Fewer Pterodactyls

Everett has developed a new cry, for which, we are thankful! For those who cannot immediately bring to mind the sound of a newborn's cry, I shall explain to you its downsides. A newborn's cry is not meant to be pleasant to the ear, and it generally makes the hearer want to, A. Cry, B. Rip his/her hair out, C. make it stop, make it STOP!. In addition to this terrible sound, if a problem was not fixed quickly enough, we would be convinced that our dear little boy had turned into an ancient pterodactyl. Thus, our joy at Everett discovering his vocal cords and attempting to use them for good.
I guess he has learned that we try our best to fix whatever is wrong when he cries, so he has decided to reward us by using his new sound. Unfortunately, I have not yet caught it on video, but I will keep trying. Now, we are not entirely freed from flying dinosaur-era creatures in our house, and are still punished with their presence when dear baby either has very hurt feelings or is in some kind of pain. Maybe it is just my glee from not hearing the terrible newborn cry, or maybe this new cry actually is humorous, but I often bust up laughing when Everett is heartily trying to tell me that he is sick of playing, wants to be held, or would like his next meal. He doesn't seem too bothered by my laughter though, and sometimes stops his lamenting to smile at me in return.
In news about me (not that you care, but I'm writing about it anyway. My blog!), I have figured out some things about daycare/returning to work. We thought about using daycare and having both Bri and I work full-time, but I just couldn't accept the idea of half my paychecks going to some barely trained women to give my baby some bottles and try to keep him quiet all day.
I realized that I actually had some time on my hands after whipping this hat up in one day, and decided that maybe I was ready to start doing some work again. After talking with my boss (who is the nicest guy boss in the world, btw), I have decided to stay on leave (kind of) for the next four weeks and do some grading, editing, and random projects at home. I will do this while Brian continues working 10 hour days at the lab until the last week of Feb. Then, we are going to try splitting our time at home. Brian will stay home with Ev (and work on his thesis) until noon, while I go to work for four hours or so. Then, I will return home (with some projects to do) and Brian will go off to the lab until 5 or 6. I'm really hoping we manage to make it work this way, because there are no daycare slots available anywhere (we turned down the ONE slot that opened).