Home again

It has been a little bit since my last post so I thought I would throw together a quick "what's been up" post. We just returned last night from a 5-day, 4-night vacation up with Angela, Scott, and Tyler in Portland. Fun times, fun times! It is always good to have the two boys hang out, and this was no exception. The picture at left is post-bath one night---normally I would wait to have the naked pictures later in the post, but figured I would start big this time. Bath time was pretty funny (though, truth be told, it is more a mom thing than a dad thing...at least with the four parents involved). There was a bit of running around naked (well, crawling for Emmett, but same idea) post-bath each night which culminated in our final night with Tyler crawling into the crib to pee all over Emmett's sleep sack---true cousin love.

The days were filled with trips to the park, the children's museum, and an entertainment facility for kids called Pump it Up, which is a large building loaded with inflatable slides, bouncing castles, and mazes. The fam in Portland showed Emmett a good time. The children's museum was especially cool (though still a bit above Emmett's level) with really good interactive play areas. One area was a stage with costumes, a working curtain, and all kinds of props. Emmett was not so into the props, but the stage was filmed and played on a tv, so I did a little performance for Emmett which he thought was funny and kept reaching for me as shown in the picture to the left (he hasn't watched TV, really, but when his father is on the tube he gets to watch).

The hardest part of the trip was that the two boys were almost exactly out of sync with one another, nap wise. Tyler is 22 months and is down to one, two-hour nap at around 12:30 and Emmett is still at two naps at around 10 and 2:30. Emmett's naps are typically about an hour and change, but when he is around Tyler he seems to really get worn out and will sleep nearly two hours with most naps. The long naps are great, but getting the two boys out of the house to do something together basically could only take place from 9-10am or 5-6pm. The nice part is that we could all take turns doing the 'watching' of the one asleep while the other played so that no one had to be on all of the time.

The flights this time were a whole new level of enjoyment. We got flights that were right at his bed time as they were much cheaper, and we knew that the time could work really well or not well at all. It ended up that it was more the latter.

Emmett was so excited to be on the plane with all of its new sights and sounds that he wouldn't sit still. By peeking through the seats or across the aisle he could see people that would often smile at him (and leave us wondering how long we can allow him to smile and laugh at them before we are becoming annoying). The air from the vents, the seat belt light, the no smoking light, the shade for the window...these were all exciting, new objects and Emmett was not going to let sleep get in his way from enjoying them. On the way out he never slept until he was in the car on the way to their house (about 9:30ish, I believe). He went to bed easily and was a little sleepy the next day, but long naps and a longer night's sleep the following night got him back on schedule easier. On the return flight our plane left about an hour later which meant landing at 10:00ish and home around 10:30 or 11:00. This flight we were more hopeful for sleep on the plane, but it didn't happen. If we confined him he got whiney so we let him climb all over us, peer thorugh the seats, etc. I took the following video as we were getting ready to start the flight. It is not that exciting, but gives the general impression with him reaching for the lights above, peering over the seats behind, and generally refusing to sit still.

This whole process continued for nearly all of the flight. I say nearly all because with approximately 5 minutes remaining the flight Emmett suddenly decided that it was time for rest, curled up on his mother and had 5 minutes of restful slumber and gave us 5 minutes of peace of the flight. I have learned that it is pointless to carry any entertainment for Andrea or I as we will not get to touch a thing for the entire flight. Emmett woke up as we were leaving the plane, stayed awake for the trip home, and passed out in his bed with the monkey at eleven and change.

When we returned from our December Portland trip, Emmett brought with him the ability to actually crawl. This trip Emmett has returned with standing abilities, and both Andrea and I have spent a bit of time since our return getting him to just stand still in front of us. He is actually to the point where we have had 10-15 second spells where he is just standing with no support, until he realizes he is standing and loses his balance. And, in a new low for this blog, I am going to post a picture of him standing. Yep, it doesn't get any better than this. Not a long one, but it shows what he suffers through as Andrea and I force him to work on his standing all day long. Ah, the joys of being a near-toddler!

Partners in crime

I have joked on here before about how Andrea and I look forward to the day that Emmett is smarter than our cat, Malcolm. It has actually been pretty interesting to watch the two of them together of late. For example, when Emmett is crawling around in the kitchen he will remove the protective cover off of the bottom of the refrigerator, just like Malcolm has done for years, and then will pull some decorative paneling off of the bottoms of the cupboards just like Malcolm does (and never put it back, just like Malcolm). One of the chief differences between the two of them in the kitchen though is that Malcolm plays with things like bottle caps until they slide under the stove or the refrigerator, whereas Emmett is constantly pulling lost treasures like these out from under these appliances. They are some team.

It was funny watching the two of them together kind of work together as a team a few days ago. Malcolm loves to climb into cabinets and recently Emmett has learned how to open cabinets. I was watching Emmett open the cabinet with the pots in it and noticed that Malcolm was watching Emmett open the cupboard from a few yards behind. Emmett got the cabinet open and was playing with the pans. Malcolm approached within a few feet and was looking around Emmett, first from one side then the other, excited at the possibility of entering the cupboard but knowing that if he got anywhere near Emmett, Emmett would immediately turn his attention to Malcolm and Malcolm would not only not get into the cupboard but perhaps lose handfuls of hair in the process. This mini chess game continued until Emmett lost interest in the cupboard, turned and saw Malcolm, began the chase, and Malcolm left knowing the game was up.

One would think that the fear of being attacked by the child would be enough to get Malcolm to just keep his distance all day long, but what ends up happening is that where ever Emmett is, Malcolm seems to like to perch up above on some surface out of the reach of chubby arms and watch---surely hoping that the kid will knock something over, open some door, or perform some other trick that those lacking opposable thumbs cannot.

This weekend we attended a one-year-old's birthday party where there were an incredible number of kids and where Emmett decided act like a begging dog and gave the impression that he is never fed at home. We were talking to a person at the party who was eating a piece of pizza and sharing that pizza with his 14-month-old son, and Emmett crawled up to him, started to climb up him, and practically whimpered until he was given pizza from the man (his first bite of pizza). Even better was when he wasn't fed fast enough by the man (who had by this time torn off a piece of pizza to give to his son so he could deal with our begging son), so he stole the piece of pizza from the boy and made him cry. This is why we don't take him to parties. His begging was useful in that we learned he could eat food that is definitely not considered baby food...oh, and that was the father's third child and I wonder if he was feeding child #1 pizza at that age. There was a moment at the party where he noticed that Emmett had some teeth (this was before he offered Emmett pizza) and said "yes, he has seven now. How many does your [14-month-old] son have now?" and he replied "Four? Two? Eight? I don't know I haven't checked." Then asked, rhetorically, "this is your first child, huh? I used to count teeth, too."

There is this independence thing that seems to be opening up with Emmett. On Thursday of last week he decided he would take no food from the spoon, and I was not at all prepared for this new development. I tried all of my tricks to get him to eat off of the spoon (singing "This Old Man" which is nearly 100% effective on getting at least a few bites, taking a bite myself then giving him a bite which works about half of the time, and showing him that I am adding applesauce to whatever he is currently eating which works about 75% of the time), but nothing would work. I quickly cooked an egg with cheese, but he wasn't having that, so I finally just gave him cheese and banana which he fed himself. It was so stressful finding even this for him to eat, but I feel a little better prepared now with chunks of vegetables, tofu scramble, etc. The weird thing is that he was back to the spoon over the weekend and acted like there was never any issue with it. Maybe he is just begging for food at parties because he doesn't like the food he gets at home?

Emmett and I had our first playdate on Friday which was fun. The playdate was with a 14-month-old girl, at her house, and she had a ton of toys. The two of them were actually very close developmentally and it was fun to see them play around with each other (where, here, "playing around with each other" means that one child would pick up the toy, the other would try to take the toy, and a parent would pick up another toy to distract the second child which would get the attention of both children and have them both trying to take it). It was funny that she had this room full of toys and much of the time we were there the two of them were trying to play with a rocking chair.

Oh, and in the last week or so being on the swing in the park has gone from something that is more for our entertainment to something for which Emmett gets very excited. If he is in the stroller on the way up to the swing, we can tell when he first spots the swing as he legs start popping around in his show of excitement (again, dog-like). The picture at left is from our swinging at 8:00 this morning. I tried to time it at the top of the swing so it wouldn't be blurry, but you get the idea---he likes it.

Good times in the sun

Emmett is down for his afternoon nap after he and I jogged (well, I jogged, he rode) up to Alta Vista park to spend some time in the playground on a beautiful, sunny, San Francisco day. We are pretty fortunate to have quite a few parks with very nice views reasonably close to us, and this one definitely has a good view. The place was overrun with kids, though nearly all were older than him and were walking around. The playground is large and has the rubber material all over it so if he falls there isn't too much to worry about. It is pretty funny that he is obsessed with wheels and everywhere we go he is going after wheels on things. The picture at left is from the playground a few hours ago with him being all about the train wheel (which didn't even spin). This morning we went to the Academy again and while in front of the aquarium with the brightly colored fish and a little kid interested to him to the left, all he was trying to do was get to the kid's stroller wheels. I should build him a wall of wheels for him to play with in his room.

While at the Academy this morning we spent a bit of time in front of this tank that has a sea bass that must weigh somewhere in the range of 100 pounds (much bigger around than I am, but about 2/3 as long as I am tall). Emmett could not pull his eyes off of it and people kept coming by commenting on how his full attention was on the fish for so long. This got me wondering if he is starting to see things that might be scary to him (the eyes of the fish were the size of his fist and were pretty creepy, mind you), which made me wonder if I am going to start him on nightmares because of our aquarium time. I hope not.

While Emmett has been asleep recently, I have been trying to figure out what we can do about the insect species, shown at left, that has overtaken our pantry, living happily in our flour and elsewhere. We have battled weevils before, which was no fun, and these are getting to be pretty bad too. I took a picture as I meant to look them up on the internet so I can figure out what they are and create a course of action. I would love to know if anyone has any idea what it is (oh, it is about 1/8" long. Oh, and I don't like it at all).

While cleaning out the camera I came across a video of Emmett "dancing" in front of the stereo...a boring video but thought I would put it up anyway at the tail of this post. The stereo is the perfect height as he really has to reach on his tippy toes to get to the volume and the other knobs. It has a graphical display that flashes with the music and he loves that, too. It looks like he is going to be one of those teenagers that stands right up to the speakers at a concert. Hooray for losing your hearing!

The new math

I don't get it. We put Emmett to bed at 7:00pm or just after and he wakes up between 6:00 and 6:30am. We put Emmett to bed closer to 6:30pm, as we have done the last two nights, and he wakes up at 7:00am. This kid is crazy.