Jurassic Birthday: A Limited Dinosaur Experience

The virtual dinosaur experience was good, but we still wanted Troy to be able to celebrate with his friends. But being still worried about the coronavirus, we decided to limit it to a closed group of just the kids from his daycare. He spends all day every day with them anyway, so it seemed safe to let them play together. We decided to have the second party in the afternoon after all the kids had woken up from their naps. It’s convenient that they all are on the same schedule at daycare!

We had a pretty good turnout, four kids came by, so about a third of the class. It was nice to finally meet some of the other parents in the class too. Everyone did great abiding by our rules to wear masks and keep a safe distance from each other. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun. They loved all of the dinosaur stuff as much as Troy did! I was concerned that we were going to give them nightmares with the T-Rex decal, but nobody even flinched at it.

There were two downsides to the party. The first was when we tried to blow up the bouncy castle. All of the kids started crying and running to their parents. So, we packed it away. There was no shortage of fun with the other stuff, so not a huge deal.

The other thing was watching my son interact with other kids. He’s not a sharing kind of kid apparently. He was very possessive of everything, ripping toys out of kids hands and even shoving a few to the floor if they tried to take it back. More than once, my wife and I had to take him aside and talk to him about it. Luckily, nobody got hurt, and it didn’t seem to bother any of the other parents. But it bothers me. I don’t want my kid to be a bully, so we’re going to have to nip this in the bud.

The Greek food my wife ordered and the dinosaur-themed cake that she put together were fantastic! The party lasted several hours until the kids started to get tired, and the parents started packing them up to get them home for their nighttime wind-down routine. We’re happy that Troy wasn’t stuck with us for the majority of the day and that he got to have some friends over.

Jurassic Birthday: A Virtual Dinosaur Experience

Despite a minor sound reverberation, the dinosaur experience turned out as well as we’d hoped. Troy was super excited at all of the stuff everywhere, running around the room to look at everything and scream out it’s name, “T-Wex, Waptor, A-Tops, Bumpy, Compy, Lophus, Allosaurus, Diiiinnnnnoooo!” before moving on to the next one. He was so overwhelmed that he didn’t know what to interact with first.

He said hi to the T-Rex decal, patting his old friend on the nose. He hugged the inflatable dinosaurs. He gently touched the brachiosaurus towering above him on his pile of presents. He shook with excitement at the dinosaur wrapping paper and dinosaur-shaped balloons hovering near the ceiling.

I know it was hard for the myriad of family and friends on camera to capture or feel the complete rapture of Troy as he danced around the room. But I’m glad that they were gracious enough to try. We finally were able to corral Troy away from the inflatable dinosaurs long enough to open presents, and Troy joyously called out, “Dino!” with every new unveiling of something dinosaur-related.

Bombolone Birthday

Today is my baby boy’s two-year birthday. The day started off with me kissing him awake to the sounds of his delighted giggles. Then, while he was still pretending or wishfully wanting to still be asleep, I sang him happy birthday. Despite his best attempts, he couldn’t help but open his eyes and smile.

My wife had planned a special birthday treat for him and had ordered bombolones all the way from New York. The Italian donuts were filled with chocolate and custard cream with a slight hint of lemon. Troy tried both, although the chocolate were his favorite. He enjoyed plunging his little finger through the soft, warm exterior into the gooey center and then licking the filling off. We sang happy birthday to him again, which garnered another big smile. I guess he likes all of the attention. It was nice to be able to share a little family breakfast before I had to head upstairs for work.

But honestly, I still can’t believe how fast it all seems to have gone. I feel like it was only yesterday that we were celebrating his one-year birthday, which was also the last time we really had anyone over to the house. Despite the coronavirus still being in full swing, we decided that we weren’t going to let it keep us from throwing Troy a party, even it had to be virtual.

We’ve tried to theme his parties around whatever he’s interested in at the time. This year it’s dinosaurs. And not some cartoony sort of thing, but full on Jurassic World dinosaurs. With his continued love of Camp Cretaceous (we’ve watched the first two seasons all the way through no less than thirty times), Troy has dinosaurs on the brain just about 24 hours a day.

So, we’ve arranged to put on Jurassic Birthday: A Virtual Dinosaur Experience tomorrow for friends and family. Which means we’ve been up until 1:30 am putting it all together. We got large decals of T-Rex and “Blue” the Velociraptor from the movie to put on the walls. And my wife got a giant dinosaur-filled backdrop to hang up as well. My brother sent some wooden dinosaur cutouts, a dinosaur pillow, a wooden dinosaur banner that we used to hang Troy’s second-year pictures, and a little wooden dinosaur footprint. My brother-in-law sent some large inflatable dinosaurs that are almost as tall as Troy. And with the dinosaur balloons and footprints leading up the stairs, we transformed our upstairs into a dinosaur extravaganza!

I arranged all of the gifts in a pile in the middle of the floor, and put the giant brachiosaurus replica I got from the Jurassic World movie on top of the pile. Then, we set up two laptops with cameras, one on each side of the room, so we could capture his expressions no matter which way he went. I plan to start the meeting with the intro scene from Camp Cretaceous where the T-Rex comes butting through the gate and roars, to get everyone in the mood and let them know the party is starting. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

For now, we’re both exhausted. It’s been a very long day. It feels like staying up late to wrap Christmas presents or something. I hope Troy likes it. Happy Birthday, my little munchkin!

New Perspective

CC was telling me that Declan adamantly refused to ever wear a hat. Every attempt to put one on him would find him immediately yanking it off again. That is until the temperature dropped to below freezing last week. Suddenly, Declan had a new appreciation for the merits of a warm hat on your head and over your ears. Now, he wants a hat whenever he goes outside, even if it’s only slightly cool.

Faux Birthday

For some reason, the daycare had it on file that Troy’s birthday was today. Maybe because we had to get on a waiting list before he was born so this was his estimated arrival date. Whatever the reason, they celebrated his birthday today. They sent us a picture of him wearing the obligatory class birthday hat, and he had the most disgusted look on his face. I imagined one of two things running through his mind. Either he was mad at the daycare for getting his birthday wrong, or he was mad at us for forgetting.

We’re going to really confuse him when we tell him happy birthday on his actual day. If he could fully express himself with language, I’d imagine him saying something like, “Where have you people been? My birthday was three days ago!”

Nursemaid Elbow

We had to take Troy to urgent care tonight for a radial head subluxation, also know as nursemaid elbow. It happens when the radius bone slips out of joint. This is due to the fact that the ligaments and muscles are still very relaxed and flexible at this age, so they don’t hold the bone firmly in place.

I had taken him for a walk this evening, and when we got home, he was moaning that he had a booboo on his arm. He wasn’t crying, so I assumed he was just trying to get attention. After all, nothing had really happened on the walk for him to get hurt. But his moaning escalated into full-on crying fit. My wife tried to ice his arm, which seemed to help a little. He fell asleep, but when he woke up, he was immediately balling again. I noticed that he wasn’t moving his arm at all. Any attempt to move it only made him cry harder. So, we figured there was definitely something seriously wrong.

The doctor at the urgent care said that this is a very common injury with young children. It usually happens when the arm is pulled too hard, like when an adult goes one way and the kid goes the other way. Thinking back to our walk, that’s exactly what happened. I was holding his hand, trying to guide him toward the house when he suddenly decided to jerk on my hand to get away. He was smiling and playing at the time, but it was shortly after that that he started to complain about his booboo. I guess I should have listened to him. He was trying to communicate, and I dismissed him. I’m glad it wasn’t anything more serious, but I’m disappointed in myself for leaving him in pain for so long.

The Polar Express - Part 4

Power has been on all day today, so I actually had to spend it working, which honestly just sucked. The temperature also warmed up slightly, so I watched snow melt off people’s houses through my office window. When the day was finally done, and I was able to finally break free, we went out for another treacherous walk. Troy made it all of three steps down the driveway before he was on his butt. The snow may have melted, but it left the slicker, compacted ice beneath it. Again, it was Troy running with wild abandon, me chasing with cautious anxiety, and my wife slowly and carefully following behind.

And then I heard a loud scream from behind me. I turned to see my wife laying on the ground. I wrangled Troy into my arms and sprinted back to her. She had apparently stepped on a deceptively okay patch of sidewalk, which in reality was an exceptionally slick layer of ice instead. Unfortunately, she landed right on her wrist in her desperate attempt to catch herself. I’m going to guess that she sprained it pretty badly.

She wanted to soldier on, letting the frigid air act as an ice pack for her ailing wrist, so we kept walking. And all I could think about was not being the third victim of these sidewalks. Hard to do when your toddler keeps romping across the ice like he’s running through a Spring meadow. But I managed to make it without falling and then wrapped up my wife’s wrist in a bandage. Now, we just have to keep Troy from inadvertently hitting it during his carefree expressions of love.

Poison Control

One of our worst nightmares came to life this morning. Troy was in our bathroom and found a loose Advil laying on the counter. Before my wife even knew what was going on, Troy had snatched it and swallowed it. He started to choke on it, which is what alerted her to something being wrong. I heard her screaming and crying from the other room, so I came running in to see what was going on. I was able to size up the situation in seconds. Troy had swallowed the pill, he thought it was a game that my wife was trying to get him to spit it out, and he was running from her to get her to chase him.

My wife seemed to be frozen in place. Fear was keeping her from processing what to do next. So, I grabbed Troy and immediately started trying to make him gag and throw up by shoving my finger down his throat. When that didn’t work, we tried to pour some salt water down his throat. And when that didn’t work, we called Poison Control. (Side Note: I find it fascinating that the first thoughts that popped into my head were spy movies that I had seen and what they had done when they had ingested poison. That my not be the best source to deal with situations going forward.) The nice nurse from Poison Control assured me that Troy could tolerate a pill, but it could irritate his stomach if he hadn’t had any food. She suggested that we give him some milk or yogurt to coat his stomach to help him deal with the effects.

Luckily, Troy had no issue sucking down some chocolate milk, especially after his throat was irritated from my fingers. Just to be sure, we gave him some yogurt for breakfast too. Needless to say, my wife and I are a little on edge and raw right now. Troy seems to be showing no ill effects, other than avoiding me after handling him so roughly. Although, it should be noted that I have my own battle scars. When provoked, that little toddler has an astonishingly strong bite. I was bitten repeatedly while trying to pry his teeth apart. All in all, we’re just thankful to God for saving him.

The Polar Express - Part 3

This afternoon, we actually got power back for several hours, and after dealing with Troy all day, my wife needed a break. So, I told Troy that we’d go upstairs and play. But when we got up there, I took a detour to my office to check in at work. With the revolving outages, I haven’t been able to get much done, so I wanted to see if there were any fires to put out. While I was dealing with the only issue that was directed toward me, Troy came into my office and said, “Play! Dada, play!” I had to laugh, because he called me on my crap. I had told him we’d play, and then I didn’t immediately do it. So, he let me know that my priorities were screwed up!

While we were playing upstairs, my wife decided to bake some cookies. She’d had everything ready, so as soon as the power came back on, she could shove them in the oven. Turned out that there wasn’t a rush, since it didn’t go off again at the usual time. I think baking made her feel like things were a little more normal again. I also think she was craving some cookies!

I also managed to track down someone who would deliver firewood to our house. He was ridiculously over-priced, but it’s hard to be picky when you’re desperate. He unloaded it on our driveway this evening, so I spent a couple of hours hauling a rick of firewood to our backyard and stacking it so we could easily get to it. The exertion and exercise felt wonderful if exhausting. But now we have plenty of wood to burn away the days and nights...just in time for the weather to start warming up!

Since I was already outside and sufficiently warm, I decided to finish our snowman. At some point, wondering if I was dead in a snow bank somewhere, my wife came looking for me. Finding me working diligently on a snowman in the backyard, she started laughing. I guess it’s not every day you see a grown man building a snowman by himself. She dressed up the baby in his winter gear, and they joined me to play for a bit in the waning light of day.

And lo and behold, the power stayed on. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and for it to go off again, but maybe the worst is over. We’re definitely making the most of it, doing dishes and laundry and all of the other things that had been backed up all week.

The Polar Express - Part 2

With the rolling blackouts and the temperatures continuing to drop, we were having a hard time keeping the house warm. So, we decided to close off all the extra rooms, and confine ourselves to the den. Unfortunately, we were also running low on firewood, so we couldn’t use the fireplace to heat the house either. I attempted to venture out to the store to buy some, but no luck. Out of desperation, I decided to go into the garage and cut up all of my scrap wood to burn, which actually kept us going for a while.

Since the bedrooms were freezing, we dragged our king-sized mattress out into the middle of the floor of the den, so we could sleep in front of the fireplace. Last night, we all slept together with Troy sandwiched between us. We started out with equal thirds of the bed, but my section quickly dwindled to a fourth, as Troy decided that I was a good source of heat and snuggled up next to me. With one hand under my pillow and the other laying on my neck, he passed the night peacefully snoring in my face.

The power kept going on and off all night. It seemed like the temperature in the house would drop 6-7 degrees every time it went off, and only go up 4-5 degrees when it came back on. So, all night it was slowly, slowly getting colder and colder. But I’m generally considered to be the hot water bottle of the family, so I kept the bed toasty warm under the covers.

The working part of the day was more of the same as yesterday. Catch moments when the power was on to rush to the office and check in. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t rush as fast or stay online as long today as yesterday. There was nothing useful going on. With everyone in the city dealing with the same issues, nobody could get anything done. Besides, it was more fun to be playing with my family than working.

We had to come up with some creative ways to entertain Troy. I give major kudos to my wife, as she was truly a superstar today. At one point, Troy and I were playing with his balls upstairs, and my wife came up to see what we were up to. He wanted her to join in the fun, so he handed her a ball through the rails while she was still on the stairs. She put it down and flicked it across the floor with her finger. For some reason this tickled Troy to no end. He ran and retrieved the ball, brought it back, and handed it to her to do it again. Over and over again, my wife would flick it, and Troy would laugh hysterically.

Later in the day, I caught them doing a Congo line around the den and kitchen. My wife was doing the boom-boom hip wiggle, while Troy walked behind her with his hands on her backside. Every time she’d stop to do the boom-boom hip wiggle, Troy would laugh uncontrollably. And consequently so would my wife. They had so much fun together today. It was great to see after some of the tensions of being cooped up in the house for several days now.

My wife decided that she was tired of eating “used” food, so she scrounged around until she found some things that she could cook on the stove. Luckily, the gas had not gone out during this time, so if we could get the stove lit, then we could cook! So a charbroiled burger and some pasta it was.

We went out again today, but this time we attempted to walk on the icy, snow-covered mixture of a sidewalk. Troy showed his inexperience traversing this type of surface, taking off at a full sprint...and then promptly slipping and falling right on his padded backside. It didn’t deter him though. As soon as I helped him stand again (trying to do so on his own proved impossible in his thick winter coat), he was off at a run again. Which meant I was off at a run again, while my wife slowly and carefully brought up the rear. We made it halfway around the neighborhood like this, until Troy hit a particularly bad patch of ice and fell hard. At that point, he was done with the outside. He crawled into my arms, wrapped his shivering arms around my neck, and put his cold hands down the back of my coat. And I carried him back home, trying to adjust with his added weight as I tried not to fall on the icy sidewalk.

With a fire to warm his cheeks, and a snack to warm his belly, he was even able to catch a little bit of Camp Cretaceous before the power went off again.

The Polar Express - Part 1

We woke up this morning at around 4:00 am to the realization that we had no power and consequently no heat. We lit a fire and did the best we could do to stay warm under blankets. But when the temperature is in the single digits, it’s not easy to do.

When the sun finally lit the sky, we found that it was snowing. Everything was covered in a beautiful, thick white “blanket.” It made everything look so pure and fresh. The power eventually did come back on for about half an hour before going off again, which was pretty much how it was all day. Apparently, due to the extreme temperatures and the fact that everyone was stranded at home, electricity consumption was greater than supply. So, they had instituted rolling blackouts all over Dallas. Which basically means that they systematically turn off certain power grids for an hour, while diverting power to other grids, to regulate usage. Necessary maybe, but it sucks when the temperature inside your house is dropping drastically while it’s off.

The other issue I had was work. It’s hard to get much work done when your power is only on for one hour out of every two. So, I had to strategically run upstairs when it would come back on, answer some emails or MS Teams messages, and try to address some coding issues before it went back off again. And the downtimes were spent trying to entertain a restless toddler.

Luckily, we had some leftovers in the refrigerator. We just had to time our eating with one of the power surges, so we could heat it up. Which pretty much means you’re either eating when you’re not hungry, or you’re eating when you’re starving. We also tried to grab quick baths while the power was on, so we each got one throughout the day until we were finally all cleaned. But the majority of the day was spent trying to think up activities for Troy. We’d take turns to give each other a break or we’d all play together. It’s nice having time together without even the possibility of working. It makes you be in the moment and focus on quality time with your family.

We did go outside at some point in the afternoon. My wife didn’t think Troy would like it much, since she’d tried unsuccessfully to take him out yesterday. But we bundled him up anyway and traipsed out into the snow. He had a blast! He loved making tracks and throwing the soft, light snow up into the air and watching it drift slowly back down again. We chased him around the yard, while he tried to hide behind snow drifts. And we tried to make a little snowman, which Troy kept knocking down. It was good for him to get out for some exercise; get out of the house, get some fresh air, and wear himself out. The fun in the snow was a bonus!

Cowboy

I was playing with Troy this evening. During one of my many necessary breaks, I was laying on the floor on my face and Troy climbed on my back. I told him to grab ahold of my shirt, which he did, and then I slowly raised up on all fours. He kept hanging on, shifting his weight to balance, so I decided to move around. He rode on my back like a champ! He was a real cowboy. After a good long ride, he decided he was done and slid off my back. So, I guess now I’m his personal horsey.

Rejected

It is quite apparent now that my son favors my wife. And sometimes the rejection from him hurts more than I can bare. I love him endlessly, but during those moments it doesn’t feel like he loves me back. And it’s at those moments that I feel like I understand God a little better. I long for a relationship with Troy like God longs for a relationship with me. But I guess being a father means that sometimes that relationship is one-sided. I will always love Troy. I just wish that love didn’t have to come with so much rejection and hurt. My wife can't possibly understand how much it hurts to have your son push you away, run away from you, start crying when you come around, or actually tell you to leave. I hope she never does. I sometimes feel like an outside in my own family. They're together, and I'm on the outside looking in.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Part 2

We got a call today from the daycare. Apparently, Troy wrestled one of his friends to the ground and then sat on his face. While I definitely can’t condone his behavior, this situation sounded eerily familiar. It reminded me of a time when I was a kid, and my older brother wrestled me to the floor and sat on my face. I panicked, feeling trapped and scared, so I instinctively bit my brother on the backside with all I had. I hung on until he finally got off, screaming and bleeding. Which is pretty much what happened to Troy too. His friend, feeling panicked and scared, bit him on the thigh, leaving teeth marks, but not breaking the skin. Unlike Troy, I was the one that got in trouble for biting, while my brother got nothing for sitting on my face. I guess it pays to be the favorite!

Kids These Days

CC finally decided to take Declan back to daycare today. I think it’s a good thing, because I think Declan has been missing out on the social interaction of other two-year olds. I also think that it’ll be better for his development and coordination, not only the space and freedom to run and play more, but also the peer pressure of seeing other kids do things he can’t yet. But mostly, I think he’ll enjoy the exciting newness of it all.

CC was nervous, because it’s the first time that Declan will truly be on his own. At his first daycare, CC worked there, so he was never far away if he was needed. So, he really wasn’t sure what condition Declan would be in when CC went to pick him up. When CC arrived, he found Declan pretending to talk on a toy cell phone on the other side of the room. CC called to him softly several times, but Declan wouldn’t respond or acknowledge him. Finally, he called a little louder and more forcefully. Without turning around or laying down the phone, Declan raised one hand to CC, as if to say, “I’ll be with you in a minute.” I guess the issue isn’t whether he’ll like daycare, but how will they get him to leave.

Baching It

Tonight, my wife went back to her women’s Bible study for the first time in a year. This meant that Troy and I were baching it. I had high expectations, remembering days long ago when he and I used to play for hours together. But those days are gone. The first thing he wanted after I got him out of the bath was for me to turn the TV on Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, so he could watch his dinosaurs. I tried to recreate the show, using his little dinosaur figures, but he wasn’t having it. So, I had to up my game and invent dinosaur bowling instead. I set up his dinosaur toys like bowling pins, and then we used his toy cars to knock them down. This was a game he could get behind! Destruction he could do! After a few rounds of that, he got bored and wanted to ride his bike around the house. So, I obliged by chasing him around to make him go faster. Having pushed it as far as I could go, I finally had to relent on the TV when I clipped him in to eat.

After dinner, we snuggled up on the couch together and watched a few more episodes of the show. Well, not really episodes, per se, because Troy has seen them so many times that he insists on me fast-forwarding through the storyline, straight to the dinosaur scenes. He knows when they’re coming. Moments before they appear on the screen, he’ll scream out the dinosaur that’s coming, “Compie, Bumpy, Toro, T-Rex!” If I hadn’t already seen it as well, he definitely would be giving a spoiler alert. Not to self, always watch movies BEFORE taking Troy to see them. But the intro scene before each episode is by far my favorite to watch. Troy gets so excited that the T-Rex is about to burst through the gate, that he is literally shaking with excitement. Hand pointed at the TV, grin from ear to ear, screaming, “T-Rex! T-Rex! Teeeeeeee-Reeeeeehhhhhxxxx!”

After I put him in his crib for the night, I went to the other room to read a little and wait for my wife to get home. I heard him asking, “Mama, mama, mama?” So, I went in to check on him, and I found him standing in his crib, reaching over the back toward the bed, and trying to touch the bed where my wife sleeps. I rubbed his back and asked him what was wrong, and he simply pointed at her pillow and asked, “Mama?” Then, it dawned on me. He’s not used to going to sleep without my wife kissing him good night and telling him that she loves him. He missed his mama kisses. I gave him some extra love, and I stroked his hair until he settled down a little. I guess there’s some things dada can’t do.