Climbing stairs (yikes!)

Thanksgiving with Nathaniel was plenty of fun. We tried to give him some Thanksgiving food (a little sweet potato), but he made a terrible face, so we gave up. It was about the same face as when Amanda made Nathaniel a specially prepared baby meal with chicken, potato and carrots (I think). He hated it and eventually spit up. Not fun.

But while we were at Amanda's parents house, Nathaniel did a first -- he climbed some stairs (with lots and lots of close protection). He did it by himself without any help. It was only about five steps, but it opens a whole new world to him, and lots of new concerns for Amanda and me. He quickly proved that he's capable of climbing the stairs, but he doesn't understand the danger involved (he tried to stop on a middle stair to hang out at one point and he later made a high-speed dash to go back down the stairs that had us all concerned).

Amanda and I recently were recalling the good old days when Nathaniel couldn't get into trouble because he couldn't even roll over. Now we're likely days away from him walking on his own. That's scary.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Unspeakably disgusting

This case of the woman in Brooklawn who allegedly killed the 3-week-old baby is just unimaginable. She apparently cut him across his belly and may have thrown him down the stairs as well. She wasn't the mother, she was an ex-girlfriend of the father. Here's today's story: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061120/NEWS01/611200347

It's amazing, since becoming a parent, how much closer to home this kind of stuff feels. What she allegedly did was disgusting whether or not I was a parent. But when I imagine Nathaniel and how absolutely defenseless he is and what the sound of him crying feels like, it makes this kind of act all the more astonishing.

I mentioned to Amanda on Saturday how cutely helpless Nathaniel was when she was taking him out of a car seat. He just stretched out and looked around while enjoying being carried. There was no attempt to protect himself from being dropped or anything worse (not that he'd need to protect himself, that's what he has us for).

And to think that someone took advantage of a baby's helplessness to take vengeance on another adult (as may be the case here) is just sickening. I don't know what else to say.

Appeal denied

So the insurance company, despite an appeal from the doctor's office with a letter of support from the cardiologist, says no to the Cynagis shot. It's kind of odd ... we were thinking it wasn't a big deal until the doctor said we should appeal the initial denial. Then it became something where we were a little annoyed that the insurance company was trying to risk our son's health over money.

Now we're not sure how to feel. Who was right? I guess we won't know unless Nathaniel has a health problem this winter. So I hope we never know.

The good and the bad ...

The good:
I was loving early last week when Nathaniel was doing a trick worthy of I found hilarious. He would be crawling along happily with me watching over him ... when I'd make some surprising noise and he would, in my mind, play possum. For several days, he'd just roll over onto his back and make some kind of screech. I found this to be amazing fun. I bragged about it at work and showed him doing it to my wife. Then he stopped after only a couple of days. Very disappointing.

I planned on blogging about it when it was happening, but he stopped to fast (and the election was going on around then, so I was busier than usual with work stuff).

Then, while I was waiting for his new possum talent to return ...

The bad:
Nathaniel apparently had a minor ear drum rupture. His ongoing ear infections seem to have gotten worse. This time, he surprised us by not having a fever. Then on Thursday morning, he had a bunch of crust all around his ear. Amanda took him to the doctor and the doc said he had a little pin prick in his eardrum and the effect was kind of like a zit popping (small hole, bunch of gunk comes out).
Apparently it's not a real danger to his hearing or health in the long term, but it still makes us nervous. We have an appointment with an Ear Nose Throat specialist, but it's still a little ways off (it takes so long to meet with doctors around here sometimes).

So Nathaniel seems fine (again). He's back on antibiotics (again). Poor little guy.

Who is the winner?

I don't know, anymore, how many times I wake up each night to help Nathaniel get back to sleep. Amanda can't tell either. We often work together to try to piece together whether he slept through the night, and we find we're just not sure.

So does that mean we're sleeping so well that even when we do get up it doesn't really interrupt our sleeping patterns? That seems like we have won this battle of wills with Nathaniel (OK, it's not much of a battle ... but it feels like it when you're as exhausted as we have been at times).

Or does it mean Nathaniel has won because he can wake us up as often as he wants without us even noticing (like he has us wrapped around his finger)?

Hmm. I'm going to take this as both sides winning. Then I'm going to take a nap. That way, everything will be better.

Halloween pictures!

Here's a couple pre-Halloween and Halloween pictures of the little guy. First, he's getting acquainted with his first pumpkin (as with most things, he took to licking it and biting the stem).


Then he got a taste of his Flash costume (don't tell anyone his secret identity ... but he refused to wear the mask for a while) ...

Whe did wear the mask, it was pretty darn cute (though the real Flash tends to speed around on just his feet, having giving up super-speed crawling long ago) ...

I was trying to upload a few more, but the system doesn't seem to be working very well ... this will have to do for now.

He still doesn't get it

The time change still doesn't seem to make a difference to Nathaniel. We're struggling to keep him awake until 8 p.m. ... and then he wakes up happy and chipper as can be about 5 a.m. (or earlier). At least the happy wake up is better than crying and unhappy, but that doesn't really relieve the stress it causes all that much.

Yesterday was the Halloween parade at his day care. Lots of fun. I'll post some pictures later today, if my computer agrees with me. He was the Flash (get a far too in-depth background here: http://www.hyperborea.org/flash/barry.html) ... the costume makes sense because of how speedy the little guy is. He can't be stopped.

Pics later ...