To everything (turn, turn, turn)

I have become pretty much a moving picture poster here. I guess if a still picture is worth a thousand words and youtube videos are in the ballpark of 20 frames per second, then I am posting a 1.5 Mword post. I was laying on the floor with Emmett trying to get in a little tummy time. I called his name and he pivoted on his stomach to reach me. I figured I would try to record his spinning, so the following video is his second turn-about. I wish that I would have taken a video from my perspective as the look of determination is too much, but this wore him out and he is napping away now. Anyway, without further ado here is the video (except this ado...I thought I could edit this down on youtube...I was wrong. There is an extra 20 seconds or so. My apologies):


He has been spinning around for a week or so now, so I am thinking that he will make some crawling progression in the next month or so. Over the weekend Andrea hung out with Augie, Ethan, and their moms and Ethan (10 days older than Ethan, 8 than Augie) is already crawling around like crazy. He was the first to roll over by a long shot. It is pretty nuts that he is so far advanced. In Emmett's defense, I believe that of the three he is the most advanced with respect to teeth (although Augies just sprouted his second). That counts for something, right?

Andrea's mom is here for the week and it has been a great help. Yesterday I went to the lab (I know...this is where you say: I thought you quit the lab. Yeah, me too), and I will probably go again tomorrow. Today I spent at home with Emmett and grandma and it is incredible how much easier things are with another set of hands. Dishes get washed before the nap even starts. A load of laundry can get started while E gets fed. It is all magic.

Moving pictures

Emmett seems to be making big steps this week. In fact, I think that he was highly motivated by Augie's visit last week where Augie got in Emmett's jumping toy and actually jumped and Augie was sitting up unassisted. Well, Emmett put on his go-get-em hat and in the past week has achieved these two goals. Emmett is definitely sitting up well, with me able to actually leave him in a sitting position in a room where he is completely unsupported and go into other rooms to take care of tasks. Pretty nice. This is the calm before the crawling around storm, I think.

I took a video of Emmett jumping in his toy---I haven't mentioned it here before, but a couple of weeks ago we got our second plastic baby entertainer second-hand off of craigslist...this one allowing the child to jump up and down (it is called the jumperoo for those curious). Emmett is starting to like it much more now that he understands how to jump, as seen in the (somewhat boring) video:



A couple of things about the video. First, the elephant calls seem to motivate the jumping. I don't know if this is coincidence or not. Second: he jumped out of one sock. Third: Yes, his father makes him wear two different socks at times because he keeps losing one of a pair and I don't think want to waste two good socks. Fourth: he has a sort of one-footed jump approach that has me convinced that he is going to be the front man for Jethro Tull when Ian Anderson moves on to other things...better buy the flute now.

Emmett has been trained, or has trained me, to put my fingers in front of him so that he can grab them to pull himself up to the sitting position. Unfortunately, I showed him that if he stayed connected he could pull himself up fully. It is getting harder to get him to stay in the seated position as he always wants to have me help him pull himself up to the fully standing position. Andrea took a video of me putting my fingers in front of him, him grabbing them and then doing most of the work to pull himself up to seated. He does some work to get up to standing, but I definitely have to help him. The sound of the grunt at the end of the herculean effort, however, would lead the casual observer to believe he has done all of the work.


We spent the last two days interviewing prospective nannies for the 6 weeks that I will be teaching. I think that the stress of making sure that we find a good nanny is one of the hardest things we have gone through with Emmett. Andrea would probably say it was the actual birth.

Some pictures with a few words

This past weekend the three of us headed up to my grandmother's house to visit. My mom showed up, too, so Emmett got to see one of his grandmas and his great-grandma. It was a fun trip, but that Emmett still doesn't like riding in the car very much and he isn't afraid to let you know, either.

The day we left, though, I watched Emmett's pal Augie for about an hour-and-a-half while him mom went to a meeting. I have never had to take care of two seven-month-olds before (perhaps never one, either), and it was definitely nonstop---even for that short of a time. I took some pictures and movies of the two of them together...here are two pictures:






Emmett was smiling the whole time and unfortunately the first makes it hard to tell as his head is turned away. The second, though, you can see it. Augie is quite a bit bigger than Emmett even though they are only a few days apart in age. We are going to start feeding Emmett protein shakes so he can catch up.

While at my grandma's we visited a farmers market that was actually at a farm, and they had a real-life pumpkin patch. Below is Emmett's first official pumpkin patch picture. We are now certified nerd parents.

I don't know why I think these cut-out things are so funny, but they kill me:

The big news is that Emmett is sitting up for long periods of time (Augie was sitting up without faltering for ten-plus minutes at a time, so since his visit we have been working on E's sitting and it is paying off). The other thing that I haven't mentioned before is that he rarely sleeps in one position now. Almost without fail he rotates himself 90 degrees so that his head and feet are both nearly touching the walls of the crib (as shown at left from the monitor). That kid is nuts and he better not grow much more (his knees are bent in the picture). He is sleeping on his side and tummy at times now, too. Exciting developments around here.

New developments (not really that exciting)

Emmett just woke from his nap---his first where he rolled over to his stomach after being put in bed on his back. Pretty exciting stuff. He slept for a pretty long time (~1.5 hours), so maybe the new freedoms will turn him into an even better sleeper. I also walked in to find Malcolm napping on the changing table at the same time. I think this is the first nap that the two of them have taken together, and though I wasn't happy to find him in there, I was glad to see that he was on the changing table and not curled up in the crib with E.

I am still fighting the banana war. Last night I made millet and carrot for dinner and he wasn't having any of it. I added banana to a level that the banana was the noticeable flavor and suddenly he ate it all up. It is very, very rare now that he will eat anything non-banana related and I don't really know what to do to turn this trend around. I think I mentioned this last post, but the fact it gets second mention means it is the only thing on my mind. The seven month mark brings in a bunch of new foods, so maybe there will be something that will get his attention away from the banana.

Jeff came over yesterday to take care of Emmett while I made a run to Hayward to visit the college where I will be teaching at the end of the month. Emmett had pooed twice before I left, so I thought Jeff would have smooth sailing, but E had different ideas with two more treasures during my absence. I was a little curious how Emmett would do with naps and such with Jeff, but he seemed to have performed well.

Last night Emmett and I went for a walk before bed into the panhandle. We went to the swing (likes it, doesn't love it) and then went to check out some skateboarders doing tricks on a rail they had brought into the park. We were watching and Emmett was interested but not really reacting much until a guy went pretty fast, lost control, and wrecked. Emmett started laughing like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. I have not seen Emmett respond with laughter to any person who was not trying to make him laugh, so I was really surprised. For a while he continued to laugh primarily when skaters would make mistakes and fall (I think the jerky, sudden motion is something he hasn't really seen before) to the point that I was wondering if I should take him away so as to not make the skaters angry, but eventually he started to laugh at every trick whether a success or not.

That is it for the new things, I believe. E and I are off to the store after he finishes his feeding (I am writing this at Andrea's work after delivering him to her for a little food-time).

Food

It is funny that for so long it felt like all we were fixated on with Emmett was sleep and poo. Things have really changed, though, with the introduction of food, although sleep and poo aren't far behind.

I really do not understand how food works with this kid. I have been making a bunch of different foodstuffs for Emmett to eat, but in the end he will really only eat banana. Well, banana mixed with other things, too, but it has to have banana in it. Banana was E's first food (Clear Lake) and since that time it has been the primary mixer with the box of rice cereal we bought. Now I have taken to making our own grains (today's was millet), but he would only eat a little of it when it was mixed with banana squash but ate like mad when it was with banana. Tonight Andrea did a banana with yogurt and that was a hit. The only way that we can get him to eat anything else, it seems, it to sneak it in with the banana---so today he got a mixture of banana squash, banana, and millet and as long as the percentage of banana was kept in the still-tastes-somewhat-like-banana level, then he would eat it just fine. I fear that we are raising a monkey.

I am actually a little surprised at how frustrated I get at mealtime, especially when he doesn't eat. I don't know what to do to encourage him to eat non-banana foods except to keep trying, I guess. It just seems like there are so many other good foods in this world and I wish he wasn't so hung up on bananas.

Things have been moving along just fine other than the food thing (much of the reason for no writing here as there is nothing much of interest happening). Emmett has started doing this thing that his cousin did where he makes a sort of angry face and breathes outward through his nose like a bull. It is kind of funny and I really wonder why he decided to start doing this as it is not a typical face that A or I make. I will have to try to get a video of it. The other thing is that he has really gotten interested in his own reflection and will stare at himself for long periods in the mirror of that plastic monstrosity the he plays in.

Nothing much other than that. I turned in my first ever letter of resignation yesterday, so that is big non-Emmett news, and I start my teaching gig at the end of next month. Slight changes, but nothing too dramatic. I will have to report here when something truly exciting comes along.

Back in the stay-at-home game

I have been slow to post again after my return from my conference and have been just enjoying the time with Andrea and Emmett. Now I try to break the quiet streak.

The conference was so-so. My flight didn't arrive until 3 in the morning which got me into my hotel at 4 in the morning, which set the wrong tone for the start of the conference. I spent a lot of late nights polishing the talk, delivered it on the Thursday of the conference (had arrived on Monday) and left almost immediately after---to the point that I have no idea how it was received by the uppidy-ups. Oh well.

While I was gone, Andrea's mom came to the city to take care of Emmett while Andrea worked. It was incredibly nice of her and Emmett really enjoyed hanging out with her. It is such a relief to be away from your kid and have him with someone that you really trust. While I was gone Emmett's first tooth broke through the surface (bottom, left-front tooth) and when Jan told me I actually got teary-eyed. I had this feeling like he was up, walking about, and talking and I was stuck at a conference. I snapped a picture of this now teeth this afternoon and it is shown to the left. The arrival of teeth has made for a slightly grumpier Emmett (perhaps the real reason is after spending so much time with his grandma he realized how hanging out with an adult all day is really supposed to be).

Since coming back things have been good. Emmett and I are getting back into running, we have taken a few bus trips, and we are working on cleaning the house. He is getting a little harder to get to sleep (it used to be I just laid him down and walked away), mostly due to his fooling with his new teeth. He is also rotating all over the place in the crib as he sleeps. He has yet to roll over at night, but he is definitely doing the back-to-front roll now. He is sitting up pretty well, but needs a spotter to keep him from conking his head (spoken by someone who let him lean over and conk his head on the rug, which momentarily bothered him). All exciting stuff.

The three of us have been able to take some after-Andrea's-work walks, and tonight we went up to Alamo Square to take touristy pictures in front of those houses from the credits of "Full House" with a stuffed animal from Andrea's work. The picture at left is one of the A&E looking like they just hopped off of the tour bus.

Oh, I forgot the other news...we have been adding more and more food to Emmett's menu. So far he has had (drum roll) in order: banana, avocado, rice cereal, sweet potato, peach, carrots, peas, pear, yogurt, and banana squash. The last two happened this week (in fact the top picture, I realize now, shows evidence of the sweet potato he had had hours previous---great parenting, huh?). I am starting to add foods from the "Super Baby Food" book and am using her technique of mashing a bunch of a food and then freezing it in ice cube trays. I used the Champion juicer that my mom and grandma gave me in its masticating mode to make the pulp and then froze as recommended---works like a charm. Will be adding other foods shortly, and have yet to see any adverse reactions from Emmett---well, except that he makes a very unhappy, sour face with each bite of yogurt (whole, plain).

Finally one more picture from the weekend where the three of us were riding an actual Muni bus. I think this might be the first ever family portrait to grace this blog.

And then there was September

A little downtime with the blog for the last few weeks, but that has come to an end. Last Friday I went to the lab for the first time in three weeks and that threw everything off for me. I am the least efficient writer of scientific papers in the world and I have one hanging over my head. As a result I have been trying to discipline myself to get this one out, which means dropping the blog for a bit. The other thing keeping me from writing is it is convention time and I have been spending too much time listening to speeches, hearing about how well abstinence-only sex ed. works, etc. Anyway, I thought I would write a quick update for the record books.

Saturday was the six-month kegger celebration for Augie, Ethan, and Emmett, who were all born within a few days of one another. Andrea and I were in charge of the keg with the other fams taking care of the food stuff, and we all convened for an afternoon party in Dolores Park. The weather was gorgeous and the park was so empty (relatively) that I think that everyone that arrived by car was able to park right next to the park (unheard of!). The reason was that this was also burning man weekend, which I now realize is the Super Bowl weekend of San Francisco (Andrea and I tend to go places that are normally miserable to visit, such as IKEA, on Super Bowl Sunday) and we will make note to visit Pier 39, Ghiradelli Square, and take our picture on the corner of Haight and Ashbury on Burning Man weekend next year.

The party was a lot of fun and lasted much longer than I thought it would (we are all toting around infants these days so we seem to have between-nap windows of about 2.5 hours). The worst part is that we only got through about 1/2 to 2/3 of the keg...I was told that it was a party of 50 people and as I hadn't bought a keg since my undergraduate days I assumed that we could squeeze by with a 1/2 barrel and buy more as needed. At the party I learned that a group of 50ish 30+-year-olds does not drink like a group of 50 21-ish-year-olds. Life lessons all around. Anyway, in the end I think we were in the park from 12-6ish or so. Pretty good for a bunch of parenty fogies like us.

Sunday we got up early to go to "Sunday Streets": San Francisco's attempt at shutting down a few miles of road for use by pedestrians, bikes, skaters, etc. (not cars) in order to get the community out and about. The roads they chose were poor choices in my opinion as it was mostly industrial areas, but it was nice to see quite a few people using the streets. Andrea pointed out that they were missing a key constituency in the Burners, so the next one in two weeks will probably have a better turn out. The route passed by the Transamerica building so we took crankypants' picture next to it (at left).

Monday Andrea, Emmett, 1/3-to-1/2 of a keg, and I made our way up Marin way to swim at Augie's grandparents' house. Augie's grandma is an amazing host and we all had a good time. However, when the party was over it was decided that the quickly flattening beer would be jettisoned for an easier trip home. As we pumped the keg and poured the last bit into the gravel, I knew that we were experiencing a very big milepost in our lives: the time we become old as we can't drink the beer. It is good to have this blog for not only will we be able to track large events in Emmett's life, but we will be able to look back and smile as we remember the afternoon we became middle-aged.

Tuesday was the end of Andrea's student-free time, and she and Belinda spent much of the day coloring, filling out names on popscicle sticks, and making last minute school supply orders. Emmett and I would swing in for feedings here and there, but were back on our schedule of running, playing, and napping.

Oh, this reminds me about the monkey. The monkey has been mentioned and shown here, both in picture and movie format, and during the last week he developed a hole in his back with innerds starting to spill everywhere. Fear of choking, etc. led us to remove the monkey and replace it with a yellow bear or something like that. You would think that between the two of us, Andrea and I that is, and our discussions about and laughter at Emmett's sleeping partner, we would have predicted what would happen were we to take away his monkey. OK, if we weren't to predict it though, you would think that we would put it together as soon as naps-like-clockwork Emmett won't sleep that he needs his monkey. Well, if we didn't get it then and had to resort back to rocking Emmett to sleep, etc., we would finally solve the puzzle. You can see where this is going. Emmett would not nap Saturday (monkey taken away), Sunday, or Monday. Tuesday when Andrea went back to work I was feeling bad for the monkey (or Emmett, can't remember which) and performed an operation to cure the monkey which involved taking one of my tube socks, wrapping it around the body of the monkey at the location of the wound, and knotting it so that Emmett can't rip it off (I will have to put a picture up tomorrow...Emmett and the monkey are in a passonate embrace currently). Well, lo-and-behold, Emmett napped immediately and since then is back to his easy-to-nap self. If we can't figure out something this easy, I don't have any idea how Emmett is going to make it with us.

Today Emmett and I walked Andrea to school on her first day, returned to the farmers market, did a little shopping for a springform pan, and jogged in the park. A pretty exciting day, all-in-all. I took a video of Emmett laughing when I was giving him a bath but I wasn't looking through the camera while filming and it was too privates-heavy, so I will have to try again tomorrow.

Oh, on the food front we are still just doing the bananas, avocado, and rice cereal thing. I am going to add more this week as he has passed (nearly) the 6 month point which means that there are a lot more things he can eat. Andrea took a video of me feeding him bananas with the wooden spoon (we have a rubber one too, but I have been toying with this one a bit). It is not that exciting and is more here for the die-hards, but it does show his getting to the point that he is developing some muscle control:


I have been trying different combinations of the three foods. By themselves, Emmett's order of preference seems to be bananas, rice cereal, avocado. Bananas and rice cereal seems almost as good as bananas alone, and through some strange magic rice cereal and avocado are worse than avocado alone. I have to say, though, that I tasted the latter combination and realized that it was really bad and feeding it to a child should not be allowed.

The solid food thing is introducing changes in the diaper, if you know what I mean. Having been a solid food eater for well over thirty years, I know where this all leads and I don't like it one bit.

One more picture for the heck of it. Those who have given up sucking their toes are missing out on great bliss.