Crib Cat (Not) Cancer

Exhibit A:  Wood Turnicate  

This past week has been a time of super-obvious-but-took-me-forever-to-figure-out-how-obvious problem solving.  I'm ashamed to even share how blatant some of these solutions have been.  But I will--

We all know The Boy loves no snack more than his very own crib.  After trying various methods of deterring this behavior-- "Please stop, Boy" was the least effective of them all--I finally just tied a baby blanket over the nibbled on location.  There is a baby blanket tightly wrapped around each end of the crib.  Refer to Exhibit A above for the Wood Turnicate (and ignore the rest, I know this picture looks ridiculous).  It doesn't cover all the places he has gnawed on, however, it does get the "sweet spots" he seems to eat more often.  There, problem solved, suckers!

For as long as she's been alive, Creepy The Cat--shown on the right side column-- has demanded food somewhere around 3 am.  She's nearing age 11. !!!!!  Yes, I know this is insane and, no, I can't just get rid of her.  Back in our beloved Chicago apartment we were able to close her off in the kitchen which was far enough away from the bedroom to not be awoken by howling and door scratching.  It was glorious.  We also started her on Prozac which makes her rather delightful.  She is relentless, however, with this middle of the night food request.  Unfortunately, when one doesn't sleep consistently for long stretches (me), one tends to become enraged from the disrupted sleep (me) and then is just as big a pain in the ass, if not worse, as the cat (me).  Then genius struck.  I have now strategically placed a fan blowing out in front of The Boy's door so she can't go bug him and then have a fan on so loud in our room that we can't hear her woeful cries.  And it is amazing.  SLEEP!  OH HOW I'VE MISSED YOU!  We'll all need hearing aids in five years but it is worth it.  There, problem solved, suckers!

So yeah, we're not curing cancer here but sometimes it's the little things in life getting fixed that make a world of difference.  Problem solving here, suckers!