 |
|
|
Pictures News |
2007-04-01:
As you can see from last month's pictures, the boy's hair has been looking a bit
ratty. This will not do. That's Niklas at the Kid Snip's in the middle of the snipping. It's pretty cool as far a hair cutteria's go. Plus, since Niklas can't have candy, I got a sucker. The experience wore him out, though, as you can see:  Later, he fussed around a bit, played on his new playmat, had some slightly-bigger boy food in the form of Gerber's Banana-Orange Medley and then passed out for the night. There are some new pictures up, including the awful hair alluded to earlier. All of the March news has been archived here. Niklas didn't get drunk on St. Patrick's Day, but he did throw up a bit. 2007-04-03: Last weekend, Niklas did an outstanding job of sleeping through the night. On Saturday and Sunday he slept until about 5:45, yelled at me to change his diaper (which was quite necessary as Huggies Stage 3 diapers are insufficiently equipped to handle 11 plus hours of urine) and then went back to sleep until 7:00 or so. Awesome. Sadly, the past two mornings (when Andrya and I cannot take turns napping the morning away), Niklas decided to get up at 3:30 to demand the diaper change (it hadn't even overflowed yet, what a baby) and then again at four or five just to yell. Pleasant. Niklas has never been to the Dairy Queen. This has not stopped him from putting together a piece of performance art he likes to call "Soft Serve Poop In A Hand In Lieu Of A Cone". This Off-Jefferson Street performance unfolded as follows: Scene 1 - Niklas took a poop. Scene 2 - Andrya removed his poop filled diaper which smelled like a cross between a swamp and a compost pile that's located in a swamp. She cleaned the tar like substance off of him while I stood around whining about the smell. Scene 3 - When Andrya put her hand under Niklas's butt so as to apply diaper rash-preventing balm, Niklas pooped on her. Scene 4 - Andrya uttered an appropriate expletive. Scene 5 - After we had cleaned the poop off of Niklas and Andrya, Niklas pooped again, this time hitting only his changing table cover. The poop was half brown and half green, just like a swirl soft serve cone. Fin 2007-04-04: I got poop on my foot today. Interested how? Of course you are. Here's what happened. I was changing Niklas's diaper after an average size poop. I had just finished wiping the poop off of his butt when I became distracted... most likely by something shiny. Anyway, I dropped the poop covered wipe on to my foot. There wasn't an incredible amount of poop transfer, but still, THERE WAS POOP ON MY FOOT. Even though this was mostly my fault, it's going on to Niklas's bill. 2007-04-08: We took Niklas on a trip down to Smithton for his great-grandpa Forcade's 90th birthday. I'll have a full recap tomorrow, but after eleven hours in the car the past two days, I'm too tired to report anything but the following: Niklas's poop smells much, much worse now that it is based on formula and allegedly solid foods. Much worse. Also, he's back on the three poop a day plan. To sum up, there's lots of smelling bad going on. 2007-04-09: Niklas had a good time on his Southern Illinois adventure. It started off really well on Saturday as Niklas decided to sleep in for the first time since... ever. He didn't get up until almost eight. This was awesome because Andrya had been up super late packing for the trip and I had been up super late helping her. Note that for legal purposes, playing hockey counts as helping. Anyway, we took off for Smithton when he went down for his first nap at about 9:30. He was really good in the car. He didn't do any fussing until we got near Bloomington so we were able to stop at Niklas's grandparent's house (they were already downstate) to feed him some lunch and change his diaper. He filled two diapers with horribly, horribly foul poop while we were there. Also, his tendency to follow his mommy with his eyes instead of paying attention to the plums I was shovelling into his face made me look like I'm still no good with the feeding. Thanks, pal. Other than that, though, the stop went well. He behaved himself for the rest of his time in the car, though we did have to stop about forty-five minutes out of Bloomington for yet another poop... also because the fool driving the car forgot to get gas in Bloomington. Mostly the poop, though. When we got to his great grandparents house, there was quite a crowd to greet him including his Great-Grandpa Forcade, whose 90th birthday we were there to celebrate. He hung out for a while, had his fourth, FOURTH, poop of the day and then went to sleep just in time to miss meeting his first baby sitter who was not Tammy. Andrya and I then went to the birthday party where a good time was had by all, particularly Mr and Mrs. Forcade. Niklas was on his best behavior (which is to say he slept the whole time) for his sitter. The next day was Easter and that means one thing: LOOT! Well, I guess it means at least two things, because there was also dressing like a dork. There was also some church, but Niklas was less enthused about that. Despite the fact that he was not visibly moved by the service, he was remarkably un-fussy. After we had some lunch (and Niklas spit some peas on me), we were back on the road. Niklas behaved extraordinarily well in the car. There was another huge poop, but no fussing of any sort. We gave him a bath when we got home. It wasn't bath night, but after all the pooping (including a grand effort when we got home) it was pretty necessary. After that, Andrya read him a story and he went to sleep with the quickness. Here's Niklas at the restaurant on Easter. I think this is after he spit on me.  There are a few other new pictures up here. 2007-04-11: Niklas's sleeping habits have taken a bit of a good news/bad news turn. The good news is two fold. Fold the first; Niklas is consistently sleeping until 5:30 or 6:00 and he goes right back to sleep after I change him. Fold the second; Niklas is no longer bothered by sleeping on his stomach. These are both awesome. Hooray! There is, however, a downside. Side the down; because he is sleeping for so long and he is on his stomach, his diaper fills up and overflows. The pee leaks out of the diaper, through his onsie, through his sleeper, onto his sheets and all over the carpet. Well, maybe not the carpet but the rest is true. Changing sheets at 5:45 in the morning is no fun. Luckily, Niklas is content to hang out while I battle royale with the mattress, sheets and otherwise. The NHL playoffs started today. I put Niklas's jersey on him so he could support the Penguins. Within five minutes, he had spit up all over his jersey, my jersey and the Penguins chances to win game one. Hopefully, things will go better for game two on Saturday. If not, I might have to get him a Senators jersey to spit up on. 2007-04-15: Niklas has had a lot of stuff going on lately. "What," I'm sure you're asking, "what has been going on? Tell me!" Calm down, give me a minute. I'm getting to it. Just be patient and I'll tell you. I said be patient! First, the super-leaky nighttime diaper issue has been solved. Huggies makes overnight diapers in the next-size up (size 4, if you're wondering), so we've started putting him in those before he goes to sleep. I don't know why they don't make size 3 overnights, but it's just as well as the size 4s seem to be filled to capacity. The Niklas Smith Heavy Manufacturing and Urine Concern is doing quite a bit of business, though the heavy manufacturing end isn't pulling its weight right now. We took Niklas to get his six month pictures taken on Saturday. Those among you with a calendar and basic math skills may have deduced that Niklas is seven months old. Quiet, you. Anyway, this trip to the photographer's went much better than the last which, as you may recall, featured 45 minutes of screaming and a minute and a half of cute. He was pretty much fuss-free while we were there except while I was changing his diaper. While that was going on, he screamed bloody murder. I think he wanted to make me look bad in retaliation for all the tickling Mr. Tickle has visited upon him lately. Tammy is out sick tomorrow, so I'll be handling the Niklas watching duties. I'm hopeful that nothing will be set on fire and that no one will end up covered in spit up. I'm confident that we can avoid a fire. Here are some new pictures. They feature Niklas. 2007-04-17: Niklas and I had a good time yesterday. Nothing got burned down (there was very little open flame, in fact) and nobody got covered with spit up until about 4:00 in the afternoon. We took a walk after lunch during which Niklas had a good time startling passers-by with random loud squawks and squeals. He also displayed quite the disdain for the sun, which is something I can get behind. We spent the rest of the day reading stories, playing on the floor (this included and inordinant amount of flopping from his stomach, to his back, to his stomach, etc.) and wandering about the condo. Niklas even tolerated me sitting on the couch for five, sometimes ten minutes at a time. Thanks, pal! 2007-04-18: Niklas had carrots for dinner today. As you may recall, things did not go so well the last time I tried to feed him carrots. As you can see. Things went much, much better today. Of course, Andrya did the feeding today, but still... success! Niklas was particularly giggly today. That's always a good time. I tried to teach him to harness the power of Mr. Tickle for his own devices. Mostly, this instruction took the form of me tickling him. 2007-04-22: Niklas has his first tooth. Hooray! So far, I haven't been bitten, so success! The be-toothing caused naps to be cut short for a few days, but he's still been going to bed at his regular time. Today, mashed carrots, tomorrow, corn dogs! Niklas's grandma and grandpa Meeker came up to visit him today. A good time was had by all. Niklas displayed his prowess at knocking over my carefully designed peek-a-block structures and his ability to take a nap while being pushed in his stroller. 2007-04-24: Wow. It seems I spoke too soon when I mentioned that the cutting o' the teeth wasn't impacting Niklas's overnight sleeping. Yesterday morning, he woke up early and brought the wail. It sounded like a heated discussion over wailing protocol at a banshee conference where all of the banshees had been drinking and were jerks. How early did all of this fussing commence? I'm not sure, brain no function well sleep without. Thankfully, he was much better today. Tammy reports that he was in a generally unpleasant mood this afternoon, but he was fine when Andrya and I got home. He had some green beans and pears for dinner and then retired for the evening. Apparently, the corn dogs are still a couple of days away. Also, he might need at least one tooth to come in on the top row. I haven't been able to snap a picture of his tooth yet. Whenever he opens his mouth, he sticks his tongue over his bottom gum. I assume that this is to prevent his enemies from knowing whether or not he has the capacity to bite a chunk out of their arm, but he might just think it's funny. 2007-04-25: Here's how Niklas's morning usually goes. He gets up at 5:30 or 6:00 with the wettest diaper known to man, woman, bear... most mammals, really... maybe not whales... anyway, he gets up with the wet diaper and I change him. He's reluctant to go back to sleep at this point, so I give him a plug (Andrya has signed off on this, you may recollect that there was some controversy regarding the morning pacifier; we decided it was ok if he got up after 5:30). He goes back to sleep until about 7:00 or so and then he gets up for breakfast. Lately, though, he's taken a liking to throwing his pacifier about and then yelling about it. I've found pacifiers in the middle of his room, behind his crib and once inside the drop-and-roar dinosaur. He's shown excellent arm strength, but a distinct lack of command of his fastball. The Pirates are sending someone to check him out this weekend. The best, though, is when he holds his pacifier in his hand and drags it back and forth across the rails of his crib. "Attica! Attica!". 2007-04-29: First, a correction. Andrya informs me that I only think that Niklas goes back to sleep until 7:00 after his early morning diaper change because I sleep through the fussing at 6:15 or so that she gets up to tend to. I regret the error. I'm also supposed to say that Andrya is awesome for taking care of these early morning histrionics and letting me sleep. Niklas is working on a second tooth. While this is exciting from a "our baby is meeting important milestones" perspective, it is putting as damper on the "Jay Maintains His Sanity" initiative I've been working on. As he will soon double his number of teeth, he's double his amount of tooth related fussing. He had a couple of stretches today where he insisted on being carried around the house. This, combined with his ever increasing weight really takes its toll. Those last few teeth are going to be a nightmare of really bad nightmarish proportions. Niklas's grandma and grandpap Vennard came up to see him on Saturday. He had a fabulous good time playing with them and demonstrating his ability to roll around on the floor. He even added smacking his hand on the floor to his play repertoire. As is his wont when visitors are over, Niklas was loathe to take a nap, but despite the lack of sleep, he remained in good spirits. He even took a break from his teething fussfest. In the afternoon, we took him for a long walk around the neighborhood which finally conked him out. Our long national nightmare of infrequent picture updates is over! By over, I of course mean "starting anew tomorrow".  
|
