Was spent at our friend Dalia’s Bat Mitzva. We had a blast, despite Brady and I both coming down with a stomach bug. A few photos say it better than I can:
Kids Dancing (unfortunately the best shot I got)
A family photo taken by Frank. Note Brady’s expression – this was shortly before Susan took the kids back to the hotel because Brady was feeling poorly. It took me a few hours to catch up to him.
Brady was in the emergency room for the second time in his young life, once again for a seizure brought on by a rapid spike in temperature. Last time this happened it was absolutely terrifying. Susan and I spent a horrific 30 minutes driving to the hospital with basically no information aside from ‘he had a seizure.’ This time was sort of the same deal, but with us sitting there thinking ‘man, basically I hope this is the same thing.’
It was. He had a second febrile seizure and the doctors were not particularly concerned. His primary care doctor didn’t even think it necessary to see him the day after the event, they’re so unconcerned, so I’m trying hard to follow their lead.
He and I spent the day together while he recuperated and it was fun, though he did manage to scare me about as badly as I’ve ever been scared. He went down for his nap still with a mild fever. I went up to check on him after 2 hours and he was laying there staring off into space with a blank look. He didn’t react to me entering the room or me saying his name several times, causing me to panic and rush over to him, at which point he sleepily looked up at me and said ‘what, Dad?’
What indeed. This child rearing stuff is tough!
Brady has been showing a lot of interest in counting this week. He can count to twenty while still consistently skipping over fifteen. His counting of objects has improved steadily. We rearrange items in row or hold his hand and count together when things are jumbled together. He’s also started naming letters when he sees them. This week he noticed a bag on the table with Whey Protein written on it and read out the letters to us. He likes to figure out what the first letters of words are, sounding them out if he doesn’t know.
Following on the nocturnal animals lessons this week, Brady talked to his Gargy (grandfather) about an owl in his backyard. He also saw a moth on the window at night. He’s been telling us about some of the other nocturnal animals he’s learned about, bats, raccoons, and owls.
We found a free easel at a neighbor’s house so now Brady has started to draw with chalk in his play area. He can also use the other side to draw, paint and color on paper. He’s pretty excited about the “new” toy.
This weekend we took a trip to the mall where Brady rode on his first escalator and glass elevator. We returned to a Bob the Builder Scoop ride that Brady rode on once over a year ago. He was thrilled and remembered it because we have a video from the last time. We had a snack in the food court (another first) and visited an arcade where Brady and Mom played skee ball. The Springfield Museums sponsor a coin funnel in the mall that simulates the motion of the solar system. Brady loved dropping in coins and watching them go faster and faster as they entered the center of the funnel.
This weekend in music, Brady took a shine to The Beatles ‘Yellow Submarine,’ which he calls ‘the submarine song’. He also likes The Beatles’ ‘Drive my Car,’ which he calls ‘the road song.’ He learned both of these playing Rock Band with his Dad, something he’s been wanting to do since he learned to talk. He had great fun playing the drums while Dad played the guitar. We’ve now played Yellow Submarine to death according to Dad, but definitely not according to Brady 😉
Brady had some outdoor time with his Dad, which included romping around in the yard and going on a long tractor ride back into our ‘wayback’ (our property abuts a large parcel of Kestrel Trust protected land), which is one of his favorite things to do. On the way back we saw the hawk that lives in our area stalking our chickens, so we chased it off.
We have a firepit on our patio, and we had a fire this week which we then roasted marshmallows on to make smores. This is only the second time Brady’s seen the firepit lit, and he was quite taken with it, though he was even more taken with the smore 😉
Brady’s been learning to play with his little sister. She’s just starting to become her own little mobile person, and Brady’s been great about helping us with her, plus finding things to do which amuse both of them. This week the most popular thing was pushing a large toy bulldozer about the house at full speed, ending each session with a big crash into something. Mom and Dad were less fond of this than the kids, as you might imagine 😉
Brady’s first black eye, from yesterday, when he fell out of a ride-on plastic boat at daycare. It’s actually a bit worse than it looks – you can’t see how swollen his eye is from this angle, and he fell onto carpeting that left him with rugburn on the side of his face that’s more painful than the bruise is. That said, he had bigger problems yesterday. Everyone in the family is fighting a throat/chest cold and he’s got it worst, with a raspy cough that’s driving him nuts. Plus he got a terrible diaper rash yesterday. When he first got home he had a full on meltdown which took a good bit of mom-time to sort out. At one point Susan had Laura screaming for dinner on one side and naked Brady screaming for comfort on the other side. Family drama ftw!
Check out the shit-eating grin on young mr. destructo here:
who managed to knock over the Christmas tree this morning, less than 24 hours after we finally decorated it. The lesson here is, convert to Judaism before you have a toddler, or keep them chained to a tree or something *
* note that it’s possible I know nothing about parenting 🙂
Ok so this is pretty much perfect:
Brady and me on the couch this morning, caught in the act of communing with our machines by Susan.
Everything you need in life, in a single photo.
Hard to find a better way to spend a late summer day:
The proof’s in the smile you see on Brady’s face as he shares a moment with his cousin Parker. This despite him coming down with a fever and ear infection the night before:
You know that old saw about a room full of monkeys with typewriters producing the next Great American Novel? Leave me snapping away with a digital camera for long enough and I’m bound to produce something like this:
(from southern Maine the weekend of July 24th, 2012, just after a torrential downpour)
Susan’s out of town so I was on my own taking care of Brady this morning. This means I bring him into the shower with me because he can’t be left to his own devices yet. I stripped him down then started filling the tub. When I set him down in the bathroom he immediately trundled over to the toilet, tapped it on the lid, exclaimed, and looked over at me. He’s fascinated by the toilet and we’re constantly having to pull him away from it, so I said something along the lines of ‘nope! Toilets are not for babies!’ This sequence repeated a couple of times. After the third time, he gave me a funny look when I once again admonished him, then took two steps away from the toilet, squatted, and pooped.
!!!
Who’s smarter than who in this exchange? I’m thinking it wasn’t me.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 