Doggies everywhere

Nathaniel has a couple of key words now ... "Doggy" and "bubbles." He loves us playing with bubbles and trying to blow bubbles, so much so that Amanda and I have actually taken to spelling the word so we don't have to blow bubbles for 30 minutes every time we say it.

Doggy is more his thing. Every time he sees any animal, he says "doggy!" It doesn't matter if it's tiny and has a bushy tail (squirrel) or two-legged with wings. It's still a doggy.

It's great fun seeing him start to understand what things are, what they're called and start to learn how to differentiate.

Father's Day II

Sorry for the delay ...

At this age, Father's Day really doesn't involve the baby all that much. He's still too young to think about the idea that this day is any different from any other day -- and really, every day is Nathaniel Day, as far as he's concerned.

Still, Amanda made it quite nice. Her parents and sister were coming over later Sunday, so Amanda got things prepared and left time for me to just play with Nathaniel for as long as he and I felt like it. Great fun for all.

After that, we just grilled up some chicken and such.

Definitely a very nice and relaxing Father's Day, but I really can't wait until Nathaniel actually knows what's happening.

Hope everyone else out there had a great Father's Day this weekend.

Swimming

I really want to make sure Nathaniel can swim and is comfortable in the water ... but the pools around here are insane. When I grew up, I think my parents paid about $100 for pool passes for my entire eight-person family. It looks like the pool within walking distance of us now requires us to have two people vouch for us, buy a $500 or so bond, then pay a couple hundred dollars per person to get in. Is that normal for this area?

Also, I wonder how early we should think about getting him swimming lessons. I don't think lessons at 16 months make sense, but I would like to get him comfortable in the water as early as possible.

N at the beach

Amanda had some time to take Nathaniel to the Shore during the past week when it was quite warm for an afternoon ... and he loved it! He'd seen the beach/ocean before, but he didn't seem that interested. This time, he played in the sand, got wet and sandy and enjoyed waves coming up to his knees ... until it got a little cold.

Some pics ...

Blew his first bubble

Last year, we got some bubbles -- you know, the soap stuff with the little plastic thing you dip into it, then blow to get a bunch of bubbles?

Well, last year Nathaniel seemed interested, but not that interested.

This year, the kid is crazy for them. For days, we've been playing with them outside ... Nathaniel dips the stick into the plastic container, spreads a bunch of soap everywhere, and Amanda or I try to blow some bubbles before Nathaniel decides its time for more soap. As uninteresting as that might sound, Nathaniel has been crying like crazy whenever we decide bubble time is over (usually because dinner time is near).

Anyway, it was all worth it the other day when Nathaniel, who tries to imitate us, managed to get the plastic thing in the right place at the right time (and avoid the tempatation to just stick the whole thing in his mouth) long enough to blow out three little bubbles. As far as I'm concerned, that's really dang cool.

Temperature melts ear wax?

So Nathaniel had a fever just before we found out about the bronchitis. And Amanda was a little freaked out that there seemed to be some ear discharge in his crib.

But the doctor explained it away by noting that at 101 degrees, the body will melt ear wax and, if the baby (or adult) in on his/her side, the wax will just run out of the ear.

I'd never heard this before. Weird, huh?

So, anyway, Nathaniel seems to be feeling better now. It's cooler, so he's sleeping better ... but he still has a heck of a cough. Hope that ends soon.

Bronchitis

It appears Nathaniel has bronchitis. I had a touch of that a couple weeks ago, so I'm guessing it might have gone from me to him, perhaps? I don't know how this works or what it is exactly, but I get the impression it's not really bad, just a bit of an ongoing annoyance.

Either way, it's more antibiotics for the kid ... but at least the doctor said his ears were clear.