Our Caring Child

The whole point of the blog is to brag about our son (right?), so I left the subject above as is even though it seems rather overdone.

Anyway, there's an anecdote (two, actually) that I wanted to share about how sweet, caring, and clean little Nicholas is.  He's not feeling well tonight and has thrown up several times.  Which is to say that I feel bad enough for him that I can neither sugarcoat nor euphemize.  I will add that he doesn't have a fever, and each time seemed to feel better immediately afterward, so we're hoping it's either just a little stomach bug or the catch-all "something he ate."

Each time, the event has been very upsetting to him--it's the first time he's had a stomach bug like this, so I'm sure he's surprised at what his body is doing, and it just plain feels unpleasant.  The interesting part is that what's upset him enough to speak isn't how he feels, but that he "made a mess." (His words.)  He seems, in fact, more concerned that we'll be mad at him for "making a mess" than he is that his body is exploding from the inside out.  I'm making light of it, but hearing him say it was both endearing and heartwrenching, in no small part because we can't move fast enough for him.

Anyway, enough grossness (mostly).  The other anecdote is from last Friday, when I was with him all day, and he demonstrated his concern for his fellow man.  I offered to share an apple with him, and went to slice it up.  A little stupidity here, a little slip of the knife there, and next thing you know my finger is bleeding (it's only a flesh wound, I promise).  I grabbed a tissue to stop the bleeding and headed into the bathroom to get some antibiotic ointment and a band-aid.  While I was in the process I held the tissue on as best I could while using my good arm to open things.  All of a sudden I realized Nicholas was pulling toilet paper off the roll and bunching it up.  I started to get mad (he should not be doing that), then got confused, because he had never shown interest in the roll before, and it sits right at his level.  Then I realized that he was pulling it for me, to help put it on my finger.

So, to sum up: this child has a very generous spirit (which he obviously inherited from his mother, 'cuz it don't come from me, that's for sure) and I hope he keeps it and develops it as he grows.

Language Explosion

Nicholas finally started saying his own name!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We'll see if he keeps it up tomorrow, but this morning I tricked him into it and he then was doing it on his own this evening. We've tried tricking him in the past with no luck. But this morning I was brushing my teeth and intentionally pretended not to understand him when he asked for his teeth to be brushed (acting as though he was referring to my teeth) until he specified "Nicholas teeth." And then tonight we were working on putting up the tree and on his own (after being told not to touch the lights) he started saying "Ommy Dada touch. Nicholas no touch." He then pointed to himself saying Nicholas. So he totally gets it and seems to have passed whatever mental hurdle kept him from trying to say his name.

He has also started putting together whole sentences. Not with correct grammar or anything, but complete sentences nonetheless.

And to supplement "ho ho ho," in the past 24 hours he has added "Christmas," "Santa," and "wreath" to his vocabulary.

It really seems that every time we spend an extended period with family, he comes home and makes a huge leap on language. Maybe after 5 days in New York at Christmas he'll be fluent.

Ho Ho Ho

We had a wonderful weekend! In between playing with all sorts of friends and family, Nicholas learned to say "ho ho ho." I thought this started with Joe saying it and Nicholas mimicking, but Joe says Nicholas started it, so I'm not sure where the little boy picked it up. We have certainly been reinforcing it, however, as it is hilarious.

From 2010 November

We were too busy having fun to take many pictures this weekend, but there are a few others in the Gallery.

Happy Thanksgiving

Things Nicholas is thankful for today: family (especially Uncle Andrew), Sesame Street, pajamas with doggy feet, and whipped cream. Not necessarily in that order.

November Sunday

From 2010 November

From 2010 November

From 2010 November

From 2010 November

Antibiotics . . . and more antibiotics

The pinkeye is back, along with an ear infection. Apparently this is not an uncommon combination, or at least that is what I gathered from the bits and pieces of what the doctor was saying that I could hear through Nicholas' piercing screams and my own tears.

In most senses I really like our pediatrician, but he is ultra-efficient and less than gentle and so his exam led Nicholas (who was already on the verge of collapse from exhaustion and sickness) to scream in pain and indignation. He was in so much pain and I felt so guilty about not being able to protect him when he expected me to that I couldn't keep from crying myself. Yeah, we were a mess.

At any rate, Nicholas is now back on the antibiotic eyedrops, as well as super-duper-ultra high power oral antibiotics (apparently whatever the strain is that causes this specific ear infection isn't always responsive to regular antibiotics). Between his first dose of that and the baby tylenol that I let him literally suck out of the container (we had less than a full dose left, I couldn't get any out with the dropper, and the poor child had a bad fever), he seems to be feeling a little better. We'll keep him home tomorrow, but hopefully by Friday he can rejoin the world and we can start to get caught up on all our missed work days.

For many many many reasons I hope he feels better soon. And I am so grateful for antibiotics.

Wordless Wednesday: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

From 2010 November

Minutes?

An exchange from the other day:
Mommy: Grandma and Grandpa are coming over later.
Nicholas, his eyes lighting up with hope: A-la-la-loo? (Uncle Andrew)
M: No, buddy, Uncle Andrew has to work. You won't see him today.
N: Minutes?

Nicholas has taken to asking how many minutes until something will happen if he is told not right now. Or, probably more accurately, if it can/will happen in just minutes, since "how many" requires quantification he doesn't understand. And, yes, after the above exchange I called Andrew to let him know his nephew wanted to know how many minutes until he will see him. We had the conversation on speaker phone so Nicholas could hear and when I hung up, Nicholas asked sweetly, "more-more A-la-la-loo."

The one thing I couldn't figure out was that Nicholas is always turning his hand as he asked about minutes. And then Joe solved it--he is mimicking looking at his watch. I wasn't making the connection because the conscious point of his motion is obviously his hand. But when he sees us looking at our watches he doesn't understand what we are looking at and so just sees that our hand twists and so was mimicking that.

One more cute anecdote, this one from today:
I walked into daycare to get Nicholas, he came over and leaned in for a hug. I held up his jacket and the following dialogue ensued:
N: Outside!
M: Yep, time to go home.
N: Dada?
M: No, Daddy won't be home until late tonight.
N: Minutes?
M: How many minutes until Daddy gets home? (At which point Miss Hannah lets out an audible awww.)
N: Minutes?
M: No, not minutes. He won't be home until after you go to bed.
N pauses and considers for a second and then heads for the door.
M: Say bye-bye to Miss Hannah
N (turns and waves): bye-bee Nana

Breakfast of (Sampling) Champions

Good morning! Our dining room table is replete with boxes from General Mills this morning. Nicholas, in eating his breakfast, has eaten at least three different cereals. And not necessarily what you'd expect for a 17-month-old. Yes, there are Cheerios, but the MultiGrain variety. And Kix are normal, if a touch off the beaten path, but how many toddlers do you know who get excited when they see Total? I think he may have asked once for oatmeal, but it wasn't very clear and he immediately moved on ... but there's still time.

Updates and Pictures

From 2010 November

As you can see in this picture I took this afternoon at the park, Nicholas' eye is looking much better. Getting the eyedrops in is a battle royale and I doubt more than a third go in, so hopefully he won't relapse. He seems to be coming down with a cold as well. Given the cough we are hearing over the monitor, I fully expect him to be up before too long. Winter is going to be a blast.

Nicholas really loves helping in the kitchen so he now has his own stool. Whenever one of us is working in the kitchen on anything, Nicholas goes over to the space by the fridge where we store the stool and begs, "stool please." And if I even run water in the sink it is "bubbles!" and then he runs over to the fridge. "Stool please." But it is hard to do dishes with a munchkin helper. Here he is tonight "helping" me make cornbread. We still had the apron we borrowed from my parents for Halloween so I figured I'd save his shirt a little.

From 2010 November

The other thing we've left outstanding on this blog with our infrequent posting is Nicholas' sleeping problems. He has been better this week, although it is too early for me to be willing to declare victory yet. Monday he cried for half an hour, Tuesday he cried for 7 minutes, Wednesday he fought being set down but had given up and started sucking his thumb by the time I had removed my hands, and since then he hasn't fought going down at all. He also has stayed asleep all night each night, so I have been saved from sleeping on his floor. The only outstanding problem is that he hasn't been sleeping enough, napping for only an hour and a half the past three days while at home even though we know he slept 2 1/2- 3 hours each other day at school. And he's up each morning around 5, won't go back to bed, and just wants to snuggle in the chair. And while I love snuggles, 5am is too early. So, progress, but not resolved.

Nicholas talks up such a storm now. You can come close to having things resembling actual conversations, especially now that he answers questions (accurately about 70% of the time) and modifies words (so things like "more-more ice cream" or "color please" or "no night-night". His vocabulary is incredibly random, however, which sometimes leads us to just shake our heads and laugh. For example, the child correctly identifies Target, Wegmans, and the library from the parking lots. (And if you ask him what is inside each, for Target he starts doing the garbage dance because there is a garbage truck that dances on display, for Wegmans he names the "choo-choo" and "moo" that are inside, and for the library he shouts "books, more-more books!") He also can name all the vehicles in the shirt he is wearing in these pictures, because he knows the difference between a dump truck and a bus. Seriously, what 17-month-old says "Target," "dump truck," and "stool"? I guess the same one who asks for baked beans and zucchini by name. And yet, as Joe mentioned, he absolutely refuses to say his name.

Another interesting note on the language front: Nicholas has parts of some books memorized and now likes to help read them if you pause at words he knows or that are identifiable in pictures. It is a sign that we have read Piggy Pie Po too many times that he can fill in the last word on almost every page. It is really cool, though!

And, just for fun, a couple more random shots from the park this afternoon:

From 2010 November

From 2010 November

Quick Medical Update

Since a few people have inquired directly, we thought it would be a good idea to update everyone.  To wit:

Drugs are magical.  Apparently the doctor prescribed some heavy-duty antibiotics, because Nicholas's eye was already looking better by bedtime last night, and by midday today he looked basically fine.  But we still have to do drops for a few more days, about which he is not very happy.  But so far so good.

Naming Names

As you may know, Nicholas is picking up words at light speed, and is always willing to try to say things when we ask him.  This morning, for example, I said something to Sarah that included the word "hiatus" (it made sense, I promise).  Just for giggles, I turned to Nicholas and said, "Nicholas, can you say hiatus?"  Sure enough, he gave it a try.

There is one word, however, that he simply will not say, won't try, and will ignore us if we ask him: "Nicholas."  He's allergic, it seems, to saying his own name.

Which is fine, in one sense, but it almost got me in a spot of trouble yesterday.  I already mentioned that we spent some time at the grocery store waiting for his prescription.  While I was paying, with him sitting in a grocery cart, he started flirting with the woman behind us (probably somewhere in her 60s), playing peek-a-boo around me and being smiley.

She asked him, "What's your name?"  Which, by the way, apparently means that he now looks old enough to know his name and say it, which is interesting.  Anyway, he says nothing, as usual.  I turn to him and say, without thinking about it, "Will you tell her?  Because you won't tell us!"

The woman was understandably stunned, though fortunately I was able to correct the connotation quickly.  I guess the moral is that I need to be more careful what I say in front of people, although now that I know I can get a reaction with a statement of such underlying innocence, I may end up deploying it with devilish skill.  I never was good at learning morals.

Yeah, but you should see the other guy

From 2010 November

From 2010 November

Home sick

Nicholas right now looks like he got into a bar fight ... with the cartoon guy from the Mucinex commercials.  Yes, folks, pink eye has struck our household.

It's a strange illness.  It seems like most kids get it at some point, and it's incredibly contagious (so says everyone).  In fact, the doctor's office didn't even want me to bring him in, lest other patients get it.  Instead, the nurse there called in a prescription to our pharmacy, so instead of infecting the kids at the doctor's office, we wandered around our local grocery store for half an hour waiting for the prescription to be filled.

In any event, he seems to feel mostly fine, which is good.  For the intensity of the reaction (it's an automatic out from daycare), it's not a particularly harmful disease.  Assuming that the reliable web resources are, well, reliable, it even will go away on its own within a week to 10 days (though treatment cuts it down and helps prevent its spread).  So his eye looks terrible, but he's relatively happy and able to play.  And he picked a "good" day to get sick, since I was working in Baltimore and didn't have much scheduled because of Veterans Day.  So no sweat to stay home.

Oh, and the advice I got as I was leaving work, from two fellow parents: "don't get it, it stinks."  Good safety tip.  As if I needed another reason to be obsessive about hygiene.

And now, back to Sesame Street . . .

Updates

A couple additions to last night's post:

Nicholas managed to sleep until 5:15 last night (okay, this morning) and took an almost 3-hour long nap at daycare but then fought Joe tooth and nail at bedtime. I wasn't home but apparently he screamed and called for "ommy" for over half an hour before he gave up and went to sleep. What ever happened to our wonderful sleeper?

Joe's parents sent some pictures off their camera from the weekend, so here are a couple highlights:

Nicholas got his grandparents to play many a round of "Ring Around the Rosie," which obviously he loved:

From 2010 November

And Nicholas got his picture taken with Santa:

From 2010 November

We went to the mall just to get out of the house and do something and Santa was standing around bored. Given that Grandma Alice loves all things Christmas, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Weekend up North

We drove up to visit with Joe's parents and grandmother this weekend and Nicholas had a blast! The weekend deserves a detailed post, but I'm exhausted and fully expect Nicholas to get me up sometime before 4am and refuse to sleep unless I lie on his floor with my arm through the slats of his crib, and so just don't have the energy to muster. Either that or I have become incapable of telling a story without pictures to jog my memory and I left our camera at home.

Short (and incredibly dry) version: Nicholas adores his grandparents but did not do well with sleeping. He has been pretty awful about sleeping through the night for weeks now, but either the excitement or the car naps that threw off his schedule really did him in on this trip and I feel like we spent half our energy each day trying to convince him to sleep. Ick. But he had so much fun playing with his grandparents and was so excited to see them! I think he will be heartbroken in the morning to realize that he doesn't get to see them. Luckily for this devoted little boy, we'll be back in like 6 weeks.

And tonight he went to bed at 6:30. And now I am following pathetically close behind.

Good night.

Saving Daylight, Assuaging Guilt

One of the sadder consequences of our schedule this year has been that Nicholas spends far more time at daycare than I think either Sarah or I really would like, but given the reality of our job situation, that's the way it's going to be until May.  We drop him off most days at 7:30 or a little after (and on my DC day I drop him off at 7:25 and run for a train), and don't pick him up until 5 or later.

I've been doing many of the morning runs, and so I've noticed quite acutely just how early we've been dropping him off the past few weeks as sunrise has gotten later—at this point it's after 7:30.  Which means that when we leave the house, it's still pretty dark, especially on a day like today was, with an overcast sky and rain.  And because of the cycle of the moon, last week it was clear and high in the sky at 7:15-7:30, which only underscored that it felt like I was dropping him off in the middle of the night.

In other words, from my perspective the end of daylight savings cannot come too soon, as it will grant a bit of respite from feeling like we're leaving him at daycare quite so long.  Even if it won't actually change the actual amount of time he spends there, it'll at least make me feel better ... until December, when it'll be depressingly dark again.