Fear and Loathing in Las Cornfields

My small boy is not the fearless, headfirst sort of dynamo that some children, especially boys, tend to be. As his health and safety directly control my stress level I am very grateful for this. Nonetheless I am quite perplexed by the random and unpredictable nature of his fears. For example, he has a small stuffed cow toy that will moo when squeezed. E sometimes thinks this cow is funny and cuddly. Sometimes he thinks this cow is the anti-Christ. The "moo" can send him into fits of giggles but more likely it will cause a negative reaction stronger than when he got his fingers caught in a door.

We had the pleasure of having some good friends stay with us for a couple of days this week and they brought little E a birthday gift. It is a magnetic farm with interchangeable animals and lots of songs and noises. The small boy was quite taken with the magnets but the sounds unhinged him. He would cry and snuggle until he could muster enough strength to go back to the other toys.

E wandered over to the toy this morning and I went with him. I turned it on. The little one had me in kind of a headlock with one arm wrapped tightly around my neck (the other arm was free to manipulate the magnets). I pressed the button and the toy played a song. E was ok. He then started pressing the buttons himself though he did not let go of me. As we enter the "no, no, no" phase of development it is nice that he still wants me to provide comfort and encouragement.

As for the loathing ... E was sick this week with a head cold. Runny nose, fever, the works. Just an ordinary childhood cold. I think we can all sympathize, but being under the weather made E dislike just about everything. The onset of the cold may have even influence his food rejections of late. He refused to nap. He refused to sit still. He refused to play. He refused to drink anything.

He's doing much better now; back to his usual cheerful (but randomly fearful) self. He's walking everywhere (and falling everywhere). Favorite toys include cell phones, shape sorters, slides, trucks, trains, horses, cups, magnets, balls, the cat, blocks, rings, toys that make noise, quiet toys, and the cat. Ok, he likes just about anything although he's not as into sitting and listening to books as he used to be. Did I mention he likes the cat?

The cat, however, may just loathe the boy.

Weekend update

The Mav took some pictures while he and the boy played in the yard this afternoon. I think E had a good time ...


Other weekend highlights:

E danced with a girl for the first time. I've told him he can't date until he's 5 but apparently dancing isn't dating. The last local festival of the summer brought in a children's music group called the Ladybugs. The singers venture off stage occassionally to dance with their fans and E caught the eye of one of the stars. She danced over to us and, after asking his chaperones, picked him up and danced with him for a couple of minutes. Little E was both thrilled and nervous; much like a teenager on his first date. He tried to play it cool by holding back his big smiles yet made no effort to get down. I know the boy is already quite a flirt but I had no idea he could steal a rock star away from the older, more coordinated, boys.

To prevent E from drinking bathwater he no longer gets cups or other water holding things. He now puts his head in the water to slake his "thirst".

Walking is going well. Until he has to turn. Boom!

He may know how to count. We told E he could have some melon after taking 2 bites of egg. Two bites were well received. The third was refused. Oh yeah -- E loves cantaloupe. We'll try watermelon in a couple of days.

We hope you all had such fun on your weekend too!

Let the games begin

Perhaps spurred on by the Olympics, E has developed an interest in sports. He's a bit precocious, playing at a level usually only attained by athletes at least twice his age.

His sport of choice: antagonizing his parents.

Like a matador in the bullfight, little E works hard to get a charge. His favorite arena is the highchair but the living room will work just fine.

As mentioned previously, my small boy has recently learned to assert his opinions (or, more likely, has started to realize that he has opinions). At breakfast this morning, he refused even the first bite of his cereal. Though he's eaten cereal with gusto since the age of 6 months today the sight of the bowl brought tears. I was unprepared for this strong of a protest to such a mild and well tolerated entree from a child of barely 1. I thought I had a year to steel myself for these battles.

I called for backup and we decided to fight back (thanks Nana!). He was going to eat the cereal or he was going to get down.

I mounted a surprise attack, slipping the spoon in his mouth while it was wide open in mid-scream. When ignored, he stopped crying. Then he'd eat a few bites. Then renew his protests. We got through that bowl of cereal, eventually.

Lunch went smoothly but dinner was fought in two separate battles. The enemy this time was green beans. At E's second seating he eventually got through most of the beans (without tears!).

E is learning to imitate. If I opening my mouth wide he'll (sometime) mimic. In goes the food. Since he actually likes what we're giving him if I can get the food in far enough he'll cheerfully chew and swallow.

E's other event is chair standing. He got a nice soft child-sized chair for his birthday. He loves this chair and used to spend long bouts of time nicely sitting down in it while playing with toys or books. Then he started standing up in it.

The child has about as much balance as a drunken sailor so we're quite concerned about his safety. When he stands, we say "sit down". This worked rather well at first. E clearly understands the phrase. He would sit down. Sometimes he'd even stay sitting.

Being the true athlete that he is, E took his game to the next level. "SIT" now gets him grinning. He teeters perilously on the edge of the chair. We enforce sitting. He gets back up.

We take the chair away. He can practice tumbling when we get better insurance.

He's stubborn, he's determined, he indefatigable . But he's not brave.

We took E to the indoor playground today in hopes that the activity would tire him out enough to actually take an afternoon nap. Our boy was having a wonderful time climbing, walking, crawling over and through the soft obstacles when he encounter an older boy in a batman mask. Not a full-face mask, more like a Zorro mask but with an extra flourish at the top.

Little E fell apart. It started slowly with a chin quiver but quickly dissolved into an all out sob. My baby was terrified. He was somewhat comforted when I picked him up. Then he saw the mask again and it was all over. Time to go.

Halloween may get interesting.

He walks

As of this morning I'd hoped to get a short blog entry up today based on E's breakfast antics. Then his lunch shenanigans trumped this morning's behavior so I felt I should record that also. Little E decided to really make today a red letter day though. He spent the last 15 minutes before bed walking around the living room.

Until today he'd taken no more than 5 steps in a row and he really didn't attempt solo steps that often. E is certainly an ace at cruising, having been walking while holding on to furniture for several months. He had a great bit of stamina too; two days ago he walked a solid city block holding onto only one of my fingers.

Today he walked, repeatedly, half-way across the living room! This makes for a good 12 steps or so, maybe about 7 feet. (One can only get half-way before running into some piece of furniture in our overly packed living room).

He will now be more mobile than ever. We are not ready. I planned ahead by getting him shoes that squeak so we'll be able to hear him coming (or going) but our house, our outings, our cat must all be in for some changes.

I imagine all new walkers have a similar gait but watching E totter along is both exhilarating and terrifying. Each step is so deliberate and the outcome so uncertain. He can walk. He will fall. Often. I am seriously considering padding the child in nerf for the next few weeks (months?).

The catch-22 of a new walker extends beyond the inevitable bumps and bruises. We are happy little E is developing on target but, and you may have noticed this in the last few posts, I am sad that his baby days were so fleeting. Just one year ago my little peanut had no idea that he could control those kicking appendages.

As for his meal time antics; little E is rapidly developing opinions and negotiating tactics. At breakfast he made it clear that toast and goat cheese are no longer to be on the menu. It's not the first time he's balked at this previous favorite but today he took every last piece of toast from his tray and relegated them to the cup holder. Then he forcefully gave the all-done signal. He was all too happy to continue eating blueberries and banana; he was just ALL DONE with toast.

Lunch was the reverse. I had a peach on the table, for E and I to share, once he had finished his beef stew. He did eat a good helping of the stew but kept pointing at peach. Finally, he could wait no longer and refused to open his mouth for the stew. Fine, I thought, he'd eaten enough stew. I cut up the peach and gave him some. Ok. For a bit.

Turns out, I wasn't giving him the peach in the manner he wanted it. He wanted strips of peach not bite size pieces. He also wanted to jam the strips in his mouth, not take appropriately sized bites.

This kid can turn on the water works at the drop of a hat. It turns out he has quite a temper. I'm not sure where he gets that from. It must have skipped a generation.

So, I've got a wobbly, tantrum-throwing, wild-grinning, opinionated toddler on my hands. He also thinks "NO" is a very funny word.

The honeymoon is over.

Vacationland

The Mav is up and about after a suspected case of food poisoning so I now have access to the vacation pictures. It turns out we did not take pictures of every activity (how strange?) but here are a few of my favorites from what we did take. The first two are E playing with the tiny Bonnie kitten and the second two are from E's first trip to the beach.

E may look just like his Daddy but he's got his Mommy's love of the Maine ocean. He was not even slightly tentative though the water was cool (well, warm for Maine standards but downright cold for what the Mav likes) and the seaweed plentiful. Little E then enjoyed sharing my clamcake. I don't know if he actually has a taste for clams already or is just an exceedingly happy baby as he derived about as much pleasure from playing with a ketchup packet. Sharing both Nana's and my ice cream on the way home further increased our dear child's contentment.

In

E is an expert at taking things out. In fact, the best way to get him interested in something is to put it away. This compels little E to take the object back out as quickly as possible. Grinning from ear to ear, he'll race back and forth across the room as the Mav or myself try to put toys away at bedtime.

I mistakenly thought he was playing games with us when really he was training for his new skill of putting things "in". Not away exactly, but in. Small cups into larger cups. Train tracks into cups. Shapes into shape sorters. Toys into toy-boxes!

In accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (i.e. chaos is always increasing, also known as the first law of small children) more toys are taken out than put back in. Nevertheless, E has taken his first steps toward cleaning up: he stuffed as many small wooden blocks as he could fit into another toy. I found this when I was cleaning up the rest of the toys after E had gone to bed for the night. It may not seem like much to most people but to me it is a big step away from his babyhood toward his little boyhood; he is doing things of his own accord, without help, and without complete oversight. Also, maybe it means he'll be ready for chores soon. (I can dream, can't I?)

Yankee Doodle

went to New Hampshire and there he got a pony!


Little E's birthday extravaganza continued last week with our trip to his Nana and Granddah's house in New Hampshire. We had a great time visiting with my family and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. For posterity's sake I'll recap a few of the highlights of our trip.

A solution to our energy issues?
If planes ran on wiggle power our boy could have propelled us well beyond our desired destination. E did not catch one wink of sleep on our 12 hour trek until we exited the Manchester airport. He was asleep on my shoulder before we reached the car.

Captain Pilot Man
The Mav and I should be prevented from naming E's toys. The boy's favorite traveling toy is a small plastic pilot guy. E derives enjoyment merely from clutching his "action figure" (the Mav's description) though CPM makes a great teether too. His favorite activity is to drop CPM down a tube made from a rolled up magazine. I guess this is a combination of E's new found love of sliding and his enduring fascination with peek-a-boo.

Gangster cats
Despite their names, Bonnie and Clyde (my parents' kittens) limit their illicit activities to scratching the upholstery and jumping on the counters. E and Bonnie were fast friends though Clyde was a bit apprehensive of little E's exuberance. E got the giggles whenever the cats crossed his path and he shook the cat toys to the point of exhaustion. I think he has some guilt about sharing his affections with other cats as he has been hugging our cat at every opportunity since we returned home.

60 years of marriage
No, that's not a typo. While the Mav and I reached the 6 year mark this month my wonderful grandparents dance circles around us after 60 years of wedded bliss. My mother and her sister arranged a fantastic dinner for us all to honor and celebrate the amazing milestone. Though it is my grandparents who deserve great accolades for their history together as well as in their own rights, this blog is about the small boy so I must mention his role in the party. Little E surpassed just about all expectations for good behavior in a dinner guest of any age let alone one just barely a year old. For nearly 3 hours he sat (relatively) still, smiled at everyone, and ate anything put in front of him. He ate marinated mushrooms, clam chowder, escargot (not a favorite, but he did take a second bite), stuffed mushrooms, cucumber, haddock, and chicken parmesan. He also tried to eat two (toy) screw drivers, a cell phone, and of course Captain Pilot Man. Then he fell asleep on the way home and, for the first time ever, went right back to sleep at home.

It's getting late here and I need to get on to sleep as we are a man down (the Mav is very sick) and the small boy doesn't have a snooze button. There is much more to say about the trip (beach, lobster, ice cream, blueberries to name a few) but exhaustion prevents me from continuing - and proof-reading. Pictures will be coming once the Mav is back on his feet enough to fire up his computer.

An accidental haircut

Bangs reached to his eyes
I trimmed them so carefully
He had a mullet

I reluctantly
took up again the scissors
good bye baby curls


E will soon be participating in an extended family photo shoot and I wanted to have his hair out of his eyes but without that freshly cut "wow do I look surprised!" effect. The result was, as his father says "business in the front, party in the back"-- aka a mullet. I could not leave him that way but that meant his soft, fluffy curls had to go. The hair in back, when straight, reached well past his shoulders but usually sprung up to tickle the back of his neck. E looks like such a little boy now, less like a baby. It is probably a welcome relief for him to have the hair off his neck in this humidity. I am a bit sad though.

Little E's First Year in Pictures

My baby is one year old today. It has been the most incredible year of my life. I had wanted to write something poignant today but I've found I'm incapable of expressing the emotions and events of this past year in its entirety. All I can hope to do is to record small day-to-day observations and hope that they will forever trigger deeper memories and paint a picture of our boy as he grows.

And grow he has. From 7lbs 14 oz and 20 inches to over 20lbs and 29 inches. From a docile observer to a energetic adventurer. From straight dark hair to wild blond curls. And his hold on my heart grows with him.

Happy Birthday Little E!

Let Him Eat Cake!

Just so you know, the video is almost half an hour long. When was the last time you spent half an hour eating cake?

The birthday party

We celebrated the anniversary of our boy's birth a day early. It was also the 6th anniversary of the wedding of the Mav and myself. We had a garden party with tea and cakes. Our small gathering was refined and subdued; appropriate for the mild mannered guest of honor.

Just kidding.

We did have cakes. One for the birthday boy and one for the rest of us. The remainder of one is currently in the fridge. The other is in the trash; I put it there after I removed it from the deck. Don't worry--there was no icing left on it.

We did have tea. Sweet, minty tea. This complimented the North Carolina style barbecue made today by the Mav (which was delicious--I'm not sure why he only makes it once every 5 years) .

We were outside on the previously mentioned party deck. Good thing too, as the day's main event should not / could not have transpired indoors.

The guest of honor, a little boy who turns one tomorrow night at quarter to ten, was not mild mannered. He is now; asleep in his crib, after trucking through what must have been an incredible sugar high. Here's what happened ...

After dinner, I removed E's shirt and put him back in his highchair. The Mav brought out the cakes. Little E's cake had a single candle, a Curious George statue and blue, blue frosting. Already tired and sick of sitting, the boy was not immediately impressed by this thing we placed on his tray. We sang. He grabbed George.

He eventually got some of the frosting from George's base in his mouth. He then made it his single minded quest to track down the source of that sweetness.

E was pretty sure at first that George himself brought the sugar. When he realized that the cake was the source of that which was yummy and blue he still felt George was the appropriate utensil for transferring the bounty to his eager mouth. He made some attempts with a spoon but only when George was tired.

There's a video. It covers the nearly 20 minutes it took to fully disassemble the cake. Luckily most of the frosting ended up on the boy and not in the boy. The Mav is working on getting the video online.

You're thinking: what a huge mess, so glad I didn't have to clean him up. Well, you didn't consider the efficacy of ordinary garden hose with respect to frosting removal. That's another video. For the record, E was very happy to be hosed off so I don't think we caused any psychological harm.