I don't know why, but it seems that I have to have a conversation about poop every day, if not more frequently. With a newborn, this seems to be a constant topic of conversation. Did she poop? When did she last poop? Was there a lot? We even have our own rating scale, one to five, although there is also a five+, but basically, it's like a richter scale, once you get over a 7 or so, it's just generally horrible. In our case, five can represent a wide latitude.

Then there are the presentation questions, the most crucial of which is, did the poop escape the diaper? This happens during particularly aggregious fives. Interestingly, the escape vector can be either front or rear, although rear seems most common. Once this occurs, typically all clothes are soiled, she smells, and I end up with a major laundry problem, because inevitably the inner layer is white, and the outer layer is not, which means I have to soak the two pieces of clothing separately so the colors don't run.

Then there are the consisency questions. What color? How liquid? Is in the yellow mustard spackle smelly very hard to get off poop, or the yellow brown runny messy but easy to clean poop.

To top it all off, she is changing poop schedules. During the first newborn weeks, she pooped pretty much in proportion to feeding. And if she didn't, something was wrong, and she cried. However, she is now undergoing a switch where she only poops every other day or so. This afternoon, she hadn't pooped in three days and let out two humungous fives right in a row. Fortunately, I was at work, and Kara had to deal with them. She almost had an escape, but missed it barely.

I had been trying to get her to poop for a few days. No, not anything sinister or medical. I just know that when she gets very excited playing with certain toys she is more likely to do a little business, and so I've been playing with those toys a lot the last few days. No dice. It used to work, but she's on her own schedule now.

I hesitate to call that the next milestone, but I suppose maybe it is.

Today was my birthday, and I got a wonderful treat: a dinner out without Katherine. Kara was very preoccupied with where to go, but I told her that it could be McDonald's and I still love it. It's so nice to be able to go out and be adult. Anyway, we went to Marino's which is always good, and was so tonight. But of course, the cell rang at 8:40, and dad, whom we left at home with Katherine, told us she'd been crying pretty hard for at least 15 minutes. Well, we had just finished dessert anyway, so we ran home and calmed the baby. She was OK, just a bit confused and very happy to see mom and dad.

Kara bought me an excellent tripod for the camera, which is totally cool, because now I can take more night photos. So when she goes to Texas next week to visit the in-laws, I'm going to take more dusk/night pictures of the local area: Winchester and Boston, primarily. If you can think of a good location to catch traffic trails, cool night lights, or other scenic wonders, drop me a line and I'll try to accomodate.

By the way Langston Hughes, "Poet Laureate of Harlem," was an important poet in bringing a voice to the African American experience in America. Although I'm not big on poetry, I've seen a few examples, and I like 'em. I like 'em a lot. Check this out...

But someday, somebody'll
stand up and talk about me
and write about me
black and beautiful
and sing about me
and put on plays about me!
I reckon it'll be
me myself!
Yes, it'll be me.

The past few nights have been tough Katherine nights. Tonight is such a night. She is all fussy, and won't go to bed. Kara just got her down about 15 minutes ago, but this all started around 9PM. So it's been like this recently - it takes a few hours to get her settled, which is a real drag.

And now, a quick daytime blog.

Since my mother died, I've been trying to buy nice stamps instead of the typical American flag deals that you get out of the ATM or at the grocery store. I try to actually go to a post office, find a nice design, and buy them. It's a long story, but I did this right after my mother died, when I was extremely emotional, and it represented a little touch of caring that I found special, so I've tried to keep up.

So today, I stopped by the post office, and bought stamps. Many of the cool ones were sold out, but I still had a choice between breast cancer and Langston Hughes - part of the black heritage series. So I bought the Hughes stamps, and now I doubly feel good about myself, because it honors my mom in a funny way, and because I am celebrating black heritage.

Now I just have to figure out who Langston Hughes was, and why he is significant, but I guess that's the whole point isn't it? You buy the stamps, then you are prompted to go look into it.

Katherine rolled over again today. Kara caught it this time, but I missed it because I was out running errands. She had a good day and night. She was active today, but got some sleep, and wasn't quite to hyper as she's been for the last week or so. She went down pretty easily too. I had to pick her up once, and Kara went in once to stroke her forehead, but other than that, she's been sleeping peacefully for some time now.

We watched most of the Oscar's, but we get steamed every year when it's clear that they are not even going to come close to the time they publish in the TV guide. Kara finally had to bag it, after investing most of the evening. She missed the big three awards (best actor, actress, and picture). She'll be thrilled that Halle won, though, because she was rooting for her.

Not much to say tonight. Going to sleep.