Hello again, everyone. Welcome back to this week's installment of Theo's blog. Glad to have you all back. We sure have had an interesting week here at the Carroll household. Let's get to it, shall we?
First off, I hate winter. Oh, I like the concept of winter, but the actual exectution of it sucks. We had a big snowstorm yesterday (Sunday), the result of which was me having to shovel my front porch and sidewalk. Fun times. Now, we're just in a nice cold snap. Today it got up to -2 for the high, and that was at 6:00 this morning. And the wind, oy, the wind! It cuts right through you. It's the kind of weather that cabin fever was made for. At least the snow here is light, not like that really heavy snow we get on the west coast. Shovelling isn't a back-breaking endeavour, as if that makes it any better. Nothing like a white Halloween.
Needless to say, there hasn't been a lot of outside time this week. I think Theo would really like the snow, but I also think he has to be a bit older, if for no other reason than he can't fit into his snowsuit very snugly right now. Not snugly enough to facilitate walking, anyway. Besides, he isn't good enough at walking yet to make it worth trying to walk in the snow. Maybe next year. Oh wait, next year I hope not to be in a place with a winter as cold as this! Brr.
There's a classic picture of me standing in my backyard in the winter of 1980 when we had a big snowfall (probably the last time the Lower Mainland saw a big snowfall, now that I think of it). I'm standing on the picnic table in the backyard at my parents' house, and I'm up to (almost) my waist in snow. It's a good one. I was hoping to replicate it this year with Theo, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunity for that.
This week has also seen its fair share of accidents. Now that we've got some serious walking going on around here, the amount of falling has also increased exponentially. In fact, we're a little scared to take Theo out now because he's got so many bruises on his face that it looks like we beat him. Of course, when we beat him, we only do it in places you can't see easily. Duh! I mean, um, let's move on.
It's not just the falling that's been going on, either. In our house, there are two metal bi-fold doors in the kitchen--one is the broom closet, the other the pantry. Of course, these doors fascinate Theo to no end, and he just can't help but touch them. It's like a big magnet; no matter where he is, he always goes to these doors. And with the sort-of "open concept" plan of the house, it's not really possible to put a gate up and keep him away from the doors.
Anyway, since these doors are metal, they have some sharp edges. And who finds these sharp edges? Theo! Or, more correctly, Theo's finger! The good thing is that we have no doubt that he's not a hemopheliac. The bad news is that cuts to the finger sure do bleed! And have you tried to put a band-aid on an infant? Not the easiest thing in the world. And keeping it on? Forget it. Just stopping the bleeding was hard enough with him squirming around. But no crying, which was kind of weird. I sometimes worry about the pain threshold this kid has. It seems that some things that should just hurt like a mofo don't phase him at all. We'll see where that leads.
Anyway, no sooner did we get that crisis sorted out than we had the second of the top teeth decide to make a break for the surface. I was wrong in my initial estimate that it wouldn't be far behind the first one--it was. But now it's out. And although the process wasn't as difficult this time, it was painful.
In fact, just yesterday, Theo was getting set to wake up from his nap, when all of a sudden we heard an absolutely piercing cry. It's the kind of cry that instantly signals trouble in a parent's mind. We got him, but couldn't see anything immediately wrong, so we comforted him and went to change his diaper. When we laid him down, we saw it--a bloody mess in his mouth.
We've managed to piece together a likely chain of events that caused it. We figure that Theo was pulling his "prison break" routine in his crib (see last week's post), but he lost his balance and somehow fell forward, cracking his face on a spindle in his crib. And since this tooth hadn't quite cut the gum yet, if you lead with the mouth, it's going to be forced to come through the gum. The end result? It looked like he was in a bar fight. Or like I looked when I took a hockey stick to the face several years ago. Fortunately, there's no damage to the tooth. Damage to the mother? Oh yes. The thing that gets me is that he's only 8 months old (well, almost nine). What kind of trouble is he going to get into later in life? Oy vey!
All in all, though, a good week. This Saturday was daddy and Theo time, as mommy was off at a womens' conference held at the school. As I mentioned on my Three Hills blog, much hugging and crying was done. But it was really a great conference, and she got to get out of the house for a whole day without having to worry about Theo. Personally, I'm taking the same approach my dad took when I was a kid. When my mom had to work the night shift and I was at home with my dad, he'd always get out the old tape recorder and just talk to me. I'm not sure when the earliest one is, but he's got lots of them. And of course, there are some classic moments there, too. I, in fact, have several memories of sitting with my dad in the back room at my parents' house, on the grey carpet, chatting about my day and all the things that were important to a young lad. Good times. So I figure that when Theo and I are alone together, we'll get out the camera and take some candid videos, and, when he starts talking, record some MP3's. The technology may have changed, but the sentiment doesn't.
Before we get to the pictures, I need to tell you a story of the picture we didn't get. Tonight we went to Red Deer to hit the Super Store. Of course, being the day before Halloween, their costume selection is picked dry, but we figured we'd see if there was anything super-cute for infants. Sure enough, there wasn't really anything there. But we did see some super-hero costumes made for older kids. The one that really got us was the Batman costume. No, not the "new" Batman, clad all in neoprene. This was the comic book colour scheme--grey and black, with the yellow belt. A classic. The kicker was the mask.
Since Theo's head is actually the size of a two-year-old, I figured I'd try to get the mask on him to see what he looked like. It fit like a charm. And when I say "like a charm", what I mean is he looked like an 8-month-old in a Batman mask. It was absolutely priceless! And of course, we didn't have our camera! D'oh! We usually do have it, but this time we didn't. So you'll have to be satisfied with my less-than-adequate explanation, and we'll just keep the mental picture between us. It would've been an absolute classic. I'm talking wedding-video calibre. It was that good.
*Sigh* Oh well. You can't get them all.
That said, let's get to the ones we did get in this week's picture parade! Hooray! This week's Norman Rockwell moment came on Sunday when we got home from church. He's just so darned cute in this sweater...
But no matter what, the toes are always there to distract...
"Catch me, daddy!"
"Okay, that's enough, you two." Actually, I include this one not for the funny face he's making, but because it really shows his new (and old) teeth well. The one on his right side (so, it's your left side) has actually come in more than this just today, but no pictures of it made themselves available today.
As you can tell, Theo gets his devestatingly handsome looks from my gorgeous wife. Not to say that she looks like a man, or that he looks like a woman. You know what I'm trying to say. The question is whether or not I know what I'm trying to say.
"What are you laughing at?"
"I have what on my head? How'd that get there?"
Finally, we had a visit from the dreaded cupboard inspector this week. He was just checking to make sure everything was in order in our cupboards. But man, he sure is thorough...
"Just have to make sure everything's okay, ma'am."
"Need to get a better look at this top shelf..."
"I think this one might not be legal..."
"Hmm. Which one of these is the culprit?"
"Ah ha, it's always the strainer. They're sneaky..."
"Okay, I think that about takes care of it. What, you don't like my bill? Don't blame me--I'm just a company man!"
And, of course, last but not least, this week's selection of videos. I have to admit, it was a much better week for videos this week. Managed to take four, well, five if you count the one that was accidentally deleted. Here are three of those videos--the fourth will be up next week. Come on, I can't go giving you four videos in one posting! I can't set that kind of precedent! Besides, the fourth one needs a little editing, and I haven't found adequate (and by that I mean "free") video editing software yet. And I don't have time tonight. And, well, I could think of more excuses, but let's not bother.Here's the first one, filmed on Saturday when Mommy was away. Theo's really taken to this standing up thing, and in this video, he tries to figure out how to take apart his highchair. Around here, we call him the local HME (Highchair Mechanical Engineer). And he's good at what he does.
Next, we have every infant's best trait: complete and utter narcissism. He has a mirror he likes to look at himself in, and this was filmed while he was in just such a "love for myself" kind of mood. Of course, it was funnier before we got the camera rolling, but I think this does an okay job.
And finally, a Blair Witch-style movie, filmed by Mommy while she was laying on the floor and having Theo crawl all over her. This is actually his new favourite game. While he's crawling all over one of us (a sign of things to come, I'm sure), he also sometimes likes to grab his soother and smack us with it. Unforutnately, we couldn't get any footage of that, but this is pretty darned good. Sorry for the abrupt ending--ran out of space on the memory card, I'm afraid.
And yet again, that is all she wrote. Hope you're having a much warmer winter than we are, and that you have a happy Halloween. No Halloween for us, I'm afraid--the school won't celebrate it. Which is kind of too bad, but whatever. It's not like he'd be out in the -10 weather getting candy anyway. Brr.
See you next week.
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