunday 30th:

2am nightmare ("why, mommy?!"), 5am giving up (breastfeeding), early up for motorstorm: apocalypse, some work, and trying to sort out outlook for my mom (why do all of microsoft's products have to suck?)

a very pleasant birthday party on a really hot and sunny day, coming home for a bit of a struggle (diapers off, fending off mr smear from my food - which wasn't as good as his)

nap, waking up to draw cash for the nanny, an episode of limitless, work, taking mr smear for a walk and enjoying a very nice evening with friends (a repeat of the previous evening's chinese takeout)

shower, relatively easy bedtime, battlestar galactica, finishing ghost in the shell (not the same story as the original, but very good in its own right)

very frustrating rls and a little more work before bed

monday 31st:

1.30am up, gd preparing a bottle of formula: one taste, handing it back with a "please" and going back to sleep... well, everyone else, anyway.