Growing up.

*Sigh*

My munchkin is six months old now. He’s transitioned from infant to baby. This three day weekend we are taking the next step in growing up. Going to bed by himself.

We started last night. We have a routine that we’ve started. At bedtime we go upstairs, we get in pj’s, and while his has a last little bottle we sing a specific series of songs. Then, while he’s still awake, we put him down in the bed and say good night.

Last night he cried. After five minutes, we checked on him reassured him I was still here. Five minutes later I went in again. This time after patting his back and assuring him I was still here and he was okay, I started playing his heffalump (a stuffed blue elephant) and left the room. In less than a minute he was asleep.

Tonight, I started Heffelump immediately upon putting him down and he didn’t cry at all.

I can’t believe this will go this smoothly from now on. I’m sure he has a few more cranky crying bedtimes in store for us, but I can’t believe I forgot about his heffelump that first night.

The soft blue elephant (called Heffelump for the Winnie the Pooh song “Heffelumps and Woosles”) was the first gift I bought for Z. It was on impulse. We would play the heffelump for him before he was born. My SO was skeptical, but I had faith. We discovered immediately in the hospital that it had worked. (see pic) The singing of his heffelump calms him down within seconds unless he is in the midst of a full blown melt-down.

Someone recently suggested buying another heffelump and changing them in and out so that if one is damaged and has to be thrown out, there is still a heffelump. That just seems so wrong. Like having a spare SO that you change in and out incase something happens to the original.





I've been making plans for the coming RomantiCon. It will be my first convention as an author. It will also be my first signing unless Jewels of Ursus is released before hand. Even then I'm nervous about setting up my own signings.

I've also been giving some thought to podcasting. Wondering if it might be a good idea to offer some of my work as audio books through podcasts. I'm looking into the idea.