balance

buffet

Dylan,

We took you out to Fresh Choice for dinner tonight for the first time. Yes, you made a considerable mess on the floor for someone else to clean up. You also ate like a champ. Mom put a whole mess of things out on the tray for you to sample and you just grabbed one indiscriminate handful after another and shoved it toward the back of your throat.

You ate Jello (Mom didn't take into account how much you like to sqeeeeze your food to make sure it doesn't get away!) You munched on a long piece of honeydew melon. When it got down to about an inch and a half it disappeared. I found it a little later resting on your far shoulder.

The real stunner of the night was the bread stick. We had given you the last little piece of mine and after a couple of funny looks, you took to it. It seemed a perfect food for you to learn how to use those teeth of yours. Mom picked up a new one so you could have a little more. I joked about you eating the entire thing. Oh, what a ridiculous notion that was, ha ha ha. Not. We kept feeding you other things --like meatballs-- as you finished off section after section of breadstick. You ate everything but the little bit that fell on the floor.

Someday when we're visiting Uncle Charlie, he and I will regale you with stories of all-you-can-eat buffets from our youth.

Dad

slide

Son,

You went down the slide today on the new play structure in the back yard. I set you at the top and you cruised down to meet me, riding the humps with a quiver and a thrill.

Dad

toy toss

Busy D,

You've learned how to throw things over your shoulder.

We keep two plastic bins of toys in the living room on the side of the rug that demarcates your play area. Often now you'll scramble over, rear up on your knees keeping one hand on the edge of a bin and start pulling out toy after toy. The selection process is quick and definitive. Anything less than the right toy for the job is unceremoniously hefted over your shoulder and dropped, descending into apparent oblivion, as far as you're concerned. Unblinking, you do not waver from the task at hand, though rejected toys may pile like mountains at your heels.

Dad

knock knock

Dylan,

You woke me up by pounding on the wall this morning. I hope that was a coincidence.

You were also especially happy. Probably had something to do with this being the first day in a while that you didn't have a poopy diaper waiting to be changed. You then played by yourself for a long time, waited patiently through another diaper change (bingo!) and a change into your school clothes, and continued to occupy yourself with the toys in your room until Mom was ready to go.

What a great kid!

Dad

five dollars

D,

You have a new play structure standing in the back yard. Nana bought it for you at a garage sale. It's a multi-colored three-walled plastic unit with two floors and a slide. You're not in sufficient control of your body (nor sufficiently afraid of falling) to be cut loose on the thing, but Mom took you out to play on it yesterday and you loved it.

Dad

reading circle

Dylan,

When I arrived to pick you up from school yesterday I found you sitting quietly and attentively in a small circle of your peers listening as someone read a story. It was as if you had aged a year that day.

Dad

marathon

Dylan,

Thanks for putting up with long stroller rides.

Your imminent arrival last year inspired me to improve my health and fitness. I started eating better in an effort to lower my cholesterol, and ended up losing a bunch of weight. Then somebody "invited" me to do a marathon with him this Fall and I took up running. Again.

Now Mom and I are both doing long workouts on the weekends, and often enough that means you're along for the trip. That means you sometimes have to hang out in the stroller, napping and sight-seeing, for hours at a stretch.

Today you hung tight for two hours and five minutes while the whole family ran 14.5 miles together on the Creek Trail.

Thanks again,

Dad

millenium

Dylan,

Last night we went out for dinner to celebrate Uncle Marc's birthday at Millenium, a fancy upscale vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco . They had a high chair waiting for you.

Mom and I were able to keep you pretty much engaged, mostly by feeding you constantly. You ate your baby food, some cheerios, some red beans from my dinner plate, and some lentils from Mom's. And before any of this you ate practically the whole bowl of green lentil spread that came with the bread (don't worry, we got a second bowl). Mom and I each took you outside for a brief break-- me before the main course arrived and Mom before dessert-- just to head off any potential meltdowns. You absolutely loved the nightlife in The City. We stood just outside the front door and you soaked in the lights, the people, and the action. Passers by stopped to tell me you were beautiful, or to tell me about their own kids and the wonderment of procreation. You flapped your arms and legs in excitement as you found one thing after another to focus your attention on.

Inside, another guest from a nearby table stopped to tell us how incredibly well-behaved you were. She said her 5 yr-old doesn't behave as well in restaurants and never had. That was nice to hear.

Dad

busy d

Dylan,

The folks at school say you're "busy". Always scrambling hither and yon, playing and exploring. It's really nice to know not only that you've made yourself comfortable in those new surroundings quickly, but also that you're especially inquisitive and high-energy in the eyes of people who have a lot more data to compare you against than do I.

You've also bonded very quickly with Shirley (your primary caregiver at school). When you got tired, you'd fuss when she left the room, and settle down when she returned.

Fostering your ability to build trusting relationships was high on our "Parents' To-Do" list. Check.

You also didn't cry when we left you there Monday morning, and didn't cry for Mommy until you saw her through the window when she came to pick you up in the evening.

We're off to a very good start.

Dad

spicy

Dylan,

You really like eating flour tortillas. Especially the "Organic Sun-Dried Tomato and Habanero Pepper" variety.

Nice.

Dad

End of Summer

It's been a long season for us but now it ends. Not just Summer, but Cheryl's Maternity Leave and Dylan's days at home with Mommy. She goes back to work today and he goes to school.

It's good that he has no real concept of the passage of time.

Dad

school today

"6:40, no poop; Woke up in a good mood"

Such was the mental note Mommy made on the morning of Dylan's first day of "school".

Dad

teddy bear

Dylan,

You bonded with your first teddy bear. You have a variety of bears and other stuffed animals that you received as gifts, mostly before you were born, which have primarily served as room decorations because we kept your crib clear of toys for so long. Your bear of choice seems to be the one Aunt Gretchen and Uncle Todd made for you. It probably has a name already, but I can't remember what it is.

Dad

angry face

Dylan,

You gave yourself an angry look the other day when I was holding you in front of a big mirror. It was a face I hadn't seen you use and you seemed to be directing it at yourself (although you haven't caught on to the whole reflection thing).

Dad

Ten

Big D,

You're ten months old today.

As I said to Mom yesterday, we're a good five percent of the way there. ;)

Dad

neighbors

Dylan,

Tonight after I got home from work I took you next door where I could hear Emma(4) and Ian(2) playing in their backyard. Emma invited you to sit with her in a little inflatable boat, then got out to find and bring you a string of toys to sample. You did very well with a large plastic shovel and were content enough to stay in the boat that I was free to play some (form of) baseball with Ian.

Emma was very pleased to have "Baby Dylan" over.

It was a good visit. We didn't leave there until 7:00 but we got you fed, bathed, nursed, and asleep by 7:58.

Good night, d.

Dad

holding your own

Dylan,

When you were a very little boy I enjoyed feeding you a bottle. I always tried to do my share of caring for you and the bottle helped me overcome the biological handicap Fate deals to all dads.

But sometimes it was a pain. To hold you and hold your bottle for you meant I didn't have any surplis capacity for other important things, like grabbing the remote control or scratching my nose. Many were the feedings that I reminded myself that one day you'd be able to manage a bottle on your own.

Ta da! That day has come. And it's a good thing, too because when you start school next week it will be required of you.

At home we can lay you on the floor with your head propped up a little on the boppy and you'll hold your bottle with both hands and drink it down while watching Baby Einstein.

Dad

school

Dylan,

We've (read: Mommy) picked a daycare for you to attend when Mommy goes back to work next Monday. She's been trying to soften the blow by acclimatizing you to the new environment. Two or three times this week she brought you in and hung around for an hour or two while you sat in. You're apparently taking it in stride, very happy to be there and to play with other kids. We'll see how it goes when there's no Mommy around when you go lookin'.

To reduce confusion with the baby-sitting service at the gym, which we've always called "daycare", and to help build positive associations with the word, we're calling the place "school".

We've requested that your "primary caregiver" at school be the lady who sings all the time. We think you'll like that.

Dad

sickness

Dylan,

You got sick for the first time. You threw up all over the couch just about as soon as Mommy was done feeding you. Then you threw up again later all over your crib. It splattered everywhere and was even dripping down the wall.

You were obviously not yourself that day. You were very subdued and tired-looking. You had gone a pretty long time without holding any food down. You'd never gone so long without taking advantage of your Huggies' super-absorbant properties. You were extra cuddly, especially with Mommy.

We gave you two ounces of water, and you held that down. Thirty minutes later, another two ounces. Continuing on the half-hour, next went down two ounces of PediaLyte, two ounces of half-strength formula mixed with PediaLyte, two ounces of regular-strength formula and then a healthy nap. I could hear the liquid sloshing in your tummy while I rocked you to sleep.

Over the next coupla days you got steadily and progressively better, although you did spit up several times which (although it was once your signature move) has been very rare of late.

Dad