Just caught this on tv, and it is so worth blogging.

"Abilify may control symptoms of bipolar mania and reduce the risk of manic relapse…

Ok, so far so good, seems like a thing worth treating.

"When taking Abilify call your doctor if you have high fever, stiff muscles and confusion, as these may be signs of a life-threatening reaction."

Life threatening? That'd suck. But I suppose there are plenty of medications out there that, if you have a bad reaction, can mess you up.

"Or if you have muscle movements that can not be stopped, as these may become permanent."

Umm…that's not cool.

"High blood sugar has been reported in some patients taking Abilify. In extreme cases this can lead to coma, or death."

Watch blood sugar….check. Got it. I think.

"Elderly people with dementia should not take Abilify due to an increased risk of death or stroke."

Stop saying death! It's not good to say "may cause death" repeatedly when advertising your product!

"Some people feel faint upon standing. Other side effects include impaired judgement and motor skills, and trouble swallowing."

Look on the bright side, he didn't say "anal leakage."

My daughter, 5, is working on a reading game called Headsprout. It tries very hard to give her meaningful things to read, based on the sounds she's worked on, so you tend to get very simple stories about characters who have otherwise meaningless names like "Vee" and "San": "See Vee, see San, see San and Vee in the van on the sand." That sort of thing. Each character started out as a space alien, but in the later books they became animals.

It just clicked with me the other day when I was reading a book with her that one of the characters is a monkey. And his name is "Fling."

Somebody at Headsprout has a sense of humor. I will wait until my daughter is old enough before I explain to her what monkeys are famous for flinging. Maybe during a trip to the zoo.

So my son sleeps with about 5 stuffed animals in his bed. When he was younger my wife would wait until he was asleep, then go in and take them all out so he won't suffocate. I never really thought it was that big of a risk, but typically guilt would get the better of me and I'd go take them out before I went to bed, closer to midnight.

Lately I noticed that, when I went back into the room, the animals were already on the floor. I assumed my wife was doing it, when she'd come home late and I knew for a fact she went right to bed. Animals still on the floor. It then dawned on me that he was apparently doing it himself. Not in an angry, "I don't want to go to sleep so I'm throwing things" sort of a way, since I never heard a peep. He just knew that the animals don't stay in there to sleep, so he throws them out.

Recently I messed up his little brain when he woke up from a nap too early and I tried to get him to go back to sleep. Thinking that I would give him some things to play with as he drifted off, I laid his head down on the blanket and then started putting the animals in the crib with him. He sat right up, saying "Back! Back! Back!" and putting the animals back where they belong. Daddy's mistake, I had just given the signal that it was indeed time to get up. Didn't think that one through.

This has become something of a game in the morning, because I will pick up the animals from the floor and offer them to him. "Back!" he will say, and place the animals in their appointed positions. He cannot do the blanket or the large duck, but it is cute and helpful nonetheless. Once everything is back in place, he wants to get out.

I tried taking him out of bed first and letting him collect the animals (so I don't have to keep bending to get them), but he is too small to reach them back into the crib, so I would have to pick him up each time so he could fling them back into the crib. Work for Daddy, either way.

This morning it dawns on me — I have a 3 yr old. She follows me into the room this morning, where my son is standing in his crib waiting for us. "Give your brother back his animals," I tell her. And lo and behold, it works! She gets the animals, hands them to him, he puts them back. And I don't have to lift a finger.

Fatherhood is awesome.