Before I get to Max, though, it’s worth noting a big change here on pastabroccoli. We have a brand new look, one that will hopefully be evolving over the next few weeks and months. Hopefully you like the look – we do! A few things we like are: the clean design, the ability to rotate header images, and the friendly sidebar that will let us share more information in more attractive ways.

You see, that’s one of the big changes, too. We share differently these days. It doesn’t always work to sit down and write out a blog post, although I still very much enjoy doing this. But we’re both on Facebook and Twitter (@jft and @riamercuri). Not to mention all the pictures on flickr, which tell an awfully good story without me having to write here (which reminds me, do you like seeing more pictures in the sidebar now?).

But for Max the changes have been quite different. He is a little less newborn and a little more baby. He’s a lot stronger, a lot more alert and a lot closer to holding up his head. I suspect it’s only a matter of days before I find out he’s rolling himself over.

We’ve kept Max to a busy social schedule, too. He’s been to a wedding, a bar mitzvah, a birthday party, a wedding shower, his grandparent’s house, his uncle’s house, the Green Living Show, the mall and on lots of walks in the neighbourhood. But through all of it he has (mostly) kept a great attitude, happy to entertain (or sleep) on a moment’s notice. He’s even kept all his hair.

Max has also changed care providers. After a glorious run with midwives we parted ways with those wonderous women. Their specialized care ends after 6 weeks post partum. But we were pretty happy to introduce MTMT to rIAm’s former pediatrician, Dr. Coombs, who is about as sweet and wonderful a pediatrician as you could ask for.

Naturally, one of the first things she did was stick our baby boy with a couple of needles.

And so time keeps moving on. Max keeps getting bigger. We’re getting more used to his routine. And through it all we’re having a hard time wiping that grin off our faces.

> We haven’t done much posting, and none at all since February (in part because we just didn’t and in part because it didn’t make sense in the middle of all of the rest of what I’ll write)
> It got hacked. A bunch of spam links were added to posts but in a way where the links were hidden. About the time we figured out what was going on, the posts started disappearing.
> We were overloaded in comment spam. This broke the databases that power the blog.
> We were using WAY outdated blogging software. We were bracing ourselves for a nasty upgrade process from WordPress 1.5.x to 2.7.x but were pleasantly surprised at the ease with which we went to 2.6. Still have to get to 2.7, but that should be easy. (Famous last words)
> We thought we wanted to move the blog to pastabroccoli.net/blog. We DID move the blog. Then we changed our minds. Oops. But now we’re back where we should be.
> We welcomed our son, Maxence, into the world on April 6th. No complaints. But thinking about fixing our blog took a back seat for a while. That didn’t stop us from posting photos and videos, though!

But as of right now, 5:15pm Toronto time on April 22nd, we’re in good shape. The blog is where we want it, running current (if not the absolute latest) software, I have enabled a powerful spam blocker, cleared hidden spam from posts and even restored the formerly-hiding posts. Sound like a mouthful? Sorry. But I’ve learned a lot in the process.

So, next steps…
> Finish the upgrade to 2.7.x. Like I say, this should be easy (knock on wood). I just won’t do it until I make another backup that includes this post :)
> Change the look. We have a much different online presence now thanks to Twitter (riam and jft), the blogging I do on blogTO, Facebook and so on. Plus we want to feature photos and videos and our current space to do that is too narrow. Hopefully it won’t be too long before you start noticing some changes, and improved usability.
> Blog about life with Max!! We both have been inspired to write, but it wasn’t really possible in the middle of all this mess. But now there are no more excuses.

So bear with us (mostly me) as we make some changes, and if you find anything that seems weird, wrong or not working, definitely let us know.

In any case, I’ve gone live again over on blogTO. I’ll be handling the Morning Brew for the next several weeks, and I posted a review of a nice new bakery a couple blocks up the street from us.

But enough blogging for the morning. I’ve got a ham bone in the fridge and split peas to get…. mmmm… no blog can come between me and my split pea soup.

I am not feeling that particularly competitive at the moment (but bring on a game of Boggle, Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble and I will be in an instant!), so I’ll just mention what I’ve been up to this past week, all of which hasn’t permitted me the time or energy to post:

(Warning: Some geek speak in the text below)

1. I did a lot of playing around with WordPress to figure out how to apply the design I wanted for this site to an existing template designed for use in WordPress. Then as I started to apply the design, I wrote some of my own CSS and PHP, the latter a scripting language I’ve never used before. Amen for the WordPress support forum and codex!

   I know, I know, if you are reading this on the date it is posted you will be quick to point out, “The static pages are still empty!” and “So much for your CSS and PHP skills, there is some wonky stuff happening in your archive template.” My answer to all such quips and negative fascinations is THIS WEB SITE IS A WORK IN PROGREESS. I’ve already spent a couple nights this week troubleshooting and experimenting, like getting borders to appear around the photos we post. We all know, given my attitude that nothing I do is ever good enough, I am going to be spending endless hours tweaking to make everything work just right, as I explore all the possibilities of this nifty technology. So there!

2. In a summer long project, that culminated in frantic efforts in the last week to GET IT DONE, I’ve been writing content, editing photos and futzing around with code, all to launch a purty *new* web site for the department in which I work. I must warn you though, I wouldn’t check my code work there; it’s far from W3C compliant. The very clean and tidy looking template uses CSS sparingly; the template was not created by me, although I’ve made minor modifications. If I had more time, I would have flexed more of my CSS muscle, but alas it shall simply be an ongoing project in my work hours to convert more of the backend to CSS as I maintain and update the site.

3. I have been spending an exhorbitant amount of time replying to my maid of honour’s (hi melissa!) idea rich and very long emails. And I still have more of her messages to reply to. Am I complaining? No, not at all. The emails are evidence of what an amazing creative mind Melissa (and her beau Henry) has and how much she CARES about doing great work. This whole planning process — including the emails flying between us — is stimulating my creative juices in ways I’ve always wanted (get your mind out of the gutter). There is no doubt in my mind, I need more opportunities to tap into those juices and let them flow and flow.

   I’ve also noted, that in the end, all this email sent and pondered and replied to will be a wonderful record of the planning and work we all did to make j.’s and my wedding day happen.

   I came to grips with it from the start: wedding planning from a distance is all I will ever know, the plus side being my fingers are getting wickedly strong from all the typing. I will be able to crush anyone who doesn’t appreciate the outcome of all our planning. :)

So…

As you can imagine I have spent an obscene amount of time this past week in front of a computer screen and gloriously, managed to avoid any Internet down time. So now who’s your (Internet) hero?

This all said, I can’t end this post without telling you j. has been a superstar, a doll, MY HERO this week: he’s made me dinner, took care of doing the laundry and kept this site active with all his insightful and endearing posts. He even offered to pick me up at work tonight when I called around 8:30 pm to say I was done and the new department web site was posted. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to interrupt his evening to come get me (it’s about a 15 – 20 minute drive each way when there is no traffic on the highway) and he said no problem, he just had to finish wiping the counter and tie up the garbage. Yeah, I’m totally serious. And dinner was waiting for me when we got home.

He writes, cooks delicious food, does housework and picks me up when I work late. Is there any doubt who’s the hero in this relationship?