Ear tubes coming soon

It's less than a week until Nathaniel will get tubes in his ears ... at which time we're hoping (a) he'll have fewer ear infections and (b) the fluid perpetually in his ears will drain, allowing him to hear better and start speaking sometime soon.

Horseback rides

OK, I admit, I forced this. For months, I've been trying to get Nathaniel to balance on my back so I can give him rides around the living room. And finally in recent weeks, he's kind of doing it. I pick him up, drape him over my back, then get down horsey-style. He's recently begun clinging to my neck and laughing (and drooling) while I wander around the house a little.

The best part: While I was lying on the ground recently, he tried to climb on my back as if he were looking for a ride. Very, very fun and cool.

The downside: He doesn't quite seem to get the danger of being up on my back. Once in a while, he'll decide to stop grasping my neck and try to get up on his hands and knees. If I didn't stop him, maybe he'd try to stand and surf on my back. We'll never know, though.

Blog delay

Sorry for the delay in posting recently ... there was a problem with all blogs on the Courier-Post site for a period, but it's been fixed.

I finally got the post meant for Monday online today ... see it below.

Baby enjoys brushing teeth?

Amanda and I got worried a little bit ago that we weren't doing enough to protect Nathaniel's teeth -- especially now that he was eating a little more solid stuff ... and has teeth. Not to mention that most of this area doesn't have fluoride in the water -- what the deal with that? I'd love to see what the average dental bill is for this region compared to nearby areas with fluoride. We're all paying for this.

Anyway ... we bought a little infant toothbrush. It's a plastic thing that fits over a finger and has bristles on the fingertip. You then put on this mild tooth cleanser, stick your finger in his mouth and start brushing.

We'd been doing this at night, after his last bottle, at first. The problem was, he was in a period where he was falling asleep with the final bottle, so I'd have to invade his sleeping mouth and start brushing his teeth and gums.

Not suprisingly, he was not a big fan.

But he's changed his sleeping pattern a little, and this toothbrushing thing is a breeze. He finishes eating, we put a binky in ... then I get things together to brush.

As I approach with the plastic-covered finger, he spits out his binky and opens his mouth with a big smile. I brush away (he even lets me get to the gums all the way around - maybe I'll share the problems that caused in a future blog).

I feel a lot better about his teeth now that we're doing some protection for them. And the idea that he likes it makes me feel even better.

Overcoming fear

We learned again around Nathaniel's first birthday that he is scared of balloons. It's a little strange to see our happy, easy-going little guy tense up and clutch whoever or whatever is near when he's confronted with a floating bag of latex or mylar, but that's exactly what happened several times around his birthday.

I'm happy to say, though, that now that there have been a few balloons hanging around the house (we tried to hide them away, but he's good at finding things), he's not scared anymore.

Well, I can't really say that for sure. He really hasn't confronted the floating helium-filled balloon too much. But the air-filled, ground-dwelling balloons? Not a problem. He grabs it and bops it back and forth; he tries to rip it apart with his bare hands; he even tries to belly flop on it.

I know the end result will be a popped balloon that renews his fear, so I've been trying to encourage him to play with the balloons in a tamer fashion, but it's really only a matter of time. Still, I'm glad to see he's overcome this fear. It's a good talent to have.

Baby handles shots like a man

Nathaniel's always been great with vaccinations, and he handled them quite well again this week. Now that he's a year old, he got another round of four shots -- one per leg, one per arm. He always does so well wit them: 1st shot is met with some annoyance; 2nd with a whine; 3rd with a quick scream; 4th with 30 seconds of crying. I don't know if most babies are that good with shots, but I like to think Nathaniel handles them particularly well.

Anyway, here's a couple photos of Nathaniel with his birthday cake ... don't worry, we had a variety of tasty cupcakes from the same really good Collingswood bakery for the guests to eat. The cake was all Nathaniel's to destroy. He ended up destroying about half the cake and getting plenty of enjoyment out of the destruction and the attention he was getting.

Whirlwind of a weekend

Nathaniel seemed to have a great time at his party Saturday ... he actually seemed to handle the whole thing far better than Amanda or I did.

Friday, my mother came in from Pittsburgh for the little guy's party. Unfortunately, her 7:30 p.m. arrival time via Southwest turned into a 10:30 p.m. arrival ... a little late for everyone involved. And my mother didn't get to see Nathaniel on his actual birthday.

Then came Saturday, the big party day. We got Nathaniel to take some extra nap time to help him deal with all the fuss coming later, and it worked out pretty well. We also gave him a bigger snack in the early afternoon so he might not be so fussy around 5 p.m., when we planned on unveiling his little cake for him.

It all worked like a charm. Nathaniel was in a great mood for most of the day and my mother and sister-in-law both helped in many ways to get the food ready for the party.

But somehow, Amanda and I were both completely beat on Sunday and Monday. Nathaniel is doing great, but we had 36-48 hours of exhaustion from the whole thing ... the number of people, the amount of work to get it all set up and the party running a little longer than we expected.

But this is really about Nathaniel, not us, right? Nathaniel seemed to love the whole thing. He got gifts, and he got to really smash a cake without mom or dad stopping him. He really enjoyed smacking his 8-inch chocolate cake, clapping his frosting-covered hands and wiping everything on his face. We gave him a quick taste of frosting, and he made a terrible face at us. Looks like that will have to wait (which is fine with us).

His only difficult moment was when his 2 1/2-year-old cousin blew a party favor in his face (one of those rolled up things that sticks out about a foot when you blow into it). It smacked him in the face, and he fell down crying. This spurred his cousin to cry also, very sorry that she caused Nathaniel to cry. But that all ended within a few minutes with both stopping the crying and making up ... all very nice.

After the party wound down, it was time for Nathaniel's final bottle and then off to sleep. We were definitely worried about this because he tends to have a difficult time falling asleep after getting wound up by a bunch of people being around ... surprisingly, though, he downed a bottle and crashed immediately. Amanda followed him into sleep within 30 minutes, and I only managed to stay up another hour or so after that.

We've already decided we probably won't be doing a big thing like this again anytime soon ... but we're glad this one worked out.

I'll post some photos next time around.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

A year! A whole year (well, it will be as of 6:05 p.m.). It's hard to believe, but it's true.

I hope those of you still reading will continue to read as I continue to post about Nathaniel's toddler years. I originally planned on doing this until he was one year old, but since there is still interest out there, I'm going to keep it going. Besides, it's fun for me and will be something interesting for Nathaniel to take a look at when he's older.

As for our wonderful little boy, here's a couple of pictures ... sorry I haven't posted in a while. He's just such a handful!

The downside of "adult" foods

It's pretty cool that Nathaniel is starting to eat foods that sound somewhat appetizing (even if they don't look it). Last night, he had a meal that was chicken with carrots and noodles, flavored with pear juice, balsamic vinegar and parsley. Sounds OK, even if it's actually a yellowish paste. And he ate the whole thing.

The downside? Two hours later, he spit a little back up ... maybe we were playing too rough or maybe his stomach is still a little sensitive from the wacky new foods. Either way, what once were cute little spitups are quickly becoming really stinky little spitups.

Some digested formula just isn't that bad if it comes back up. Digested meats and such start to get quite an unpleasant odor.

I hope he adjusts soon.

A LOOK BACK

One year ago today, Amanda and I went to the hospital the night before the induced labor to settle in and get a few preliminary treatments to help with the upcoming labor. Man, we had no idea what we were in for ... the plan then was still born on Thursday, home on Saturday and watch the Steelers in the Super Bowl on Sunday. How things changed.