Sunday, August 27, 2006

Martial Arts for Babies

From Carolyn

We all got sick yesterday. Pete's problem seemed to be duplicating what he had last month, so this morning we took Pete to the emergency room, which, as far as we can tell, is what we're supposed to do when Pete's doctor's office is closed. Erik drove to Newton to get prescriptions filled. But now Pete seems much better, so we're considering holding off drugs until tomorrow, and maybe even waiting until Tuesday, when we can call his real doctor and ask for advice.

While Erik's nose was roughing it out against the grindstone this afternoon, Pete and I went to the Aikido demonstration. I wasn't sure if Pete would sit still for it, but he was great. (He called out "Boom!" once when someone hit the mat and made his train whistle sound/sign when a train passed, but other than that he watched quietly.) There was good turnout (I thought). I wish we could have stayed to see some of the practice that followed, but Pete wanted to go out in the hallway and yell "BALL" about 50 times while looking at the trophy cabinets.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Bedside manner

From Carolyn:

When I put Pete to bed every night, we have a series of little rituals: big hugs, forehead kisses, handshakes, high-fives, sticking out our lower lips at each other. When we go through this ritual, he is standing up in his crib, often holding on to the horizontal bar of the side of the crib. I've been kissing the backs of both his hands as they grip the bar, but recently he has started raising up his hands to me, one by one, to be kissed, like a lady offering her hand to be kissed. I got him to to offer his hand to Erik this morning so he could see how cute and silly it is.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Who is the drooler and who the droolee?

From Carolyn:

Pete and I spent yesterday afternoon in City Park in Iowa City, playing in and around a small amusement park there. Pete particularly liked the train ride. We went on it twice, and both times he sat perfectly contentedly through the whole ride. There were lots of kids and dogs to interact with.

We approach dogs cautiously, asking the owners if we can come and pet their animals. (More accurately, I approach dogs carefully, while holding back Pete, who would lunge headlong at them, if left to his own devices.) One dog was being walked by a young teenager. He was enthusiastic about kids petting his dog and had her lie down so Pete and another little child could approach. The dog licked Pete all over, which Pete loved. But when Pete leaned over to hug the dog, he drooled a little on the dog's back. The young owner got quite upset--very offended that Pete had drooled on the dog. "She doesn't mind, but I don't think it's right!" Whoops! I apologized a couple of times and we made a quick exit

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Like a big boy

Pete has suddenly become much more independent in a lot of ways. He will now grab a book, wriggle himself onto a chair or couch, sit up, and "read" it, turning pages and commenting on the pictures. He has also sworn off riding in his stroller on our walks near our house; he wants to push rather than ride, and he almost always pushes to the street (he likes going over the curb and back), so today, we just left the stroller at home, and things went pretty well. When I think how recent his first step was, I can't believe how quickly his relationship to the world has changed.