Treasured Moments

Kenshin walks and climbs quite nimbly now - running is still a little ungainly-looking (gallumphing might be a word for it). His speech hasn't really progressed much at all - somewhat unusual for a nineteen month-old - but not something we're worried about yet.

Daigoro still speaks quite well and continues to show remarkable powers of observation daily. He's going through some odd phases of on-and-off separation anxiety at pre-school - probably arising from the long Christmas break.

Last night, after we put the kids down, Kenshin was crying and not wanting to go to sleep. We decided to wait and see what happened for a few minutes before we intervened. Our bedroom shares a wall with the kids' room and we can often hear what's going on.

We were laying in our bed, when I heard Daigoro start to sing to Kenshin in a soft, gentle voice. I couldn't quite make out the words, and the tune was unfamiliar, but Daigoro was definitely trying to comfort Kenshin with song. It was very, very sweet. About two minutes later, Daigoro stopped singing and sweet, blissful silence fell upon the house.

On the other end of the sweetness spectrum (what I like to term the "razza-frazza kids" end), the children are generally safe enough to be left for a minute or two without someone watching them like a hawk (enough time for me to go to the washroom, or go downstairs for something, etc.), but this little vignette was an exception.

The weekend before last, I was looking after the kids. Marli was in the house but didn't have responsibility for them at that moment (we usually verbally "hand off" the kids to one another a la pilot-in-command transfers on aircraft - a habit which generally avoids the "I thought YOU were looking after them" arguments). I had to go upstairs for something. Marli was already upstairs - I think Daigoro was with her. I figured, "I'll be upstairs for a few moments," what kind of trouble can Kenshin get into?

Heh.

I run upstairs, get the thing that I need, am coming down the stairs and see Kenshin there at the bottom of the stairs with a jar of jam hoisted over his head and about to throw it on the hard ceramic tile floor of our front hall, looking for all the world like some sort of bizarre toddler variant of Charleton Heston playing Moses in the Ten Commandments about to dash the stone tablets down the side of Mount Sinai.

I vault down the last few steps and grab the jam jar out of his hands just as he's about to throw it.

Frickin' jam? Why does a kid want to throw a jam jar around!? JAM!

Razza-frazza kids.

I Walk the Line...

Kenshin walked a few faltering steps on this past Tuesday (April 1st), coincidentally the day after I had a dream about him walking (well, in the dream he was more bouncing up and down while standing, but one has to reach when trying to correlate dreams and reality sometimes).

I'm quite excited, as is he. Wednesday he tried to run from the couch to the coffee table which had been pushed about two metres away - he fell on his face, but it was a valiant effort. He's now making regular one or two step walks from one object to another.

Just in time for his first birthday, too!

March "Break" - Day 4, Abridged

Standard Time > Daylight Savings Time has made kids crazy. Schedules all screwed up. Nearly lost it on the boys this morning while juggling late start, incoming phone calls and need to rendezvous with parents at Bruce's Mill Conservation Area for Sugarbush Maple Syrup 40th Anniversary Festival.

Lugged kids around for three hours (with my parents' kind help). Ate pancakes with maple syrup, sampled old-fashioned kettle process maple syrup, ate maple sugar candies, bought maple sugar, mapled the maple maple, then mapled to the maple for maple.

Uhh... where was I? Oh yes. Maple.

Tried out snow shoes, drank cedar tea (surprisingly not terrible), cut out maple leafs in upstairs craft room. Pony ride, then horse-drawn carriage ride. Lots of fun. Really. Just tiring.

Kenshin isn't sleeping well these days - may be teething related. This morning he took a single unsupported step, then immediately sat down. Marli is amused at his "head-shaking game" - his Ray Charles imitation has grown from occasional tic to actual "no" response, but also a game. If you shake your head at him, he will respond in kind, then shake his head to prompt you to imitate him. Very cute. He's climbing up and down stairs like a fiend now.

Some random Daigoro vignettes:

While eating corn and perogies at dinner:

Daigoro: "Mommy, what did we kill?"

Marli: "What? What do you mean?"

Daigoro: "What did we kill to get the corn?"

Another, separate occasion - ordering a shamrock shake (yay!) at McDonald's:

Kozure: "One medium shamrock shake, please."

Take out cashier: "That will be three fourteen, please. Second window."

Kozure: "Thanks!"

Daigoro: (pause) "Daddy, that lady sounds like a robot."

One very heart warming bedtime last week:

Daigoro: "Daddy?"

Kozure: "Yes, Daigoro?"

Daigoro: "You're the best daddy in the whole world."

[I didn't make that one up, I swear!]

My parents kindly purchased a season's pass for our family this past Christmas, so we headed to the Toronto Zoo this past Tuesday as well. FROG-ZIBITZ special March break event in honour of the Chinese Calendar Year of the Frog. Frogatorium. 'Nuff said.

Very, very tired now. Stopping with the blogging.

It Begins...

Well, Kenshin decided to try to stand unsupported the day before yesterday (Thursday, January 10th). I imagine he'll be trying to walk in the next month to two months.

Fortunately by this point, he's already been cruising and pulling himself up for a while now, so most dangerous things at the 45cm - 90cm range have already been found and made safe. (lower lying threats already been found and removed) There's an interesting period as the baby grows where the bubble (Venn diagram) of dangerous interaction expands and contracts.

For example, when a baby is newborn, it can't really move or roll over, so aside from compensating for gravity or accidental turnovers, you can basically leave them on any (non-spiky, non-flamey, etc) flat surface. Not that we did, but in a pinch you could, if you needed to. When the baby learns to roll-over, the danger bubble expands to include rolling off said flat surface. When baby learns to sit up, there is initially a mild danger to placing baby on a hardwood floor or similar surface for fear of baby toppling and bonking its head on an unyielding substance, but eventually the chances of topplage are very low and that danger contracts. Around the same time, however, the babe figures out how to drag things down from higher levels, and you have to worry about tablecloths, extension cords, pots of boiling water and the like.

When crawling begins, you of course have things like edges and stairways to worry about, but also the objects you might have previously left on the floor thinking they were not likely to be interacted with. Similarly, even stationary objects (like hot water radiators) that you don't place them anywhere near suddenly enter into play.

When cruising starts, objects on low surfaces (sofa tops, coffee tables, etc) become fair game for baby. Now, with unsupported standing and walking on the horizon... well, the sky's the limit.

One who has been reading this blog up to this point will probably have figured out that although we take reasonable precautions against childhood trauma, I'm not a parent who is paranoid about safety and injury. I know of and have heard of parents who take what I feel are such restrictive precautions so as not to place their child in any chance of danger at all - they don't let the child climb in the playground, all toys are super-safe, foods are finely minced... etc. etc... I suppose my position is that, like so many other aspects of life, you have to find the right balance.

It's during these periods of transition, however, that you do have to be more vigilant than usual. Things that have since become almost zero-level threats for Daigoro (like choking hazards or electrical outlets) became dangerous again as Kenshin reached an age where he could interact with them again.

In other news, I had a great time with Daigoro on Thursday swimming at a indoor public pool near my parents' house; he seemed to have terrific fun. A stand-out happier memory for me in what has generally been a happy childhood thus far.

Luke, I Understand

My wife bought me an awesome baby carrier backpack for my birthday this year. It's got padded straps, a chest connector and a waist belt to help distribute load over my shoulders, chest and hips.

That said, carrying an infant around on your back, even with a backpack as well-designed as the one Marli gave me, isn't always terribly fun. You have to watch yourself through doorways, walking around things (and other people) and you have to be careful when bending over or stooping.

So, when I think about Luke Skywalker gallivanting through the swamps of Dagobah carting around Yoda, who's hitting him over the head with a stick every so often, I can understand why he's a little testy at times. Well, downright whiny.

Luke, I understand.