Shane's one tough baby. He came home from Nana's house with a cut on his nose today. He's had a few abrasions on his fingers, a skinned knee, and bruises on his shins as of late.
Why?
Two reasons: 1) He can get all sorts of places he shouldn't, and 2) the boy has no fear.
Actually, the whole no fear thing could be summed up as "no survival instinct." I like to think he has total faith in Mom and Dad's ability to protect him from serious harm every time he tries to run off a slide at full speed.
Honestly, my son is amazing. I know I'm biased, but it is true. When I had the tutor family watch him several weeks ago, they were shocked when Shane tried to scale a fence (successfully). At the playground, Shane can climb up ladders, steps, and even this one chain-link rope ladder. He scrambles up to high places that he has no way that he knows to get down (save running or diving off the edge and making Da-da catch him or stop him short). On the home front, no table is safe. If there's a chair nearby, Shane can be on top of it in under 10 seconds. If there's no chair nearby, he's learned to push one over. He startled Carrie and I today by reaching up and dragging over the small table in our kitchen awning. The little Houdini has also learned how to undo the velcro ties that hold one of the baby gates shut.
My son is amazing. His full baby intellect is geared towards how to get places he really shouldn't be able to reach yet. People see him, and I think they misjudge his age because of his size and what he's physically capable of. My little monster dwarfs some two and three year olds on the playground. He's not capable of the speech and logic they are capable of yet, but the other parents do see that as much as they see me shadowing a rambunctious runner bigger than their own spawn.
Shane is one busy boy! He's going to be a bruiser when he gets older unless I can train some empathy and "look out for the little guy" into him.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Shane Games
Shane gave us another scare in the wee hours of Thursday morning. I'm beginning to think that parenting is half responding to imaginary crises and half responding to real crises. You just don't know if it's a real crisis or not until after you start reacting.
At 2 AM, Shane started a coughing fit in his crib. He did not cry, but the coughing continued until 2:20 AM when Carrie got worried enough to get out of bed. I admit, I wasn't at that point yet, but I was laying awake listening. I was more worried going in there would prevent Shane from going back to sleep since he wasn't crying yet and that that would upset him and cause everyone to get up.
Carrie was also extra-sensitive at this point. We got a text over the weekend that her father had a coughing fit that caused him to pass out. He fell on the hardwood face first, broke his glasses, and gashed his forehead. Everyone was worried about his heart, but after being at the hospital they determined his coughing fit was severe enough that it had cut blood flow to the brain. Very scary. You can see why Carrie would be extra worried when her son starts having a coughing fit after what happened to her dad.
Where was I? Oh, right. A little after 2:20 AM, Carrie has a warm bottle and goes to check on Shane. She starts to panic and call for me. She says that Shane wasn't responding to her when she first tried to wake him. When I get in the room, he starts to vomit what looks to be mucous. Shane's still coughing.
Carrie is scared. She starts saying, "We need to call 911."
I'm worried, too. Thankfully, I'm normally calm in the moment of a crisis (the jitters may hit me later when the adrenaline dumps out of my system). I flip the light on and look at Shane's face and lips. I don't see any blue tinging. There's no sign I can tell of that he's short on oxygen. The coughing is unabated, and he's clearly not well, though. He's crying off and on in the gaps between coughing, but the fact he can cry is a sign that he can breathe.
Carrie's still asking for an ambulance. I don't want to call one out for a false alarm, but I also know my wife well enough that we're going to end up in a hospital. I tell Carrie to go start the car. Giving someone on the verge of panic a job is a good way to focus them. I can't see any sign that Shane is in immediate danger as worrying as the situation is. I want to get him outside, because the cold air helped when he had the croup cough last time. Shane vomits more mucus on me to let me know that he really is sick.
By the time we get to the hospital, Carrie wants me to run into the ER with Shane while she parks. "Don't let them make you wait!!!" Shane's happy as a horse in a field at this point. I think he remembers the hospital fondly. All the lights and attention! I have him standing on the stand-in counter coughing and cooing when she comes sprinting.
I admit: last time when Shane ended up having bronchilitis I had thought it was going to be unnecessary to go the ER. That time, I was wrong. This time, I was right. Nothing showed up on the x-rays. Shane's oxygen levels were fine. He had a slight temperature and was cranky, but otherwise doing well. Hallelujah!
I am glad we went to the ER to get everything checked out, but I'm happier that I have good health insurance. Shane's doing fine now as if the whole thing never happened. He's still stuffy and congested, but that's been the status quo with his allergies. He has an appointment for allergy testing on the 17th.
That's one more scare to add to the tally. I'll have to post more of the fun Shane stuff later on. It sounds like he's waking up from his early nap. I managed to type in three quick posts! Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
At 2 AM, Shane started a coughing fit in his crib. He did not cry, but the coughing continued until 2:20 AM when Carrie got worried enough to get out of bed. I admit, I wasn't at that point yet, but I was laying awake listening. I was more worried going in there would prevent Shane from going back to sleep since he wasn't crying yet and that that would upset him and cause everyone to get up.
Carrie was also extra-sensitive at this point. We got a text over the weekend that her father had a coughing fit that caused him to pass out. He fell on the hardwood face first, broke his glasses, and gashed his forehead. Everyone was worried about his heart, but after being at the hospital they determined his coughing fit was severe enough that it had cut blood flow to the brain. Very scary. You can see why Carrie would be extra worried when her son starts having a coughing fit after what happened to her dad.
Where was I? Oh, right. A little after 2:20 AM, Carrie has a warm bottle and goes to check on Shane. She starts to panic and call for me. She says that Shane wasn't responding to her when she first tried to wake him. When I get in the room, he starts to vomit what looks to be mucous. Shane's still coughing.
Carrie is scared. She starts saying, "We need to call 911."
I'm worried, too. Thankfully, I'm normally calm in the moment of a crisis (the jitters may hit me later when the adrenaline dumps out of my system). I flip the light on and look at Shane's face and lips. I don't see any blue tinging. There's no sign I can tell of that he's short on oxygen. The coughing is unabated, and he's clearly not well, though. He's crying off and on in the gaps between coughing, but the fact he can cry is a sign that he can breathe.
Carrie's still asking for an ambulance. I don't want to call one out for a false alarm, but I also know my wife well enough that we're going to end up in a hospital. I tell Carrie to go start the car. Giving someone on the verge of panic a job is a good way to focus them. I can't see any sign that Shane is in immediate danger as worrying as the situation is. I want to get him outside, because the cold air helped when he had the croup cough last time. Shane vomits more mucus on me to let me know that he really is sick.
By the time we get to the hospital, Carrie wants me to run into the ER with Shane while she parks. "Don't let them make you wait!!!" Shane's happy as a horse in a field at this point. I think he remembers the hospital fondly. All the lights and attention! I have him standing on the stand-in counter coughing and cooing when she comes sprinting.
I admit: last time when Shane ended up having bronchilitis I had thought it was going to be unnecessary to go the ER. That time, I was wrong. This time, I was right. Nothing showed up on the x-rays. Shane's oxygen levels were fine. He had a slight temperature and was cranky, but otherwise doing well. Hallelujah!
I am glad we went to the ER to get everything checked out, but I'm happier that I have good health insurance. Shane's doing fine now as if the whole thing never happened. He's still stuffy and congested, but that's been the status quo with his allergies. He has an appointment for allergy testing on the 17th.
That's one more scare to add to the tally. I'll have to post more of the fun Shane stuff later on. It sounds like he's waking up from his early nap. I managed to type in three quick posts! Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
House News
Sad news on the house front.
The lead tests all came back way positive inside and out.
The bottom of the report said that >0.5% weight was the federal definition of lead-based paint. The actual values around the house were all over 20% and as high as 34% in some areas. The average was around 29-30%. Carrie and I ended up walking away from the house.
People have expressed their condolences, but we don't really need any. It sucks we didn't get a potential single family house, but we're only out the time, home inspection bill, and crooked lead tester's price (he'll be getting a nasty google review at some point). The people who own the house, now have to disclose to anyone interested in buying that they have lead paint. That's going to cost them a much prettier penny than we paid. I don't think they had many offers (if any) before ours, because the house had been on the market for close to 40 days when we stumbled across it.
We're back in the hunt. We're in a little bit more of a time crunch since we have to close on our house June 6th. Back-to-back closings aren't likely as we haven't found another house to put a bid on yet. Carrie was disheartened yesterday, because she found a great prospect and discovered a Radon test while she and Barbara, our agent, were walking around. Someone had put a contract on it that morning. There is a townhouse near us that's up for less than ours, but may be another good turn around prospect several years down the road.
We'll just have to keep on looking.
The lead tests all came back way positive inside and out.
The bottom of the report said that >0.5% weight was the federal definition of lead-based paint. The actual values around the house were all over 20% and as high as 34% in some areas. The average was around 29-30%. Carrie and I ended up walking away from the house.
People have expressed their condolences, but we don't really need any. It sucks we didn't get a potential single family house, but we're only out the time, home inspection bill, and crooked lead tester's price (he'll be getting a nasty google review at some point). The people who own the house, now have to disclose to anyone interested in buying that they have lead paint. That's going to cost them a much prettier penny than we paid. I don't think they had many offers (if any) before ours, because the house had been on the market for close to 40 days when we stumbled across it.
We're back in the hunt. We're in a little bit more of a time crunch since we have to close on our house June 6th. Back-to-back closings aren't likely as we haven't found another house to put a bid on yet. Carrie was disheartened yesterday, because she found a great prospect and discovered a Radon test while she and Barbara, our agent, were walking around. Someone had put a contract on it that morning. There is a townhouse near us that's up for less than ours, but may be another good turn around prospect several years down the road.
We'll just have to keep on looking.
New Korra Conspiracy Theory
My wife sent me this email out of the blue a few days ago:
"If [Amon] truly is missing his face, he could have made a deal with Ko, the face stealer, for the power to remove bending. But, he still has his eyes...."
One of the things I love about my wife is how passionate she gets about things. We have a Potato GlaDOS on a shelf, and a Bazinga! shirt in her closet. Can you tell how much she loves her TV? I think she's still holding to her first prediction about Amon being Aang's son, but I didn't doublecheck before I wrote this.
I'm the one who started her on the whole Avatar binge. During Snowmaggedon, I showed her the original series. We watched several episodes together and then I went outside to shovel out the cars. I ended up helping out several of the neighbors and spent more time outside than planned. Naively, I assumed my wife would wait for me to come back to watch further into the series. Carrie was 8 more episodes in when I finally got done. I didn't want to watch things out of order and she didn't want to wait for me to catch up.
She finished all three seasons by the end of the next day.
Today's a new episode day for Korra and I am prohibited from watching it before Carrie gets home from work. Can you see the irony?
"If [Amon] truly is missing his face, he could have made a deal with Ko, the face stealer, for the power to remove bending. But, he still has his eyes...."
One of the things I love about my wife is how passionate she gets about things. We have a Potato GlaDOS on a shelf, and a Bazinga! shirt in her closet. Can you tell how much she loves her TV? I think she's still holding to her first prediction about Amon being Aang's son, but I didn't doublecheck before I wrote this.
I'm the one who started her on the whole Avatar binge. During Snowmaggedon, I showed her the original series. We watched several episodes together and then I went outside to shovel out the cars. I ended up helping out several of the neighbors and spent more time outside than planned. Naively, I assumed my wife would wait for me to come back to watch further into the series. Carrie was 8 more episodes in when I finally got done. I didn't want to watch things out of order and she didn't want to wait for me to catch up.
She finished all three seasons by the end of the next day.
Today's a new episode day for Korra and I am prohibited from watching it before Carrie gets home from work. Can you see the irony?
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Like, whoa busy
Life has been way busy lately.
Some highlights:
-Shane's allergies are still going full force. He was a sniffly, snot-dripping, cough-fest today.
-He also got his head stuck in the cat door today. I got the phone call from Carrie while I was at work.
-I was at work until close to 6 PM today getting ready for being out to do the portfolio assesments
-Carrie went through hours of phone time today working on the mortgage documentation
-She was also stressed out from our jerky lead testing contractor who showed up an hour and a half late on Tuesday. He lied on the phone to Carrie, and then the seller's agent about being "10 minutes away" at the 30 and 60 minute late marks. He added a surcharge to the bill, too. What a dick.
-Packing and weeding through old items has begun.
-Shane is incredibly athletic for a baby his age. He can already climb ladders, chairs, tables, and get just about anywhere you think he can't. I'm both proud and exhausted from chasing after him whenever he's awake.
-We're still rocking no computers. I haven't had time to play a video game, though, so I guess it's not much of a loss. I'd update my journal more, but there's normally not a lot of time.
-Plus, I don't want my lack of time to sound like whining. Life is just busy with working, parenting, buying and selling houses. God has blessed us greatly with our son, our jobs and our opportunities.
-I'm looking forward to summer, though. A break from the ever present drama of working in a school will be nice.
-Oh, and no word on the new job bit. I sent my resume in for two positions a couple of weeks ago, and I've heard nil since. There's two more opportunities that just popped up (including my alma mater) I plan on applying to. Hopefully, someone will bite. There's a lot of competition it seems.
-There've been good/funny stories too, but there will be more to come. I can't write down everything, since I'm too busy living it! That's not a bad thing in the long run. I wonder if I'll ever re-read this post or just glance over it and say "Nah. There's something more interesting to read elsewhere." I guess this is more of a "post so I don't feel like I'm negelcting the blog" post.
-I love bagels now and forever.
-...and don't forget tea. The best drink ever.
-If I stop drinking it, the caffeine monkey will make my head hurt.
-I'm going to stop rambling and go wash baby bottles now.
Some highlights:
-Shane's allergies are still going full force. He was a sniffly, snot-dripping, cough-fest today.
-He also got his head stuck in the cat door today. I got the phone call from Carrie while I was at work.
-I was at work until close to 6 PM today getting ready for being out to do the portfolio assesments
-Carrie went through hours of phone time today working on the mortgage documentation
-She was also stressed out from our jerky lead testing contractor who showed up an hour and a half late on Tuesday. He lied on the phone to Carrie, and then the seller's agent about being "10 minutes away" at the 30 and 60 minute late marks. He added a surcharge to the bill, too. What a dick.
-Packing and weeding through old items has begun.
-Shane is incredibly athletic for a baby his age. He can already climb ladders, chairs, tables, and get just about anywhere you think he can't. I'm both proud and exhausted from chasing after him whenever he's awake.
-We're still rocking no computers. I haven't had time to play a video game, though, so I guess it's not much of a loss. I'd update my journal more, but there's normally not a lot of time.
-Plus, I don't want my lack of time to sound like whining. Life is just busy with working, parenting, buying and selling houses. God has blessed us greatly with our son, our jobs and our opportunities.
-I'm looking forward to summer, though. A break from the ever present drama of working in a school will be nice.
-Oh, and no word on the new job bit. I sent my resume in for two positions a couple of weeks ago, and I've heard nil since. There's two more opportunities that just popped up (including my alma mater) I plan on applying to. Hopefully, someone will bite. There's a lot of competition it seems.
-There've been good/funny stories too, but there will be more to come. I can't write down everything, since I'm too busy living it! That's not a bad thing in the long run. I wonder if I'll ever re-read this post or just glance over it and say "Nah. There's something more interesting to read elsewhere." I guess this is more of a "post so I don't feel like I'm negelcting the blog" post.
-I love bagels now and forever.
-...and don't forget tea. The best drink ever.
-If I stop drinking it, the caffeine monkey will make my head hurt.
-I'm going to stop rambling and go wash baby bottles now.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Lack of posts
Im not really a huge fan of typing on the iPad. Short sentences are fine, but a journal entry? I want to feel the keys as I hit them. Like my knee and complaining about the extra d in 3d movies, it's just another sign I'm getting old! Heh.
A lot has happened this week. Shane's learned a few new tricks, we had the home inspection of our new house, spotted lead paint, and now we're in the heat of negotiating. We may end up walking away. For the inspection, the family I tutor for agreed to babysit Shane! I really like them. They remind me of my family in some ways with how high-energy they are. Shane fit right in. Everyone who's seen him at work or otherwise thinks he's the cutest thing. Handsome, too.
I will try to post a real post when I get a better video of one of Shane's new tricks. I got one but Carrie didn't like how she looked in it. I got vetoed! I'm sure he'll do it again.
Until then, enjoy your weekend!
A lot has happened this week. Shane's learned a few new tricks, we had the home inspection of our new house, spotted lead paint, and now we're in the heat of negotiating. We may end up walking away. For the inspection, the family I tutor for agreed to babysit Shane! I really like them. They remind me of my family in some ways with how high-energy they are. Shane fit right in. Everyone who's seen him at work or otherwise thinks he's the cutest thing. Handsome, too.
I will try to post a real post when I get a better video of one of Shane's new tricks. I got one but Carrie didn't like how she looked in it. I got vetoed! I'm sure he'll do it again.
Until then, enjoy your weekend!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Fleeting Fame
At the risk of revealing my identity to the internet at large: I had my picture in a newspaper.
Good luck finding me! Bonus points if you can figure out what event was going on, too. It should be easy to figure out if you're up on current events and you read this post before too much time passes.
Hopefully I don't forget what this is from. It was a historic day!
Anyone on the internet can figure out a lot about me pretty quickly from my posts. You can figure out certain stores I'm near, landmarks I've mentioned....if you're determined enough at least. I figure I'm not entertaining enough to entice anyone I don't already know to track me down. I can't imagine anyone who's simultaneously that bored and motivated stumbling across my page out of the millions out there.
Good luck finding me! Bonus points if you can figure out what event was going on, too. It should be easy to figure out if you're up on current events and you read this post before too much time passes.
Hopefully I don't forget what this is from. It was a historic day!
Anyone on the internet can figure out a lot about me pretty quickly from my posts. You can figure out certain stores I'm near, landmarks I've mentioned....if you're determined enough at least. I figure I'm not entertaining enough to entice anyone I don't already know to track me down. I can't imagine anyone who's simultaneously that bored and motivated stumbling across my page out of the millions out there.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Deadtop
My desktop died a while back.
Today, Carrie's laptop bit the bullet.
We've got a lot going into the closing of the house and everything, so it's going to be work laptops and iPad only for a while. That means no games and no access to older photos and videos. Rats.
It's not that a new computer isn't affordable, but we don't want any large purchases that would raise a flag in the mortgage approval process. For the time being, we just need to stay the course.
Today, Carrie's laptop bit the bullet.
We've got a lot going into the closing of the house and everything, so it's going to be work laptops and iPad only for a while. That means no games and no access to older photos and videos. Rats.
It's not that a new computer isn't affordable, but we don't want any large purchases that would raise a flag in the mortgage approval process. For the time being, we just need to stay the course.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Korra Prediction
My wife is calling it: Amon is really Aang's non-bender son Bumi (or however you spell it.)
Apparently, I'm unobservant. I didn't realize different benders had different colored eyes based on what their element is. Carrie said she thought Amon had grey eyes on a close-up, and she made her prediction.
My wife is normally pretty impressive with this sort of thing, so I'm not betting against her.
Apparently, I'm unobservant. I didn't realize different benders had different colored eyes based on what their element is. Carrie said she thought Amon had grey eyes on a close-up, and she made her prediction.
My wife is normally pretty impressive with this sort of thing, so I'm not betting against her.
Three Guilty Confessions
Shane's been a total wrecking ball on my old priorities.
This is a good thing. I believe that when you have a child, you have to live for the family instead of yourself.
That said, I'm only human. I make mistakes I know about and mistakes I won't know about until later. It's impossible to list the mistakes I don't know of, but here are three things I do know of I'm trying to do better.
Brushing Shane's Teeth - I've done a crap job of this so far. I can play all day, do bottles and chores, child-proof, time and mask medicine into feeding, but I can't remember to brush my son's teeth. The few times I have done it, I've felt more like it was him chewing on the brush than actually brushing. This is something I've really got to get better at. Half the time, I remember it AFTER I've put him in bed and I've snuck down the stairs. Nana would be horrified. (She once laid behind my car in the driveway to prevent me from leaving without brushing).
Waking Up - I start many mornings with a guilt trip. Whenever Shane wakes up at 5:30 AM or earlier, I tend to lay in bed for a while and listen to him 'sing.' As long as it's not a really distressed cry, I just lay there and wish my wife would get up so I could sleep in. Now, there's actually nothing wrong with letting Shane play in his crib for a little bit in the mornings. The books I've read said that up to 30 minutes is fine. However, those days when it takes me closer to 40 minutes? It's amazing how long I can lay somewhere and keep hoping "maybe he'll go back to sleep in 5 minutes." My average wake up time to Shane 'singing' is probably around 20 minutes. (I almost said 15-20, but if this is a confession I should lean towards honesty).
Ignore the TV - My son and I both zombify when a TV is on. Carrie can have it on as background noise. Me? It doesn't matter if it's Judge Judy, or some other crappy show. I start to zone in to it and zone out my son. It's got to be the ADHD. When I'm home with Shane, I do my best to keep the TV off entirely. I still stray towards checking my email on the computer, but because it takes energy and effort it's easier for me to avoid. The TV is Mike-trap. It just ensnares me if I'm not careful.
This is a good thing. I believe that when you have a child, you have to live for the family instead of yourself.
That said, I'm only human. I make mistakes I know about and mistakes I won't know about until later. It's impossible to list the mistakes I don't know of, but here are three things I do know of I'm trying to do better.
Brushing Shane's Teeth - I've done a crap job of this so far. I can play all day, do bottles and chores, child-proof, time and mask medicine into feeding, but I can't remember to brush my son's teeth. The few times I have done it, I've felt more like it was him chewing on the brush than actually brushing. This is something I've really got to get better at. Half the time, I remember it AFTER I've put him in bed and I've snuck down the stairs. Nana would be horrified. (She once laid behind my car in the driveway to prevent me from leaving without brushing).
Waking Up - I start many mornings with a guilt trip. Whenever Shane wakes up at 5:30 AM or earlier, I tend to lay in bed for a while and listen to him 'sing.' As long as it's not a really distressed cry, I just lay there and wish my wife would get up so I could sleep in. Now, there's actually nothing wrong with letting Shane play in his crib for a little bit in the mornings. The books I've read said that up to 30 minutes is fine. However, those days when it takes me closer to 40 minutes? It's amazing how long I can lay somewhere and keep hoping "maybe he'll go back to sleep in 5 minutes." My average wake up time to Shane 'singing' is probably around 20 minutes. (I almost said 15-20, but if this is a confession I should lean towards honesty).
Ignore the TV - My son and I both zombify when a TV is on. Carrie can have it on as background noise. Me? It doesn't matter if it's Judge Judy, or some other crappy show. I start to zone in to it and zone out my son. It's got to be the ADHD. When I'm home with Shane, I do my best to keep the TV off entirely. I still stray towards checking my email on the computer, but because it takes energy and effort it's easier for me to avoid. The TV is Mike-trap. It just ensnares me if I'm not careful.
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