Trent's Words

Trent can say several words now. He says "Mommy" quite clearly and unambiguously. He also pronounces "Bye" correctly and uses it in the right situations. He says "Da" or "DaDa", but not as well as "Mommy". He has other words that he doesn't pronounce correctly, but that he does use consistently to refer to things. He uses "Ba" for his bottle. He says something I don't know how to spell that means kitty. He uses several other sounds for several other things. Tina things he has about a dozen words total.

The Quest for a Wii

After many weeks of polling various stores, Tina and I finally managed to acquire a Nintendo Wii. It's the latest console game system from Nintendo. It was designed by Nintendo to have appeal beyond the typical gaming market. It has a new controller that has many revolutionary features. The controller allows the user to aim a cursor on the screen by pointing. The controller has accelerometers and level sensors. It's really pretty neat. The systems comes with Wii Sports. It includes simulations of bowling, golf, baseball, boxing, and tennis. The neat thing about the game is that playing the game involves making the actual motions associated with real sport. They're all games that you play standing up. When you bowl, you bring you arm back and swing it through in a real bowling motion. When you golf you swing the controller like a golf club. It's really a very neat system. In addition, we've also been playing WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Smooth Moves is a game made up of over 200 very small micro-games. The idea is that players are presented with very simple puzzles to solve and only a few seconds to solve each one. Last, but not least, is Legend of Zelda. I've never played a Zelda game before. So far it's been a lot of fun. It's an interesting cross between Ultima and a Sierra Online game.

Trent Pulls Up

Trent can now pull up. He can also perform a slow hand a knee crawl. What he cannot do, is pull up and then get back down safely. Seems to be a little flaw in the process there. Almost as if the human development process where randomly evolved instead of intelligently designed. Anyway, when we put him in his bed, he'll sometimes feign sleep, wait for us to leave the room, pull himself up on the side of the crib and start crying. Then, if we don't get there in time, he'll fall to one side or the other and invariably knock his head against the side of the crib.

Trent's First Trip To The ER

We've just returned from Trent's first trip to the emergency room. Trent was having difficulty retaining fluids and was becoming dehydrated, so his pediatrician recommended taking him in to the ER to receive intravenous fluids. So, Trent had an IV put in his arm and we had to keep him calm and still for a couple of hours while he took on fluid. He seems much better now, and we've been able to get some oral hydration solution into him without him bringing it back up. On bad news side, Tina appears to be coming down with the stomach flu now.

Trent's First Illness

Trent has gotten through his first eight months of life without an illness. Now in his eighth month he's come down with some sort of stomach flu. He's been suffering from diarrhea and vomiting. To his credit, he's been a real trooper. He's been mostly cheerful despite spewing formula all over himself on several occasions. The main challenge now is to find some way to keep him hydrated until the virus runs its course.

Trent's Progress

Trent seems to be on the verge of crawling. He can already go pretty much anywhere he wants by crawling on his stomach. He gets up into the crawling position and tries to take that first move forward and collapses back onto his stomach and crawls from there. He also is so close to being able to get himself into a sitting position. He can jack himself up onto one arm. If he could just get an inch or two higher, he'd fall into a sitting position. If I stand him up against the Superyard, he can grab a hold and stand up by himself for brief periods of time. Trent has also shown signs of playing Peek-a-boo. When given a cloth, he will sometimes cover his face with it and then pull it back quickly while laughing hilariously. It's hard to tell whether he's doing it as part of a game or not, but he does repeat the behavior, which seems like an indication. One last new behavior to mention, Trent now guestures with his arms to indicate that he'd like to be handed off to someone he sees nearby.

Trent's New Tricks

Trent has developed a few new tricks. He can now roll pretty much wherever he wants to go. He does seem to be following some sort of plan. I don't think he's just randomly ending up grabbing a hold of the cat's food dish. He can push himself up from the waist forward on his hands. He can make small forward progress by pushing up and then pushing forward with his feet. I think I've seen him momentarily push himself into the crawling position. It's a weird feeling sometimes. You think you see him do something and then second guess yourself thinking you just imagined it. He really loves the cats. He always has a smile for his mommy, but any time a cat crosses his field of vision he just smiles and laughs. He has taken to sleeping with his legs tucked up underneath his body. This has the effect of pushing his butt up into the air. It always makes me laugh. He really is a pretty well-natured happy little guy. Maybe he's even an extravert. Hard to imagine where he got that gene. I think my maternal grandmother was an extravert, but she's the only one I can think of in the family. Sometimes, I think I hear him say something. Like el-oh. Sometimes, he even says it at a time that's appropriate, like when I walk into his room in the morning to get him out of bed. That I'm probably just imagining.

Three Long Months

Tina is three weeks into a three month stint doing consults for the nephrology department. I don't claim to understand the organization. My best understanding is that she's responsible for dealing with questions and cases presented by other departments that might be nephrological. This means that she leaves for work very early in the morning and returns home, on a good day, about 13 hours later. Normally people don't get scheduled for three months in a row, but I guess this is paying off the karmic debt for maternity leave last year. Sometimes, while on consults, she is also on call. Which means that if anything happens that requires nephrological attention during off hours, she has to deal with that as well. As a fellow, she does get to come home while she's on call, but if a situation arises that needs a doctor, she has to go into the hospital. It's a pretty tough gig. Only one year and three months to go until...whatever Tina plans to do after her fellowship.

Double-Crusted Success at Long Last

I consider myself a relatively accomplished amateur baker. One thing that has always eluded me, however, is the creation of a double-crusted pie. Today I successfully made a double-crusted deep dish apple pie. The key to success was a good butter crust pie recipe, adequate refridgeration, and that miracle of modern baking -- parchment paper. The recipe and instructions can be found at America's Test Kitchen under the title "Deep Dish Apple Pie".

Trent's Progress

I'm a little behind on Trent news. He's now six months old. He can roll from his back to his tummy and visa versa. If placed in a seated position, he can remain in the seated position from several minutes. He has very strong legs and can stand with assistance without problems. If you hold him up and lean him forward, he'll take steps. I walked at nine months, so we're expecting Trent to be an early walker too. He eats solid foods. He babbles a lot. Sometimes he appears to say the syllable "ma" in an appropriate context, but that could just be random. He also seems to combine the syllables "el" and "o" occasionally when he sees me after waking up. Again, may just be my imagination.

Minivans, Carseats and Sheet Goods

We bought a minivan. It's a Toyota Sienna. Nautical Blue. Which is marketting for Navy Blue I guess. I wanted a vehicle that could haul an 8x4 foot sheet of plywood. I couldn't have a truck because mounting Trent's car seat in the bed just wouldn't be safe. So, it was a minivan. Some of you are busy subtracting cool points from my tally. Assuming you ever had me down for any to begin with. My only defense is that other than "coolness" there is no metric by which an SUV is better than a minivan. What are the units of coolness anyway?

Trent Talks It Up

Trent has made some progress on his talking. He's started using more words intentionally. He's learned to say "please" as a prompt when he wants something from Tina or I. "Thank you" appears to be more difficult. After all, he's usually already gotten what he wants by the time "thank you" becomes appropriate. He uses the word "ball". When we're looking at picture books Trent will point at balls that appear in the pictures and say "ball". He's learned to say the word "moon". That word comes from the classic Goodnight Moon. Trent can point out the moon in the window and say "moon". Trent can also point at light fixtures and say "light". He's also demonstrated some understanding of the scripting associated with using a phone. He picks up a lot of things that are vaguely phone shaped and make taking sounds into them. He usually ends up by saying "bye bye".

Trent Rolls One Way

Tina and I observed Trent roll over last night. When motivated by a tempting rattlely object, he can now roll over his right shoulder onto his stomach. Once on his stomach, he can also nudge himself forward slightly if an object is placed in front of him outside his reach. He has not yet demonstrated the ability to roll from his stomach onto his back. And when the tempting object is placed to his left, he won't roll left to get it. Hopefully, this doesn't mean he's a republican.

Trent's Allergies

After Trent's four month pediatrician appointment, we had some blood tests done. The little guy had a pretty tough day. Four shots and a blood draw. The results of the blood tests are back and Trent is allergic to...nothing that we tested him for. Tina tells me that these tests have the potential to yield false negatives, but we're going to try reintroducing the foods we've been avoiding. Tonight we had pizza! Tomorrow night Chinese! It's good to have all the tools back in the box.

The Cow Skull

I promised to hang up the cow skull as soon as I had a place to put it. Now that I have the shop put together, I have that place. As promised, here is the cow skull.

Where Has Rhett Been?

Well, the short answer is supervising Trent and in the shop. I've been putting together a wood shop to pursue one of my many dreams. This one involves making furniture. I'm a big fan of Norm Abram's New Yankee Workshop. My shop isn't as well equiped as Norm's, but I can still do some stuff. I recently did some introductory exercises on the scroll saw from a very good book. I produced basic sillouettes of a cat, a fish, and a butterfly.

Trent Comes Home

Trent came home from the hospital today. He has a clean bill of health so far. It took him about a day to learn to breast feed, which was worrisome, but he's doing well with it now. The cats have both approached him and sniffed him a bit. Tina's parents brought his first hat home early so that the cats could smell his scent for a day or so before Trent's arrival. I'm feeling pretty good. Haven't gotten much sleep, but seemingly enough to function at the level required to take care of an infant.

More Crimson Raptor

I've been delinquent in posting more baby pictures. What can I say? The move and everything just happened at the same time. But, now I've got the computer up again and I have some time to scan a one of the thermographs and capture some frames from the ultrasound video. Here they are. Plus, here's an MP3 of the heartbeat.

Home Owner's Insurance

About two weeks after we moved into the new house, Allstate cancelled our homeowner's insurance. They sent us a form letter where they said that our siding had dry rot. The next day, they sent us a check for the balance of our policy. This caused me a little worry. I called our agent (who was great throughout the whole process) and she said she would find some details for us. While we were waiting for that, we panicked. We started trying to get estimates on residing the house. Tried to find another insurance company that would cover us. Residing the house would cost at least $10,000. State Farm said they would not insure us if we had dry rot. They also said they would not insure us if we fixed the dry rot because they don't insure anyone who has either filed a claim or suffered a loss in the last three years. Repairing the siding would have counted as a loss. Finally, (again our agent was very supportive throughout the whole process) the insurance inspector came back out to the house to point out the problems. He wanted us to replace about 16 square feet of siding. Our insurance policy was cancelled over 16 square feet of siding. Our agent says that if we fix it, she will be able to reinstate our policy. I fixed it this afternoon. All that's left to do is a little painting.

It's a Boy!

Tina and I just returned from our 18 week ultrasound. Crimson Raptor is a boy! All the ultrasound measurements of development were normal. There were twenty digits all in the right places. There was a four-chambered heart, a brain, a good looking spine, and a pair of kidneys. I'll post some pictures and maybe some video a little later on when I've got the computer better set up. I recorded the whole ultrasound exam on video, so we have that for posterity. Now, we just have to find a name for a boy. We'd actually already settled on a name for a girl. Not because we had a preference, just because we happened to agree on that particular name. Anyway, there it is!