Family Fuller

I get up early to go to work almost every day - the one hour drive through Detroit traffic requires it. So I’m out the door before 6am, and part of my ritual is to stop in and say bye to Colin. He is almost always asleep when I go in there.

With the onset of winter, and with sunset pushed back to after 7am, it’s pretty dark in the house around 6am. So I go in there this morning, couldn’t see anything, and I walk over to the crib to check on the man - little did I know that he was standing up in the corner, not making a noise…until I was right on top of him. Completely freaked me out. Score one for little C.

Here’s a totally unrelated photo, just because - I can’t believe he was ever this small or bald:

Baby-fever seems to be spreading, and I’m not talking about the walking pneumonia Colin has had for a couple of weeks - seems like we’re surrounded by friends having babies.

Jess just found out last night that her old work pal Jen and Jen’s husband Matt will be having a child in March. Our friends Nate and Kristin just told us they’re having a baby (also due in March) at Colin’s 1st birthday party, and Tucker and Emily just had their first child about ten days ago (they didn’t have a name three days after the birth, so I’m just calling her Baby Jane Ball).

So who’s next? My money is on our friends Colleen and Ian, I’m not sure how Jess has it handicapped.

We’ve got definitive confirmation that I’m not the only one who gets rocked by their kid’s ailments (as if I didn’t know this already). When I was boasting to Jess last night that I’d blogged TWO DAYS in a row, I mentioned that the one thing I didn’t include in yesterday’s post was that the reason it’s so hard, especially when they’re babies, is that they have no way of telling you what’s wrong and little understanding (seemingly) of why it’s happening. There’s just something patently unfair about the whole thing.

A half hour later she reported that her friend Hailey, who has a 1 year old as well, had sent her an email about her sick son (Ewan). And she mentioned how hard it was for the exact reasons I’d mentioned thirty minutes before. And of course my Mom sent me an unsolicited comment about how nothing’s worse than when they’re sick. I don’t know how any of us make it through to when they turn 18.

Anyway, here’s a random shot of the cutest kid in the world, just because I can:

He’s got his Yanks sweatshirt on, hoping for a good outcome this weekend against the hated Sox.

I’ve been having one of those ’so that’s how my parents felt’ moments lately, because Colin is sick for the first time. In a scenario that’s sure to be repeated numerous times down the road, he picked up some sort of bug (possibly from Jess - it’s all Mommy’s fault!) that has caused a couple of weeks of coughing, congestion, runny noses…you get the idea.

I had no idea how much this would pain me, watching him deal with this, and mostly unable to do much about it. We had three days of comically trying to get him to take a whopping dose of antibiotics using an eye dropper - sticky red medicine spit everywhere, much crying, and ultimately (hopefully) some of the medicine getting in there.

It seems to be working, but your children’s sickness really does affect you more than you’d think. So to my own Mom and Dad, sorry for putting you through this hundreds of times - sorry for the broken limbs, the flu, chicken pox, the time I used my bare feet as brakes on my Big Wheels a la Fred Flintstone, and all the rest.

I work in e-commerce, deal with technology and blogs all the time, and I’ve hadalmost no postings here since Colin was born - what kind of horrible father am I?

Horrible as I may be, I had a bit of an epiphany last night, as I watched Colin yet again turn on the cold water in the bathtub. As a bit of background, we have an old cast iron tub made new again - it’s a great tub - and the hot and cold water handles are more fascinating to Colin than any toy we try to use to distract him. Further proof that the seemingly mundane is always more interesting to kids that the bells and whistles we try to throw at them.

He’s gotten better about the handles, for some time I spent the whole of the bath trying to distract him from constantly turning the handles and sending a jet of water in his face. Now what we have is this overwhelming desire to make sure that the cold is turned on just a bit. He has apparently figured out exactly where the handle needs to go to get just a trickle going - once that’s done he turns to the foam letters, cups and assorted other bath distractions; but the second you turn it off he hones in on the faucet and goes right back to turn it on.

So getting back to that epiphany, it was simply that a) there are a million little things like that which make parenting fun, b) I’d like to remember those and c) I know my memory sucks, so why not record it! And it only took me a year to figure it out.

I can’t believe it has already been a year. Colin’s first birthday was September 14th. We had a mini party on his birthday, just Chuck, Colin and I - some pizza, balloons and a tiny cake. Then a couple days later we had his real party. Chuck’s parents came to MI just for the party and Colin was very happy to see them.

The party wasn’t all I had hoped…it was supposed to be a backyard BBQ. It rained. So we had 20 adults and 7 kids in our house. For those of you who have been here, you know that is a tight fit. At one point we tried to go outside and then a swarm of bees attacked, so we had to go back in. Everyone said they had a good time, but my grand decorating plans were not to be - oh and Colin was sick…ah well
Colin is really growing fast and like Chuck said he does all these things you think “Oh I will remember this”, then a fews months later you have already forgotten. So here are some things I want to remember:

1. Eating (or as we have called it “miniature golf”) - This can be stressful. I never have any idea how much he will eat. He may take one bit of food then start swatting his arms around - hence miniature golf. Getting a spoonful of food in his mouth is like trying to get the ball through the windmill. Also he doesn’t like sweets. No fruit, no juice - wouldn’t even eat his birthday cake. The only sure fire items are bread, chicken, sweet potatoes, oatmeal and the biggest one of all - cheerios. The boy loves his cheerios. He won’t drink milk at all.

2. The living room - we pretty much spend all day playing in the living room. Sevi makes the dining room too dirty/hairy. Colin crawls over to the stereo/TV - he scared himself (and me) to death by turning up the volume. So we removed the speakers. Then he crawls over to the exercise bike, spins the pedals and tries to chew the mat. So I move him. He crawls over to the bookshelf. Takes every single book off the bottom shelf (all his books) then starts to pull off all the cookbooks. I distract him. He moves to the end table - yanks on the phone cord and then the lamp plug. I move him again, he crawls over to the landing. Practices going up and down a few times then decides he is ready for the stairs. Yesterday he made it all the way upstairs. Twice. All of this takes place in about 30 minutes. Then we do it all over again. Of course lately he has started cruising the furniture so that adds a bit more in the mix.

3. Pointing - he points and talks about everything. And always says “oooh” as he points. It is hilarious. He will point at balloons, people, signs, trucks. He is especially fond of the “Nature’s Market” sign at the grocery story, that gets at least 5-6 oohs. The sign is really nothing special - brown and green, granted it is large but still.

4. Words - He talks all the time. Almost constantly when we are out. I know he thinks he is saying things. There are a few words he can definitely say, dada, mom, ball, bubbles, balloon, truck and stop. I think he also knows how to sevi and squirrel (fitting :). He knows what a lot of objects are and can point at them or go and get them if I ask him: book, tomato, pumpkin, duck, rabbit, frog, flower, etc. He surprised me when at his year appt. the dr asked where his toes were and right away he grabbed them. He knows where my nose is and my ears and he can get specific books - such as the “lady bug book.” It is really amazing how much and how fast they can learn. Once I realize he knows another word I end up feeling guilty I haven’t taught him enough - however we talk all the time so I hope he just learns from that.

5. Dancing - anytime any music comes on he bops his head for about 5 seconds. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if it is the radio, the local on the 8s or just Chuck taping on the table.

That is about all I have for now - if anyone is reading this you are probably thinking how much more eloquent Chuck’s blogs are…what can I say…too bad