Baby Proofing

Well, it’s gotten to a point where we need to step up our baby-proofing game. When Troy had started crawling, we had moved things above his head so he couldn’t reach them. Now that he’s standing, everything is in range again. He’s become fascinated with the window sills in the kitchen and everything on them...which is a lot. We have plants, figurines, and fairy houses stacked all along them with little wired LED lights strung in between. So needless to say, he has a lot of targets to go after. From grabbing the LED wire, to pulling the leaves off the plants and trying to eat them, to trying to tip the fairy houses off with his little finger tips. It’s a constant menace, and it requires 100% diligence.

Tonight, he was crawling around downstairs while my wife was cooking. I was upstairs working. All of a sudden I hear my wife screaming, so I rushed downstairs to find Troy sitting on the floor with potting soil on his head and drenched from head to toe in water. He seemed unbothered by his state and was still attempting to play with the poor plant that was lying exposed on the floor in front of him. My wife was frantically trying to keep him away from it and clean him up at the same time. I couldn’t help but laugh. At both the ludicrousness of the situation and the fact that he seemed unfazed to be sitting there wet and with soil on his head. So, tomorrow we’re going to have to upgrade to level 2 on the baby proofing.

Chips and Salsa

So we’ve held off taking Troy out to a restaurant for ten months now. We had no idea how he’d be, and we didn’t want to hassle with it. If we wanted something out, then we’d get it to go instead. But tonight, we wanted to get out of the house and enjoy a meal out before calling our long holiday officially over. So we packed the baby into the car and headed out to Matitto’s Tex-Mex restaurant. Because his first experience should be with chips and salsa.

Turns out that just like the plane ride, our concerns were unwarranted. Troy did amazing as always. It wasn’t very crowded, so he didn’t have a lot going on to distract him. He sat quietly taking in the decor and playing with the sugar packets I gave him. My wife let him try a little bit of retried beans and part of her cheese enchilada, which he seemed to enjoy. At one point, one of the waiters who was completely taken with Troy and kept coming by the table to see him, came over and asked to hold him. Troy was totally cool with it and even gave the guy a high-five. It was nice to know that we can enjoy the occasional meal out without having to worry about how Troy will be at the restaurant.

Stranger in the Room

Tonight, I was sitting on the couch with Troy, when all of a sudden he started staring at something over my right shoulder. Then, his eyes slowly moved around the room like they were watching something intently. Only there wasn’t anything there...at least not that I could see. And then Troy started smiling and laughing at something. He was talking, bouncing, and enjoying whatever it was. It was the same way he acts when we’re playing peek-a-boo behind the couch. At first, I thought it was my wife, but she was in the other room working. I was getting pretty creeped out, when I started to wonder if he was playing with his guardian angel. Would an angel play peek-a-boo with a baby? I don’t see why not.

Remy and Linguini

Today, I decided to put Troy on my shoulders for the first time. I wasn't sure if he'd like it or how well he'd stay on there, but it was something new for him to discover. He immediately grabbed my hair like Remy and Linguini from the movie Ratatouille and started trying to "steer" me where he wanted to go. I swear that boy has no fear. It didn't matter that he was now six feet off the floor. He trusted that I'd keep him safe, so he embraced this new adventure with excitement.

Black Eye

I'm not sure exactly how it happened. It happened so fast. I was a mere few feet away, but I looked down at something, and when I looked up again, it was over. Somehow Troy managed to fall face-first into his new little workbench toy. At first, I thought he was pulling on it, and it moved and scared him. But then the red mark showed up under his eye, and the swelling began.

I'm not sure what is with him and hitting his head all the time. It seems like that's primarily where he hurts himself. And even if he's not hurt, we'll sometimes find him sitting bumping his head on the wall...on purpose. His poor noggin is taking a beating in his first year. The saddest part is that he's only following in the footsteps that I have already walked. I got hurt a lot while I was growing up. Not always in the head, but a lot of the time it was. I'm hoping this doesn't portend an omen of things to come for Troy.

I am baybay

Tonight, Troy and I were playing in my wife’s office to keep her company. At some point, he got bored of the toys, reached for me, and said, “dada.” I said, “Yes, I’m dada, but who are you?” And he responded, “I am baybay.” It would be reasonable for you to think that I heard some baby babble and interpreted it to be what I wanted it to be. Although, I never would have imagined him to answer me much less say that. But my hearing of it was corroborated by my wife’s hearing of it too, completely independently. She said, “Oh my god, did you hear that?!” I did hear it. My son knows he’s “baybay."

Sucking the Worm

For Christmas this year, I bought everyone gummy worms for their stocking. I wasn't sure that everyone would appreciate them, but I figured that if they didn't like them, then at least it was something I could offer to eat for them. So, he didn't feel left out, I bought Troy a bag as well. Tonight, we decided to let him suck on one of the worms to see what he'd do. It didn't take him long to get the hang of licking and sucking on the worm. Unfortunately for me, he seemed to enjoy them.

Vitruvian Park

Tonight, we took Troy out to Vitruvian Park to see the Christmas lights. Every year, they wrap hundreds of trees in the park in LED Christmas lights, and it makes it feel like you’re walking through a magical forest of lights. Well you and hundreds of other people. It’s one of the most-visited places in the city, and tonight was no exception.

Troy seemed to thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the trees. He was mesmerized by the lights, all aglow in reds, blues, greens, ambers, purples, and whites. He really liked when I took him closer so he could reach out and touch them. But his other favorite part was watching the people, each one trying to take the perfect, never-before-taken photo of the lights or the prerequisite grainy, probably dark photo of their family. He loves watching people as much as I do. They’re so fascinating in their sameness and their differences.

It was a nice night to go out, not too cold like we’ve had in previous years. And God took care of us with quick parking and a quick, easy exit. We didn’t stay very long, because Troy was getting tired. But all in all, a nice free adventure out with my wife and son.

First Christmas

Today was Troy’s first Christmas. Although technically I contend that it was his second. He was present and alive for the last one, just inside my wife at the time. But if you’re a believer, like I am, that he was already a living, viable human being, then he was there. Besides, he already had a stocking and gifts last year, so I’m counting it.

This year was a low-key affair comparatively speaking. We only had my mother, father, and stepmother over. And the main focus seemed to be on Troy, which also just felt right. I struggled this year to think up gift ideas for him. I mean on the one hand, we have not held back in buying him whatever he needs. On the other hand, he’s a ten-month old baby who is more interested in boxes and bags than actual gifts. So, I decided to tap into the latter as my idea for him.

I decided to build him a castle out of cardboard boxes. After all, every prince needs a castle, and I figured he’d enjoy that way more than some more clothes. I know how much I loved building forts out of boxes or pillows when I was younger, so I figured he’d enjoy it as well. However, as with most of my ideas, I might have aimed a tad high and ambitious on this one. I picked a design that was quite detailed and leaned more toward an authentic look. While it made the castle look amazing, it was also a lot of work. Of course, Troy is worth every hour I spent on it, but I didn’t anticipate the number of hours I would spend on it. In the end, I had to enlist the aid of both my mother and stepmother to help get it over the line. And even then, my mother and I were up to three o’clock in the morning to finally get it all done.

After 20+ hours of love poured into its construction, Troy wasn’t initially all that interested in the castle after he saw it. I had to work with him on crawling inside, and I put some of his new toys inside to entice him to want to be in there. Eventually, he was going in there and through there on his own. With time, I hope he enjoys it more and more.

Walking with a Handrail

Well, I said it wouldn’t be long until Troy was walking, and I was right. It was all of three days. Today, he pulled himself up against the side of the couch, stood there for a minute to get his balance, and then started slowly walking along the edge. I used the TV controller as an enticement for him, sliding it just out of reach when he’d get close to give him a goal. I can’t believe he’s already mastered standing in just a few days and is now walking! I’m extremely proud of him. He’s not afraid to literally take the next step and challenge himself. He’s so brave and strong. What an amazing son we have!

Marco Polo

Troy and I have started a new thing while he’s eating. He’ll make some grunting, moaning, or other unique sound while he’s sucking on his bottle, and I’ll mimic it back to him. As soon as I do, he makes a different sound, and I’ll mimic that back as well. On and on it goes, until the bottle is gone. It makes my wife laugh to hear us doing it, because we sound like we’re having an entire conversation in grunts, like some primitive cavemen.

I'm still standing...

Troy is officially standing on his own now. When we put him in the crib today, he actually pulled himself up and stood there holding onto the side, swaying awkwardly while trying to keep his balance. He looked like a newborn colt or giraffe, trying to stand for the first time.

And once he was standing, we couldn’t get him to stop. He wanted to pull himself up on everything. It’s amazing that it’s only been a couple of weeks since I was writing about him starting to crawl, and now he’s mastered crawling and has moved on to standing. I imagine that he won’t be satisfied long with just standing and walking will quickly follow. My little boy is growing up so fast. And while I love experiencing each new thing that he discovers, I’m saddened by how fast it’s all going.

Ear Infection

We received an unexpected call from the daycare today. Apparently, after I dropped Troy off this morning, he had started crying, and he hadn’t stopped crying for the last two hours. Nothing they tried was working, so off I headed to go pick him up.

And that’s exactly how I found him, lying in his crib and crying. He didn’t stop even after I picked him up and tried to soothe him. He finally quieted after I got him home, eventually wearing himself out and falling asleep. I sat there holding him for two hours just to let him rest. I guess it was better with contact. He didn’t feel well, and he just wanted someone to comfort him. Obviously, with other babies to attend to, they can’t give him 100% attention at the daycare, so my arms were exactly what he needed to finally rest.

My wife was able to get away from work a little while later, and we took him to the urgent care. They said he had an ear infection and possibly strep throat. So tonight, we start an antibiotics regime. At least we’re off next week, so he’ll have some time to recover, but it sucks to feel bad for yet another holiday. Troy is going to hate holidays, because every time one rolls around, he ends up sick. Hopefully, the antibiotics work quickly.

Smash Cake

Yesterday, was Declan's birthday, CC and JC's son.  He turned one years old, so they threw him a small party to celebrate.  Unfortunately, because of the contagion running through Troy's daycare, we were unable to attend.  But this was a story that came out of the day.

JC had gotten Declan a smash cake, which is a small cake made just for the baby to dig his hands into and get messy, while the parents capture it all on film.  I'm not sure why exactly, but Declan's party theme was blue.  He had a blue hat, blue bib, and of course a blue smash cake.  When they first put it in front of him, he looked at it and then looked at his parents expectantly.  When they didn't say anything to him, he tentatively stretched his hand out toward it, keeping his eyes on them, waiting for them to tell him, "No."  When they still didn't say anything to him, he stuck his hand into it.  At that point, he didn't care how they felt about the situation.  This was something new, and it felt amazing!  He started playing with the cake, stuffing fistfuls of it into his mouth, and smiling.

When he got done and they had cleaned him up, they realized that the food coloring had dyed his hand blue.  He also had a blue goatee around his mouth.  No amount of washing could get it off.  Hoping that it would eventually fade and that they hadn't inadvertently turned their son into a Smurf, they shrugged it off.  Today, after they took him to the daycare, CC got a call from Declan's teacher.  Apparently, the smash cake had had another side-effect as well.  It had turned Declan's poop blue!  And it was acting as a poopuretic, causing him to poop three times more often.

Baybo: First Blood

Trying out his new-found skill of crawling, Troy has been exploring the house.  He follows us, albeit slowly, wherever we go.  He's still a little shaky and unsteady, but he manages to get there eventually.  Today, he had been in my wife's office; keeping her company, playing with some magazines; when she up and left the room.  Abandoning the now-crinkled magazines, he started plodding along after her.  I had gone in there to find him, so I waited for him to catch up.  A few "steps" out of the door, and he somehow got his arms tangled up and tripped himself.  He went face first onto the tiles.

He instantly let out the most pitiful wailing, which I assumed was from the shock and pain of face-planting.  I was carrying him around to calm him down, when my wife came to check on him.  I thought she was going to have a panic attack when she say blood coming out of his mouth.  Upon further inspection, we discovered he had busted his lip. I’m not sure if it was on the tile itself or if he had cut it on his two new teeth.  Either way, we managed to stop the bleeding, if not the crying, and then we attempted to have him suck on a popsicle to help with the swelling.  Eventually, he fell asleep from the exhaustive ordeal.

He has now drawn first blood.  I'm sure it won't be the last such encounters, and if my own life is anything to go by, I can almost guarantee that they will progressively get worse and more stressful.  As I was relating this story to CC, I made the comment, "Do you remember when we were so excited to have boys?!"  Welcome to the boy life.

Mama's Little Helper

Today, my wife was putting up the Christmas tree and decorations.  Of course, Troy had to be right in the middle of things to see what was going on and "help" where possible.  He grabbed the tangled up string of lights and started jerking them to get them free.  He grabbed the bells and started shaking them to make sure they still made sound.  He grabbed the Christmas ornaments out of the boxes and inspected each one for defects.  When my wife got the first level of branches on the tree up, he went around and pulled on every one to make sure that the tree was stable and wouldn't fall over.

In fact, he was so into wanting to share this moment with us, that he wouldn't let my wife go more than two steps away from him.  Wherever she went, he was right there with her, scooting toward her if she got too far away.  She constantly had to step over him as she went back and forth to the ornament boxes, because he was always underfoot.  Eventually, I had to give her a break, so I took him to hang up lights on the stair rails with me.  This was equally as intriguing, especially that first moment, when I plugged them in and the whole room lit up with the white, LED-glow.  He's just so excited about his first Christmas, which is fine with us, since it's our favorite holiday too.

RSV

Well, we learned today that almost the entire daycare class has been wiped out by an RSV virus. We found this out when my wife took Troy in and there was only one other baby there. Our initial thought was to take Troy out too, but the teachers said that he’d already been exposed to it. Hopefully, he will only get minor symptoms because it affects different babies differently.

Just great! He had finally gotten over whatever cold he had, was breathing better, and sleeping through the night again...and now this! This poor kid can’t win.

Mama Show

It's official, Troy is now saying, "mama."  And since I made such a big deal about him saying, "dada" first, I was directed to put a post out about this latest accomplishment.  When I say he's saying it, I should clarify that he's saying it a lot...like all the time now...especially after he wakes up from naps, or bumps his head, or is hungry, or is tired, or is playing, or is crawling around exploring, or is sitting staring out the window.  And my wife is eating it up!

Her favorite part is how Troy's face will light up and he'll break into a toothy smile, saying, "mama, mama" every time he sees her.  I don't get that.  Not one, "dada" when he sees me.  I'm just flying liver now.  I've been downgraded.  I'm no longer the favorite.  I only live to serve a functional purpose.  It's the mama show now.

But I can't hold it against the little guy, because he's so adorable when he does it.  For example, I love when he's crawling around the house, looking for my wife.  He calls out to her, "mama, mama," like some sort of echo location.  He waits for her to answer, "mama's here, baby," because how can she not answer that sweet call, and then he follows the sound of her voice.  Usually, she's getting ready in the bathroom, so he'll go all over the kitchen and then head into the bedroom, round the corner to the bathroom door, see her in the bathroom combing her hair or something, sit down at the door, and smile adoringly at her saying, "mama, mama."  And he has different intonations of the word.  Like this one is less echo location and more, "There she is, the most beautiful woman in the world, my mother.  And I found her."

Murder Mystery House Cleaning Party

Until now, we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping up with cleaning the house and taking care of a baby. Lately though, that’s getting harder and harder. Sleepless nights, early mornings, late nights, and a needy baby have made it hard to have the energy for anything else but child care. A couple of times now, my wife has hired a maid to come and clean, but that’s too expensive to keep up.

So, I’ve come up with a new plan. I’m going to throw a murder mystery house cleaning party and invite all of our friends and family. Participants will have to do household chores to find clues to solve the mystery. Fold laundry, take out the trash, clean dishes, etc. I’ll be the dead body, and my wife will be the host...so we can relax while the cleaning is going on. Surely some drinks and snacks are cheaper than a maid!

And if it’s successful, it may be an every weekend event. We might be able to expand it to coworkers, neighbors, church...who knows.

December Family of the Month

We received an unexpected surprise from the daycare yesterday. We apparently have been selected as the December family of the month. They like to select and spotlight one family every month, to let everyone get to know them better and to show how much they appreciate them. I’m not sure of the criteria that goes into the selection process, but we were pretty surprised and honored to be selected after only three months.

As part of the process, they asked us to supply a picture and write up a bio on our family to be shared on the bulletin board and posted on Facebook. My wife asked me to write it and then gave the order that it needs to be fun, creative, and unique. Apparently, she’s decided this is a contest and we need to out-family the previous families of the month. So what follows is the bio that we submitted.

It's quite an honor to be chosen for this prestigious award. First, we'd like to thank the Academy for choosing us out of all of the worthy families out there. Second, we'd like to thank all of our fans for voting for us. We wouldn't be where we are today without your continued love and support. And lastly, we'd like to thank a laundry change machine that refused to give change, which led to our chance meeting. Without which, we might not be where we are today…here accepting this award for December Family of the Month.

So, they asked us to write up a bio. But how do you condense three life stories down into a few sentences and yet still get across who we are as people? Well, I have two words for you, "Challenge Accepted." We are the Knotts family. We have ruled a small plot of currently-brown grass in Lantana for almost five years now. The lovely queen of this small kingdom is Anastasia, as exotic in person as she is in name. Hailing from the far-off land of Greece, she came to this country for school and stayed for love. Every day, her eyes are opened by God to the wonders of the human body through her research in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern. Anyone who says, “We’re not curing cancer here, people!” is not talking about her, because that’s exactly what she’s doing. The yet-to-grow-up king of this story is Derek. He’s a native Texan through and through, and hopelessly in love with his queen. He’s definitely not curing cancer, but he’s right where God wants him to be, leading a team of consultants as he traverses the not-so-glamorous world of ERP systems. And last, but certainly not least, that brings us to our little prince, Troy. Who at nine-months old has already learned that being a prince means all of the fun with none of the responsibility! And that if mommy says, “No,” daddy will surely say, “Yes.”

But to truly know us, we must dig deeper. We’ve been married to each other three times (yes, there’s a story to this). We're suckers for a good British detective show. Yes, all three of us, although Troy is partial to “Death in Paradise,” at least the first seven minutes, which is all he can stay awake for. We love reading fantasy books. We love to travel. One of us loves to write, one loves Korean romance movies, and one loves to bounce up and down, screaming for no reason at all (I'll let you decide which is which). The parental units adamantly agree that there is no better sound in the world than our son's laughter. And we take every opportunity to make him laugh, whether that's playing "hide the daddy," "kiss the stomach," or "splish-splash in the bath." Troy is the best thing we never knew we were missing. He's changed our lives in such a way that we can't remember what it was like before him. And that's why we're so glad to have found this family of beautiful people to help us look after him. People that love him almost as much as we do. All you have to do is meet him once to see why he’s the sweet, charming, little boy that we’re completely in love with.