BumbleDad

Hi there.

I apologize for yet another lengthy delay in posting, but I’ve been updating the back-end of this site to help ensure that it, and everyone browsing it, is safe from the less-than-savory types that lurk in the darkened corners of the Interwebs. You know, the ones with neckbeards and meme t-shirts (in size “husky”), wearing fedoras and peering angrily through a haze of vape smoke.

And honestly, it’s been a bit of a hassle.

However! Chrome users should note that the dubious “NOT SECURE” tag next to the website URL above is now gone.  And at some point McAfee will get around to verifying the site and they should add a little footer at the bottom to reassure everyone that the site is secure.

So there you go. Safe as BumbleHouses. Moving on.

There have been a couple of developments with Daphne’s swim classes. The first is that she has completed her beginner “survival swim” lessons. And here is the moment where she graduated…

And so, in a perceptibly proud moment, her teacher came over after this class and handed her a little t-shirt badge that allowed her to go to the front desk and collect her official Texas Swim Club t-shirt.

We’re very proud of our little fish. And Texas Swim Academy has been fantastic to us throughout the (nearly) 4 months that we’ve been going there. I can unquestionably recommend them if you’re looking for swim lessons for your little one, neurotypical or otherwise. (And no, they’re not subsidizing that comment in any way.)

But speaking of subsidies…

A while ago we were given an application for a “scholarship” from a program called KNOWAutism. The focus was to help kids with autism pursue extracurricular activities like horseback riding, adaptive yoga and…yes, swimming classes. 

So I filled out the paperwork, wrote a little letter to them about Daphne (you know, like I’m wont to do), and last week they emailed me back an approval for a scholarship for our favorite little one.

So Daphne’s swim classes are now completely paid for through the end of the year, thanks to KNOWAutism and the wonderful people who’ve donated to them.

So, from my entire family, thank you all very, very much. It’s been a pretty challenging year, and that money will help us more than you know.

Thank you.

But you know? This little girl has worked really hard at her swim lessons.

So I think she’s earned it.

Regardless, congratulations on both of these, Daphne. Mommy and Daddy are very, very proud of you and we’re so happy that other folks are getting to see what a wonderful little person you are.

Now, that being said, we need to talk a little about your sleeping habits…

Up until now, sleeping through the night has been one of the things that we thankfully didn’t concern ourselves with too much. Aside from the normal lack of rest that comes standard with a new baby, Daphne has always been a great sleeper.

But recently, she’s taken to waking up at around 3am and crying and/or playing for a couple hours before going back to sleep.

This has, quite obviously, wreaked havoc on our morning schedule.

To go from her usual 9-10 hours of rest, to suddenly getting less than 7 has clearly been rough.

It hasn’t been an every night affair, but I’d say it’s happening about twice a week? Enough to where we’ve gone back to the days of audibly instructing begging her to sleep through the night when she goes to bed.

And last night was a rough one too.

Hopefully this is just a phase or something and she’ll go back to her 9-hours-of-uninterrupted-sleep self soon.

Hopefully.

j.s.

Hi there.

So this is slightly awkward, as WordPress has created a new interface called “Gutenberg” (presumably Johannes and not Steve) which is making for a very strange text editor. I guess I’ll get used to it, but right now it feels like I’m tweeting or something…

Anyway, as I mentioned about a week ago, Daphne has started school again and is doing quite well. **knocks on wood**  Granted, there have been a few small bumps here and there, but they mostly involve the other children and their penchant for crying rather than eating their lunch. (This in turn causes Daphne to cover her ears rather than eat her own snack…) All in all, things are going well though.

That said, we think it’s really important that she continues her physical activities. And so we’re continuing to take her to swim class…

and I brought her with me to the rock gym for the first time last week.

At one point, after no small amount of coaxing and reassurance, she wandered over to the wall on her own and began her very first climb.

Not wanting to push a good thing too far, we left the kids’ climbing area after this and I let her just run around the bouldering area.

Yes, we had as much fun as it looks.

When we’re not at school, or the natatorium, or the climbing gym, we’re hiding inside from the brutal Texas weather. 

This is the part of the year where I start to get a little freaky about the heat, and desperation for a cold front begins to manifest. I start to eye my sweaters longingly, sigh when passing over my corduroys in favor of a pair of “dadcore” cargo shorts, and I start to organize my hoodies…you know, just in case.

Daphne seems to have a similar idea as well, as she’s been getting on her tricycle and into her wagon in the afternoons. And I have to sit her down and explain to her that, no sweetie, we can’t leave the house because the Earth has somehow shifted in orbit to 30 miles away from the Sun, and the climate outside has become demonic. 

She’s taken it in stride so far.

Sadly, we’re about 2 months removed from any serious change in the weather to allow such things. So, if you’re looking for us, until then we’ll be found anywhere there’s air-conditioning.

See you later.

j.s.

Hey.

Sorry about that. I’ve been pretty busy with a non-stop barrage of editing assignments, job hunting and sojourns throughout Texas.

The first I can’t really go into because of NDA stuff, but it’s been a goodly amount of work and I’ve another 2 projects that I’m in the midst of right now. Sadly it doesn’t quite pay the mortgage, but it’s been a not insignificant amount of money that I’ve earned with them the past 6 weeks. So it helps.

Speaking of which, the job hunting thing continues. I was actually quite close to accepting a job in Plano last week but Jen and I determined that uprooting isn’t the best move for Daphne right now. She’s doing so great in all of her therapy and classes that it just didn’t seem like the right choice..

I did, however, have a rather interesting stay at a hotel up there.

I rented a car through Expedia (I didn’t want to put 500 miles on the Juke in 105° heat) and they gave me a really good deal on a room at the NYLO Plano.

Looks nice, right?

I checked in, got my room, and upon opening the door I found that it was nearly identical in size and shape to a freight container.

Replete with water-stained concrete ceilings!

Which, you know, was fine. Not great, but I just needed to stay the one night and then head home after my interview. Who cares if I’m sleeping in a Cinder Block Simulator?

I got settled atop the comforter, and worked on my proofreading until I was so tired that I’d read the same paragraph 5 times on a loop without realizing it. At which point I pulled the comforter and sheet back and found…a mattress pad.

Now I was pretty tired, so it took me a second to figure it out, but it seems that the maid service skipped the whole “fitted sheet” step, and just tucked a flat sheet in over the mattress. I stood there confused for a moment, then gave the equivalent of a mental shrug and climbed between the sheet and comforter.

And I’ll tell you, fitted sheets are a thing for a reason.

Without them, the flat sheet and mattress pad combo tends to bunch up as you move in your sleep, and you’ll subsequently awake at various points in the night contorted around a strange topography of bedding. This, in turn, prompts what I’ve called the “Smoothy Bounce.” That’s where you bounce your whole body up off the bed (while still laying prone), grab the sheets with both hands, and shoot your arms out sideways mid-air in an effort to create a small flat area for you to go back to sleep on. I did this several times that night…

The next morning, tired from lack of sleep, I slowly padded over to my personal Keurig machine for some “coffee” (I’m decidedly anti-Keurig, but that’s a post for another time), popped the lid, and was confronted by another man’s used Keurig pod, still sitting in the hopper.

Again, this is not a huge deal. But it’s not the way you want to start a day. Particularly when you have an interview in a few hours and you’re already tired from performing the equivalent of a Gabby Douglas floor routine all night in an effort to smooth your bedding.

So I (gingerly) removed the expended plastic caffeine nugget, replaced it with a fresh caffeine nugget, and went about my day.

When I mentioned these issues to the front desk as I was checking out, the young man just stared blankly at me for a few moments, then said “okay, I’ll make a note for housekeeping.”

Fantastic, Gustave. That’s very helpful at this point, since I’m checking out and all…
Wunderbar.

Okay, that’s enough complaining about my temporary accommodations; let’s talk about Daph.

Yeah, I guess that hotel story did go a bit long…

Daph is doing great. There were minor hiccups in her speech class this week, but her swim classes are still going, er, swimmingly.

She’s able to float on her back by herself now, and is starting to get the hang of doggy paddling. Her teacher even allowed me to take a quick video last week, since there weren’t any other kids around:

Awesome, right?

Shortly after we took this, we packed up the Juke and headed to Seguin to visit the grandparents. (Leg two of the earlier referenced “sojourns.”)

There was the requisite amount of relaxing there (I actually got a lot of work done, as I had a deadline looming) but Daphne did her usual swimming and swinging thing.

We also dropped in on my brother- and sister-in-law in Georgetown while we were nearby (leg 3), who both seem to be doing fantastically well. Was great to catch up with them.

And today, Daphne is wrapping up a quick speech therapy session before we hit her last swim class for the week. Actually this is a make-up day, as the pool was ominously closed yesterday for “decontamination.”

And given my squeamishness about handling a used Keurig pod, I really don’t think I want to know what that means.

Talk to you soon.

j.s.