self-knowledge

David is sitting on my lap while I eat a cranberry-walnut bagel.
Between bites, he holds the bagel and gnaws on it. Jaime looks him
over as I finish.

Jaime: "You are covered in crumbs."
Me: "That's so he can find himself."

bilibo

They have finally marketed the cardboard box. Now I know what to get David for Christmas (next year).

Props to The Morning News for the 411.

kid o : Modern Design for Children: "A simple yet magical piece of plastic that unlocks passion, creativity, and curiosity. Children find endless uses for Bilibos: they lie under them, fill them with things, rock in them, spin around in them, and use them as theater props. Great for hand-eye coordination, motor skills, balance, and imagination. "

david jaime jason

I'm just testing the "blog this!" feature of my blog by blogrolling my own blog. Whether you understand or don't, you can ignore this post.

david jaime jason: "He is still cute as a whip. He smiles and laughs, babbles, plays and shows genuine interest in you. His bright eyes garner a constant stream of compliments when we are in public. As long as his diaper has been changed, he thinks win/win. He seeks first to understand; he synergizes. In short, he is becoming a highly effective baby. "

david's birthday would be on thursday

Reading Metafilter, I saw this article about a proposal for a new calendar.

I think it is intriguing, so I am sharing.

Superman no more

I am sorry to report that it has not been a good week for our hyperactive super baby. While he may have the strength of ten normal babies, his reflexes and abilities to problem solve are still at the eight month old level.

Our week began with a trip to the doc on Monday due to his instant healing super powers failing. He now has three meds to control the over abundant mucus production he likes to maintain. While two of the meds don't seem to have strong side effects the liquid Albutorol sure does rev him up. Shake, shake, shake, ...... shake, shake, shake, .... shake your groove thang.....

A few days later he decided to test out his super baby strength on a wire shelf at the babysitters. Needless to say the shelf was over powered by David but came back in the last round to inflict a nasty knot on top of his round melon. Both contenders suffered a TKO and a repair crew was needed to reinsert the shelf.
Later that same day he lost control while trying to stand in the bathroom and introduced the back of his head to the top of the floor.

Not to be over done, the next day at the sitters he got his first bloody nose from a face first dive onto the floor.

Last night he discovered the true meaning of gravity. Another head first slide off the bed onto the floor. No knot, just a nice sized redspot.

Please pray for Christmas that David discovers the true meaning of gravity or regains his super powers.

wheezie

David has had cold symptoms since Thanksgiving. Recently they have
gotten worse and we slept less Friday, Saturday, and Sunday than when
he was a newborn. Miserable.

Jaime took him to the doctor's yesterday. She diagnosed him with "baby
asthma." She really didn't elaborate. Suffice to say that he has some
allergies and breathing problems that are exacerbated by respiratory
problems like a cold. It is hard for him to shake off colds and the
like.

She prescribed an antihistamine. It is gray, but he loves it. She
also prescribed a nose spray. He doesn't love it so much.

I was pretty distraught by the diagnosis. Visions went through my head
of David sitting by the window looking out on all the other kids in the
neighborhood having snowball fights--a wheezing, sniffling child unable
to enjoy the outdoors because of constant breathing problems.

Then, we gave him his medicine and slept ALL NIGHT.

I felt much better. At this point, he can sit in a plastic bubble if
it would allow us some extra sleep.

Later, wheezers

funny, but trashy, story

David spends his mornings at a baby-sitter's now because we don't love
him enough. She told me this story when I picked him up today:

She lets him hang out in a walker, which he loves. Apparently from
this walker, he can reach the kitchen trashcan--a white, plastic
affair with a pivoting lid. He will reach out and pull it to himself,
but can't really do anything beyond that, so he releases it. As it
falls back into place, it smacks the wall and the lid pops off. Then
he can pull it to himself again, reach in, and dig around. She watched
him do this three times.

The cat is way jealous.

sit-ups, skooches

Yesterday evening David FINALLY moved himself from being on his tummy
to sitting upright on his bottom. He has been struggling for a couple
of weeks. He would get in a reclining position, leaning on one arm,
and push and push, but just couldn't get upright. Now he is all about
sitting up, playing with something, laying down, scooting across the
room to something new, sitting up, and playing with it.

All that is left is crawling (and gainful employment).

I have concluded that our slick floors work against us in two ways:

Firstly, they make it more difficult to keep his knees beneath him.
Secondly, they remove much of the incentive to try. He can get around
pretty good with his little soldier scoot. Actually, "wounded soldier
scoot." I noticed that when he scoots along he only pulls himself
forward with his right arm. Sometimes he will grab his right wrist
with this left hand to assist, but he never puts the left arm out to
pull himself forward with it. I also noticed that he picks up more
Cheerios with his left hand. I should point out that his grandpa Brice
is ambidextrous--he powers with his right hand (batting, pitching) and
details with his left (keeping score).

later, score keepers

clapping to please

Here is something that I have noticed with a couple of different
children: once they have learned something that pleases you, they will
try it out at odd times to see if they can get the positive reactions.
As an example, I'll use . . . David!

I mentioned earlier that he learned to clap, which earns cheers from us
all. So, out of the blue he'll clap and look at me like "are you going
to cheer?" But it gets more interesting. He now claps when upset. He
now hates being on the changing table because it interferes with
sticking every object in the house into his mouth. So when I lay him
down and start to undress him (which he hates) he'll whine, and then
start to clap. I assume that he is trying to turn the situation
around. "Dad is putting clothes on me, he must hate me, I'll clap to
win his favor." I've been doing some work with a learning-disabled
toddler who is struggling to learn speech. Every new word is cause for
celebration. When asked to do something he has not yet learned (or
just doesn't want to do) he will point to something that he knows the
word for and identify it.

Me: "What sound does a dog make?"
Him, pointing to the clock: "clock!"

In grown-up terms it is something like this:

Press: "Why is the economy in the hole?"
President: "I unified this nation after 9/11."

or, to be fair:

Press: "How are you going to get the economy out of this hole?"
Candidate: "three purple hearts!"

yell. . .yell . . . yell . . .

Something Dooce said reminded me of something David does that I didn't
tell you about.

David has discovered that his voice is louder and more powerful in the
large, acoustically superior nave of the church. So he yells. Short,
sharp "uh"s. Over and over.

When I was childless, other people's kids would do this and the parents
would scuttle the offender out of the room so as not to disturb anyone.
This always made me feel bad. I am pro-child in church. A nave full
of squirming, barking toddlers is the sound of worship as far as I am
concerned.

So, when David discovered that he could be just as loud as the guy in
the brocade cape, I knew that I had to just stay put out of principle.
I had to visualize roots growing out of my feet into the ground in
order to make myself stay put, though.

general-purpose update

I haven't blogged in awhile about the boy. He is developing fast, so I have a lot cover.

Mobility
David can get where ever he wants by sckooching on his tummy like that plastic soldier crawling on the ground with the rifle in his hand. If you squint, you can almost see the barbed wire over his head. This mobility means lots of new things to explore, like my books, and he tries to follow the dogs around. It also means a greater understanding of possession. Not only does the thing in his hand belong to him, so does anything he sees that he may be able to get to. When he is prevented, he gets really irate. For instance, while sitting in my lap, he gets ticked off when he can't have my plate or my glass.

Dexterity
His extended index finger is the body part of the day. It is now the first thing that he uses to explore new objects (the second is still his mouth). He can switch the lightswitch off and play with the various knobs and levers on a toy we borrowed from a friend. As mentioned before, he can stand himself up in his crib, but not really anything else yet.

Food
He eats all of the strained vegetables and applesause. We are working on solid foods, but he doesn't quite have the hang of it. Cheerios are the only thing in the world he will NOT put in his mouth. During his meals I give him a small bowl with the Cheerios in it. He grabs handfulls and flings them around as the dogs gather under the highchair. He will get a bunch of them on his tray and slam his hand down to watch them jump around. He will take his index finger and press down on one until it shoots out onto the floor. I will sneak one into his mouth occationally. He keeps up his playing but gets a perturbed look on his face while he moves his jaw around. After several seconds, a mushy Cheerio will work its way through his lips into his lap. Occationally, it goes the other way until he gags and throws up. Sometimes, it stays put until it disolves enough to be swallowed. Bits of teething biscuit, zwieback toast, and communion bread meet the same fate.

Teeth
One upper tooth broke through yesterday.

Talking
He has a word--"Mamamamama," but it doesn't mean the same thing to him that it means to you. It is the sound he makes when he is upset and we don't stop doing whatever is upsetting him, such as changing his clothes. He is very consistant about saying it at these distressed times, and only then. To him, this sound has meaning--the definition of "word." As a word, it is sort of redundant since we can gather that he is upset from the crying and thrashing.

Sleeping
He still is waking twice during the night for a substancial meal. I look forward to an uninterupted night's sleep like the end of a drought.

General charming demeanor
He is still cute as a whip. He smiles and laughs, babbles, plays and shows genuine interest in you. His bright eyes garner a constant stream of compliments when we are in public. As long as his diaper has been changed, he thinks win/win. He seeks first to understand; he synergizes. In short, he is becoming a highly effective baby.

subdeacon tikhon no more

Today, Subeacon Tikhon was ordained to the diaconate. He is now Father Deacon Matthew Thurman.

Congratulations

Axios

God Grant You Many Years.

Few men have the oportunity to become fathers twice in as many weeks. If he can father a major theological movement by the end of the month, he will win the paternity trifecta.

pooh