3 months!

Today is Leif's 3 month birthday!

It's amazing how much he's changed in just three months.

He can now hold his head up very well, roll over from front to back (I suspect he could do back to front if he really felt like it), support his weight for a minute or two if we hold him in a standing position (he doesn't have the balance thing down yet), grab things and put them in his mouth, experiment with gravity (aka. throwing toys out of the stroller), and pee in an appropriate receptacle when given the opportunity. He likes looking in mirrors (I don't think he recognizes himself yet, since he's only interested in mirrors where he can see mommy or daddy) and smiles at everyone who talks to him. We go to yoga class together, and he stares and stares at the other babies. And I'm sure he does other things that I'm forgetting!

He's pretty big. He's been in 3-6 month sized clothing for about a month, and I doubt he'll stay in them till he's 6 months.

Unfortunately, right now he's either teething or a little bit sick. I'm not sure which to hope for. He's probably sick - we've been saying "he's probably teething" for at least a month now, and he doesn't have any teeth yet.

We need to take more pictures. He grows too fast!

We'll be in California around Thanksgiving. We'll be in Northern California before Thanksgiving, in the mountains for Thanksgiving, and then down to San Diego afterwards.

(not) playing the game

Credit ratings suck. I've been the leaseholder on an apartment and had my name on various utilities for two years, and I still don't have a credit rating because I refuse to use a credit card (no, I'm not looking for advice about credit/credit cards at this time. I already know how to get a good credit rating if I want it. I don't think I should have to. Shouldn't not being in debt after several years of being financially in charge of myself count for something? In fact, I'd probably qualify for more if I did have debt. Grr).

We want to switch cellphone service to Sprint for a number of reasons. However, they require a security deposit since I don't have a credit rating, and they don't allow you to add an additional line to your account if you have to have a security deposit. You have to have to separate accounts, which dramatically increases the cost (adding a second line to the plan we want is $7.50 a month, the next lowest account that does what we want is like 5 times that).

So now we have three options: 1. stick with our current AT&T plan, 2. keep my line AT&T and switch koyote to Sprint, or 3. do two lines with Sprint.

1 isn't going to work since koyote needs the data capabilities that Sprint offers for work. 2 may or may not be practical if we have to pay extra to downgrade our plan, or if we can't get down to a lower cost than the lowest Sprint plan.

We could always just drop my phone entirely and use long-range walky-talkies (not as silly as it sounds...we saw some with a seven mile range, which is more than enough for our usual needs), our landline, and a calling card for emergencies.

Probably not going to happen because we like our cell phones too much. Plus radio reception in koyote's office apparently sucks.

As koyote mentioned yesterday, we're seriously thinking about getting rid of our car. Trader Joe's and the ghetto K-Mart (plus other things) are within a 20 minute walk. That's all we really *need* on a regular basis. All of our favorite restaurants except one are also within this 20 minute range. A whole bunch more of our favorites (koyote's work, the library, a shopping mall type place, Barnes&Noble/Starbucks, Target, Whole Foods) are within an hour's walk. We discovered today that it may actually be quicker to walk to the pediatrician's office than to drive (we can get there more directly, without having to deal with traffic). Public transportation is close, too.

If we sell the car, we can afford to get good, comfortable bikes and trailers, which will cut down the time to all these places significantly. We'll also be able to do things like take a taxi if other transportation isn't a a good option for whatever reason.

We're going to try to avoid using the car as much as possible until January. If things are working out well, we'll sell it.

I was carless for three years before I met koyote, and for part of the time after that, so it isn't really something new to me.

My initial reaction to the idea is that I don't want to lose the safety net of having a car. But really, it isn't a safety net. The ambulance is the safety net. The car is the lazy net.

We're also thinking about withdrawing large amounts of cash from an ATM as needed, and using that instead of the ATM card for most purchases. Avoids ATM fees, helps with budgeting, and keeps Big Brother from tracking our purchases (unless they track cash now, in which case we're just screwed).

This does nothing to solve that pesky credit rating problem, however.

The weather suddenly switched from hot to comparatively chilly. I wore a long sleeved shirt the whole time I was outside today. I'm so spoiled from growing up in Coronado. When it was hot, I was dying for it to be cooler. Now that it's cooler, I'd prefer it to be just a little warmer.