Helper baby

I try to keep Nathaniel out of the kitchen most of the time ... but that, of course, doesn't always work.

It's not that he's in danger in the kitchen, it's just that he tries to "help" -- ALL THE TIME.

The entire time he's in the kitchen, he grabs whatever is at his level and hands it to me or Amanda. Every 45 seconds or so, you can almost here his excitement: "Here's a pear. Dad! Dad! Hey, here's a pear." Once you finally take it and place it on top of a counter, within 45 seconds: "Dad! Here's a plastic bowl. Take a look! Plastic! Bowl!" "Thank you!" I tell him.

"Look, look, here's a head of garlic! And since it was small, I also picked up a small sweet potato! Which would you like first? Which one second? Dad? Is Mom here? Mom? Dad? Garlic? Potato?"

I love his enthusiasm, but it sure would be easier to get dinner ready without the helper baby sometimes.

Did we win the binky war?

While Nathaniel had hand-foot-mouth disease, the last thing he wanted was a binky. It just added to the ongoing mouth pain.

Taking this as our chance, Amanda and I decided to not give him his binky anymore (we had only given it to him for sleep for the past few months). We figured he'd slept OK for a few days without it, and perhaps he wouldn't notice it's disappearance.

And it looks like we're right, for the most part. One time, he woke up and needed it to fall back asleep. Otherwise, he simply will not take it anymore.

While that sounds like a victory, we still have issues like last night ...

He just didn't want to fall asleep. He'd rest for a while on Amanda's lap, then I'd lay him down in the crib and he'd stand up and scream. In the past, a binky would get him to relax and fall asleep, but last night he absolutely refused the binky.

So it looks like we won the binky war in getting him to stop using it ... but now we're stuck with a toddler that sometimes could use a binky but just won't take it.

Can't tell if we won or lost ...

Finally getting better

Man, when the doctor said we were in for several days of crankiness, I didn't expect this!

Nathaniel barely slept or ate Wednesday. He barely slept Wednesday night. He barely slept or ate Thursday. That made for an angry, restless, exhausted, frustrated baby. And that means crying. Lots of crying. He wanted to eat, but when he saw food and thought of the pain involved, he would just get frustrated and cry. When I'd take him from the high chair, he would cry and try to climb back in, even though he wouldn't want to eat anything.

Really, it was all exhausting and frustrating to everyone in the house.

Finally, he slept some Thursday night, but he still barely ate for much of Friday (and he threw up a little when he did eat one time).

And, at last, he slept through Friday night and ate a little for breakfast. Let's hope lunch continues the progress, then a nap, then dinner, then sleep. Then Amanda and I will get a chance to really sleep for once as well.

What fun!

For anyone who doesn't know, here's some CDC info on hand-foot-mouth: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm

Good and not so good

The good: Nathaniel had his hearing tested Monday and it was perfect. Great to finally see that come through after all this time. One of his tubes may be a little clogged, but his hearing is still working.

Not so good: I'm home with the little guy right now because he had "hand-foot-mouth" disease, which apparently is pretty common in day-care settings. The doctor confirmed the day-care diagnosis and told me to expect 4-5 days of crankiness. Really looking forward to that.

Oh well, at least he's healthy.