PhiLLy RoLL

Family Vacation

This week we drove six hours each way to get to Williamsburg and didn't ever step foot in the historical Colonial center. In fact, we hardly left the grounds of the timeshare complex.

Then we went to DC for a night and also saw nothing.

Normally when J and I travel, we spend as little time as possible in our hostel or hotel. We are usually there for the destination, and have yet to take a vacation where the goal is relaxation.

But family vacations are different.

My dad arranged for our extended family (my mom's side) to stay in three apartments in a timeshare complex for four nights. The apartments were incredibly spacious (the bedroom and bathroom combination that was just for me, J and Squeakles was close in size to our Philadelpia apartment), and the complex included two pools (one just for adults) and a miniature golf course.

Actually, I think that J and I did the least amount of sightseeing of the group. Some people went to the beach (an hour away), others went to Colonial Williamsburg (and came back complaining that it was so boring that they couldn't bear to finish using their two day passes), and some went to Busch Gardens (which I hear was a lot of fun but also really expensive). But Squeakles and J and I just hung out with family at the timeshare and also did a little bit of local outlet shopping. And it was fun!

I also had fun taking pictures (big surprise, I know).

I have been recently been following the Wall Street Journal Photo Journal and I've found that I really like the style of photography. It's not just the subject matter (though of course that matters), but I think what I was noticing is that a lot of the pictures are shot with a very wide angle lens and taken very close up. So you feel like you're right there, but because it's wide angle, you're not just getting a close up of someone's face - you can see everything. So on this trip I tried to shoot primarily with wide angle and I tried my best to get up close, though that turns out to be somewhat uncomfortable to do sometimes - I found myself popping up and then slinking away. I also found it difficult to take pictures of Squeakles splashing in the pool - he managed to spray water all the way across the kiddie pool so it was a little dangerous to be that close with my camera.

Some highlights from our trip:

• We played miniature golf. I came into the game when they were halfway through (because I'd stayed behind while Squeakles was napping) and, even if you didn't adjust for the fact that I'd only played half of the holes, I still lost. I even lost to my sister who was playing in high heels.
   
  
   
• We took Squeakles to the kiddie pool where he waded around and splashed water. We also took him into in the big pool, which he loved.
   
  
  
  
   
• We tried to teach Squeakles everyone's names and he was more than willing to try to pronounce them all. The best was the pronounciation he gave to my sister Erika and her husband Tony: "Kaka" and "Dudu".
   
• We went out for sushi and it was the best I've had in a long time.
   
• We went out for ribs and it wasn't the best I've ever had, but it wasn't bad. I don't think my family was too impressed with it, but Squeakles loved the cornbread and was "mmmm mmm"-ing over the corn on the cob.
   
• I'm not sure if this is a highlight or a lowlight actually. There were ducks and geese everywhere. The timeshare complex had people whose job it was to go around all day and scoop up the poop on all of the walkways. J and I went out for a run (at the hottest point of the hottest day because we're smart like that) and we had to dodge poop and birds as we ran. Digusting. However, there were baby ducks and they were very cute.
   
  
   
• Squeakles has suddenly started saying a lot more than he had been a month ago. It's like he's had a cognitive explosion and now he uses adjectives and prepositions and he loves to describe not only things but situations. These are my favorite new words: "silly" (when he or anyone else does something he finds amusing), "ahh" (it means hot, and he says it for anything that is warm, like food or the buckles on his car seat), "wheel", "oh no!" (wailed pitifully whenever something goes wrong, like when my dad closed the bathroom door so he couldn't get in), "whee" (while looking up and circling his arm and outstretched finger around like the overhead fan), "lowey" or "logey" (Lucas), "gasses" (glasses), and "down down down" (usually in response to us lowering something from above).

And now we are home and need to unpack, clean the litter boxes, sweep/vacuum, and go grocery shopping.

A Post About Me and Not My Child (this is my blog after all)

• I've been working on writing a paper and it's totally stressing me out. This is annoying because I really love this project, I love my bosses, and I think it will be a good paper. So it's frustrating to be feeling free-floating anxiety and an undercurrent of panic. I wonder if it's just dissertation flashbacks. Whatever, I'm working through it and I'm determined to feel happy about the paper in the end.
• The cats are fighting again. This also really stresses me out. We have currently separated the cats and given each their own litter box and food. So now we're dealing with two cats who each want to be in the other's space and don't understand why the doors are closed.
• We're going to a kiddie pool party tomorrow afternoon. Squeakles has three bathing suits (one I bought before I realized we'd be getting two hand-me-downs) but no swim diaper. I didn't know such things existed until a few days ago and I'm wondering where I can get one before this party. (Maybe it's not necessary for this party, but see below for why it might be necessary later this week.) We don't have a car anymore and the big box stores like Target or Babies R Us are not especially close by (I'm sure I could take a bus, but I really don't want to spend a whole morning going out on this errand). I'm hoping to find something at Rite Aid or CVS in the diaper section.
• We're going to another party on Sunday evening. It's a potluck so I have to think of something (easy and quick) to make.
• We're going on vacation with my immediate and extended family all of next week. We'll be staying in a timeshare and doing things like ... well, I don't actually know. I've been too busy to do more than a cursory Google search about things in the area. Well, one thing I know about is that there's a pool in the timeshare complex (this is why we might need a swim diaper).
• Somehow, over the weekend, I also need to find the time to do laundry, pack, and clean! (Oh, and work. I'm supposed to send my bosses an update on part of the paper, review some work a research assistant has been doing, and review abstracts for a conference.)
• I'm attempting to start the Couch-to-5K running program again! So far I've done two days. J is also doing it, but we've been running separately. In the past we've always run together, but one reason our last attempt failed is that it was just so hard to find a time that was good for both of us. We stagger our work hours, so there are times (even whole days) when one of us is at work while the other is home with Squeakles. Since we have a jogging stroller, the person-at-home can just take Squeakles out running whenever they feel like it.
• I planned to run on Tuesday evening, but was almost foiled by rain. Fortunately it only lasted about fifteen minutes.
• This evening's run was nearly foiled by a flat stroller tire. I dragged the stroller out of the apartment building (with Squeakles in it) and drove it to this bike shop, the whole time trying to drive it mainly on the two non-flat tires. I was relieved that the bike shop was able to sell me another inner tube for the tire - $11 later and I was ready to run. I was then nearly foiled (again!) by rain (again!), but the menacing clouds turned out to be all for show.
• I think running is helping with the stress. It's partly the exercise, and partly the chance to spend 20 minutes not working, not chasing after Squeakles, and not cooking/cleaning/etc.
• Since my mom will be reading this, I should point out: If I sound particularly stressed, well, the stress is there, but mostly I'm just tired this past week. In the bigger picture of life, I'm actually quite happy.
• Squeakles is getting happier every day, if that is possible.
• We've been listening to Michael Jackson.

Squeakles, Lately

"BOOM!"

Earlier this week we had a thunderstorm in the morning. At first there was low rumbling in the distance, but all of a sudden there was a loud boom. I bolted out of bed and reached Squeakles' room just as he started screaming. To help calm him down J and I tried to make the thunder seem like fun. J started saying, "What does the thunder say?" and then answering his own question with "BOOM!!" and shaking his head back and forth. Squeakles loved it and started doing it with us, all the while keeping his eyes on the window.

I wondered if he would remember either the thunder or the game. Ever since then, if I ask him "What does thunder say?", he'll watch and wait for me to do the "BOOM!" and then he'll turn his eyes to the window.

"No, no, no"

The past few days Squeakles has started imitating a lot more of what we say. Well, one thing he hears a lot is "no". We say it when he goes to throw things in the cat water or put his hand in it, when he throws food off of his tray, when he tries to play with the lid of the kitchen trash can, when he tries to pull things off the lower kitchen shelves, ... these are all the things we are consistent about saying no to. Of course, there are a lot of other no's, as he makes his way around the apartment, grabbing for anything and everything.

Yesterday he sat by the cat water, looking at it but not touching, saying "no, no, no".

Today he dangled food off of his tray, smiled at us, and said "noooooo".

It's clear that he knows at least a few of the things he'd not supposed to do.

But this made me a little sad. He was wandering in circles in the living room / kitchen, saying "no, no, no", which is what I fear the babysitters say to him all day as they chase him around the apartment. I tend not to do this - instead of following him around telling him "no" to 90% of what he reaches out for, I just bring him back to the living room and engage him in something there. But I think the babysitters let him roam around more and they simply redirect his hands away from all the things it would be best for him not to touch. I don't like that he's so familiar with hearing "no, no, no" as a matter of course as he walks around, so I said to J, "oh that's so sad". Squeakles heard me and repeated "shad". Even sadder!

(Does anyone have any advice for what to do about this? One idea we have is to buy a baby gate so that Squeakles can't regularly access the hallway and back rooms of the apartment. Another idea is to instruct the babysitters to simply entertain him in the living room instead of letting him roam freely while saying "no, no, no". If I can do it, they should be able to do it too, right? And since it's summer, it's not like they have to be couped up in the house all day long.)

"Uh ohhhhhh"

Everything is "uh ohhhhh", often before he intentially lets something drop something to the floor.

"shoe"

This is another favorite word. Lately he wakes up saying "shoe". And he repeated it several times to the cashier at the dollar store yesterday (and then laughed and repeated her as she said "mm hm" and "yeah" over and over to him).

Dancing

I think that all babies love music, but I don't have enough experience with other people's kids to know if they love music and dancing the way Squeakles does. I'm curious, so please let me know!

All he has to hear is a few bars of any music, and he's bouncing in his seat - whether it's background music in a commercial, music at the grocery store, or music we actually turn on for him to enjoy. If I pick him up so we can dance together to music, he is estatic - grinning wildly and bouncing up and down in my arms.

No Fear

I'm sure this varies a lot across kids, but Squeakles generally has a no fear sort of personality. Even if he is wary of something at first (thunder), he quickly gets used to it.

But he certainly has no fear of hurting himself, and even when he does get hurt, he goes right back to whatever he was doing. This morning he caught his finger in a drawer, cried, we put ice on it (which he enjoyed), and then he reached out to play with the drawer again.

A couple of weeks ago he was standing at the tub, watching it fill for his bath. J took his eyes off him for maybe half a second and in that time Squeakles launched himself over the edge and into the tub. He somehow flipped over headfirst, ending up on his back under water. J fished him out immediately, Squeakles screamed and screamed, we comforted him, J felt nauseous for several hours about the whole thing, but Squeakles... went right back to the side of the tub and leaned over as far as he could to splash his hands in the water.

Can you say...?

I know some of you have already seen this on Facebook, so apologies for cross-posting this video.

Just before heading out to the store yesterday, while I had Squeakles strapped into the stroller, I decided to catch a few words on video. Primarily I just wanted to get "ball" on video, because I love the way he says it, but then I continued with a few other words and animal noises.

I don't know why he wouldn't say meow. He usually loves to say it, though I don't think he gets what part of the sound constitutes the whole "word" so he often repeats the first syllable and it comes out "meowmi". But yesterday he wouldn't say it all and instead made this new noise he's come up with that he usually uses whenever he doesn't know the answer. Everyone's a comedian, I guess.

Enjoy! (If you're reading this in a feed reader or email, you may need to click through to the blog in order to see the video.)

Can you say? from Philly Roll on Vimeo.

After this video, we went to Whole Foods. It's about a twenty minute walk each way, and I am an especially slow shopper, so it wasn't a short trip. Yet Squeakles didn't complain at all. In fact, he acted like he was in the Squeakles parade, smiling big at everyone passing by and doing whatever he could to engage them. Multiple people stopped to tell me how cute he was or that he was smiling at them. Sometimes I wonder if Squeakles is really my kid, because I just don't think I have ever been as gregarious as he is. But he certainly is fun to be around.

If I Wrote Blogging Software

I would create an option that would let readers go back to an earlier post and then read later posts in regular chronological order - without always having to start from the bottom of a page and read up.

(And if I wrote iPhone software, I would make it possible to go back one page (or more) in the web browser even if you exit out or turn the phone off.)

He's Watching What I'm Watching

This morning as I was feeding Squeakles breakfast, I turned on the tv to continue a movie that I've been watching in ten to fifteen minute segments (because the days of spending over an hour watching tv while nursing are long gone). When he heard the tv turn on, Squeakles turned to see what was coming on. It always catches his attention for a moment when it turns on, but typically hedoesn't pay much attention to whatever is on unless it is Yo Gabba Gabba.

(He also turns toward the tv whenever I put a CD on, and he keeps looking back at the blank black screen, trying to figure out why there's no video to go along with the music he hears.)

This movie I've been watching is supposed to be a thriller, but it's not especially violent or dark. At least, I didn't think so and so I reasoned that if Squeakles wasn't obviously focusing on it, he probably wasn't noticing much about it. [Spoiler alert, in case you haven't seen this movie.] But in the scene I'd turned on this morning, the main character had been shot and was lying on his back on the ground. He put his hand to his abdomen and then raised it, bloody, in the air to look at it. The camera zoomed in on his hand there in the air, and ... Squeakles, in his high chair, raised up his hand into the air.

Eek!

I immediately turned off the tv and hoped that he hadn't really comprehended what he had seen. He probably didn't because the shooting actually happened the last time I'd been watching it and I'd apparently paused it just as he'd fallen to the ground. Still, I guess it's time to be a little bit more careful about what I watch!

In other news:

• Squeakles had a checkup at the doctor today: he's 24 lbs, 2 1/2 feet tall, and got two more shots and another failed attempt to draw blood. (I hope he hasn't inherited my veins and that it's just his baby fat making it difficult to find a vein. Whenever I've had blood drawn, it usually involves multiple attempts while the nurse pokes all around under the skin looking for a vein. One time they gave up and drew blood from my wrist, and another time from the back of my hand. Yes, it's as uncomfortable as it sounds.) But Squeakles was really good about it all and was easily distracted at the end of whole ordeal by the gift of a book. (They give us a book after every visit.)
• After the doctor's appointment, J and I picked up Korean food for lunch and ate it with Squeakles in my office. J had spicy pork, while Squeakles and I shared a Korean pancake.
• After lunch and a considerable amount of Squeakles running around the office (and visiting various people in their offices), J took Squeakles to his office for more running amok.
• Left to the peace and quiet of my own office, I had a Skype meeting today with a colleague in Chicago that lasted almost two hours. It was exhausting, but I am so glad we didn't attempt to have the conversation over email - it would have taken days.
• In an attempt to be efficient at home, I've been trying out some recipes from a cookbook that promises great food fast. So far I think the food has been fine (but not spectacular) and only minimally faster than anything else I make (maybe because I still have to dice things smaller than called for so I can be sure Squeakles can eat the food too). But it's fun to be trying out new recipes. So far I've made (1) farfalle with salmon, mint, and peas, (2) chicken and zucchini, and (3) turkey burgers with grated gruyere cheese, dijon mustard, and scallions.
• Squeakles still eats at least as much as I do at every meal. (Thus, the 24 pounds.)
• Oh! We were in Florida recently, visiting with J's family and attending his sister's baby shower! I totally forgot to write about it (other than mentioning it with regard to Squeakles now sleeping in the crib). Short version: the shower was really lovely, Amber is looking fantastic (I would be jealous if I didn't like her so much), J's brother made (from scratch) homemade playdough for Squeakles, and J's parents spent a lot of time playing with Squeakles which he absolutely loved.

Fifteen Months

My little baby is already fifteen months old - and not quite a baby anymore!

As of two weeks ago, he's finally walking. We went over to a friend's house and suddenly Squeakles just got up and started walking all over their living room. Then when we got home, it was like our apartment was a whole new playground and Squeakles couldn't get enough of roaming all around, often going in circles around the island that separates the kitchen from the living room, just for the sake of walking.

Being able to walk, while exhilarating for Squeakles, is creating all sorts of new hazards. There are the obvious accidents-waiting-to-happen (falling down, crashing into things, etc.). We are now chasing him around the apartment pretty much all day long (except when we convince him to play in the Pack and Play).

He's also getting up at night - we hear him crying and find him either sitting up or standing up (!), often with his eyes still closed. We tried sleeping with him in our bed while we were visiting J's family last week, but we woke up once to find him trying to climb over J. The idea of leaving him in the bed for naps with pillows on either side of him no longer seemed like it would be particularly safe, so we decided to try to get him to sleep in the Pack and Play. I nursed him in the bed, but as soon as he fell asleep I moved him to the Pack and Play. This used to be a delicate mission, very much like carrying a grenade and trying to put it down soooo gently so that it wouldn't explode. (If Squeakles were a real grenade I would have been dead a million times over.) But now - now! - he just resettles (maybe with a slight whimper) and keeps on sleeping!! And then! When the pacifier falls out of his mouth or he wakes up, we just go in, replace the pacifier, or turn him over, or just shhhh him and within seconds he goes right back to sleep. Unbelievable. This happens even if I find him sitting or standing - I just have to lie him down first and then shush him back to sleep.

This week, back at home, we've been putting Squeakles to bed in the crib and it's been working out wonderfully. It's the same thing - he does wake up, but he can easily be resettled, so unlike in the past we're not spending hours holding him and rocking/bouncing him. On the first night he woke up several times throughout the night, but last night he woke up once at 11:30 and then again at 5:30, which is pretty tolerable. I think he might even like sleeping now.

Squeakles has also decided to say more than "digim" in the past couple of weeks. He does animal noises in response to questions:

• What does the cat say? meowmi
• What does the cow say? mooooooo (previously was mo, sounding like mo' money)
• What does the rooster say? co doo doo doo
• What does the duck say? gak gak

Okay, so he's not exactly saying them right, but it's very cute.

He's also figured out that questions should be followed by answers, so he responds to everything that sounds like a question with "da". (We don't even have to use real words in the question, it just has to have question inflection. "Squeakles, bi di wokki wo?" Squeakles will smile and then say confidently, "Da.")

Some of this makes me wonder what he's hearing when we talk. He's started doing this weird thing when we give him a phone (with someone talking to him). He sort of pushes sounds out emphatically, kind of like grunts. Is that what he thinks we sound like? He also starts all of his "sentences" with something that sounds like "I", which I would guess a lot of our sentences do. (Often it sounds like he's saying something "I do".)

Reading books at night is also becoming actually enjoyable. (Previously: I would attempt to read while Squeakles squirmed and whined and needed to be cajoled into paying attention with big sweeping movements of the book or pointing at things.) Our current books are "First Book of Sushi", "Big Dog, Little Dog" (which actually isn't the most exciting book ever, but it's working for now), "Monkey and Me" (a paper version of the book came with a box of Cheerios), and a beautiful alphabet book that my grandmother made (it is cloth and each page has a letter stitched on the page and an example of something that starts with that letter). Of course, I still do all kinds of pointing and hand movements to keep him interested. He's picking up on some of them, like when I pretend to pick up pieces of sushi from the book and feed them to him. I caught him the other day doing this by himself.

I give him his "Look Look" book while changing his diaper and he likes to do a lot of the movements I've done with this in the past. There's a page with a car on it, and I've said vroom vroom while moving the book back and forth. So whenever he gets to this page he says "booom boooom" and moves it back and forth. When he gets to the page with the cat on it, he says "meowmi". And when he sees the page with the hands, he puts his hands on it.

And finally, now that Squeakles can walk, J is teaching him to play soccer. (If you're reading this in a feed reader or email, you may need to click through to my blog to see the video.)

Soccer Before Bed from Philly Roll on Vimeo.