The juice is loose

I don't know what's going on around here, but somehow our laptop caught the plague that's been ravaging our household for the past month. So while it's in the shop, I'm typing this on my work computer, which of course I have at home due to my insane 24-hour commitment to the success of my company.

That, and I figure if I take big ticket items like this home with me at night, I'm less likely to show up at work tomorrow and find out that my key card mysteriously doesn't work any more. They've gotta let me in the door if they want this laptop back. And once I'm in, I know a million places I can hide for weeks waiting out the economic downturn, surviving on the free soda and PB & J sandwiches.

Of course, if I do that, I miss out on the exciting happenings around here like the fact that our 10 1/2 month old son is finally free of his swaddle.

It turns out that 10 1/2 months is a long time to swaddle a baby. I remember thinking that at 4 months, we were in the minority and reading about people that still swaddled at 10 months and laughing at their inept parenting skills. Well, even if we didn't win PEPS, we definitely out-inepted those folks. Score.

The Miracle Blanket swaddle blanket has been our best friend for as long as I can remember, but it is nice to let it go. For one, we only had one of them, so it was always a challenge getting it clean between naps and nighttime if someone (Kitty) inadvertently peed on it. B.) It was intimidating to our babysitters, and the last thing you want to do is scare your babysitters away. And 3., Finn had outgrown the intended wrapping method so long ago that we had to tie it so tight that it felt like we were wrapping up a little mini-mental patient for his Thorazine treatment.

For the past week, though, he's been sleeping on his own. It definitely takes a little longer for him to fall asleep, so we get to listen to him discussing current events, like the latest episode of Rock of Love Bus, with his Yankee teddy bear mobile for about an hour every night on the monitor. But once he falls asleep, he's out until morning.

Of course, he's decided that morning now begins at 6 AM instead of 7:30 AM, but that's OK. I need to make sure I can get into work early enough to scope out the best hiding spots anyway.

Since I don't have our computer, I don't have a new picture for you. You'll have to make due with this classic taken before we had the Miracle Blanket, back when breaking out of the swaddle was cute and not grounds for a knuckle sandwich.