I'm very bad at updating blogs, even during the summer when I have (in theory) loads of free time. I figured I would take a moment to document both an exciting trip in the car and our normal daily routine, and what it's like to have a sixteenth-month-old at home during the summer.
Last weekend we drove to Michigan to see Raptor-Mom's family members, and spend the day boating on Lake Thompson. This involved a five-hour ride in the car, which was a dangerous gamble with our little man. Last year he spent a good chunk of the ride home screaming while it thunderstormed outside, so we were anxious to make significant improvements.
In Back to the Future III, Doc uses a set of scientifically-designed logs to push an 1880's locomotive to 88 miles per hour, each deployed at a set time in order to achieve this result. Similarly, Raptor-Mom came up with the idea of Treasure Bags to serve the same purpose. Each trip (there and back) would involve three bags: each bag had a water bottle, a snack bowl, 2 books, and a new toy to play with. The thinking was that he would play with one for about an hour, then require a new one. That would give us three peaceful hours, with the hope of a nap as well. This system worked exceptionally well, and got us both there and back with minimal fussing. We only had a few issues on the way there when he didn't want to take his afternoon nap, but he quieted down once his mom got in the back with him again.
Once we got to Michigan, we had a few hours until bedtime, so we walked through the nearby Tanger Outlets in Howell. Once he couldn't handle that anymore, we found a place called the Castaway Cafe, a play place and restaurant that was free for adults. According to their website, children cost $5, but nobody every stopped us when we came in, so I guess that was free too. Dinner was expensive, so they got their money's worth. The little guy loved it too; they had a "Toddler Area" that was designed for people his age, but after about ten minutes in there, he decided he'd rather play in the big kids' area. The place was huge, with a four-story play set and room full of inflatables. He climbed right to the top and rode the big slide down, although I skinned both elbows trying to slow us down. He laughed the whole way.
The next day was the actual boating day, so we got up and headed over to Raptor-Mom's uncle's house. On the way though, the little guy passed out for a morning nap, so we wound up sitting outside their house for ninety minutes while he snoozed. It rained all morning, so we didn't miss any boating, but the afternoon cleared up so after yet another nap we got him out on the boat. Last year he cried the whole time, and this year he did much better, with no tears and only a little fussing. After the boat we took him to the little beach on the lake, which he loved. He got a pail and shovel from the library for reading 30 books, and loved filling the bucket with sand. There was another little playground he liked, and some swings, but mostly he liked playing in the sand. This was great until he ate a handful, and then was a little more distrustful of the beach.
All in all, it was a great trip, and he did a much better job riding in the car this year. It's crazy to look at pictures of him just a year ago, when he looked basically like a big potato, and to see him this year running around and digging in the sand. I'll try to give a rundown of our basic days with him for the next post, since this has gone on a while now already.
The Parenting Adventures of Raptor-Dad and Raptor-Son
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
New York, New York
This is like going back in time, but I wanted to write up our trip to New York with an 11-month old, because overall I think we did a great job despite a number of setbacks. It was a three-day trip that we both took a day off work for (gasp!) to fly out late Thursday night. The plan was to have all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then fly back Monday afternoon.
Thursday afternoon our school had a pep rally, and while I was there I got a text message that our flight was delayed six hours. What was supposed to get us there at 8 p.m. Thursday was now listed for approximately 2 a.m. Friday morning now. So that wasn't going to work.
Online, I used Delta's emergency rescheduler to change our flights to a Friday morning flight at 8 a.m., thinking that would still give us most of Friday to go around NYC. We had some ideas of what to do, but not any firm plans (other than the ballet on Sunday afternoon) so it wasn't a huge deal to lose a night. The hotel even refunded us. Great.
Raptor-Son does amazing on the flight. He's hooked on to his mom's chest, and spends the 90 minutes in the air alternately napping and nursing. Except as soon as the wheels touch down in New York (literally the moment the tires hit the runway) he leans into the aisle and barfs just everywhere. Happily the guy across the aisle was both a pilot and the father of a 10-month old, so he couldn't have been cooler, helping us get cleaned up and off the plane. We head to a bus that will take us to the subway, since La Guardia is inexplicably not connected to the subway already, and the Wee Man barfs on the bus again. Now we are worried. He throws up once more on the subway, just to complete the travel trifecta, and then we get him to the hotel.
I should mention here that we visited Brooklyn on the coldest weekend in a century. The temperatures outside where in the single digits, so on top of the vomiting we've also got him wrapped in winter coat, furry hood, big mittens, fuzzy boots, and he's in the carrier under my winter coat. So he's probably also overheating, but he holds it together till we get to the hotel then falls asleep. After a phone call to our pediatrician, I walk to a CVS and buy a thermometer to watch his temperature (which was just a little elevated, probably from the wardrobe) and some Children's Tylenol. He sleeps for a long time, and basically wakes up feeling much better, although we decide to keep him in the hotel room for the rest of the day and not venture out. He was pretty okay with this, and decided to explore his very not-childproofed hotel room.
By bedtime, we put him to sleep on the bed, and I walked across the street to get pizza. We had pizza from this restaurant twice, because it was so cold going outside and it was right next to the hotel.
The next morning we took him to breakfast, got dressed, and decided to head out. We spent all morning at the Manhattan's Children's Museum, where he played with blocks, climbed over a bunch of foam cubes, and had a great time. We had lunch at a deli nearby, and loaded him up in the carrier to go to the Museum of Modern Art, where he promptly fell asleep in front of Andy Warhol's soup cans.
The next morning we took him to the Natural History Museum, and let him run around a little there. It wasn't as child-friendly as we'd hoped, but he had a good time (and I got to see some dinosaur fossils) so we were mostly pretty happy. We ate downstairs in the cafeteria (a screaming nightmare of grumpy parents, overstimulated toddlers, and poor life choices) and headed to the Lincoln Center for the ballet.
Raptor-Mom is a big fan of the New York City Ballet, and I bought her tickets for Christmas to see a show while we were in New York. My plan was to have the Little Guy sleep through the performance, so we could enjoy it. When we got there, I was told we'd need a $25 ticket for him to sit on our lap through the show, which we bought, and went inside. He was already down, at least until the music started playing. He popped his head up and started to holler, so I grabbed the diaper bag and headed for the lobby. The two of us spend the next two hours walking around the lobby, singing songs, listening to podcasts, and exploring the very nice lobby of the Lincoln Center.
The next morning, we met my friend Chris who moved to Brooklyn a couple years ago, had some giant bagels, and headed for La Guardia to fly home. After nearly getting lost trying to find our terminal (seriously, never fly to/through La Guardia) we were headed back to Cincinnati. Fortunately, Raptor-Son did a great job on the plane, even though he didn't fall asleep this time, but he also didn't barf everywhere, so we called it a win.
Definitely learned somethings about traveling with infants (bring extra/waterproof clothes to wear) and overall we had a great time. The next week I flew to San Francisco, which was much more calm.
Thursday afternoon our school had a pep rally, and while I was there I got a text message that our flight was delayed six hours. What was supposed to get us there at 8 p.m. Thursday was now listed for approximately 2 a.m. Friday morning now. So that wasn't going to work.
Online, I used Delta's emergency rescheduler to change our flights to a Friday morning flight at 8 a.m., thinking that would still give us most of Friday to go around NYC. We had some ideas of what to do, but not any firm plans (other than the ballet on Sunday afternoon) so it wasn't a huge deal to lose a night. The hotel even refunded us. Great.
Raptor-Son does amazing on the flight. He's hooked on to his mom's chest, and spends the 90 minutes in the air alternately napping and nursing. Except as soon as the wheels touch down in New York (literally the moment the tires hit the runway) he leans into the aisle and barfs just everywhere. Happily the guy across the aisle was both a pilot and the father of a 10-month old, so he couldn't have been cooler, helping us get cleaned up and off the plane. We head to a bus that will take us to the subway, since La Guardia is inexplicably not connected to the subway already, and the Wee Man barfs on the bus again. Now we are worried. He throws up once more on the subway, just to complete the travel trifecta, and then we get him to the hotel.
I should mention here that we visited Brooklyn on the coldest weekend in a century. The temperatures outside where in the single digits, so on top of the vomiting we've also got him wrapped in winter coat, furry hood, big mittens, fuzzy boots, and he's in the carrier under my winter coat. So he's probably also overheating, but he holds it together till we get to the hotel then falls asleep. After a phone call to our pediatrician, I walk to a CVS and buy a thermometer to watch his temperature (which was just a little elevated, probably from the wardrobe) and some Children's Tylenol. He sleeps for a long time, and basically wakes up feeling much better, although we decide to keep him in the hotel room for the rest of the day and not venture out. He was pretty okay with this, and decided to explore his very not-childproofed hotel room.
By bedtime, we put him to sleep on the bed, and I walked across the street to get pizza. We had pizza from this restaurant twice, because it was so cold going outside and it was right next to the hotel.
The next morning we took him to breakfast, got dressed, and decided to head out. We spent all morning at the Manhattan's Children's Museum, where he played with blocks, climbed over a bunch of foam cubes, and had a great time. We had lunch at a deli nearby, and loaded him up in the carrier to go to the Museum of Modern Art, where he promptly fell asleep in front of Andy Warhol's soup cans.
The next morning we took him to the Natural History Museum, and let him run around a little there. It wasn't as child-friendly as we'd hoped, but he had a good time (and I got to see some dinosaur fossils) so we were mostly pretty happy. We ate downstairs in the cafeteria (a screaming nightmare of grumpy parents, overstimulated toddlers, and poor life choices) and headed to the Lincoln Center for the ballet.
Raptor-Mom is a big fan of the New York City Ballet, and I bought her tickets for Christmas to see a show while we were in New York. My plan was to have the Little Guy sleep through the performance, so we could enjoy it. When we got there, I was told we'd need a $25 ticket for him to sit on our lap through the show, which we bought, and went inside. He was already down, at least until the music started playing. He popped his head up and started to holler, so I grabbed the diaper bag and headed for the lobby. The two of us spend the next two hours walking around the lobby, singing songs, listening to podcasts, and exploring the very nice lobby of the Lincoln Center.
The next morning, we met my friend Chris who moved to Brooklyn a couple years ago, had some giant bagels, and headed for La Guardia to fly home. After nearly getting lost trying to find our terminal (seriously, never fly to/through La Guardia) we were headed back to Cincinnati. Fortunately, Raptor-Son did a great job on the plane, even though he didn't fall asleep this time, but he also didn't barf everywhere, so we called it a win.
Definitely learned somethings about traveling with infants (bring extra/waterproof clothes to wear) and overall we had a great time. The next week I flew to San Francisco, which was much more calm.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Welcome Back
It seems like only yesterday that I was planning to write a blog post per week detailing our adventures. Sadly, this is the first post since February that I've actually gotten to sit down and write. In that time, we've traveled to New York, I went to San Francisco, attended KUNA, enjoyed Spring Break, had my friend from college and her family stay with us for three days, and slogged through the final weeks of the school year. In other words, I can't blame a lack of material to write up.
I'll try to post a longer story about our New York trip in February, which happened during the coldest temperatures in a decade and involve a flight filled with sleeping and vomit. Consider this just a teaser then.
I'll try to post a longer story about our New York trip in February, which happened during the coldest temperatures in a decade and involve a flight filled with sleeping and vomit. Consider this just a teaser then.
Friday, February 5, 2016
A Room with a View
So the Wee Man moved out. It's hard day for any parent when their child moves out, and the time really flew by. It seems like just yesterday that he was sleeping in our room, and now he's in the next room over, in his very own bedroom.
In an effort to improve his (and our!) sleeping, we shipped him out from his crib to a floor bed in his own room. Our thinking was that without us to distract him in the night, he might get better at self-soothing and sleep longer. For the first two nights, it didn't go very well. He would wake up often, and wound up sleeping with us anyway by about 10:30 or so. The upside to this system is that now I can put him down, since before he basically insisted on being nursed to sleep. Now we can trade back and forth, and hopefully get him used to sleeping by himself.
Two nights ago was our greatest success yet, and probably his best night sleeping since we could swaddle him. We put him down about 6:30, which is his normal time. He slept solid until 9:45 or so, and I went in and cuddled him back to sleep. I try to put him down on his stomach, which is a little less safe but lets him sleep much better. Thus, he slept until about 1:00 in the morning, when he started to fuss again. This time, Raptor-Mom nursed him back down, and then he slept until 5:00! When my alarm went off for school, I panicked momentarily that he hadn't woken up again, then I turned on his new video monitor. He was sitting up in bed, looking a little dazed but pretty happy. I think he just woke up at the same time. Hopefully we're on our way to a better sleeping schedule and a little more rest!
In an effort to improve his (and our!) sleeping, we shipped him out from his crib to a floor bed in his own room. Our thinking was that without us to distract him in the night, he might get better at self-soothing and sleep longer. For the first two nights, it didn't go very well. He would wake up often, and wound up sleeping with us anyway by about 10:30 or so. The upside to this system is that now I can put him down, since before he basically insisted on being nursed to sleep. Now we can trade back and forth, and hopefully get him used to sleeping by himself.
Two nights ago was our greatest success yet, and probably his best night sleeping since we could swaddle him. We put him down about 6:30, which is his normal time. He slept solid until 9:45 or so, and I went in and cuddled him back to sleep. I try to put him down on his stomach, which is a little less safe but lets him sleep much better. Thus, he slept until about 1:00 in the morning, when he started to fuss again. This time, Raptor-Mom nursed him back down, and then he slept until 5:00! When my alarm went off for school, I panicked momentarily that he hadn't woken up again, then I turned on his new video monitor. He was sitting up in bed, looking a little dazed but pretty happy. I think he just woke up at the same time. Hopefully we're on our way to a better sleeping schedule and a little more rest!
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Sticking to the Plan
This post is in no way about sticking to the plan. In fact, this post wasn't supposed to be this post at all, it was supposed to be about my new hobby of X-Wing miniatures and how totally awesome it is.
Then, I got an email from school about Raptor-Son having pinkeye, and yesterday's plans changed.
I got the email about 11:30, a simple notification that he had pinkeye, and needed to be picked up. I guess they can't risk him infecting other kids, but it still makes it complicated to pick him up in the middle of the day. Naturally, I had agreed to watch a class for my department chair in the afternoon, so I now had to find coverage for two of my classes and one of his.
Fortunately, I work at a great school with a very flexible and understanding principal. I got our Latin teacher to cover all three classes, and was on the phone with the pediatrician before I got out the door. They had an opening in about two hours, which I took, and then went down and got the little man from school.
His eye was pretty gross, so I guess their diagnosis was correct. He was just eating (cheese pizza) when I got there, and he finished and got cleaned up. He fell asleep on the way home, so I got him in as gently as I could and let him nap on me for the two hours before his appointment. He's been staying awake all morning lately, so he's really tired in the early afternoon, and I actually had to wake him up to go to the doctor. His eyes were all gross again, so at least I felt justified in taking a half day.
The doctor confirmed the pinkeye, and we went home for another nap and some eye drops. It's just strange how quickly an entire day's plans can be upended, fortunately for something relatively low key this time.
Then, I got an email from school about Raptor-Son having pinkeye, and yesterday's plans changed.
I got the email about 11:30, a simple notification that he had pinkeye, and needed to be picked up. I guess they can't risk him infecting other kids, but it still makes it complicated to pick him up in the middle of the day. Naturally, I had agreed to watch a class for my department chair in the afternoon, so I now had to find coverage for two of my classes and one of his.
Fortunately, I work at a great school with a very flexible and understanding principal. I got our Latin teacher to cover all three classes, and was on the phone with the pediatrician before I got out the door. They had an opening in about two hours, which I took, and then went down and got the little man from school.
His eye was pretty gross, so I guess their diagnosis was correct. He was just eating (cheese pizza) when I got there, and he finished and got cleaned up. He fell asleep on the way home, so I got him in as gently as I could and let him nap on me for the two hours before his appointment. He's been staying awake all morning lately, so he's really tired in the early afternoon, and I actually had to wake him up to go to the doctor. His eyes were all gross again, so at least I felt justified in taking a half day.
The doctor confirmed the pinkeye, and we went home for another nap and some eye drops. It's just strange how quickly an entire day's plans can be upended, fortunately for something relatively low key this time.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Christmas Time Was Here
Ooohh, man. Christmas.
The Wee Man is the first grandbaby on either side, which meant that gifts aplenty were coming in. He'd also been sick for a week with congestion, which meant he hadn't been sleeping well either.
We pretty much stuck to the Christmas script that we usually use, with a little Christmas at home in the early morning, then going over to my parent's, then the in-laws. Christmas Eve we usually spent at Midnight Mass with my parents, but that was obviously out this year. Instead, we went at 3:30 in downtown Cincinnati, where the Little Guy was super interested in seeing every single thing and every single person. It was also unseasonably warm, in the low 60's, meaning it didn't really feel like Christmas. After dinner at Bob Evan's, we headed home to wait for Santa Claus.
Our policy for Christmas is I think going to be fairly restrained. Some of our friends do a thing with four gifts: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. This effectively limits the flood of consumerism, while encouraging kids to think about needs vs wants, and avoids giant piles of plastic. At least until we get to the grandparents' anyway. For this year, we got him a crib monitor (need,) a rainbow teething necklace (want,) some little fuzzy boots that are hard for him to rip off (wear,) and The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (read). Mostly, he was interested in the wrapping paper, and crawling around under the tree.
It was a great first Christmas, although I think next year will be even more fun when he'll understand a little bit more what's going on.
The Wee Man is the first grandbaby on either side, which meant that gifts aplenty were coming in. He'd also been sick for a week with congestion, which meant he hadn't been sleeping well either.
We pretty much stuck to the Christmas script that we usually use, with a little Christmas at home in the early morning, then going over to my parent's, then the in-laws. Christmas Eve we usually spent at Midnight Mass with my parents, but that was obviously out this year. Instead, we went at 3:30 in downtown Cincinnati, where the Little Guy was super interested in seeing every single thing and every single person. It was also unseasonably warm, in the low 60's, meaning it didn't really feel like Christmas. After dinner at Bob Evan's, we headed home to wait for Santa Claus.
Our policy for Christmas is I think going to be fairly restrained. Some of our friends do a thing with four gifts: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. This effectively limits the flood of consumerism, while encouraging kids to think about needs vs wants, and avoids giant piles of plastic. At least until we get to the grandparents' anyway. For this year, we got him a crib monitor (need,) a rainbow teething necklace (want,) some little fuzzy boots that are hard for him to rip off (wear,) and The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear (read). Mostly, he was interested in the wrapping paper, and crawling around under the tree.
It was a great first Christmas, although I think next year will be even more fun when he'll understand a little bit more what's going on.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Be It Resolved
So I'll have a bigger Christmas post up later, but I wanted to start out 2016 with a declaration of resolutions. They aren't anything fancy, but a set of (I hope) realistic goals to accomplish for 2016. Honestly, they're probably things I should be doing already, but making a spreadsheet might help me keep better track of myself.
1. Read one book per week
1. Read one book per week
This is probably the one I'm most excited about it. Since Raptor-Son's arrival, I haven't been reading as much I as used to, which was still less than I'd like to. I read several books throughout 2015, and I usually have at least one book that I'm working on, but I really want to make a concerted effort to read more this year. Last year's highlight was Neurotribes by Steve Silberman, which was a fascinating exploration of the history and cultural role of autism, a topic I knew next to nothing about. I want to read more this year.
2. Write one post per week
Again, this is something I should be doing anyway. I have no desire to become a professional blogger or anything, but I've enjoyed writing here over the last nine months. I want to do it more, and become better at it. I'm working on finding a voice, and hopefully becoming a clearer writer. One of the things that bothers me is that I think my writing has devolved since I've been a teacher, and I've heard this before. The more bad writing you tend to read, the worse your own writing becomes. With any luck, purposefully setting aside the time to write more will result in more readable posts.
3. Exercise three to five times per week
Classic, I know, and I'm usually pretty good about running. I fell off through the autumn as I got sick, and Raptor-Son got sick, and holiday events popped up, but now I'm back on the wagon. Or off the wagon. Whichever one means you're doing the thing. In four months, I'll run the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half-Marathon, so I need to get back into training for that. It's a race I've run three times so far, and I was signed up for it last year. With the arrival of the Wee Man, I didn't have time to train, and so I downgraded to the 10k. It went fine, but when I went to get my packet, I really regretted not training for the Half. This year, no regrets.
Anyway, this is going to be my 2016, I hope. 2015 was pretty rockin', so this next year has a lot to live up to. It's my favorite kind of year (presidential election,) and the Little Guy is getting bigger and even more fun to play with, so I'm optimistic. Good luck with your own resolutions, and have a great year!
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