A new level of drumming for Alden

Alden's weight is still a little low and his crawling skills need some work, but he makes up for it on the drums.

Basket Case

The laundry basket is our child retainer of choice these days.
Alden helped me rake the yard today. I decided it was finally time to move the piles of decaying leaves in our lawn across the street into the woods. Alden helped by sitting in his basket and accepting the compliments of passing strangers.

Spitty Baby

Alden has developed into what his pediatrician calls a 'spitty baby'. Alden is no stranger to vomit, especially when he had his ear infection, but about two weeks ago, he lost the entire contents of his stomach for no apparent reason. Since then, every other day or so marks another major spew. Being a spitty baby is not serious, and of the three of us Alden seems to be the least upset by it. At first we thought it could be a food allergy, and we still thinking it may be related to overfeeding, but spitty-ness is exacerbated by the development of his esophageal sphincter, or lack thereof. It's something I hope he will grow out of, but in the meantime we have to be vigilant for that panicked T-minus-6-seconds worried look before all spew breaks loose.

Fortunately Alden's vomiting is not encouraged by aerial tossing, one of his favorite things ever.

Projects

Alden has been particularly active lately. His motivation to move has increased and the time he spends standing and trying to walk is abundant. The other day I had to lower the crib mattress a level. There are three levels with the highest for babies, the middle for when the babies start to stand, and the lowest level for when babies become toddlers. After the third level I suppose I will have to put a piece of plywood and a cinder-block over the top of the crib to keep him in... for safety.
Besides insulating the house for the winter and taking a class for the remote-learning system at the University (I may be teaching there this winter as a second job for some additional scratch) I have been busy building a filtration manifold n' crate for Ilana's boss at the lab. The manifold is meant to filter ocean water from between one and six bottles. A pump is connected to the mechanism to pull the water through and valves can be turned on or off depending on which bottle the technician wants to filter.

Building the custom crate was just as difficult as building the manifold. I had to go back and forth to be clear on the design, but basically the front and top of the crate can be removed and the top also has a lid.



We have started building fires again, as there have been some cold days lately. The cold is not constant yet, but that is only a matter of time.

We have not yet seriously childproofed the house yet, I suspect that will be my next project.

More Alden talk

First Word

Behold!

Bonfires

Election-night preparations for Guy Fawkes Day. This pea and fennel soup was delicious.

This was the week for bonfires and celebrations. On Tuesday, we gathered 'round the computer and breathlessly awaited the election returns. I was in the kitchen making soup and bread dough in an effort to calm my jitters, at which I was pretty much an utter failure. I think I made about 86 million trips from the kitchen to the computer to refresh the NY Times electoral map. Ben eventually took to slapping my hand away when I'd reach for the mouse. To quote the great Indigo Montoya, "I hate wait". But when Ohio went for Obama, we knew it was all over and could finally relax and start celebrating! What an incredible moment!! Until now, every election I've lived through I've met either with apathy or abject disgust. It was a strange sensation, this feeling of excitement and hope after an election. All week people have been walking with an extra spring in their step, making eye contact and smiling at each other. Yes, the country is still in the toilet, but it's so wonderful to have a thoughtful, articulate and highly intelligent person who pronounces "nuclear" properly to take the reins. That he's African American to boot is just so sweet.

Wednesday, was the 5th of November (remember, remember) or Guy Fawkes Day. Ben made a rather rude Guy and we had the excuse we needed to burn the brush pile we'd amassed for, oh, one and half years.
We had about a dozen neighbors and friends join us, including 2 Brits (to add authenticity to the event) who brought beer and sparklers. They both were almost a little too excited to see Guy burn. To see that twinkle of chaos in their normally calm and reserved eyes was a little unnerving. And of course, everyone was buzzing about Obama's election. Ben made Obamacakes (cheesecake and chocolate swirled cupcakes - sooooo tasty!), creme brulee and beer bread and I made pea soup and pumpkin soup. Spirits were very high all evening.

Alden was intrigued with the fire and the shadows it cast on the faces of the revelers.

On Friday, my bosses finally got married after an 11 year engagement, a 4 year-old daughter and a son on the way. They were kind of strong-armed into it by their immigration lawyer who complained that it would make the application for their green cards so much easier if they WOULD JUST TIE THE GODDAMNED KNOT ALREADY!!!
So they went to the Nobleboro City Hall for a dog licence and thought, what the hell, and came out with a marriage application. They asked me to be the witness for their wedding and gave me all of two days notice. I think the world of these guys and wasn't about to let them get hitched without at least a little bit of fanfare, so I dusted off the ole pipes. Willie is Scottish and claims that he hired me because I play pipes, although he had never actually heard me play until today. I hadn't played pipes in about 2 years and pipes (and pipers!) tend to sound awful when they aren't played regularly. There aren't many people for whom I'm willing to publicly make a loud ass of myself, but Willie and Susie certainly fit the bill. Willie was thrilled with the bagpipe surprise, which, despite loosing both tenor drones and a squeaky reed just outside the town hall, made it all worthwhile. I got to pipe the whole wedding party into and out of town hall. Afterwards, they had a bonfire and potluck at their place. Lorna, their daughter, and I made a Guy for their bonfire and Willie put a veil on it to make it more.... nuptial? I dunno, I didn't really get the veil thing, but it burnt really well.

Willie dances with his "bride".

Guy on the bonfire.Cutting the "cake", called parkin, which is a traditional food eaten on Guy Fawkes Day. It's very dry and dense, and reminds me of a homemade Clif bar.

Halloween

Alden's first Halloween was surprisingly uneventful. We dressed him in his cow pajamas (not pictured because I forgot to pull out the camera) and waited eagerly by the kitchen door for what would surely be a veritable tsunami of trick-or-treaters. At least, I thought we'd have a huge turnout because kids hang out on our street all the time. They've literally beat a path to the river just across the street from our house, which is heavily used all summer long. So I figured the 10 lb bag of Reeses peanut butter cups we'd purchased the night before would be depleted within minutes and that we'd need to make several trips to the drug store over the course of the evening to replenish our sugary provisions and keep the little ghouls happy.
Instead we had no trick-or-treaters. None. Not even an older chaperon to tell us how cute our son looks as a cow. In hindsight I can understand why. Our house is not close enough to others to make for efficient trick-or-treating. There are only of couple homes on our side of the road and on the other side is the river. We also don't live in an upscale area, the kind where heavily manicured moms give away entire KitKat bars or tickets to Celtics games to make an extra trip worth while.
So Halloween was quiet and no candy was doled out. However, between the three of us we managed to consume the entire contents of the candy bowl before the night was over. Oblivious to the holiday, Alden was in a remarkably good mood nonetheless and entertained himself with his squeaky chew toy and a spice jar full of whole coffee beans. Overall, I'd say his first Halloween was a success.

Reflections on Growth

Alden had his 9-month well baby check this Thursday and we were reminded, yet again, just how large his noggin is (97th percentile!) relative to his body weight (10%) and height (25%). Even my brother Ben, who makes it a point not to get all caught up with this "baby nonsense" has taken notice. Ben and I took Alden to the YMCA yesterday and swam in the pool for a bit. He then took Alden to the basketball court while I scurried off for a workout. When I met them afterwards, there was another small child, about 15 or 16 months old, running up and down court after a basketball with his dad. Ben was surprised that Alden's head was so much larger than that of this fully mobile, and much larger child. This kid probably had a normal head, but it looked disproportionately small, especially after you get used to looking at Alden all the time. Just more evidence to support my anime ancestor theory.

Alden is starting to stand a little more on his own and to pull himself up using the front of the couch/stool rungs/table legs as props. He still can't stand unassisted yet, but he's getting pretty good at holding himself up. He still shows no interest in crawling and won't get up on all fours. I'm trying to put the crawling-is-best-for-motor-development mantra out of my mind. In fact, I'm trying to put all preconceived notions about what he should be doing out of my mind. Alden has been behind on just about every milestone in the book, so rather than get worked up about it, I've chosen to simply stop reading. Part of my post-partum media package from the hospital included a magazine called American Baby with A COMPREHENSIVE MONTH TO MONTH GUIDE TO YOUR BABY'S LIFE! EVERYTHING YOU WILL EVER NEED TO KNOW FROM BIRTH TO 1 YEAR! !!!!!!!!!!!! This issue lists developmental milestones and things to anticipate for each month. It was a mistake to read it. I started to fret back in March, when Alden wasn't tolerating tummy time and when, according American Baby "by now your baby is lifting up his head when placed on his stomach". Why wasn't Alden lifting his head? Was there something wrong with him? Are we doing something wrong? This is when project Tummy Time began, and ran intensively for the next 3 months. Then I made the mistake of reading Month Three when "by now, your baby is sleeping 8-12 hours at a time at night". Seriously?!?

The infuriating entries continued, but I won't bore you with all the details. It's really upsetting for me to think that my child is already behind and he's only just started his life. And I'm well aware that everyone develops at their own pace and it doesn't matter much in the long run, but it's hard not to feel crummy about it. I'm a classic over-achiever so perhaps it says more about me and my expectations than anything else. But books like these emphasizing milestones that we haven't hit yet just make me feel bad about my child and about my parenting. So, instead of reading up on what Alden should be doing every month, I decided to stop reading. I've banished my Dr. Sears to the upper shelf of the bookcase where it could only be referenced when absolutely necessary and I shoved the magazine under the bed. I forgot all about it until I unearthed it, covered with about 1 inch of dust and 40 hairballs, while cleaning last week. Curiosity renewed, I stupidly flipped to the entry on the 9th month. " Now your child has completely mastered the art of crawling and is all over the house".

Uh-huh.....

"He is also starting to stand unassisted for short periods of time, can clap his hands when he is happy and is starting to write short pieces of fiction." Why do I torture myself by reading these things? I don't really know, but this time American Baby finally landed in the trash where it belongs.

On top of the world

Life is so much more fun in a carrier.