Daddy's Blog
February 29, 2008
Welcome to the Monkey Rodeo
Ben will be 18 months old tomorrow, so it’s time for another update.
He is growing so rapidly into a little person. We’ve had trouble getting him to eat real food, that is, food that doesn’t come in rainbow colors, isn’t shaped like smiling fish or teddy bears, or can’t reasonably be described as a cracker. He does like fruit -- bananas, strawberries, apples, grapes, oranges -- and will even eat yogurt and oatmeal. But beyond that, he seems unduly skeptical of anything we try to put in his mouth, especially because he has no problem putting dirt, rocks, leaves, sticks, or bunny poop in his mouth.
However, recently we have made some progress. He now eats noodles, corn, lettuce, and sometimes chicken. Although, as is his habit, he tends to stuff his mouth so full that he can’t swallow properly, and most of this half-chewed food comes back out onto (with any luck) his bib. In fact, his eating is improving so much that he is starting to regain his baby belly that he worked off once he learned how to walk and run. And just recently, he has started walking up and down steps without support, like a big boy. Granted, it’s just one step, but he’s quite proud.
He is such a flirt. At church, he loves to play with the big kids, just jumps right in and bops along, occasionally even leading them around. And of course, he waves and smiles and blows kisses and gives lots of hugs.
Did I mention that he can climb onto every piece of furniture we own, including the piano?
He is still such a tiny ball of energy. Trying to get him dressed or put his coat on is like a monkey rodeo. He runs rampant across the house while we try to rope him, pin him, and tie him. Plus, bananas.
And he says lots of words now: hi, stop, go, Ben, baby, Nana (which, incidentally, means both Grandma Gayle and banana), up, down, teeth (teece), cow (COW!), duck, bus (BUS!). He points out buses anytime he sees them, often spotting them before we do. He even tries to say bunny, but it comes out “bunbutt.” Jen suspects that he is trying to say both “bunny” and “Ponette” which is the name of one of our rabbits. Regardless of how many times we try to get him to pronounce it “bunny,” he has really latched onto “bunbutt.” Anything that he doesn’t know the word for automatically becomes “that.”
Recently, we finished up swim lessons for Ben at the local community center. This was a Christmas gift from his Nana and Grandad, and we all had a good time. The instructor taught the kids to blow bubbles, kick their feet, catch objects floating in the water, jump into the water, slide down the water slide, dunk their heads underwater, and float on their backs, all with a lot of help from the parents. Ben was the best splasher in the class, and everyone got a certificate at the end. It was a great experience.
That’s about it for now. Always nice to hear from you.
July 29, 2007
These are getting to be monthly updates almost. Almost. If you haven't read Jen's bit to the left, please do. I'll try not to duplicate anything she's already talked about.
We are both working now, though on a more freelance-basis than we had originally thought we would be. Jen is working for a company that does computer literacy and spanish classes for preschoolers. It's called Gigglebytes, which I think is a great name. She goes into daycare centers and preschools and does sessions with the children that introduce them to the basic concepts of computers and basic spanish vocabulary. It's all a lot of fun, and she seems to be enjoying it. I've been doing freelance editing and writing in various places: conference call transcripts, music reviews and interviews, and magazine articles. It's exciting now that it seems to be picking up, but I'm also still searching for something a little more permanent.
Enough of that. That's not why you're here.
Ben is a very happy, affectionate child, most of the time. He loves to play, and there are times when he gives me this look, this smile that draws me in and says, "hey, let's have fun," only "have fun" in this case means "to make mischief." That smile makes me giddy. It's like he knows that I'm going to be complicit in whatever bit of mischief he can find to do. I just know that smile is going to get both of us into a lot of trouble one of these days.
He's been crawling for months now, and he's taken a few steps, too. Like Jen said, we get him going and let go, and then momentum carries him 2 or 3 steps before he topples over. He loves to walk around with us when we hold his hands and keep him balanced. He also loves to push the laundry basket with his mom across the living room to the laundry room. It's so incredibly cute! And he climbs everything there is to climb. He climbs pillows onto the couch. He climbs his dad onto the couch. He's even tried to climb into the open refrigerator, which was little scary, even though it was so full there was no room inside for him.
With all this mobility, it's inevitable that we have few mishaps. He's fallen a couple of times and bumped his head. He's gotten splinters in his forearm. He scratched his leg once. He's pinched fingers in drawers that, even though they are latched shut, he can still open far enough to stick his fingertips inside. We call these little accidents "Benjuries." And I'm actually surprised we haven't had more Benjuries with as rough and tumble as this kid is. Incidentally, when he accidentally hurts his parents, as when he pinches my nose or pulls Jen's hair or grabs his wooden train and flaps his arm enthusiastically in a gesture of utter glee and I just happen to be holding him at the time and my face just happens to get in the way, that is also a Benjury. Feel free to introduce that word into your daily vocabulary.
Finally, I've removed many of my earlier posts because I was running out of room. But I have saved them in a word file. Just for the curious. By my next update we will hopefully be completely moved in to our house and it will be time for Ben's first birthday! We are very excited! Always good to hear from any and all of you.
June 25, 2007
Back in Tennessee ... Plus Father's Day
We're finally starting to get settled here in Tennessee. Jen covered most of the important stuff as far as the move and jobs and such in the column to the right, so please read what she has written. We are currently staying with my parents, who have been endlessly generous and patient with us, even offering to watch their grandson fairly regularly so we can go out on dates, on errands, for walks, or even just stay home and relax. Honestly, I think Ben has some kind of hypnotic power that compels them to do his will. Or something. Whatever.
He really is growing and becoming this complete little person. It’s amazing to see. It took him a little while, but he has warmed up to his Nana and Granddad like freshly baked cookies. At first, they were strange people, perhaps stranger than most, but Nana fed him a banana for breakfast one morning, and Granddad made silly noises (intentionally, let’s be clear about that) that Ben thought were funny, and that was enough to convince him that he liked these strange people. He even gives them hugs and kisses, although he’s still working on his aim with the kisses, which still occasionally end up as nose-sucking, but it’s sweet nonetheless. Nana has even taught him to clap his hands!
He loves living here. Every room here has a ceiling fan, and Ben loves ceiling fans. There is so much more room than in our tiny apartment in Maryland. Ben crawls up and down the hall, making a circuit through the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and back to the kitchen. We’ll have to get some video of him crawling because, as Jen mentioned, his crawl is fantastically peculiar. His right knee touches the carpet, but his left knee doesn’t because he plants his left foot down instead. There is even a backyard with a deck. We sit out on the deck sometimes and enjoy a warm breeze. And we got a small pool to play in on the really hot days.
He is starting to get his top two front teeth coming in. No more gumming on bananas. Now he will be able to chomp!
We’ve met with a realtor a couple of times and looked at some houses in the area. Yesterday, we saw a few here in Murfreesboro that we liked quite a bit. Not sure how soon we’ll actually be able to make an offer, but it’s exciting all the same.
We had a wonderful Father’s Day. The Tennessee Wind Ensemble performed a concert at Old Fort Park here in Murfreesboro, so we went with my parents and my brother Kevin and his wife Katie. It was a good concert, under a pavilion, so we weren’t in the sun. We had a good time, even if they did build the pavilion in the field where I used to play Frisbee. Ben fell asleep toward the end of the concert, so afterwards, Jen and I laid a blanket out under some trees and we all took a nap. There are some pictures of Ben and me sleeping on the photo page.
So that’s us. As Jen mentioned, we’re going to Missouri this week to visit Ben’s other grandparents and great-grandparents (and aunts and uncles and great-aunts and great-uncles and cousins and the guy at the fireworks store and whoever else we happen to see while we are there). That will be a fun, eventful trip, so I’m sure we will have much more news and many more pictures to share. Always good to hear from you. Send us an email. Post a comment. Build a fire and make smoke signals. However you like.
March 19, 2007
OK, quickly, I need to post about what Ben's up to. He's an amazing little boy, growing faster than my glacially paced updates can possible do justice to.
He's eating lots of cereal and veggies these days. We've tried him on rice cereal (tolerated it, then loved it), oat cereal (tolerated it, then loved it), mixed grain cereal (hated it, then loved it), carrots (loved 'em), and squash (loved it). We've been feeding him solids for about 5 or 6 weeks now, slowly introducing new foods. And I think he's starting to realize that the point of these feedings is to get the food, not just the spoon, into his mouth.
He's been scooting around on his belly since we got back from Tennessee in February, moving like a little racing snail, zoom zoom! He can spin 360 degrees on his belly to point himself in any direction that he fancies, usually the direction with the most objects he can put in his mouth.
He's so close to actual crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and sort of rocks, like he's revving the engine at a stoplight. But he hasn't quite figured out what comes next. The concept of forward momentum seems to be tricky one. Lately, he's been getting up on his hands and knees and then trying to get his feet under him by lifting his knees off the ground. The problem is that he hasn't quite realized that he has to move his hands, too. So his little feet just move on the carpet but he doesn't go anywhere. Kind of a baby moonwalk.
As Jen pointed out, when he does figure it out, it will be a completely novel idea for him. She and I both walk upright, so Ben doesn't see crawling modeled for him. To that end, I've been crawling around on the floor with him, but I get the impression he thinks I'm making fun of him.
He really is the greatest little guy in the world. He loves to smile and laugh and play and roll over and over. Especially when we're trying to change his diaper. Jen called me at work the other day, laughing and laughing so hard she couldn't stop. All I could make out was "like putting a diaper on a rolling pin" before she lapsed into an incomprehensible fit of laughter.
That's it for now. Having trouble with Blogger, so no comments link this time. But you can always send us an email!
My little man is the absolute, unqualified greatest. He is smiley and alert and curious and playful and giggly and in love with anything he can put in his mouth.When I come home from work, he always greets me with the biggest, drooliest grin. I never knew that saliva could be so appealing.
He rolls over now like a pro. Front to back, back to front, over and over, he can do it all. We can't keep him on his back anymore. We lay him down on his back, and he flips himself over with nonchalance that says, "I used to like being on my back when I was little, but I'd rather be on my stomach now."
One day last week, I came into the bedroom where he was taking a nap and knelt down next to the bed. He stirred a little, then opened his eyes and looked at me. A sleepy smile spread across his little pillow-creased face, and he reached out his hand to touch my cheek, as if to say, "Hey Dad, how's it going? I'm cute. Change my diaper now?" I'm such a softie.
He smells so great for about half an hour after his bath, so sweet and clean and fresh. Johnson & Johnson baby soap smells really good!
His favorite toys are his teething rings. He had about 50 of them. They link together, and he holds them, waves them around, pulls on them, and tries to put them in his mouth vertically. We try to keep them in very short chains, two or three, so they can't possibly get wrapped around his neck and so that when he tosses them on the floor where the bunnies are, we have extra links we can give him and don't have to run and immediate wash the ones he dropped. His other favorite toy is his Mom's hair. Boy, he loves grabbing and tugging on her hair. Not that I blame him. It is long and luscious and silky and beautiful. Plus, he hasn't learned yet that pulling a girl's hair is not an effective way of getting her to like you. I'll have to have that talk with him.
Ben is 4 months old today, and it’s been nearly as long since I last wrote a post. I actually started writing one on August 31 detailing how we had gone to the hospital with contractions only to be sent home because it was too early. But then the real thing happened, and I never finished that post. Oh well, let's move on.
Ben is almost ready to roll over from back to front! When we lay him on his back, he nearly always turns onto his side. He seems pretty comfortable on his side because he stays there quite happily for several minutes at a stretch. But he hasn’t yet made it past that point. He seems to stall just before gravity is able to help him complete the roll. We keep rooting for him though.
He is also a big bucket of drool at the moment. Poor kid is teething, so the drool is everywhere. Unfortunately, he hasn’t quite yet learned how to swallow. And he cries sometimes because his gums hurt. We feel so bad for him! Mostly, though, he just puts anything and everything into his mouth and chews, including fingers (his and ours), cardboard boxes, drool towels, and whatever else he can get his hands on. Size is unimportant to him. He hasn’t yet learned that he cannot fit objects larger than his head into his mouth.
But the upside of the drool is that he has learned to blow raspberries … sort of. He does this thing where he sticks his tongue out and blows spit bubbles, which then proceed down his chin. This is his favorite activity at the moment. We had a complete raspberry conversation yesterday while I changed his diaper in the bathroom at Target.
He is such a cute, happy baby. Some of his cutest, happiest times are when we change his diaper. He coos and smiles and laughs and blows raspberries and waves his arms and kicks his feet and rolls onto his side. As you can imagine, changing his diaper is not an easy task. We have to hold onto his feet throughout the process, which leaves only one hand for the actually diapering.
He smiles all the time now. He has a great smile! We’re working to get some smile pictures up so you all can see. It’s such a joy to smile at him and have him smile back! Maybe it’s just my imagination, but he does show some preference for Jen and me, probably because of familiarity. But he is still at that stage where he likes everybody, and everybody likes him.
On Christmas Eve, we took him to church dressed in the Santa Claus outfit Russell and Gayle bought for him. He was such a big hit! Jen says he spread so much Christmas joy. Several people asked him if he was coming to visit them that evening. He just gave them a coy smile, as if to say, wait and see.
He loves to stand (with help) and dance by bouncing up and down and is starting to sit up almost on his own. He can pull himself up into a sitting position if we hold his hands and keep his legs down.
He’s even sleeping a little better. We’ve been trying to get him to sleep through the night in his crib. He has slept through the night (defined as 11pm to 5am) in my arms, but we really want him to learn to sleep in the crib. He’s been really good about falling asleep on his own, most nights at least, but he still wakes up several times and has to be coaxed back to sleep. It’s not strictly linear progress, but it’s progress nonetheless.
Just now as I was typing, Jen was reading a book with Ben (a very cute board book called “That’s Not My Truck” which has tactile pictures of trucks), and he was running his hand over the pages. When she put the book down, he let out a big cry, fussing and fussing. So she opened the book again, and he was quiet. We both got a good laugh out of that.
Ok, I’ll wrap up with that story. There’s only so much gushing I’m comfortable forcing on you at once. We really are starting to turn into the type of parents who talk constantly about their child. I haven’t yet attempted to show anyone the pictures I have in my wallet, but I’m afraid I can only hold out for so long.
Sean
It's Like This
Ok, brief follow-up. No real news, just some things that we found amusing and wanted to share.
At this point, it should be fairly obvious, even without having seen the latest photos, that the baby belly is considerably larger than it was only a few short months ago. In that time, it has become more difficult for Jen to do those little things we often take for granted--rolling over in bed, for instance.
The other morning, as we were getting up, Jen was lying on her left side (the preferred position for maximum blood flow to the baby) facing away from the edge of the bed. In order to get up and out of bed, she had to roll over. Unfortunately, she's somewhat weighted down by a not-so-small infant, and a task such as rolling over in bed requires a little more effort than normal. So, being the clever mother-to-be, she tried to enlist the help of our son, hoping that his cooperation would make the transition much smoother. The conversation, or what I was privy to, went something like this:
"Okay, little guy," she said, "on the count of three, we're going to roll over, okay? One, two, three ... ugh!"
The attempt was unsucessful. So she tried to find out what happened. "What happened, guy? You were supposed to roll over on the count of three! What do you mean you don't know how to count? I was counting, you don't have to!" With some help from me, she was able to roll over and get up, but when that boy comes out, we're going to have a talk!
In addition to our discussion about obeying his mother, we're going to have to talk about being respectful to people in the medical profession. We went to have a final sonogram last week (I think it was last week. I'm pretty sure. Or maybe it was this week. No, but it could have been the week before. What's today? The 9th? Okay, then I'm positive, 100% it wasn't next week), and everything looked good. His left cerebral ventricle, which previously had been on the large side of normal, is now well within the normal range and no longer a concern, which is quite reassuring. However, he spent the whole time with his back to the technician, refusing to turn around and say hello. It was very impolite. And this wasn't the first time he's done that. At several OB visits, as the doctor has checked his heart rate, he has pushed out with his little behind. You can see it bulging in the belly. It's as if he were mooning the doctor. Not cool, little man!
I swear, at times he pushes and kicks and squirms in inhuman ways. It's like he's an octopus. It's like Baby Matrix. It's like snails on speed. It's like Jiffy Pop. It's like whack-a-mole.
This is still fake, though. No question.
In your comments and responses to this post (because you know I'm going to demand comments and responses from each of you), along with your regularly solicited advice, opinions, suggestions, whatnot, let's see if we can come up with even more amusing little similes (comparisons using the word "like") to extend the list above.
Remember, the subject is "What is it like when Little Dude* Richardson kicks and squirms and pushes in inhuman ways?"
Be creative. Be crazy. Be careful. There are children reading this.
* This name suggested by Mike and Cathy Spencer. The opinions expressed by Mike and Cathy Spencer, and, indeed, the opinions expressed by all independent commentators are solely those of the individuals and do not represent the views of the proprietors of this site. No warranty is implied. Subject to availablity. Void where prohibited. All rights reserved. Returns and exchanges must be accompanied by the original sales receipt within 30 days of purchase. No additives or preservatives. Contains 10% fruit juice. May contain nuts. May not be combined with other offers. While supplies last. No animals where harmed during the making of this post. No pets allowed. Shirt and shoes required. In cooperation with the state fire marshall's office, the management of this theater would like you to take a moment to familiarize yourselves with the locations of all emergency exits. The aisleways by which you entered and the passageways designated by the illuminated emergency exit signs visible to you at either the right or left of the forward section have been checked and are clear exits from the building in the event of an emergency. Thank you for your time and attention.
