Thank OOO

Troy now says “thank you” in addition to dada, mama, uh-oh, book, and baybay. Although it comes out more like “thank ooo,” it definitely sounds like what he’s trying to say. He again uses it in the correct context. For example, he’ll point at the Yogi bag and scream, “DADAAAA!?” I’ll reply, “Yes, baby?” To which he’ll more calmly point at the bag one more time, now that he has my proper attention, and say, “dada?” I’ll give him one of the dehydrated yogurt snacks, and he’ll say, “thank ooo.”

He’s so polite, our little boy. Every time you give him something now, he says, “thank ooo.” Actually, if he gives you something he’ll say it too, presumably on your behalf, in case you’re not as polite as him. I’ve been saying “welcome” to him after he says thank you, so he associates the two together. Which he sort of does, although not how I intended. If I say “welcome,” then he replies back, “thank ooo” again. We’ll keep working on it.

Coronavirus: Virtual Check-up

Concern about his dehydration and constipation had us calling the doctor today. Normally, the doctor would automatically tell us to bring Troy in, but due to the coronavirus, he scheduled a Skype video appointment instead. So there we were talking to the doctor over video chat, examining our son as he directed, and relaying back the information for diagnosis. Which was both strange and cool at the same time. It’s amazing all the ways that we now use technology to our advantage. It’s also amazing how we have adapted as a people to this pandemic that has forced us to stay at home.

It turns out that Troy has yet ANOTHER viral infection that has produced some redness and sores on the back of his throat. This is apparently why he decided to stop drinking, because it hurts to swallow. Psychologically, he’s now connected the bottle to the pain, so seeing it makes his throat hurt, which is why he’s so adamant about pushing it away. Which is fine, except we now have to figure out how to keep him from associating drinking in general to the pain of swallowing.

Dinner and a Show

For some reason, Troy suddenly decided that today, he will no longer be drinking out of a bottle. There was no taper off or smooth transition. Yesterday, he drank them, today he will not. We have tried continuously all day, afraid that he’s getting dehydrated; but he clamps his lips shut, turns his head, wildly gesticulates with his hands, and moans. The only thing that he seems to like with some consistency is yogurt, so that’s what he’s been getting pretty much all day because my wife is afraid he’s not getting enough calcium or vitamin D. Just three days ago, he finally held his bottle on his own, and now he won’t drink out of them anymore.

This has made today rough, because we were used to the ease and quickness of a bottle at certain times of the day, and now we have to go through the feeding production at every meal. Troy is not an easy eater. He’s distracted by everything in the room, and he wants to see and hold them all while he’s eating. He will sit there, food all over his mouth, pointing at something in the room, yelling, “DAAAAA!” repeatedly until you bring it to him. Once he has it, then he’ll eat the next spoonful. As my wife said, “You have to be part feeder and part entertainer with Troy.”

So, we’ve taken to tag-teaming every meal now. She feeds him; and I spend the entire time singing, dancing, grabbing photographs and trinkets to bring to him, reading him books, offering him the Advil container for him to shake, and running around chasing plastic balls that he likes to repeatedly throw onto the floor. He eats, and I get a workout. So far, it seems to work pretty well. It’s just a lot of work, and it’s not always easy to figure out what will entertain and appease him during each meal. What works one time may not work the next time.

On the one hand, we really weren’t sure how to wean him completely off the bottles. It seems God and Troy took care of that. On the other hand, we weren’t prepared for a day...a life...of dinner and a show. We now are struggling with figuring out how to get him to drink enough fluids. He’d rather pour the water on the floor and play with the container than drink it. We had some minor success with holding a cup or sports bottle up to his lips, and with letting him drink from a straw. But he’s just as likely to suck the water out and then spit it down the front of his shirt, as he is to drink it. I guess the challenge never really goes away, it just morphs into something else.

Baybay

Since that first time many months ago when Troy declared, “I am baybay,” he has not said the word baby again, until today. He pointed at a picture of himself on the wall and said, “baybay.” Not only that, but later he was standing at the baby gate in my office door watching me work. When I minimized one of the windows, he saw a picture of himself on the background of my computer; got so excited that he started to shake; pointed at the screen; and said, “baybay!”

It’s not just being able to say the word that has me amazed, but his ability to recognize and associate the word to the correct subject. Like with his book and naming it correctly, his reasoning skills are unbelievable. He doesn’t call everything book or baybay, only the object or subject that it correctly applies to. I’m so proud of him. He’s a wonder.

Will the Real Slim Shady...er...First Word Please Stand Up

Troy spoke his real first word today.  He's been working on it for days now, getting closer and closer, and tonight he finally said it.  It's no surprise at all that his first word was "book."  To us, it's not enough that he said the word, but that he related it back to the actual object as well, holding a book while saying "book."  He's been saying "boo" a lot lately when he picks up his books, but the "k" sound at the end has been giving him trouble.  My wife has been working on it with him, saying it over and over and over and over again.  And tonight, he finally managed the whole word, "k" sound and all.

Independent

Today, Troy wanted to hold his bottle all on his own.  I'm not sure why after 13 months that he suddenly decided that he no longer wanted us doing it for him, but he grabbed the bottle out of my wife's hands and held it up to his own mouth.  She just sat there awkwardly not knowing what to do with her hands while he sucked away.  When he was done, he pulled it out and handed it to her.

Declan has been doing this most of his life, out of necessity more than desire I'd assume.  CC gave him no choice, when he propped up the bottle in front of him and walked away.  It was either learn to pick it up and feed yourself or go hungry.  We never put Troy in that dilemma, but it's funny that he came to it all on his own anyway.  I guess he's just becoming more independent.

Coronavirus: Blessings in Disguise

At 7:30 a.m. this morning, I found myself standing in the rain and cold with 60 other people lined up down the sidewalk of Target (10 feet apart to observe social distancing), waiting for them to open.  On a tip from my boss' wife, I decided to try an early-morning trip to the store for emergency supplies.  She had told us that Target gets a shipment in every morning, but that people are lined up to storm in and purchase everything the minute that they opened.  And that was exactly what happened today.  Luckily, God had put it on my heart to skip breakfast and just go directly to the store, so I found myself number 15 in line and in a prime spot to get what I needed, which was a lot.

At exactly 8:00 a.m., the doors opened and it was like a mini Black Friday as people quickly rushed into the store, grabbed a basket, and headed for the "limited items" aisle to systematically wipe out the shelves.  To Target's credit, they did a fantastic job of handling the chaos:  with someone directing traffic on the sidewalk; two people sliding empty shopping carts to the waiting hands, so people didn't have to break stride; and people at the end of every aisle ushering people along, keeping the peace, and limiting people to the correct number of items.  I had worked out a plan to hit the Clorox wipes, paper towels, and facial tissues first; before heading to the toilet paper aisle.  This kept me from immediately getting stuck in the crowd and getting jostled and touched by the unreasonable masses.  But it also allowed me to load up on the more limited items first and ensure that I was able to get them.  I eventually got toilet paper too, there was plenty for everyone; and baby wipes; and milk.  Getting everything on my list except diapers.  They had some, but not the right size.  While I was there, I decided to grab a few more items we needed, carting away from the chaos to the less-traveled aisles.

As I believed, God provided everything we needed to wait out this storm for a few more weeks.  I wasn't expecting to get up this morning and head to Target.  It was a spontaneous gesture that paid off.  To continue the blessings, my boss texted me a couple of hours later to say that he'd found our diapers in the exact size we needed.  I had casually mentioned to him on Friday that we were having a hard time finding toilet paper and diapers, and remembering that, he'd gone to his own Target to see if he could find something for me.  I have no words for something like this.  Definitely unexpected and above and beyond.  If he had any thought of buying my loyalty (which I don't think was on his mind at all), then he secured it with this act of kindness.  It's amazing to see God move through so many people to be loved and supported through a time like this.  And that's why I don't doubt Him or that He's going to take care of us.  Because He always comes through in unexpected ways with blessings in disguise.

Selfie Fail

What is a selfie fail? Well, it's kind of like when you're having a nice moment with your son, playing in his nursery; and you try to get a cute, loving picture with him. And he slaps you in the face instead.

And you have your pain and agony forever recorded in a picture, which you decide to post for all the world to see. That's a selfie fail!

Broken

Troy has a new thing where he'll be looking at you and then cock his head to the right and look at you at an angle.  He thinks it's funny, and perhaps he's just trying to get a new perspective on things, like when I used to look at him upside down when he was younger.  He always thought that was funny too.  Oh well, it's two parts silly and cute, so who cares why he's doing it.  Maybe he's broken, maybe he's just quirky!

Burning Holes

With Troy's active lifestyle now, his crawling is starting to have a negative impact on the knees of his pants. All of his pants now last about one day before they get holes in them. I have suggested to buy some patches to cover them up and reinforce the knees, but my style-conscious wife refuses and instead keeps buying him more pants.

Da, da?

Troy has started to say, "da, da" less as a statement and more like a question.  I'm not sure if he's asking about something in the room, but doesn't know the words for it, so he's just asking me a general question and hoping that I'm smart enough to figure it out.  Or if he's simply trying to get my attention so he can point something out to me.  Either way, about three dozen times a day, I hear, "da, da?"  And I always reply with, "yes, baby?"  My wife thinks both questions are adorable.

One-Year Check-up

Today, we took Troy in for his one-year check-up and shots.  The appointment went okay, other than Troy not liking people to look into his ears, hold down his arms, or stab him repeatedly in the leg with needles (can't say I blame him on this one).  He weighed in at a little over 30 pounds and was measured at a little over 32 inches long.  This could account for why I get fatigued carrying him and why he's now able to pull stuff off the kitchen countertops.

We've now been directed to take away his pacifier, switch from bottles to cups, and reduce his formula intake to supplement even more with actual food.  The doctor also told us not to feed him milk right before he goes to bed, because the milk sitting in his mouth all night will start to rot his teeth.  We're supposed to get him to drink water instead or after to wash the milk down.  This will prove difficult, since Troy is not really a fan of drinking straight water.  All of these are fine on their own, but all at once is going to be an overwhelming task.

Walking

I finally caught Troy taking his first independent steps without assistance or holding onto anything. My wife claims he did it for her several times, but I finally saw him do it today. We were upstairs in the game room, playing with Troy, and he let go of the wall and just started walking across the room into my wife’s waiting arms. After that he was letting go of whatever he was standing next to and going for it. No fear! It’s only a matter of time before he’s running around everywhere.

Coronavirus: Keeping Perspective

The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has now reached pandemic levels.  Starting in China and quickly spreading across Asia, Europe, and now into the United States.  What was only affecting the elderly and weak has now become a lot less discriminatory.  Thousands of people are infected worldwide, overwhelming hospitals and healthcare professionals.  Accurate testing is not even readily available yet.  And the threat of the person next to you having it and not knowing has sent people into an absolute and illogical panic.

The first step was restricted travel, especially to countries with identified infection.  Then, many schools and businesses started to shut down or go online only to reduce the spread of the disease through large, assembled crowds.  The sports world has ceased to exist with the NBA, NHL, PGA, and MLS all suspending their seasons.  The men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments have both been cancelled.  Boxing, UFC, and wrestling are still active, but they're performing in front of empty arenas.  Both my wife and my offices have effectively closed, forcing both of us to try to work from home for now.  Our daycare is still open, but we haven't been consistently sending Troy there, as we don't know who he might come into contact with.

This hermit, isolated lifestyle is strange.  It feels like the zombie apocalypse that you see in movies, where streets and stores are barren, and a handful of humans are struggling for survival, boarded up inside of their house and subsisting on Gatorade and Twinkies.  But the worst part is that the panic and fear of either stores running out of supplies or having to risk exposure to go out and get them, has caused people to flood into stores in a buying frenzy.  People are stockpiling everything they can get their hands on, from milk and eggs to produce to can goods.  It's as if they assume that they'll need to survive inside their houses for the next six months or more.  The shelves are completely empty in every store.  And it's not just food, but paper towels, facial tissues, toilet paper, soap, cleaning supplies, baby wipes, and diapers too!

As our supplies have dwindled, we have taken to making a pass by each store each day to see if they've gotten a new shipment in.  But apparently, in their sickness and unreasonable madness, people are actually lining up at stores at 6:00-7:00 a.m. to be there when the trucks arrive, so they can buy up anything that's put out.  And these aren't just the people that actually need the supplies, but the people that already have them and are purchasing more!  For example, my wife was trying to buy one gallon of milk, which the store was in the process of restocking.  And this woman in front of her was taking every one that was put out the moment the dairy guy let go of it.  What could she possibly need with ten gallons of milk?!  

Stores are having to ration out and limit things like water and toilet paper per customer.  I actually saw a sign at Academy the other day that said ammunition was limited to three boxes per customer.  So, I guess either people are gearing up to start shooting their own food (lock up your pets), or to start shooting the person in front of you grabbing for the last roll of toilet paper or the last gallon of milk.  We can’t even order them online because all of those places are out of stock too.  Apparently, hundreds of entrepreneurial people at the beginning of the outbreak had gone around cities buying up supplies and loading up entire U-Haul trucks full of stuff with the intent of reselling it at an elevated price.  Amazon had to cut off several of them that were trying to price-gouge people and take advantage of a pandemic situation.  But people have been successfully jacking up prices on Ebay, selling packs of toilet paper for over $70.  And people are paying it, because they feel like there's no other option. 

We’re trying not to panic, but now everyone else’s panic is causing us to run short on essentials.  Our biggest concern is what we’re going to do for our baby.  Trying to make light of the situation, I jokingly told my wife that we’ll have to start rationing things out.  Troy only gets three diapers a day, so we have to make them count.  If that doesn’t work, then we’ll have to wash them and reuse.  I also told her that it’s a good time to start potty training.  Or maybe we'll have to go old school with cloth diapers and wet towels!  Based on the dwindling supply of toilet paper, we may all have to switch to cloth diapers soon.

The daycare has been sending out messages that they might close in the next few days, which means we’ll have to figure out how to keep working and be home with Troy every day. We’re going to see if we can hire one of our daycare teachers as a private nanny while the school is closed. They need to get paid too, right?  My office has switched to video conferencing for all of our meetings, which means that even though I'm working from home, I still have to get up each day, bathe, and put on pants before "going to work."  Which is a real bummer, because I was looking forward to some naked customer calls with my bed-head hair sticking up on one side, eating instead of listening, and rolling my eyes whenever that one guy says something stupid.

And even though it didn't immediately occur to me, we found out that due to the ban of people gathering into large crowds, our church is no longer meeting anymore either.  We’ve gone to an online service only.  So on Sunday, we watched church online with Troy.  He was really getting into it, lifting his hands up in worship whenever the pastor said “Jesus” and “hope.”  All this to say, that it’s a crazy time right now.  It definitely could be scary if we didn’t trust in the Lord to watch over us, to keep us safe, and to provide for us.  It’s sad to think that so many people don’t have that belief or security.  And it’s sadder to think that many Christians are forgetting the Lord and getting swept right along in the public panic.  It's awesome to see my one-year old keeping perspective and worshiping the Lord.  He knows that we can't lose hope, nor should we, if we have Jesus.  God will take care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.  And God will find us some toilet paper and diapers.

Uh Oh!

This morning Troy was on the bed with my wife, and he decided to stand up and drape himself across her as she slept. When he did so, the action of throwing himself on top of her blew the air out of his lungs and popped the pacifier that was in his mouth out, over the side of the bed, and onto the floor. Troy stretched up on his toes and looked down at the purple rubber mouthpiece resting still under the window, then looked over at me, and he said, “Uh oh!”  It was so unexpected and funny.

Now, he's been saying it all the time whenever he drops something, or falls over, or whacks me in the head with his little toy hammer.  He's even started intentionally throwing things on the floor while he's in his high chair, just so he can say, "Uh oh!" afterward.  The funniest part is that he says it very slowly and drawn out, almost as if he's trying for dramatic effect or as if he's the sloth from the DMV in the movie Zootopia.  "Uh....oh!"

Stair Climber

Somehow Troy has learned how to go up the stairs on his own now. He waits for me to open the baby gate, and then he’s off! Crawling up one step at a time. He waits for me at the landing to make sure I’m keeping up, and then he’s off again. When he makes it to the top, he's extremely proud of himself. I’m excited that he enjoys the exercise and exertion of climbing, because it’s developing his legs and arms...and wearing him out in the process...added dada bonus.

The only downside is that I have to remember to keep the baby gate closed at all times, because I forgot it one day, and I came around the corner to find him halfway up the stairs.  We've only worked on going up for now, but it's only a matter of time.

Blowing Kisses

They’ve been working with Troy at the daycare to say, “bye bye,” whenever someone leaves the classroom. This morning after I had him strapped into the car seat, my wife told him goodbye, and he replied, “bye, bye.” And then he blew her three kisses, putting his hand up to his lips and pulling it away in her direction. It was so cute. Of course, he'd only do it once. He'll say, "bye, bye" more frequently, but even that is sporadic. So, if you get kisses too, then you're at the top of his list!

Wee Wee

Troy has entered the phallic phase of his development, where he plays with his exposed wee wee every chance he gets. Usually this coincides with bath time since that’s when he’s usually naked. Even with bubbles in the tub, you can always tell when he’s doing it because his hand disappears under the water, he will completely ignore the running faucet (which drinking out of and swatting with his hand is his favorite bath past time), and he’ll get a distant spacey look in his eyes as he ceases to focus on the real world and loses himself in the world of the wee.

My mother-in-law and I got a big kick out of this, as apparently my brother-in-law used to do this all the time too. My wife is bothered by it, because she's afraid he's going to injure himself, but we tried to tell her that it's just boys being boys and exploring their bodies. Some of us never grow out of that!

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

We got an incident report on Troy today. Apparently he stuck his finger in some other kid’s mouth, and that kid didn’t like it...so he bit Troy’s finger. It didn’t bleed or anything, but it made him cry nonetheless. I’m hoping that teaches Troy to stop doing that. Unfortunately, he's been doing it to adults for a while now, and they just "bite" him with their lips, which he enjoys.  But this has given him a false sense of reality when he does it to another kid who is itching for an opportunity to use his new chompers. And those puppies are razor sharp too! I'm actually surprised it didn't bleed, except I don't think that other kid has too many teeth yet...and perhaps he didn't bit him too hard. It probably scared Troy more than anything.

False Alarm

Not trusting the urgent care doctors and needing a doctor’s note before we could take him back to daycare, we decided to do a follow up with our pediatrician. The good news is that Troy has been doing better the last two days, but we took him in anyways.

Good thing we did, because it confirmed my suspicions. He was misdiagnosed at urgent care. When I told the pediatrician that Troy had hand, foot, and mouth with no sores on his hands, feet, or mouth, he laughed and asked, “How is that possible?” My thoughts exactly. He checked him again for it and confirmed it was not that. He suspected it could be strep throat, so he ran a test for that. Initial results came back negative, so he sent it to a lab for further testing. In the end, he believes it to be a viral infection that will eventually go away.

Baberection

Troy got his first erection this morning. I opened the diaper and there it was pointing up at me. I don’t know what I expected, but that definitely wasn’t how I saw the morning going. CS told me that his son was getting these when he was a few months old, so I know it happens, but I’m. It sure what set Troy off today.

According to my online research this could be his body doing a normal system check.  It could also be that he has a full bladder and it's stimulating his sacral nerves.  Either way, it's perfectly normal and expected with boys.

https://www.directadvicefordads.com.au/new-dads/baby-boys-get-boners-too/

The worst part is that since he’s been in the phallic stage and can’t seem to leave his wee-wee alone, the first thing he did was reach down and start playing with it. I gave him his stuffed moose to distract him, and he immediately started rubbing it on his wee-wee. It’s the first time I’ve been embarrassed changing my sons diaper! I felt like I needed to step away and give him and the moose a few moments of privacy. The worst part is that the moose has the words, "Jesus Loves You" on its foot. So, I named the moose Jesús, the Spanish equivalent, so it wasn't so blasphemous. Poor Jesús has seen some things in his short life, and I don't think he's all that happy about being molested by a baby.

Uncontrollable

Troy has been crying off and on uncontrollably since 11 pm last night and all day today. We finally took him to the urgent care because he started to run a fever, and we they said he has hand, foot, and mouth disease. I’m suspicious of this, because he had no sores on his hands, feet, or mouth. He only had a redness at the back of his throat. Either way, it explains his discomfort and lack of appetite, if it hurts to swallow.

He really can’t catch a break. If he gets well, it’s only for like a week or two before he gets something else. The worst part is that since it’s viral, there’s nothing we can really do but wait it out.

The Little Man

I uttered a phrase this morning that I never thought would leave my lips. I told Troy, “We don’t put the little man in our mouth.” We have a small statue of a garçon that stands in our formal dining room holding a bottle of wine. Troy saw him today, so I let him play with the little man. After a minute, Troy tried to suck on the little man’s hand, which is what prompted my unusual phrase. He also seemed to think the man’s nose was hilarious, touching it and laughing over and over again.

The Owl

My mother-in-law brought Troy an electronic book as a gift. It has little nursery songs like “Row, row your boat” and “Tick, tock the mouse ran up the clock.” There is one particular song called “H Koukouvagia,” which means The Owl. It has a catchy repetitive tune repeating the name of the song over and over. I have now heard it so many times that it’s stuck in my head. All I hear now is “koukou-va, koukou-va” all day long.