A future scientist

I know, I haven't checked in for a while on the blog.  To say things have been crazy, or that I have been busy, is an understatement of vast porportions.  The good news is that I hope to will have a thesis draft on my committees' desks this Friday!  The end is in sight.

Tonight I just wanted to check in to tell a story about our budding, future scientist.  Uncle James, Aunt Stephanie and cousin Melanie gave Davis a toy for his birthday, which is a collection of plastic rods with magnets on either end and big metal balls you can use to  connect them.  They are a very nice alternative to playing with megablocks all the time.  In fact, tonight, when faced with the decision to play with EITHER the megablocks or the magnetic toys, he chose the magnets.  I was fascinated, a bit alarmed too, when Davis started to pick up every single piece and throw it over the footstool, into a corner of the room that is blocked off for safety reasons.  One by one, he threw ball, then rod, then ball, rod, rod, etc.  Every time he tossed one over he would get up on his tiptoes and watch as the ball or rod settled.  I finally realized that he was fascinated by watching the interactions of the pieces when thrown into a small proximity.  Sure enough, when I looked, all the rods and balls had settled in some fashion with each other, versus being randomly dispersed. 

In addition to being a fantastic observer of all things, Davis has been picking up a few words. Or a couple of words..maybe ... if you listen closely.  Dad and Mom have heard him say "duck" and "ball" in addition to "uh-oh".  Unfortunately, Ma-ma and Da-da, although said frequently, don't appear to be associated with anyone in particular yet.  Despite our lack of understanding, Davis does seem to have an immense vocabulary and can tell complex and interesting stories that often involve much pointing and exclamation.  We think he told us a story the other night of a very large fish he caught while at daycare.  

That is some good walking

It seems I am forever composing blog posts in my head, but rarely do they make it into writing.  I hope to do a better job of that in the future, but below are some disconnected thoughts and updates regarding the last couple of weeks.

Davis is a walker!  A couple of weeks ago, he took his first steps, and he has been exponentially improving on those first steps.  For the first week or so, we could get him to walk if we sufficiently motivated and distracted him.  However, he mostly felt the need for the safety of an object to hold onto, despite whether or not it actually provided him any support.  This last Friday, for the first time, while we were playing in his room, he stood up and walked to me!  John and I are amazed at his ability to learn things so quickly, from a few steps to crossing a room in the matter of a couple of weeks.  John has just posted a video. 

One of Davis' favorite things continues to be books.  However, we do a lot less reading of the books these days.  Mostly Davis enjoys pulling the books out of the book box and handing them to us.  Then we open the book and Davis turns the pages until it's time to move onto pulling the next book in the box.  During one of these sessions, Davis saw me put something in his laundry basket.  He then took everything out of the book box and put it in the laundry basket.  This makes us realize that we need to be VERY careful about what we do and say in his presence, it doesn't take much for him to pick up on things.

Kellie, one of the daycare providers, told me a story this last week when I picked Davis up.  Apparently, he likes to pull every single car out of the box of cars they have at the daycare.  He methodically pulls one out at a time and places it on the ground.  When he finally gets to the last one, whatever one that is, he runs off to play with it.  Davis and his partner in crime, Roxie, can take apart the daycare in a matter of minutes.  In exasperation, Kellie told John yesterday that they will be working on the skill of putting things away soon.  John suggested they pull out a laundry hamper.

A couple of weeks ago marked an increase in fussiness for Davis.  We believe it's a combination of him being sick at the time as well as his increasing frustration at not being able to communicate.  Who knows what it really is, but we have noticed that Davis is getting very good at communicating to us what he wants recently.  We have attempted using a few signs with Davis in the hope of giving him some tools before he's verbal to aid in his communication.  His sign for 'more' looks like clapping and tells us that he's ready for more food at the table.  However, when combined with his refusal of one type of food and his insistence for 'more' we've been able to figure out he may not want cereal, but he definitely wants the pancake sitting in front of Mom.  He is also able to clearly tell us when he wants to be picked up and when he wants to be put down, when he wants a book read to him, and when he wants you to play peak-a-boo.  It's such a joy to see him turning into a person with real preferences.  Current preferences include blueberries and tofu.  We've watched him eat a half pint of blueberries in one sitting and pick around everything on his tray to eat every morsel of tofu, and ask for more. 

Domino is not nearly as enthused as we are at Davis' newest form of mobility.  Davis continues to treat Domino like his stuffed animals, which entails throwing his arms around him and tackling him.  Sometimes if he can't get close enough for a tackle, Davis settles for a head butt.  Domino continues to be amazingly calm around Davis and I've only once had to deter Domino from nibbling Davis after a particularly rough tackle.  We continue to monitor their interactions closely and lock Domino out of Davis' room at night since we know Domino lacks the better judgment to not go in there.  Despite all of his overly-enthusiastic attention, Domino continues to lavish attention on Davis.  The moment his door opens in the morning Domino races into the room.   One morning when Davis woke up late, Domino paced outside his room for about an hour.  Our night time ritual includes chasing Domino out from under the crib.  Someday they will be the best of friends.  Lilly continues to claim safe harbor, far away from the reaches of Davis.  The only exceptions to this rule is if she is forced to choose between a room with a baby and a room with a vaccuum or when there is a particular bit of enticing food on the highchair tray.  Davis is more than happy to share food with Lilly.

I am extremely busy and quite overwhelmed at work.  I have had some great results recently, and although I know I will wrap this work up, the idea of wrapping it up in time for my final committee meeting (now less than two weeks away) is a bit of a shock.  This is in addition to submitting an abstract for one conference and preparing a poster for another.  I think underlying all of this stress is the idea that in less than two weeks I will be away from John and Davis for a full five days!  This conference marks the end of breasfeeding for us.  I think it's a natural ending for it anyway, but it's still an ending to what has been a large part of my relationship with Davis.  A couple of weeks ago I discontinued pumping at work and we began introducing formula to Davis.  Today, we cut out one feeding, leaving just one last feeding.  This one will be the hardest to break since it's the most emotionally-tied one for Davis.  After a long and exciting day at daycare, Davis nurses as a way to reconnect and to calm down.  Some nights this ends in a quick catnap before dinner.  We'll be dropping this feeding when I leave and I'm not sure John is very excited about the potential reprocussions.  Our hope is that out-of-sight, out-of-mind will apply in this case and it will be the easiest way to wean.  If we are wrong, well, let's just say I'm glad I won't be around to find that out.

John had his six-month post-radiation checkup yesterday where he had a chest x-ray and some bloodwork done.  We will find the results out later this week.  His cancer and treatment have been on my mind a lot lately.  Someone we know is battling breast cancer and seeing her go through surgery and treatment has brought all the history of John's own fight to the forefront again.  It's a strange feeling that I can't explain or shake, but seeing someone else battle something more aggressive makes me feel like we got off almost too easily this time around.  Comparing aggressiveness of John's cancer with someone else's makes about as much sense as what we heard multiple times during his diagnosis and treatment, which was "Testicular cancer is extremely treatable, if you were going to pick a cancer to get, this is the one to pick".  Clearly, this isn't how it works, but yet people feel compelled to tell us that, much like I feel compelled to worry more now than I did since seeing someone else go through something harder to treat.  I am consistenly thinking of her and hoping for the best, but like John, I know only time will tell.

A belated list of developments

We've been busy here in the Naegle household.  John has been experimenting with new ways to streamline our meal preparations and so life has seemed a bit less chaotic during the week.  However, we like filling in less cooking time with more play time, so there still hasn't been much time for blogging.  There has been a lot of exciting new developments with Davis this last couple of weeks!

• Thursday when I picked Davis up from daycare he said ma-ma!
• Friday morning he took his first step!  
• He understands the word goodbye. Whenever you say goodbye he starts to wave.  The poor guy is going to be very confused about what it means though, since we're so excited to see him wave we say goodbye even if we aren't goodbye-ing.  (We're trying to limit it).
• There's a song he's trying to sing.  It goes 'deedle-dee-dee deedle dee dee'  etc. and whenever I sing him a verse he'll start saying 'dee dee dee dee'.
• He played peek-a-boo with us today! John will probably link to a video later.  For a while he's really enjoyed pulling scarfs off of our heads and today he kept putting the scarf on his head so we would pull it off...the results were amusing to say the least. 
• Davis is continually getting better at standing without support.  He now consistently lets go of whatever he used to pull himself up on and stands for a while before grabbing it again or sitting down.
• He's good at sharing!  We went to an indoor playground yesterday and he handed toys to other kids and last week he pulled out every toy from his basket and handed it to Dad.  
• He continues to be amazed with Domino and we continue to be amazed at Domino's extreme patience with Davis as he pulls his ears, tail, and feet and pets, smacks, and tackles him.  We do our best to control the interactions, but we have become quite comfortable with Domino's gentleness and calmness when it comes to Davis.  On the plus side, Davis is getting much better at petting Domino as opposed to just grabbing him.  Lilly continues to give Davis a wide berth.

At last, a phone

Last Sunday morning, we were greeted with a complete failure of our phone and internet, a week later, and we have now switched providers and have a phone and internet! (Knock on wood, after all, it's only been 12 hours). Ironically, or at least I think it's ironic, but now I'm not sure after Alanis Morisette if I understand irony truly, we had to dial 9-1-1. At some point in John's ventures with the previous phone/internet company who was telling him at the time it would be three days before they could come out to look at it, at any point in a 13 hour time frame, John asked "Are you kidding, but what will I do if I have to dial 9-1-1, I don't have a phone??" From only hearing his side of the conversation, I had to fill in, in my head, with "How are you talking to me now?" Anyway, tonight, while we were enjoying root vegetable soup and watching Davis eat his steamed parsnips and squash, I saw flames from across the street. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like there was a fire in the house a few rows in on the street perpindicular to ours, on the back porch. We could both tell it seemed a little more like a B-B-Q and less like a house on fire, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I called it in. Turns out, it's illegal, so regardless of the fact that it did indeed turn out to be a B-B-Q (which John found out by going over ther), on the back porch of the second story, they had to send a truck out anyway. I'm sure we have one pissed-off neighbor, but I feel better knowing that if it had been a fire, we could have saved their house, and anyone inside it. At least now, that guy won't be bbq'ing at night.

We've had a very relaxing weekend, including some monster naps from Davis! Davis is continuing to amaze us daily. Today, he and Dad, walked across the living room. Also, while I was singing the 'itsy bitsy spider' to Davis he started to make the movements with his hand of a spider going up the water spout, at both the beginning and end! It was amazing! Both of his top teeth have broken through, for a total of four teeth, and we think some better sleep at night.

I think we are all looking forward to our first Chirstmas together as a family. John and I are now talking about what we want our tradition to be, and I think we each have a hard time imagining something different than what we had growing up. I will be taking Wednesday afternoon off and Thursday off with Davis. My paper is finally coming to it's final draft, so I can sit back and relax the holiday for a short bit, before I need to get moving on another piece of work that is due for conference abstract in mid-January.

Today, we recieved about 8" of snow. John and I took turns shoveling, and with our downstairs neighbor (yay!). It was a reward to shovel, it was a first since before I was pregnant. With our working internet, I plan to work from home tomorrow and go cross country skiing at lunch, near Mystic River, just a couple of blocks from our door.

Painting and Dunking

This post is about our weekend adventures. Our third swimming class was Saturday and the skill of the day was going under water! This of course panicked all the parents. "Put my child's head under water..are you CRAZY?" I decided to try it, even though I also was nervous. Of course, I did my best to hide my nerves since kids seem to pick up on any emotions their parents have. Davis went under and came out so fast, he didn't even know what happened. I instantly felt better about it and we tried several more times. One time I dunked him just up to his mouth and he came out of the water spouting like a fountain. It's amazing the reflexes we are born with. It's a good reminder for me to keep in mind how sturdy he really is. Our bathtime is more relaxed now. When he sticks his face in the water, I just let him do it, knowing I'm there if he gets in trouble..which, of course he doesn't since he realizes he doesn't want his face in the water.

On Sunday we tried an activity we've been thinking about for a long time, but have shied away from. We bought some non-toxic paint and some paper and attempted to capture Davis' footprints. We had grand visions of letting him loose on the paper with all sorts of colors, but honestly, it didn't go that well. It didn't help that he woke up from his nap after only 30minutes, as opposed to the 2-3 hours we were expecting. The paint was so difficult to get off that he was scrubbed much more than he approved of. Luckily though, we got at least a couple of footprints to capture his infancy. The picture below is Davis exploring the tins John bought to put the paint in.

Wait..didn't you just start crawling?

Davis showed his first official signs of tummy-off-the-floor-crawling just a couple of days ago. Yesterday, he stood! He crawled over to me and I gave him my hands when he started to crawl up me. He stood up with the support of my hands. I found out today that he stood up with the assistance of a chair at daycare earlier this week. He sure is growing and developing quickly. Here are a few other highlights from this week:

• Inspired by the book Hungry Monkey, recommended reading by our friend Brian, we have been feeding Davis our dinners. A couple of nights ago he had lentils, sauteed veggies, and steamed spinach blended (we pulled out the veggies before they were glazed in wine). The night before that was sweet potato quesadilla filling, complete with cumin and coriander. Tonight was root vegetable soup, a big hit!
• We tried giving Davis small chunks of steamed carrot. It was a a blast to push around on his plate, but not much made it into his mouth. Well, none at all actually.
• Tonight he ate some baby puff cereal. He not only enjoyed playing with it, but managed to eat a few puffs. The puffs are made mostly from rice, which soften with moisture and therefore don't present a serious choking hazard. As Grandma predicted, the cats are enjoying hanging out under the highchair where food might drop at any moment. Domino liked the rice puffs more than Lilly did.
  
• Sitting is no problem at all. I tried to put him down for a nap yesterday. He was almost completely asleep and as soon as I put him in his crib, he shot up to a sitting position.
  
• This one is more of a parental development milestone. We picked up a changing table, for free, from the Arlington Parent's list. We realized our struggles with changing him on the floor probably stem from the fact that the floor is play-zone! Already, things are going better on the changing table.
• In addition to hi and da, Davis has said ba and ra this week. We've heard ra only once, but he's definitely working on b's.
• Hugs! Davis is hugging! I don't think there's anything better in the world than a baby hug. When I picked him up from daycare on Tuesday I was showered with hugs and kisses. We're working on the kisses, which currently consist of an open mouth pressed against your cheek. They are wet.
  

The goal is to reach...

Davis and I took our first baby swim lesson on Saturday. Dad watched from the stands with the camera (pictures hopefully coming soon). Davis had a blast, except for the couple of times he swallowed some water unexpectedly. We started out getting used to the water and then we had an opening song with some splashing. The two lessons for the day were reaching and kicking. I was talking to another Dad and his daughter Katie when they put the toys in the water that the babies were supposed to reach after. Katie and her mom, Megan, were in our first Mom's group. When I looked down, Davis was already chewing on a rubber duck, and I didn't even know they had put the toys in the water! Guess all that reaching for rubber ducks in the bathtub really paid off. He was a natural at kicking too! I wonder if he remembers swimming from when I was pregnant. There were a few times I could really feel him doing flips, swimming was one of them. In fact, it was when I was swimming that I felt him move for the very first time. I think John and I are both hoping he enjoys swimming as much as I do, since John greatly dislikes it. We're looking forward to the next lesson, although, they are not allowing spectators until the last swim class, so it will be just Davis and me.

Saturday afternoon we got to see a bunch of cycling friends at a bbq, which was really nice. Unfortunately, John came down with a sore throat that night, so we had to cancel some brunch plans for Sunday and we opted for a solitary walk as opposed to a kids' Halloween party to keep from getting anyone else sick. It seems his tough immune system is keeping the cold to a minimum since his only symptom has been a sore throat and it bothers him mostly in the mornings.

Happy 6-month birthday Davis

Davis is six months old today! We went to the same arts and craft store today as we did on the day I was in labor to get some knitting needles for a hat for Davis. John remarked how interesting it was that we could know exactly where we were six months before. Six months is a fun milestone in the baby food timeline. Davis has now graduated from single food types, to mix food types. We now have things available to us like: corn AND butternut squash, green beans AND rice. I'm still making the majority of his food, but the jars give us a chance to try some stuff out before we invest a lot of time in making it. Top foods: Carrots, applesauce, and peas (but not split peas apparently). In addition to food, it's incredible the skills Davis has developed: commando crawling, sitting, eating on his own with a spoon (about a 25% target success rate), new vocalizations, rolling (I mean rolling, like whenever he wants, wherever he wants), swapping toys between hands, and memory. There's no such thing anymore as distracting him with something else. If he was after the cord on the baby monitor, you can't just hide it and show him a bear or an elephant..no, nothing will do but the cord. Also, cat feet and tails are excellent fun. Amazingly, Domino hasn't learned that there's a pretty unique giggle that immediate preceeds his tail being grabbed. He may one day...hopefully soon. I can tell that Domino is fighting an internal battle between his wanting to be near people and his NOT wanting to be near a flapping, squealing, grabbing Davis. One day, I know they will be great buddies.

Life has been incredibly busy lately, busy to the point that I can't remember to do basic things, like get my flu shot .. hm, and there was something else. Davis has been doing much better this week, it seems his fussy behavior was more likely due to a cold than to teething, since he's doing much better now but doesn't have any new teeth. John and I are very excited for the three-day weekend (John is taking off Columbus day from work). Yesterday, we went for a hike with our friend Dave and then had friends Bill and Sonya over for dinner (and more importantly, for one of Sonya's homemade desserts). Today, we went apple picking again, since my favorite apples are Mutsu, and weren't yet in season the last time we went. Turns out they STILL aren't in season, we were a week to two early. However, we had a nice time enjoying the gorgeous weather. Pictures from the weekend (so far) here. We went to a farm that we had visited last year when Grammie Jill was in town. John and I remember it quaintly, having yummy apple cider donuts, candied apples and a petting zoo. Well, we're not sure when exactly we went last year, but this year was quite different. The entire place was a zoo. We were able to pick apples since the fields are so big, but the line for candied apples and the shop were crazy. We picked our apples and headed out. The drive was gorgeous though, the beginning of fall is definitely here!

Tomorrow we get to take brunch to our friends the Apgars (baby Liam Apgar is only one month old and older brother Mack is a year older than Davis). We haven't seen them since just after Liam was born and they'll be moving soon to Conneticut. We don't know what we'll do with the rest of the day, maybe go downtown? What is for certain is that we will be waging an all out war with Indian Meal moths. We've been going at battling them for a while now, one infected bag of oatmeal/beans at a time. But now, now it's personal. No dried fruit will be left unturned, or corner unswept. Meal moths watch out, now I know it's either the freezer or the oven for you!

Davis is a mover, but not a napper

Tomorrow marks the end of Davis' fourth week in daycare. It's had it's ups and downs, for Davis and us. We are definitely quite happy with the daycare, they do a good job of communicating with us about his day and I like the environment and the toddlers all seem really happy and well adjusted (they've all been there since they were infants). Unfortunately, Davis has gone from napping well, then poorly, then great, and now not at all. Ten minutes, that's how long he napped for today. It's making for a pretty cranky baby at daycare and at home too. My hope is that this cycle of napping corresponds with a new tooth getting cut (since he napped well, then not well, then his tooth came in and he napped great!) Now he's showing signs again of teething, yanking on his sippy cup while he bites down, drooling (more than usual!) and general fussiness. I hope that's what it is, we're running out of ideas for how to get him to sleep better at daycare. On the other hand (and knocking on wood as I type one handed), he's sleeping very well at night these days. Many nights he's sleeping from 8pm to 4am. Occasionally, he'll wake up one other time, but this is a vast improvement compared to waking up 4 or 5 times a night.

Davis is really making strides in his moving ability..he has his parents in a big hurry to baby proof now. We'll set him down in one place and then turn our back to get a diaper and he's half-way across the room! It's not crawling so much, but it's a cross between a commando style arm pull and a butt hike with a lunge. In any event, we aren't prepared for it. The other thing Davis is excelling at is eating. Tonight he ate an entire jar of carrots followed by a big bowl of applesauce. It seems we keep refilling bowls now because we underestimate the amount of food he wants. Last night it was 3/4 of a banana instead of 1/2!

A few days ago, I went for a haircut in Arlington and swung by the consignment store. I found this costume there and couldn't wait to for Halloween to try it on him. He, of course, wanted to eat it.

Baby Betting Pool

As part of the baby shower, we took bets (well, there was no money involved, but there might be a prize) on when the baby would be due. Everybody was told that a) our official due date is March 31st and that the full moons are about 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after our due date.

Here is the official betting table. Sorry for the image format, it was easier than adding a table.