We are hitting the road tomorrow to take Oliver on his first road trip, as we head down to Springfield, Mo., to visit my parents. We’re taking our crazy dog, too. Should be fun.

I hope Oliver sleeps well down there. He’s been going better lately. Two nights ago, he slept from 9:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. — a new record! Last night, he went to bed around 9:45 p.m. and got up around 4 a.m. Of course, when he woke up, it was with a vengeance. I’m tired as heck today. But oh well. We attribute this new success to the Miracle Blanket, which arrived the day our success started. It’s basically a “baby straight-jacket.” It keeps his arms from moving around, which is great because he tends to get frustrated when his hands get near his mouth.

I like having a “9-to-5” baby. Now if we can just get him to sleep two more hours …

Oh yeah, and in regards to work. We had a retreat today and I made it my goal to join in the conversation as much as possible. It was invigorating. Of course, there was one point where our guest speaker took us off topic and got into some really confusing business-speak crud, and I spaced out. I leaned over to mention something to a co-worker and the speaker asked me if I had something to share.

It felt somewhat like high school. Only this time I was too tired to make something up, so I said, “To be honest, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. You started using a bunch of business language that I didn’t find interesting and I stopped paying attention about 10 minutes ago.” A few people laughed and the speaker went off on another tangent (something about how she usually doesn’t talk to “young” employees but instead CEO types — whatever!). Anyway, my boss came over later and thanked me for making the comment. About a half-dozen co-workers said the same thing. Funny how just being honest all the time pays off so frequently.