Baby's First Snow (and Freezing Rain, and Sleet)

It started to snow yesterday afternoon! There is an exclamation point at the end of that first sentence because it is our first real snow of the year (we had a few flurries a few weeks ago) and we are not sick of winter yet. Unless we someday happen to work in the ski resort industry, you won't ever see exclamation points after sentences that report the 2nd snow of the year. The 6th snow of the year is to be met with moderate weeping.

We got about an inch, enough to cover everything in white. Then this morning we got a layer of ice on top of that. I'm not sure, meteorologically speaking, why some places get either snow or rain (Flagstaff, Pocatello, New Hampshire) and other places are so prone to ice storms (Charlotte).

We were excited to take Spud out into the winter wonderland. As it turns out, he was pretty much not pleased with the cold wind, and didn't seem to be quite pleased until we got back inside. Snow is pure magic to 5-year-olds, so it seems we will have to wait a bit for a positive reaction.







The ice has made the hill at the end of our road fairly impassable to vehicular traffic, so we are hunkered down, enjoying a nice fire in the fireplace. We took the opportunity to take down the Christmas tree (Hey, it is STILL officially January). It was starting to lose needles at a rapid rate.

Refrigerator Art

Spud's first artistic effort is proudly displayed on the fridge. He got some help with it. This is the first of many works in his portfolio, which will no doubt soon include a collage of dry macaroni painted with dazzling colors and sprinkled with glitter, and hand-shaped neon-orange Thanksgiving turkeys.



To answer your question, no I don't know what the hell it is a picture of.

Can You Have A Toothy Grin with One Tooth?

You see a tooth. I see a bill for braces in 15 years and a dentist with a shiny new Mercedes.





He's 9 months old! Back to the pediatrician today. His stats haven't changed from the report last week. He cowboyed up and got his polio vaccine and yet another Hib shot. He's a pound and/or an inch away from outgrowing the specs for his infant carseat. So we are starting to look at Babies-R-Us catalogues.

One never saw so much cheerful, colorful plastic stuff as one sees in a Babies-R-Us catalogue.

It Aint Pretty, but it Works

Video evidence of rudimentary mobility:

Lost in Teething

His first tooth is here! Sort of. You can't really see it yet.

I watched "Lost in Translation" late late late the other night when I couldn't sleep. It's a movie about a guy name Bob (Bill Murray) who is having a mid-life crisis and can't sleep while he's in Tokyo filming a whiskey commercial. He meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) who is having an early-life crisis and also can't sleep. They become friends. In one scene, they are talking about marriage and kids:

Bob: "It gets a whole lot more complicated when you have kids."

Charlotte: "Yeah. It's scary."

Bob: "It's the most terrifying day of your life the day the first one is born."

Charlotte: "Yeah. Nobody ever tells you that."

Bob: "Your life. As you know it. Is gone. Never to return."

Bob: "But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk, and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life."




All true.




[thanks for the baby backpack Matt and Elizabeth!] [and thanks for the other baby backpack Joe and Valerie!] [I guess we should go on a hike!] [or two]

Quickie Visit

Grandma and Grandpa drove aaaalllll the way up from south Florida on Saturday, picked up a couple of stylish couches purchased from the upscale resale outfit over by the University, affixed them snugly to a trailer, and then drove aaaallllll the way back to south Florida on Sunday.



It gave Spud an opportunity to have some chow with Grandpa, and then try to steal his sandwich:





Total mileage: 1500 miles. Total days: 2. It was such as high-speed visit that Claire didn't even have time to put on pants!

Ninja Skills

New baby stats:

Height: 29 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs. (50th-75th percentile)

His length is the same as it was last month, so I'm thinking one of the measurements was off. But honestly, it's hard to measure the length of this kid, what with all of the squirming and rolling around. The measurement should be considered + or - 3 inches or so. The only real statistic that matters is his level of ninja skills, which as you can see is extremely favorable:



His growth is now fueled not just by Mommy and Spoon Food, but also recently by Hand Food. He'll grab a bit from a plate or from your hand and slowly bring it to his mouth. He is still figuring the whole thing out, and he misses sometimes and hits his chin. He's a fan of cracker bits, chicken bits, banana bits, and he gums green beans up pretty well. Daddy has also given him a tiny bite of Moon Pie.

Cold, But Cute

Baby, it's cold outside. We've been having a prolonged cold spell, dipping into the teens and low twenties every night since the young year began. Folks in Florida are worried about the citrus crop. Birds are freezing solid and dropping out of the trees.

But all you need is a groovy hat to keep your head warm, and everything will be just fine.





The cats are huddled together for warmth. At least I hope that's what they are doing.

Holidays and Hiatus

We visited Spud's paternal relatives in Blacksburg for New Year's. Spud finally got to meet his Aunt Larissa and Uncle Erik! We rang in the New Year by getting stuck on the ice in Grandma and Grandpa's driveway and calling AAA to give my poor pickup a tow up the hill. Many thanks to Grandpa and Uncle Erik for trying to push my hapless and helpless vehicle across the frozen tundra. Spud was in the back in his carseat for most of the ordeal...he got to learn some cool new cuss words, and he got to experience revving the truck engine to 5000 RPMs, stampeding up the icy hill about 5 feet with the wheels spinning wildly on the ice, before coming to a stop and then sliding pitifully back down the hill. And then Daddy said "Shit Shit Shit!". And then he repeated the whole process. 14 times.

We actually rang in the actual New Year in the hotel room, watching New Year's Rockin' Eve on TV. It's the best evidence I can think of that I have a kid and I'm old and busted.













The Daily Spud enters its second year a bit sluggishly. It has been, since its inception, always in danger of becoming the 'Weekly Spud'. Or the 'Rare Occasion When I Have Twenty Minutes to Spare Spud'.

In any case, there has been a hiatus. There are 3 reasons for this:

A) Both of my laptops are broke-ass. One is completely broke-ass and has apparently died of a brain hemorrhage of some kind, probably involving some sort of software or hardware. I stepped on it a few months back, and it never fully recovered. Needless to say, I will not step on the baby. The other laptop (the one I am typing on now) is wholly unreliable but only partially broke-ass, but could give up the ghost at any moment. I am buying a bitchin' new one tomorrow (Toshiba Satellite).

B) We have been sick, again. The usual story: baby picked up a bug at daycare, then Claire and I contracted it from him. In my case, I'm pretty sure I caught it the other day when I was holding him and he sneezed directly on my eyeball.

C) Finally, the aforementioned lack of sleeping by the aforementioned baby (see photo below of the baby in his crib, NOT sleeping).



Actually he did pretty well last night. He only woke up once over about a 10 hour span. Nice! We are trying different strategies for pleasant sleeping; mostly feeding him more solid food in the evenings in case he's waking up hungry (although the downside is that this may make him constip...uh, it may "clog him up."), and we have been spending time playing with him in the morning and evening while he's in his crib so he doesn't consider it an unholy place where you only go to scream at night. There's still the whiskey option.

Speaking of which, several of my homies on Facebook have babies and young children, so I posted the following question to cyberspace. I got answers from homies in Virginia, Idaho, Florida, and New Zealand.

John Chadwick: "Does anybody have any advice about how to get an 8-month-old to sleep through the night? We've tried everything but whiskey shots."
Sun at 10:32pm

Jacob Mundt: "our daughter did not sleep through the night until she was 2, and the boy was 12 months before he started. We tried it all. Hang tough."
Sun at 10:45pm

Matthew McCormick: "The first night Irena slept thru the night it was cause the cat Jello was all snuggled up against her, keeping her toasty warm. Have you tried a cat???? It is tough to change the dynamic cause they are not bound by work and other schedules. It sucks at times. We tried to let her just cry and she would stop if she was not hungry or dirty, but it was tough. Easier for me cause I could fall back on crate training advice I give clients.... a lot harder for Liz"
Sun at 11:06pm

Heidi Gerber-Salins: "Benadryl...but we only used it when Leah *truly* had a runny nose. But, ooh, out like a light for the rest of the night."
Sun at 11:07pm ·

Sue Rotto Ilg: "Do you honestly want to know? There is only one way, and it involves a lot of crying that doesn't get answered. It's very simple. Baby wakes up because it's hunger clock tells says "food time!" Go in every five minutes, patting back and saying quietly go to sleep, all is well, blah blah, and walk away. All three kids went through the sleep training and even though it was hard, it created 3 beautiful lifetime sleepers. Write me back if you want to know more. Sleep training starts anytime after six months, but you better hurry before that bub starts crying "MOOOOOMMMMMMMMYY" which is much harder to not respond to than WAAAAAAAAAAA."
Mon at 2:50am

Thom Shaw:
"http://www.askdrsears.com/html/7/T071000.asp Not a politically correct answer, but it worked great for us."
Mon at 7:18am

Mike Perfit: "Try reading him your last publication...."
Mon at 8:59am

[that last one is from my Ph.D. advisor at Florida. Thanks Mike!]