Taller = Farther to fall

Nathaniel is loving his recently developed ability to stand up with relative ease. He's climbing up anything in front of him -- a leg, a box, a couch. It doesn't matter, it's just a chance to get a different view of things ...

... and then fall face-first into whatever's nearby. Usually that means he's falling into a waiting arm, but it has meant falling into the box or couch or leg that he's climbing on. And, yes, it also means he's taken a tumble onto the floor more than once. It scares the heck out of me and Amanda, but Nathaniel seems to take it all in stride.

He still isn't actually crawling. He does an amazingly fast creep along the floor. Now that he's onto standing, I'm getting the feeling he'll go straight to walking. I can't imagine how nerve-wracking that will be.

Countdown to biting

Nathaniel has a cute little tooth and at least one more on the way. He's already starting to use the tooth ... I'm just wondering when he'll use the tooth on me or Amanda or someone at day care. Dreading might be a better word.

He already seems to be enjoying chomping down on his spoon when we feed him. He has this rubberized coating on the end of the spoon to protect him -- but there's an imprint of his tooth clearly in the spoon, along with scrapes from his tooth. Yesterday, virtually every bite I fed him included a two second delay where he gleefully bit the spoon hard, then chose to let go and swallow the food.

He's enjoying the tooth. I guess it's only a matter of time until it becomes a weapon ...

A tooth, a personality, an ear ache

Nathaniel was teething last week. We know now because he has a tooth! He's got one little tooth partially sticking out in the middle on the bottom. We had a new experience over the weekend when we heard the little tooth clink against a metal spoon (we'd forgotten to pack the coated baby spoon during a short trip).

Unfortunately, the tooth wasn't the reason he was so fussy last week (or at least not the only reason). Nathaniel is now in his third round of antibiotics for an ear infection. Each infection is preceded by a cold and a runny nose. Apparently his nose drains back inside his sinuses back to around his ears, leading to the infection. And it appears the infection is VERY painful. We were convinced neighbors would call the police on us when he was screaming at 3 a.m.

The antibiotic regimen continues through Friday, but it appears he still has a bit of an infection as of today -- he was up several times overnight and was quite unhappy around 3 a.m. again. Bad news.

On the positive side, it's really exciting to see Nathaniel really developing a personality. He's incredibly inquisitive right now, trying to get into everything he can and moving like lightning to get to places he shouldn't be (underneath tables, in between furniture, etc.). I brought him home from day care yesterday and when he saw me, he got a really big smile and started to laugh happily. It's amazing to see him react like that to me -- recognizing Amanda and me and being excitied to see us. Very, very fun.

Steeler pics

Just in time for the Steelers game, a few shots of the little guy in the outfit he wore to day care today.

Steelers offer a look back

Seven months ago today, Nathaniel underwent his surgery. I don't really think about it all that often anymore ... it's really pretty difficult to think of him as anything other than a perfect little baby.

But tonight is the first real game for the Pittsburgh Steelers in seven months and two days. They played in the Super Bowl -- the game Nathaniel and I were supposed to watch together. As longtime readers will remember, I ended up watching the game from a hospital room in Delaware and relaying updates to Nathaniel in the neonatal intensive care unit.

It was entirely unbelievable and unexpected to be in such a situation.

Of course, everything turned out well. We brough Nathaniel home barely a week after his surgery and Nathaniel and I watched a brief, edited version of the Super Bowl on digital cable "on demand." It wasn't the same, but I was pretty pleased to be able to do it after everything we'd been through.

Tonight's game, unfortunately, starts after Nathaniel's normal bedtime. And the Steelers next game is a Monday night game that also will be too late for him. So it won't be for a few more weeks that we can sit together and watch a game.

I can't wait.


(PS: Don't worry, I don't really let Nathaniel watch TV. Watching a game with him would likely include about 30 seconds of trying to explain what's going on before he starts rolling around and trying to bonk his head on something heavy.)

Teething - for real this time (?)

Amanda and I have seen where the tooth is going to be. We can even feel the tooth. Unfortunately, it's not there yet -- and Nathaniel can feel where it will be as well.

He was cranky last night. He didn't want to eat before bed, then fell asleep peacefully ... until Amanda and I tried to go to sleep, then Nathaniel woke right up and started the crying. We fed him then and he started to go back to sleep, but it didn't take.

We're hoping this is all directly related to the teething (not another ear infection or anything like that) and it will be over soon. Only time will tell, I guess.