Getting some smarts

Today Emmett was playing in the living room and Malcolm was watching from the couch at a safe distance from E's reaching arms. For a while Emmett tried to get Malcolm then went on to other objects, but a few minutes later I asked him "where's the kitty?" and he got this excited look on his face turned around and went back to trying to attack Malcolm. I think this is the first sign of a word/object relation for him---a intelligence skill that the cat does not have, so perhaps we are reaching the point where Emmett will be smarter than Malcolm.

Noises

Emmett is picking up more and more letter sounds. Recent additions are 'g' and 'k'. Also, Emmett has grown more excited at the sight of Malcolm. Malcolm has interpreted this new level excitement as his signal to move away as soon as Emmett approaches. Yesterday we were saying the word "kitty" again and again to Emmett while he was staring at Malcolm and he said what we were both convinced was the word kitty. No repeat performances, so we will have to wait and see if Emmett, wanting to preserve both Andrea's and my fragile egos, has decided to make Malcolm the first one he calls to by name.

First night failure

Last night was Andrea's full first night away from Emmett. Tomorrow Emmett will turn 10 months, so that is quite a few consecutive nights. Andrea left around 10am, and didn't return until after 3pm today, so for 29 hours ours was an all-male house. The trick for her absence was going to be milk feedings. For the past few months Emmett has been going to Andrea's school for feedings so he hasn't needed a bottle for some time. Andrea had prepared a store of milk for this occasion in the freezer and I had to just make sure and manage the supply while she was gone. Emmett fed pretty well on the bottle, but just before his afternoon nap he was pretty pooped and didn't finish a bottle. I should mention here my defrosting practice: I heat about 2 cups of water to 150ish, put the container of frozen milk in it for a little while, and feed the kid. Now, as any mother who goes through the hassle of pumping stores of milk will tell you, pumped milk is valued slightly higher than gold, so when Emmett couldn't finish the bottle due to tiredness I (knowing I shouldn't be doing this) decided to keep the remaining part of the bottle in the refrigerator since Emmett would probably only sleep for 1 hour or so and since the bacteria that could cause problems probably wouldn't make much progress in colonizing the bottle in that time in the cold refrigerator. I am pretty sure this was the wrong choice.

Emmett woke, I gave him the bottle, took him for a long walk, fed him, bathed him, and put him to bed by 7pm and everything seemed hunky dory. At about 9:30 I heard him cry a little and go back to sleep. Then a few minutes later he did the same thing. I checked him on the monitor (the best investment we have made in raising this kid) and saw that there was a huge patch of what looked like vomit next to Emmett's head. I went into his room to find one of the saddest scenes I have seen in some time with Emmett trying to find a way to position himself to sleep with a pool of vomit all over the sheet, his sleep sack, and his head. I felt so horrible for him and he was so sad---not crying really but just confused and whining. Holding him in my arms he felt so weak and lifeless, and was a far different baby than the one I had put to bed a few hours previously. As I worked to clean him up, his body would convulse every few minutes as another wave of nausea hit him, he would be unable to breathe, and after it passed he would go limp in my arms and would wimper a little bit. This pattern continued with longer stretches between the nausea spells (which quickly turned to dry heaves), and as they intermissions stretched longer he was able to sleep a little in my arms between. By about 11:15 it had all passed and he slept on top of my chest. Finally at 12:30 I put him into bed and watched him until 1am when I was convinced that he was okay, then I went to bed, too.

At 4:00 he was up and was crying. I had spent much of the night trying to decide the course of action for getting him hydrated and fed once again and figured since he had slept so long with no vomiting that I would give him a couple of sips of water and then watch for a reaction. I did this, took him for a pre-dawn walk, and he kept it all down. I returned to the house for an increased dose of water and headed out for a longer walk. The whole time it was easy to tell that he wasn't feeling so hot, but he would look at me and smile every once-in-a-while and it made it seem like we were making progress. We continued this process until 7:00 (I think I gave him a cracker, too), and by that time he was drinking more water out of a cup than I have seen---actual continuous gulps of water with none spilling out the sides. I put him down for a nap and then debated whether I should try giving him more of the frozen milk. I figured already that the odds were pretty good that it was the twice-used bottle that had done it, but there was a little worry that it was some other food item that I had given him. When he woke, I gave him the milk (in a cup, no less, and he drank it right up), moved on to solids, and didn't look back. He made it through the day a little whinier than normal but in pretty good spirits.

It was funny that while he was really sick there was a part of me that kind of liked the sick Emmett as he would lay into me or continually try to climb up my leg if I sat him down on the floor. It felt like, for once, I was more than just the delivery guy who takes him to his mom for feedings and, secretly, I hoped that my being there in his time of need would raise me a little closer to the pedestal he keeps his mother on. We will see. He definitely was at his happiest today the moment his mom got home.

Back for the new year

Yesterday Andrea, Emmett and I returned from our Oregon vacation (the reason for the two week lapse in posts---I tried on my phone once but it was too much trouble). It was a very nice trip with Emmett getting to spend time with the majority of his nearest relations. We landed in Portland two weeks ago tomorrow on one of the last flights to land at PDX before they canceled a huge number of flights due to the quickly accumulating snow in the greater portland area. We spent just over a week at Andrea's sister's house with her fam (husband and son), Andrea's parents, and my brother. Most of the time we were in the house as the snow got up to the 15"-ish level and Portland's few snow plows played catchup until the rain and 50 degree weather came the following Saturday to quickly do what the snow plows couldn't.

Andrea and I were pretty paranoid about the whole sleeping situation before we left on the trip---Andrea even posted a request for suggestions we composed to her mothers' email group to solicit recommendations. We were worried as we had been around kids around Emmett's age who really struggle when required to sleep in new locales; especially in the same room as their parents. In the end we lost considerably more sleep worrying about the situation than we did while on vacation. I can only think of two nights during our whole 10-plus-day trip where Emmett woke during the night crying, and those two times he was able to settle himself without any intervention from us. The only thing that we made sure to do (and that was recommended in the responses to the email we composed) was to position the crib in a manner that he couldn't wake and see us. We ran into no troubles the whole time.

Emmett was on his best behavior the whole time at his aunt's house. I think he only cried two times the whole time he was there, however he picked up a new, very high pitched scream which, unfortunately, was not a one-time thing. I took a video of him doing it tonight at dinner which shows a wonderful crescendo. Charming.


We spent a lot of time playing pinochle while we were at Andrea's sister's, and the picture at left shows my brother tutoring a young Emmett on the finer points of double-deck. Cards were not Emmett's only field of study on the trip, though, as he also reached a couple of other milestones on the trip. The first, shown in the video below, is the wave. Yes, I know that everyone has seen a person wave before, but I like the stoic facial expression juxtaposed with his mother's excitement at his success. The second is he is picking up clapping after a tutoring session with his great-grandma. The third is that he improved actual crawling (vs. worming along the ground). Exciting times.


I wanted to throw in the picture to the left as it kills me. A little explanation: Tyler (Emmett's cousin, pictured at left) and Emmett each got a musical toy for Christmas and this picture has each playing with their respective new toys. The thing that I find funny, though, is that they look like very young electronic musicians---especially with Tyler gripping his microphone and emmett hunched over his synth. Yep, funny only to a father.


Though it wasn't a Christmas present, the gift I was most excited for for Emmett was the new helmet we got him so he can start riding the bike with me (I just won a bike seat on eBay this evening, so we will be ready to roll next week). He is actually really good with the helmet and doesn't complain about it being on around the house. Oh, and the picture also brings up another milestone: Emmett has eaten a couple of full bananas right out of the peel without having them broken up for him.

The second part of the trip was spent on the Oregon coast (Lincoln City). My mom and grandma drove up and the five of us rented a house overlooking the ocean for four nights (this is where the clapping tutorial took place). The weather cooperated nicely as we were predicted to have four days of rain but ended up having nearly dry days the entire time we were there. The visit there was very nice, too, except that Emmett was a little grumpy as he had another 102+ fever. It is strange as he showed no other sign of illness either time that he had a little fever (except the grumpiness). Perhaps it is teething, but the fever seems high for that. Who knows? The fever is gone now, though.

Again, Emmett slept well on this portion of the trip (even with his fever). The time at the beach was relaxing at Emmett seemed to enjoy walking on the beach in the carrier just as much as he does anywhere else.

This is getting way too long, but the other thing I might mention is the actual traveling. Emmett was great on the flight to portland falling asleep in Andrea's lap early in on the flight. It was funny as Andrea and I were both watching him as he awoke and he had his groggy face on, then he looked up, saw both of us staring down on him and got excited, acting like having us there when he woke up was the best surprise in the world. On the way back he was a little grumpier (fever?) but slept on Andrea once again. The most exciting part for me was that I took him to the Portland airport bathroom to change him, found that his diaper was still dry, walked him over to the urinal, and he peed in the airport urinal. I think people thought I was pretty crazy, but no one commented.

Emmett makes it to first base

This is what we found Emmett doing this morning at around 7 o'clock.

Keeping on keeping on

Things have been pretty crazy at Andrea's work so Emmett and I have been spending a lot of quality time together. The good news is that the result of all of the craziness is that Belinda will be teaching the other first grade class starting after winter break. The bad news is that Belinda will be teaching the other first grade class starting after winter break since having her as Andrea's co-teacher has been unbelievably helpful as Andrea could leave the class with Andrea in full confidence to feed Emmett a few times a day---not to mention that Belinda has covered countless recess duties and dismissals over the past few months. I only kid that this is bad news as Belinda's promotion is nothing but good news, but the change in situation really makes one realize how good we have had it since school started.

I realize as I write this that I might not have mentioned how the feeding situation has worked out for us. Andrea is still nursing Emmett approximately 5 or 6 times a day (with 3 or so of those happening at work on weekdays). The goal, I believe, is for Emmett to have been nursed throughout the day through his first birthday and then switch to mornings and evenings after he turns one. It has been so good to be able to have the nursing continue while Andrea has been working as it gives them some bonding time, every study in the world indicates that nursing is super beneficial to the kid at least through a year, and it keeps Andrea from having to pump which apparently scores a solid zero on the fun scale. For me, it will be nice in some ways when the nursing is done as Emmett and I can venture further away from the nest without needing to return for feedings, but it will cut into the number of required visits which make both Emmett and Andrea very happy.

Yesterday I had an interview at a college in Marin County. I took the ferry from the Embarcadero to Larkspur and it was one of the neatest things I have done in a while. As everyone knows, I love public transit, and there was something very appealing about the prospect of traveling to and from work via boat (shown at left when docked in Larkspur). In the end, though, I decided that I would pass on the job as the commute would be somewhere around an hour-and-a-half each way and there would be quite a bit of work involved at the school. Now, however, I know that riding the ferry is loads of fun, so the whole fam can take the boat to the larkspur mall. That is something.

Emmett is so incredibly close to waving, and in fact, (depending on interpretation) one can say he is waving already. Every time he moves his arm in a wave-like motion when we are trying to get him to wave, I am reminded of that poem "Not waving but drowning" by Stevie Smith and wonder if Emmett is trying to communicate something important and we are missing the point completely. Anyway, the wave is approaching.

Emmett has gotten to the point that he can pull himself up to a standing postion on almost anything now. Even better is the fact that he has figured out how to lower himself back to a sitting postion (this is important as a child that can stand and can't sit will pull herself up to standing during naptime or bedtime, get "stuck", and scream nonstop until a parental problem solver can get the baby out of the standing jam). It is funny to watch him move from standing to sitting, though, as it is one of these times where you feel that you can really see the cranks turning in his head as he contemplates how he is going to complete the maneuver.

It definitely feels as though Emmett is starting to do things for a reaction, too---both things for a bad reaction and a good reaction. Maybe I am toddler-pomorphizing (there should be a word for assigning intent to behavior in an infant that would be expected from a toddler and older---the equivalent of anthropomorphizing with animals), but it really seems as though Emmett gets into things to test whether I will try to stop him from doing what he is doing. He also does things like cough or slap his hand on the table and then look at us for reaction (or so it seems). It would be nice to know what is going on in this kid's head.

It still remains the case that no matter how bad a mood Emmett is in, a walk in the Ergo will cheer him up. I walk with him quite a bit during the day, and I think that I have only heard him complain once while in the carrier. It is so good to have such an easy solution to an upset baby (it worked wonders when the tears would come from the diaper rash). Oh, the other thing is that he loves to be carried on my shoulders now. This has been something i have started in the last week or so, but he goes crazy for it---although I am convinced he is going to pull all of my hair out as my hair is his harness. I am tempted to patent a device that would be a head harness for carrying infants which would be especially useful for those with short or nonexistant hair...or those who don't like pain. A quick search to google patents makes it seem like I might be the first.

Working my way back in

I have been meaning to sit back down and write an update on what is going on with Emmett, but I have just been enjoying being done with teaching. That all ended over a week ago and since then I have been just hanging out with the family. It has been so nice to go to bed at a decent hour and not feel all of the time like I have things hanging over my head.

Things with the fam have been pretty great. Emmett is moving around more and more. His fifth and sixth teeth have worked their way through the gum (and not the result of his banging his mouth on a table this time). He was a little lopsided before as after the two front teeth on the bottom came in he got one of the front teeth and then its neighbor. Wait, I will steal a chart from the internet:
Now, referring to the chart above, the order of Emmett's teeth has been lower central incisor 1&2, upper central incisor (left), upper lateral incisor (left), and the right central and lateral incisors are now making their way through the surface. He has started grinding his teeth together as he figures them out and it really makes my skin crawl. Almost as bad is that he continually bites the metal spoon---I have very serious issues with bitten metal utensils, but I try to let it slide with him since he isn't old enough to understand punishment.

We just finished surviving our first bout with diaper rash. Every once in a while Emmett would get a little red which we assumed was diaper rash, treated with a little cream or some diaper-free time, and all was well. This past week we learned that diaper rash is a whole different monster. Emmett had a case of the runs and I think that we were slow to change him as he needed to be changed so frequently (we meaning me since I was home with him during the day when it occurred), and suddenly this red, red, red region showed up all around his butt crack (I probably don't need a diagram for this one). When I cleaned him up after a movement he started this laugh whine thing. Now, Emmett often likes to have his bottom wiped with the cold, wet cloths we use (must come from his mom's side of the family) so, unfortunately, I thought that this laugh/whine thing was laughter but quickly learned that it was real pain as he started to really cry and cry. Emmett doesn't cry very often at all, so I felt really horrible about this, and every change for the rest of the day followed the same routine (except I was much more careful and the tears less frequent). Though the real damage only lasted about 24 hours, it felt like forever and I really want to do all I can to make sure that he never gets diaper rash again. No fun.

Emmett is pulling himself up like crazy. It was something of a shock the first time that we walked into his room at the end of one of his naps and he was standing up in his crib waiting for us. That has only happened a couple of times, but he has also had a couple of times where we have put him down for a nap only to have him stand up behind the bars of the crib and whine that he doesn't want to take a nap. Luckily that doesn't happen too often.

I think that this will be my get-over-the-hump post and I will get back into the swing of things. We only have a few days left here before we head up to Portland to see family. We are flying up and it will be interesting to see how E deals with flying, sleeping in an unfamiliar locale, etc. Fun times ahead.