Yummy sprinkles

(Originally posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 by Cathy)

I totally want a "ask me about my yummy sprinkles" T-shirt, but how many people would get the reference? :)

New tricks

(Originally posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 by Tim)

Sung to the tune of "Twinkle, twinkle, little star", or "Ba ba black sheep", or the "A, B, C" song. You pick.

Pitter patter little toes,
Watch the baby, there he goes.
Climbing on the shelf so high,
See the baby try to fly.
Pitter patter little toes,
Watch the baby, there he goes.

The last month has been filled with developmental milestones for Dalton. He?s started to walk and quickly transitioned to walking being his major mode of locomotion. He?s also started talking. He has five words depending on how picky you are. He?s also learned this new skill (you might want turn your monitor sideways for this one). I have to say that it?s put a damper on one of our schemes to increase parental sleep.

As you may already know, Dalton sleeps in bed with us. What this means is that he's used to going to sleep with a parent next to him. Ok, he goes to sleep with Cathy next to him and a boobie in his mouth. This means that we don?t have him on anything resembling a schedule. For Dalton to get to sleep, he has to walk over to Mom, latch on, and decide to stay there until he conks out. This generally happens sometime between 7 pm and 10 pm depending on how many naps he has had, whether there's anything more interesting in his field of view, and how cranky he?s feeling. This can be fairly tedious, especially when he's in a cranky mood, very tired, and adamant about not going to sleep. When this happens, he often doesn?t give in to the sleepies until he falls down or crashes into something because he?s too tired to maintain decent motor control. There?s then crying followed by nursing followed by the blessed victory of the Sandman.

One of our recent tricks has been to hint that it is bedtime by turning out the lights and having Mom and/or Dad lie down to go to sleep on the floor of his playroom. Sometimes this would result in his crawling around for a few minutes, get bored, and crawl over to Mom to nurse and go to sleep. As the parent, you could even go to sleep in this scenario because the playroom was safe. We'd baby-proofed it to the point where there really wasn't anything he could get into.

This, of course, changed when Dalty added a little z-axis to his life. There?s no going to sleep when the baby can climb up on the toy box system. Not only do we need to worry about him taking a swan dive onto the floor, but he also likes to carry heavy toys up there and bang on the windows. He?s also reasonably unconcerned over the consequences of quickly returning to floor level. If he reaches for your hand, he's likely to soon jump off!

Airport Adventures

(Originally posted on Monday, August 6, 2007 by Tim)

Working your way through the airport is a different experience with a toddler. There?s a lot of extra baggage to be carried and he really isn?t interested in helping with it. There?s the diaper bag that is stuffed until the seams stretch with diapers and wipes and food and toys and books and clothes and baby utensils. There?s the stroller that is great for carrying the extra luggage through the airport when the baby isn?t in it. Finally, there?s the car seat that is just heavy and unwieldy to carry. I?m seriously considering hiring a Sherpa for our next airport adventure.

The best part of the toddler airport adventure is getting through security. I?ve been sending Cathy through with the baby and then I proceed to dismantle the stack of things I?ve heaped on top of the stroller. Shoes go in one tray, the computer in another, and the camera in a third. My backpack (containing the work I never even attempted) goes on the conveyer followed by the car seat, followed by the folded up stroller. Each time the stroller or car seat are disturbed, a shower of Cheerios and desiccated peas shower the floor leaving a trail through the security station that even Hansel and Gretal could follow.

I saw an interesting device in the Rochester Airport today. It was apparently a replacement for the metal detectors that are present in most airports. I think they were trying it out because they had the normal metal detectors and then they were herding a small line of business travelers through this thing. It was like the metal detectors, only longer and thicker. The TSA agents would prod a meticulously dressed salesman into and tell him to stand still. The device would then blow air at him (complete with air compressor noises) lifting up parts of his sport coat and ruffling his pants against his legs. When I first saw it, I burst out laughing. I couple of businessmen looked at me uncomfortably when I did this. Apparently, they thought I might draw attention to them and they would be subjected to the wind tunnel treatment.

I have a guess for what the machine is for. I expect the air is supposed to blow any traces of explosives off of the clothes of the suspected terrorist. The some of the air around the traveler is then collected and run through a mass spec. If compounds with masses common to explosives are detected, then the TSA folks know who to tackle. I thought about asking one of the TSA folks what the machine was for but I decided against it. First, they seemed to be on high alert in Rochester. Second, I really wanted to know if my idea was correct and I doubt he would have known what a mass spectrometer was. Finally, I slipped on a paste of Cheerios and squashed peas and by the time I recovered my balance, the opportunity had passed.

Today?s picture is of Grandpa Johann entertaining Dalton while we were waiting in the airport. Dalton had made a beeline for the escalator. I have it on good authority that those things eat toes so we wouldn?t let him stand on it. However, he seemed to be content to ride it up and down repeatedly in the arms of Grandpa.

New York Wedding

(Originally posted on Sunday, August 5, 2007 by Tim)

We are in New York this weekend for my cousin?s wedding. The ceremony was held in a Catholic church with beautiful stained glass and fifty foot cathedral ceilings. The place was immaculate to arms length (or greater distance) inspection. I always wonder how you do cleaning and maintenance on a ceiling that high. I guess they bring in one of those cherry picker things. This church had an older feel to it which makes me wonder what they did before someone invented cherry pickers. I?m guessing really tall ladders or they had someone swinging around in the rafters on ropes.

We?ve always worried a bit that Dalton might burst into flame when we bring him into a church. He?s been in a few so far, but all he seems to do is break into a rash. I coated him with a whole tube of hydrocortisone cream to try and keep him happy during the wedding. Unfortunately, he only lasted about five minutes before he started testing the acoustics in the room. Needless to say, Cathy and I spent most of the service walking him around outside. I am curious as to one thing. How many sins did Dalton/we rack up for him eating Goldfish crackers during communion.

The reception was held at a golf club that had a beautiful view of Seneca Lake. Golf courses seem to have less of an allergenic affect on Dalton than churches and he had a good time. He enjoyed crawling and walking around the ballroom and pretty much getting into anything that Mom and Dad would allow. It was a fun party and not so loud that we felt the need to remove him.

A nice benefit of the trip was that Dalton got to see a number of his relatives on my side of the family for the first time. The picture above is of him with his Great Grandma Buswell.