Monday Morning Musings

I have a lovely, happy pink geranium in my window now, to the right of the computer monitor. I made a plant hanger and had a nail put in the window frame for it and everything, because while it's true my big window with shelves is pretty well taken up, the family room window does have room to hang things. And this is a very pretty plant. Apparently the reason my last one died is that they NEED sun, and my last one was on a shelf across the room. And I was warned by its Freecycling former owner that they do die back somewhat during winter, but come back in force in the spring. I must say, it is pleasant and relaxing to look up from the computer and see growing things - my geranium has two big blooms and many more buds to open, an ivy that was sorely neglected is perking up with sun and water (amazing what a difference those two make!), aloe is thriving on sun and NO water, and the crown-of-thorns is blooming with tiny red flowers like miniature poppies. And those are all framing the monitor - philodendrony things and a jade plant are on the other side of the room.
Regardless of the state of my house, my plants are happy!
Terri-the-Feeding-therapist has given her blessing to try Kittyboy with straight water - as in, turn on the tap, hand him the cup. Exciting and thrilling, and brings to my mind visions of a thickener-less future. Once upon a time, we would just drop a whole box of a hundred or so packets in our trunk when we went on a trip, because to pack too few would have been a true emergency. Out of thickener, baby can't drink - period. The trip this past weekend, by contrast, I think I tossed maybe 8 packets in the diaper bag, because we've been using one for not ever four ounces, as it used to be, but every sixteen, and if I had run out, he could have drank anything carbonated without a problem. The carbonation "wakes up" his mouth and throat. Next week when Terri comes for her November visit, I anticipate we'll be talking swallow study. A swallow study, also called a video swallow, is where they put him in a special high chair in front of an x-ray machine, and take x-ray video of him swallowing liquids with barium in them. The barium shows up on the x-ray, and they can watch where it goes, and see if it leaks into his airway even temorarily in the process of swallowing. That's his whole problem, that his epiglottis hadn't been protecting his airway fast enough. I'm really, really confident that the next swallow study (before Christmas, please?) will give us the green light to quit thickening permenantly. Maybe not to let him use a regular sippy cup (the head-down position he has when drinking through a straw helps protect his airway), but no thickener at all would be a happy Christmas present.
I have three projects in the works for my Etsy store. This afternoon I'm going to have Husband busy taking pictures of what's completed so that I can post them. I've crocheted several pot-holders and have two scarves and another pot-holder in progress. My only problem is convincing myself that they're good enough to actually be SOLD. I get compliments aplenty from friends and family, but what will a stranger think?
I love my Pandora station. I started it with Flogging Molly's "Drunken Lullabies", got wonderful Celtic punk music for a while, then started getting some wussly stuff. Not a fan of the Irish Rovers. They're okay sometimes, but not to follow Dropkick Murphys. It was musical whiplash. I added Metallica's "Whiskey in the Jar" and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" and then Pandora got the right idea. That station doesn't take much tweaking. My bluegrass station, on the other hand (bluegrass NOT COUNTRY), is almost more trouble than it's worth. The really corny stuff, I don't like. The slow sad stuff, I don't like. I thumbs-upped one acapella gospel song and got inundated with Dolly Parton, all of which I gave thumbs down, and now it's very confused. It doesn't know WHAT I want. Listing songs from the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack helped somewhat but not entirely. I need to find the soundtrack and list as seed groups the people who did the songs I like, because apparently a lot of the songs in it are bluegrass/folk standards. At least half a dozen people have recorded "Man of Constant Sorrow"!
Ah well, I should start on lunch. Kittyboy won't nap forever. And a hungry toddler is not a happy toddler.