The good life

I don't know that I have mentioned it before here, but I really feel that we are really fortunate to have things going the way they are right now. Although Emmett will probably not know the difference, it will at least have meant quite a lot to Andrea and I that we got to spend so much of Emmett's first year-plus with at least one of us around him full-time. To get this to work out in San Francisco without going into deep debt definitely means that things are going our way.

Today Emmett and I spent a lot of time on the bus. This morning we headed over for our second week at the Mission library branch's bilingual sing-a-long and good-time jamboree (I should really find out what it is called). As I said before, the person that leads this is top-notch and very entertaining. It is a bit ahead of Emmett's level, but it is fun for me. He didn't complain during the show and got to look at lots of other kids, so that part was good. Oh, and he got to hear me whisper-sing in his ear...and that is a real treat.

In the afternoon I decided that we would head in the opposite direction from our normal travels and we went to Baker Beach. Looking back on Andrea's and my first four years of living here, I bet you that I have been to the ocean somewhere around 10 times. Often I forget that we are even connected to the ocean (60 degree weather doesn't inspire the beach for some reason). I had never been to Baker Beach and was actually impressed with how pretty it was and how easy it was to get there (one transfer and the second leg was very fast). It was kind of funny that we went all that way and Emmett was wide awake on the bus checking everything out, and then as soon as we got to the ocean he passed out. I think that part of the reason is that the ocean is too similar to his noise machine so it just puts him right to sleep---hopefully this isn't a permanent condition else we have eliminated surfing, deep sea fishing, and romantic walks along the beach from his future. So while he slept I walked the length of Baker Beach, climbed back up to the road, and then walked to the Golden Gate Bridge. It is just so amazing that there is such a pretty, development-free area that is part of the city. Again we are fortunate.

The bus trip home wasn't that exciting except that I changed his diaper in the grass and didn't have the cover on or anything when the bus pulled up. I didn't want to miss the bus, so I took the cloth-only diapered Emmett aboard a packed bus (luckily someone gave me a seat) and finally got his cover on while we were driving along. Oh, the other exciting thing is that the bus that picked us up from the GGBridge was completely empty so E&I got to have the bus to ourselves for a good 15 minutes. That was a first, too.

Tonight was our first official date night. Belinda and Nick have kindly offered to hang out here and keep an eye on E so that Andrea and I can go out and have a romantic evening together. Tonight we had the take-out that Nick ordered and watched Barack Obama give his nomination acceptance speech with B&N. After it was all done we were pretty pooped but we rallied and walked two blocks down the street for a glass of wine and a small dessert. When we finished our wine it was 9:20, we were exausted, and we just decided to come home. Andrea is already asleep and now I am off to join her. Next week we will save our energy for a full date night that might even have us out until 10!

Two side things

When we were at Clear Lake we had a dock that extended from quite a distance into the lake and which was about 15 feet above the surface of the water. In the mornings I would take Emmett out on the dock and lean him over (a la Michael Jackson) to show him the ducks and geese swimming below and it got me wondering when he will develop a fear or caution or "funny feeling in his stomach" about heights. It seemed like he didn't care at all being held so high up (nor did MJ's kid...just the press cared it seemed), so there must be a time when the change happens and I wonder whether it develops because of a fall, because his parents will continually warn him, or if there is some change that happens in his mind where he understands spatial relationships, the effects of gravity, and the ramifications of forgetting about gravity while standing on precipices?

Yawns: Emmett yawns quite a bit and has since day one (he has also sneezed quite a bit since day one---I think I posted about this once, but part of the reason is the lack of developed nose hair---Emmett always at least smiles and sometimes laughs when I say "gesundheit" to him when he sneezes, and his sneezes are most often paired---wonderful, little-known Emmett factoids here), and it is a well-known phenomenon that yawns are contagious. As an experiment I have dedicated a little time every few days to trying to get Emmett to yawn based on my yawning...still to no avail. I was reading a .edu website about yawns for kids that was saying that contagious yawning is leftover evolutionary social behavior, but if this is the case then either Emmett isn't paying attention to catch the signals or it has a learned component too, which seems to detract from the evolution idea...or hanging out with me all day is just too darn exciting to allow yawns?

New socks!!!!

You know it is a pretty slow day at the farm when the fact that Emmett moved on to big boy socks gets its own post. Yawn. Emmett has been talking in this very quiet voice and I tried to record it today but he was a louder than the super quiet whisper voice. However, as I was watching the video I found that what I thought sounded like Emmett saying "mom" while recording really does sound like it upon playback (shows up in the video at 19 seconds and you don't even have to play it backward---still would be mom that way, too, I guess). So if you watch the video you get the trifecta of hearing Emmett talk in his semi-quiet voice for a little bit, hearing him "say" the word "mom", and seeing him showing off his big boy socks. Now that I think about it, this video is not boring at all! (later edit: watching the video again it is kind of funny how his eyes get big right after saying his word. Maybe the reaction is a sudden realization that he might have let slip the fact that he can already talk and if we find out we will sell him to the circus. Or maybe he was reacting to my reaction (I remember noting he made a mom-like sound but don't think my reaction was very strong). Or maybe I just watch these videos too much?)



Today was Andrea's first day with real meetings throughout the day. I snuck Emmett into the school three times for feedings, and we found that E gets very distracted by everything that is around him at the school and isn't an efficient eater (that is what Andrea gets for having a bright, colorful classroom---a thin baby). It is going to be tricky to time Emmett's feedings with her breaks, but it is good practice to see how it will all work out.

It was interesting to have a real work day similar to what it was like a few weeks ago where one of us is home all day with the baby and the other is gone from 8-5 (well, mine was 7:30-7, but who is counting). It is pretty great that Emmett and Andrea get to see one another during the day with only a short walk separating them. I really feel like we have a good life right now---all of us.

Where my Saturday went

Going into today I knew that today the kayak was going to make its way from the floor of our garage to the ceiling of our garage, and I have been dreading it. Last night I spent a long time making scaled drawings as the landlord and I had come up with a plan that involved galvanized pipe, 2x6's and a ton of other things. I made scaled top view and side view plans with a scaled kayak that could be slid around into the best position, and then at 10 this morning I went upstairs and we discussed. It looked like the plan would work, so I was going to go pick up 2x6's to start phase one. However, about 20 minutes later the landlord came to the door telling me that after all of our planning, his 12 year-old daughter walked downstairs and declared that we were going to too much trouble and why don't we just use eye-bolts and call it good. She was right. We were not. We went with her plan (well, she proposed four eye-bolts and I one-upped her by cutting it down to two---you can't have a 12 year-old besting you). So...I spent the whole day in hardware stores, REI, and everywhere else it seemed (unfortunately everywhere except with Emmett and Andrea, that is), and at 6:30 Andrea and I, under Emmett's watchful eyes seated in a stroller, raised the kayak to the ceiling. I wish I would have had the camera while we were doing the lifting as Emmett had a look on his face like we were the two wackiest people in the world. Anyway, this is what our half of the garage is now looking like:
We now officially have a lot of things in our garage. For the past week while the kayak was residing on the garage floor the car was in the street and it made me realize how wonderful it would be to have no car in the garage with all kinds of space for strollers and boats and everything else. Oh well. We still have a car.

Very little Emmett time today, but Andrea is going back-to-school shopping tomorrow (she needs a new Trapper Keeper, I think) so he and I will get to make up for lost time. Oh, Andrea fed Emmett rice cereal today, so with that addition he has had three foods that didn't come from Andrea's body. She apparently made the rice cereal with breast milk. She also put breast milk in my oatmeal the other morning and wouldn't tell me why she was laughing at breakfast until after I was done eating. She thinks she is so funny.

Feats of strength

This afternoon I gathered a number of household items to determine whether Emmett could raise them to his mouth or not. This picture shows his successes:
This picture shows the failures:
(Please note: the scissors were early in the game, I didn't think he was going to be able to lift them as they are pretty big, and I was a constant, vigilant spotter. Interestingly, of the items he succeeded to get into up to his mouth the medicine bottle and the scissors were especially hard to get back out of his hands)

Greco-Roman Finals

I just got back from a big trip to Rainbow Grocery (I could really learn to love this grocery-shopping-on-a-weekday-morning thing) and upon my return I found that Emmett was asleep (Andrea had the morning off). I am now waiting for him to wake so we can go for a run together, and this is what I just saw when I checked the monitor:

It appears that in the battle to fall asleep the sock monkey pinned Emmett. Emmett will play around with the monkey for a little while before going to sleep each night and I have seen him in the monitor grab it and move it about when he wakes up for a second during the night's sleep. There is a video from a few months ago on Andreas blog (link here) where Emmett had the monkey on top of him, but now he is much more dexterous (he has increased +2 dexterity points since June and is now a level 2 halfling) and will grab it, play with it, etc. We have another monkey that is more monkey-like, and it is amazing how strongly Emmett reacts to both---moreso than other toys, for sure. It is clear to me that Emmett sees the relation between the monkey and himself and has now positioned himself firmly in the evolution camp. It is good to have that out of the way.

seeing the city

It has been a while for Emmett and I, but we had a real Muni adventure today. Emmett's friend Augie's grandmother invited Emmett and I to the Mission branch of the library's story/singing time so I decided (Emmett doesn't have any say, yet) that he and I would head on over there. I am trying to see how much we can do car free (neither of us has been in a car since returning from Clear Lake) and I have that love of buses, so Emmett and I headed to 24th and Mission by bus. I tell you, that Emmett kid is a real sport on the bus and was fascinated by everyone and everything that he saw. It took us a good 40 minutes to get there as we had a transfer, but we were only a little late for the big show and it was definitely worth the trip over. There was a woman from the library who lead a bunch of songs in both English and Spanish and the kids were really into it (Emmett not so much as he doesn't know how to clap or sing, but he was enjoying watching all of the other kids and adults). The place was standing room only and I am sure that we will make it a frequent Thursday activity.

I mixed it up on the way home bus-wise (for locals: I went 5-Fulton to Van Ness then 49-Van Ness/Mission to 24th/Mission) as we walked to 24th and Castro and took the 24-Divisadero home. I have grand plans for Emmett and I to take all of the buses in the city during the upcoming year. On the walk to Castro St. Emmett snoozed in the stroller---something that I used to fight as we were approaching nap time as I didn't want to hamper his nap at all, but now I am starting to flow with it as he still is seeming to nap when we get home. I am operating on a 2.5-3 hour windows of activity schedule, where I have to have him back in bed no more than 3 hours after his last waking for the first two naps. It seems to be working so far.

Andrea had a shorter day today so I had my first try at getting some work done from home. I think that next week will be better, but before today I had gotten zero done. Between laundry, cooking, and taking care of the little one, there is not a lot of free time it seems.

Emmett and I also returned to a hardware store this evening---the one that I took him to in the Haight on one of our first outings together. It was funny to think, while walking along Haight, about how I pushed him in the stroller fearful of every bit of cigarette smoke and every cough within a city block, and now we walk Haight without a care in the world. Well, I still won't let him touch anything and would like to keep strangers from touching him, but we are mostly care-free. Oh, and a woman sat next to me on the bus on the way back who had a two-and-a-half month old. Talking to her made it feel like Emmett is 100 years old compared to when he was 2 1/2...rather than in the "time flies" way, I mean this in the "development sure comes fast over the first few months" way.

Anyway, here is a still from the post-hardware store, pre-bedtime tickle festival. I took video but only after he stopped really laughing hard, so will have to see if I can capture something better later.

Cute from far, but far from cute

We have a few pictures hanging on the fridge that show a oneish-month-old Emmett, and over dinner last night Andrea and I got to talking about how in the last couple of days we both had looked at those pictures on our own and though we had thought Emmett was a cute newborn at the time, he wasn't really. In fact, I would go so far as to say all newborns are pretty funny looking. Don't get me wrong...I don't think that he was ugly. I just think that Emmett looked like all newborns, which is wrinkly and old-man-ish. But it is pretty funny how at the time we thought that the pictures that now hang on the refrigerator were so cute. Parent-love-goggles are pretty strong, and now I have the fear that I am going to turn into one of those people that thinks that their kid is the best thing in the world as I have already failed the first test (I worked with someone who not only thought his kids were the best thing in the world, but would tell me they were the best thing in the world all of the time and it irked me to no end). So as a premptive move against turning into that guy, I am declaring that our kid was pretty funny looking. Now he is pretty cute, but he was definitely funny looking back then.

The end of the burrito

Last night Emmett was put to bed in just a sleep sack, completing his first full night unswaddled. We have been sort of inching toward losing the swaddle playing games like leaving an arm out of the swaddle, but last night he moved to the sleep sack (think sleeping bag with arm holes) and he slept like a superstar. Well, sort of. He is still doing this thing where he gets put down at around 7pm and wakes up at around 9 (speaking of, it is almost time) and then wakes up once during the night (last night was 4am) before waking for good at 7am. It was good to have him back on a more normal sleep schedule as the night before was pretty painful.

Day two of doing the stay-at-home thing went pretty swimmingly. Andrea still is coming home to a not-nearly cleaned up house after our day's adventures (today it was folded clothes on the bed that needed to be put away and a half-cooked meal), but we are getting closer to having things done. We got out for another run today (picture of the ride to left) and walked around the neighborhood some. I have been waiting for the landlord to come home from his vacation as he and I have to devise a hanging mechanism for the tandem kayak that I purchased secondhand a week ago, so that will be tomorrow's project with a boys' trip to the hardware store and everything.

I have to admit that I still get a little jealous of the huge smiles that Emmett gives Andrea every time she shows up. He gets so excited to see her, although I have to say that he gets a little whinier when he is around her as his mind seems to leap to food pretty much immediately.

Today's big events were multiple succesive roll-overs (back-to-front) and about 5 caught pees. Most important, Andrea got home at a decent hour and we got to go for a walk together in the park on a weekday! I really like this stay-at-home stuff.

Day 1

We got back from our week's vacation yesterday afternoon. Emmett had no more sleep problems the rest of the trip (back to the usual 1-2 times waking up at night), but last night he reverted to the waking up every 1.5-2 hours he was doing at the beginning of vacation. It must be that he is getting to the point that changes in sleep location are harder for him. Hopefully the transition back to normal sleep patterns only takes one night in the return direction as it was zero fun going through two nights of this while at Clear Lake. I don't believe that I mentioned it before, but the weather was hot,hot,hot at Clear Lake (90's which for us 50's-ish S.F. types is burning hot), and the hot weather meant that Emmett spent the whole week sans clothes (well, except he had a diaper on most of the time). It was nice to let him air out some and for him to learn that there are climates out there where one isn't required to be wrapped in multiple layers of clothing all of the time.

As I write this, it is the end of my first day of stay-at-home-ness. The day was far from normal (Emmett's lack of sleep last night had him sleeping in until 9:00, and Andrea didn't have to be in to work until 9:30), but was a good training round for what is to come. We bought a used BOB Ironman jogging stroller some time ago, so Emmett and I took that out for a run through the panhandle. I had given it one shot while at Clear Lake and Emmett seemed good with it, and he continued to ride happily on today's voyage which was a bit faster than last week's test run. We walked around a bit, read some books at the library, and did a little vegetable shopping...and Emmett was a great sport for all of it without so much as a peep of unhappiness. Hopefully all days will go this easily.

There is a bit of work to do on a number of fronts in the upcoming weeks, though. We have fallen a bit behind in the Elimination Communication and I am only catching a couple of pees a day. I really want to improve on that and get to the point that we are catching #2's, too, which everyone on the EC mailing list that I follow says are much easier to catch than the pees (unfortunately Emmett is very sly with his so far and gives very little warning before the damage has been done). We will also be introducing food in the next couple of weeks. We gave Emmett some mashed up banana while we were at Clear Lake and he seemed to really like it. I picked up an avocado during our store trip today which will be food #2 when it softens (for those who don't know, the game with giving food to a kid is that you give that food for 4 days to make sure that they don't break out in hives or the like, and then add another food following the same 4 day test, etc.---a slow laborious process. I figure Emmett will get to try pizza by the time he turns 15).

Emmett is really getting to noticing a lot of what is around him. He and I a bit of time in the backyard today (a sure-fire way to stop a cry if one is beginning) and it was the first time that he noticed that we have chickens back there. Also he heard the fountain that is always running and turned his head to find it and look at it. Also, when we got back from vacation he really seemed to realize that he shares a house with a cat, whereas before it seemed that Malcolm would walk by and Emmett wouldn't even notice. It has been nice that he will just sit with me in the backyard, as he did at Clear Lake and just look at things without needing to be entertained and without complaining.

That is pretty much it for day one. As I said, pretty easy first day with Andrea working shortened hours and providing early afternoon relief. It is good that she is easing back into the school year, too, as I think that the long days without seeing much of Emmett will be hard after getting over 5 months to spend with him.

Vacation's all I ever wanted...

It is now almost dead center of our week's vacation, so as we have internets at the vacation home I thought I would go ahead and give an update of what is going down in Emmett's and our worlds. In case I haven't mentioned it before, we are spending the week on a house that backs into Clear Lake (the wholly-contained natural lake that keeps Eagle Lake positioned as the second-largest wholly-contained natural lake in california----a little susanville reference for those with ties). We have rented a ski boat along with the house (there are nine of us here for the week---Belinda, Luisa, Rob, Nick, Jeff, Allie along with our fam---with a number of others coming only for the weekends), so we have had a lot of fun times on the lake with water skiing, good food, and good memories.

The time with Emmett has not gone as smoothly, though. We arrived on Sunday and Emmett spent Sunday and Monday nights sleeping 1.5-2 hours then waking screaming, then repeating. It made for a rough couple of nights for his parents; especially Andrea who has been feeding him at each waking. This is a problem we have not encountered before as Emmett has always been a really good sleeper, and the problem is much worse with a house full of friends that you don't want to suffer poor night's sleep as we attempt to get him to cry it out---therefore the feeding defense. It is just crazy how as parents you often have no idea why your kid is not sleeping well. We were thinking that maybe E is teething (doesn't seem to be the case with no excess slobber), that he is ready to start solid food (often kids don't sleep as well when they hit this point, but we don't have the goods to start on food up here...so I bought an avocado which he may start on tomorrow if he doesn't continue sleeping better----Andrea also gave him a little bit of banana and it went down the hatch without him even noticing), or that it is just the new place. Who knows. Luckily last night he slept with only two wakings, which is much closer to normal and makes for much happier parents.

I have been getting up at 6ish with Emmett to try and give Andrea a little more sleep, and it has been nice to be on a lake's edge with him early in the morning. It is warm even that early so I take him out in just his diaper and he will sit in my lap happily and just look around without any other stimulus for a good hour or so. It was pretty neat this morning as Emmett was sitting in my lap looking straight up and actually tracking birds with his eyes and his head. I hadn't realized it before having Emmett, but babies can't really track things that move quickly until they get older. When he was only a few months old I would wave things in front of his eyes and then move them to the side, and only if I moved very slowly could he actually track them. Well, things are changing to that kid and he is now an official bird watcher.

Other than that, not too much going on. Boring post, but what else really happens on vacation?

Ah, yes...the blog

I have neglected you, dear blog, for some time. As you are a blog about my life with Emmett, a recent lack of Emmett has been much of the reason. Last weekend was the first night's separation between Emmett and myself (two in a row, in fact) as Andrea and E headed to the Pacific Northwest to visit Angela, Scott, and Tyler. It sounds like they had a great visit and Tyler, now 15 months rather than the 12 when he last saw Emmett, is learning to treat Emmett with care and a light touch. Andrea was raving about how good Tyler was with Emmett, with the former showing the latter how to operate toys, etc. But, alas, I missed it all as I was in the city.

So, this is part of the reason for blog negligence. The other part is the fact that I have been working toward the last day at the office, which has kept me mighty busy, and today was said final day. The original plan was that today was going to be my REAL last day, but now I am going to be staying on through the end of September so that I can attend a conference and will be working from home here and there with a couple of trips to the lab thrown in every once-in-a-while. Should be a smooth transition, hopefully, to what will happen at the end of September which is always-at-home for me with some consulting work taking place from home.

So what does that mean for Emmett and I? The picture at the left tells the tale, and as Emmett will soon learn: it is always 5 o'clock somewhere. Andrea will be starting work in a week's time (we have a week's vacation before then), and then it will be party time for the boys.

The nice thing about being slow with the blog (which is all going to change when I start doing the stay-at-home-thing, I swear) is that each new post has Emmett leaping forward in his abilities. I came home this evening and Emmett was in the Plastic Monstrosity(tm) or whatever it is called turning himself around and playing with all of the toys. I found myself quite surprised at how much more advanced he seemed (the advances have seemed big to me, too, as during the week i am only seeing him about an hour or so a day and I lost all of last weekend to the Portland trip). Anyway, I uploaded a quick video I took of the kid playing in the thing (the seat is filled with blankets as he is not to the official size/weight to play in the plastic machine---doesn't stop mom). The video shows that he is picking up some arm control, but it isn't always there as though he is able to get the flag into his mouth once, the hands make a big swing-and-a-miss later. Not a very exciting video, I know.



The head turn at the end of the video is the new thing for him. In the last week he has found that he has little interest in what is in front of him as he has discovered behind him. If he is sitting in his bouncy chair (still a 7 sock-monkey item) he will suddenly start leaning forward and turning his head around to see what is taking place behind the chair. This is a cute trick but has made the elimination communication stuff a little difficult as the normal Emmett's-back-to-my-front puts me behind E so when I start with the ssssss he just turns his head and checks out the source of the noise rather than peeing. We had lost some ground on the whole EC thing with travels and such, but we are getting it back. He has gotten so he can hold his pee for quite some time now and leaves a pretty good puddle in the bottom of the baby bjorn potty when the time comes.

Right now E is asleep, and we have on loan a video monitor from a friend. Tonight was the first trial of it and it is pretty neat as we can see exactly what Emmett is doing as he sleeps (shown to left). It is a two channel deal (for those with two kids, I suppose), and while we were sitting in the front room watching Emmett I changed the channel to learn that not only can we watch Emmett, but we can also watch some neighbor girl sleep. The funny part is that we have no idea who in the near houses has a ~18 month old. Anyway, we get the chance to be entertained by a neighbor's sleeping baby, too (at right). Life is too good.