My Apologies...

I realize I've been totally delinquent in getting a new post up here, and I'm terribly sorry. Just wanted to let you all know that yes, we are still alive, although quite cold. The reason I haven't posted recently is because I'm generally up to my eyeballs in school work and haven't been able to find the time to get a posting done. I promise that next weekend, you'll have a fresh new Theo posting to munch on. It'll be worth the wait!

For now, please satiate yourselves with my Three Hills blog (link on the right hand side). I update that one every day, since it doesn't involve any photos or videos (which are very time-consuming, especially when you're a perfectionist like me). And come back again soon for more Theo excitement.

While you're here, why not remind yourself of the good old days by taking a look back in the archives? In fact, go all the way back to February for some really fun stories. Ah, the memories.

See you all soon, I promise.

Injury-Free for 4 Days!

That's a real feat when you have such an accident-prone little boy around. Not that there's any other type of little boy, I guess. Good times.

So hello again, everyone. Welcome, yet again, to Theo's blog for the week of November 7-13. I have some fantastic pictures this week, as per usual, as well as a mitt-full of videos, so hold on to your hats.

Here's the scoop on the injury front (did you like how I put the teaser at the top, interjected a welcome, and then moved on with the story? Oh man, that's just so professional). Like I said, it's been four days without injury, which is pretty good. The last injury came when Theo decided that face-planting into the carpet with his soother in his mouth was a good idea. Turns out is wasn't--he cut his gum and was bleeding in his mouth, which was pretty scary for me to see--I thought he might have actually knocked one of his teeth out, but it turns out it was much more innocuous than that. Just a little blood, that's all. Whew.

Other than that, it's been a busy week. Last Wednesday, Steph's mom flew in for a 10-day visit, which has been great fun for all of us. It's nice to have someone around to talk to besides each other. Not that we're boring or don't like talking to each other, it's just that after 10 weeks of the same stuff--either school or Theo--and having all shared experiences, it gets a little bit cyclical. Dig, dig, dig. I'd better stop while I'm still sort-of ahead.

Then on Friday, Steph's best friend, Tanya, flew in for the weekend. She was supposed to fly in with her boyfriend, Mark (yes, that did get confusing over the course of the weekend), but he got tied up with a last-minute inspection at work. No, wait, that was the story we told her. What really happened was that he flew in early and dropped a proposal on her, surprising her completely at the Banff National Park tollbooth. Sweet. And we were part of the ruse. Great fun. And congratulations to Tanya and Mark, who will likely be getting hitched next summer. They just went home tonight.

Anyway, the whole ruse at Banff meant that we had to be a part of it, and since Tanya's plane didn't arrive until 10:30 at night, and Banff is about 350 km away from Three Hills, it meant that we stayed over in Banff on Friday night. That, of course, meant spending our first night away from Theo since he got home from the nursery. It was surprisingly tough.

I thought that I'd be able to just get away and hang out with my wife again, and that I wouldn't miss him. I thought I'd really enjoy the time away, actually. But it was hard for both of us to not think of him a lot. In fact, we both woke up at 6:30, which is his normal wake-up time, to feed him, even though (a) he wasn't even there, and (b) we hadn't gone to bed until 3:00 the night before. We both got back to sleep eventually. In fact, during that evening, Steph kept waking up and thinking to herself, "Where's Theo?" We're so attached. In fact, on the way home, I had to slow myself down several times because I was driving faster so that we'd get home to see him again faster. But we got home, and he was happy to see us, although I'm not entirely sure he knew we were gone, because he was having such a good time with Nana.

What else? Oy, I hope we didn't pack anything more into this week. Oh, today he had his first taste of meat (chicken), albeit the pureed kind. We'll see how that goes. It's time to get him on table food, though, so we're moving in that direction.

The big focus of the week has been a continued assertion of personality. He's at the point now where not only does he know what he wants to do, he also gets mad if he can't do it. This has led to the occasional standoff, but it's all good. For example, he really likes to play with a large metal grate on the bottom of our fridge, which, of course, is probably one of the least safe things to play with. So there's been much pulling him away from it this week.

The other thing that's been really fun (and really cool for me, personally, to see) is his fascination with my guitar. In fact, we have to have some guitar time every day. And when it's time for guitar time to be over, oh boy, you do not want to be in the room for the tantrum that follows. But that's all part of being a parent. We're trying hard to tread that fine line between indulgence and discipline, which isn't easy. I, for one, think it's perfectly reasonable to set limits on certain activities, like guitar playing (especially after 10 minutes of him drooling all over my strings). But it's tough to take the object away and hear him wail. Bah. At least he hasn't asked to get a tatoo yet.

I think that's all I've got to say this week, and it's quite a bit, so I hope I didn't forget anything really important (although I'm sure I did). Let's move on to some photos.

To start off the photo cavalcade this week, here's some evidence that we're really bad parents. I remember when I was a kid--I wasn't aloud to get that close to a TV screen. It was bad for my eyes, or my face would freeze in that position, or something like that. Apparently, we don't care about things like that...

In our defence (just in case you didn't catch the sarcasm dripping from that last paragraph--I'm still cleaning it up off the floor, actually), we don't let him stay that close to the TV. In fact, he never really cares that it's on. It's just that in this particular case, he was interested. And the only reason Steph took the picture was to show me that Theo loves the Doodlebops, who I can't stand. I think it's a frame-up, actually, but that's for another day.

Moving on. As I mentioned above, guitar playing was a central focus of this week. So I decided that a few lessons were in order. It's never too early, right? Here I am, teaching the young apprentice (who seems to be more interested in chewing on my knee)...

Finally, after much training, he was ready to go it on his own and whip out a face-melting solo...


Here are a couple of "deer-in-headlights" shots from a couple days ago. He's wearing his new shirt that daddy bought him in Banff--it has three little critters on it and says "Little Rascals." Cute stuff. Cuter kid, though...

The vast majority of photos this week all come from one particularly good photo shoot--the ballcap sessions. I don't know why, but he was just in a particularly photogenic mood this day, and mommy got some amazing shots. For example...

Here he is, holding dominion over his, um, domain, and looking very coy about it. Ah, what would life be like if Theo ran the world? Lots of formula and pablum for all!

But then sometimes you wonder if he wouldn't be a total and complete tyrant. What kind of scheme is he cooking up here?

You can almost hear the evil laughter. But of course, every totalitarian ruler gets distracted by his feet every once in a while...

Did I say ruler? What I meant was court jester. How can you tell he's related to me?

Back on the floor again, which is sometimes more fun than sitting on your throne...

This one we call the "K-Fed" look. Hey, that's what he should have been for Halloween. How scary would that have been?!

Finally, it was a tie for best photo this week, thus there are three photos in the much-coveted final photo spot on the blog. Can you blame me for not being able to decide?

Outstanding. After that, it's going to be hard to top it with some video, but I think we can. By the way, I toyed with the idea of changing my format this week and interspersing video and stills, but I'm just not ready to take that kind of step yet. Give it time. One day, I might even be bold enough to put the videos first. Ooh. That'd just be crazy.

Anyway, the videos. Five this week. Well, I guess there are two that are more like parts one and two, but hey, it totals five. This first one is a great companion to the pictures of guitar-playing, which is a major thing here. Also, the reason I look like such a dork at the beginning of this video is because I thought Steph was taking a still picture, so I'm trying to pose. Then she says, "I'm taking a video," or something like that, and I quickly turn to video-mode. Like you weren't going to notice that. How nonchalant did I think I was being? Anyway, here's the video, and my Oscar-winning performance...



And here's Theo giving us a lovely guitar solo...



This one was taken when Steph was doing the ballcap photo shoot. Nothing really "happens" in it, except that Theo acts like his normal self. This is more of a "slice of life" kind of video. But you can't just live on action movies, you know? Check it out...



Finally, the two-part video. Just before Steph started to shoot this one, Theo was doing the funniest thing into this cup (his favourite--you might remember it from a few weeks ago), where he would make a noise and hear how his voice sounded, and then get the biggest giggle fit. He (of course) didn't do that when the camera was filming, but he's a pretty funny guy to just watch. By the way, the reason there are two videos is because Steph initially just stopped filming, but thought that Theo was going to do the giggle thing again, so she filmed another one. They both have their place, and, although they would likely be able to stand alone, I present them to you as a pair.

Here's part 1...



And part 2...



And so, there you have it, friends--another week in the books. So glad you stopped by, and we'll see you again here next week.

The Headbangers Club

I have to say, although this week's title isn't nearly as catchy as last week's, I'm doing okay for good titles. I'll explain that one later.

Hi again, all, welcome back. Glad to have you, as usual. And let me apologize on this blog as well for my lack of updates on my other blog. The world almost ground to a halt, but we managed to make it through.

Another exciting week here in the Carroll household. Yes, it's still cold in Three Hills. Below freezing. And I'm a wimp from the west coast. But hey, I hear that I haven't been missing much back there this week, so I'm not sad. And don't give me this "At least I don't have to shovel it" crap, because I'd rather be crunching through snow than drowning any day. So there. That's my Alberta feistiness coming in.

By the way, I knew how to spell "feisty" thanks to that stupid car commercial where the couple is debating spelling. I tell you, if "I before E except after C" ever becomes a hot topic of driving conversation, please, hit me with a 2x4.

Speaking of being hit in the head with a 2x4, we had some excitement here this week. As you know from what I've been saying (and will soon see down in videoland), Theo is one very mobile child right now. He's a going concern when it comes to getting into things, as all infants who've just learned to crawl are. What's worse is that he's strong enough (and determined enough) to pull himself to standing on pretty much any surface he can reach. He's quite proud of himself when he gets up there, because it means that he can reach for whatever happens to be on the surface at the time. Why, just two days ago, he managed to get a hold of my juice on the coffee table when I turned my back for just an instant and spill it all over his books. Mmm, sticky books. I tell you, juice just doesn't come out.

Anyway, the theme is "don't turn your back, even for a second", and we learned it this week. You see, we had in our front room a folding TV tray-type thingy, the kind that comes from Ikea, made of solid wood. Since it folds out, however, it's not exactly the sturdiest thing around. Theo doesn't know that. You can see where this is going.

Crash it came, down on his head (of course). Fortunately, the glass coaster missed his head--that would've been a disaster. Of course, much crying, well, wailing, ensued. Steph, as you might expect, is panicked, not knowing if the kid's got a concussion and trying to just calm him down so that she can see what happened. Finally, he calms down, and, after applying cold cloths to bring down the swelling, she packed the boy in the car and came to find me at the gym.
By this time, Theo had calmed down substantially, and was getting back to his normal self. Believe it or not, as much as I have a major aversion to all things medical (it runs in the Carroll men, I'm afraid), I do have a nurse for a mom, so I've picked up a thing or two when it comes to emergency care. Since Theo wasn't groggy, didn't lose consciousness or seizure when he was hit, and generally seemed okay, we decided not to take him to the hospital. In fact, at the gym, he had lots of smiles for me, for the guy on the treadmill, and for his reflection in the mirrors. Things seemed normal.

We were on pins and needles for the rest of the night, but things seemed fine when we went to bed. We didn't envy him the headache he'd have when he woke up (anybody pick up the movie quote there? Tanya, I'm looking in your direction...), and we figured we'd be dealing with a bruise the next morning, but things seemed fine overall.

The next morning, he woke up as his normal, cranky-in-the-morning self. In fact, when we took a look at his head, there was no bruise at all. No marks. Nothing. No indication that a rather large piece of solid wood had nailed him in the head the day before. Nada. Either he's got one really thick skull, or he's got an adamantium exoskeleton and quick-healing powers. I'm just waiting for the retractable claws. That'd be sweet.

So that's been our week. Crazy. Under the category of "things you probably don't care about knowing but I tell you about anyway", we've ventured into some new taste sensations this week. Since he's now officially nine months old, he should be eating everything we eat, at least according to the NP. Yeah, so that's not happening. The biggest barrier is that he seems to be very sensitive to wheat, which makes it really difficult to eat "normal" things you'd feed a baby (heck, it makes it tough to eat "normally" at all--just ask Steph). Since we're supposed to give him things like bread and pasta, both of which are made of wheat, we're pretty stuck as to what to give him. And since no store in Three Hills sells wheat-free pasta, we're pretty stuck.

Anyway, we've been giving him rice cakes as a sort of token gesture to real food. He loves them. I'm not sure if it's just because they're crunchy or what, but he eats them like crazy. As for other foods, we've had no luck with green beans, but have managed to give him a sweet potato/apple mix and a mango/some other fruit mix, so he's getting a broader pallatte. We're also making the effort to let him interact with his envrionment (like pulling tables down on his head--it's all part of the plan), and that means letting him play with his food a little bit, which is, as you might expect, quite a disaster. A cute distaster, though. We're actually finding that he's starting to refuse foods off the spoon right away until we put some on his tray and let him touch it and feed himself. Then he'll take it off the spoon. What a strange fellow.

I know there's probably more I could report, but this is getting rather long, so I'll move on (still only four teeth, by the way). Time for some photos! Now, I have to admit, the photo count is rather low this week. But what I lack in quantity, I more than make up for in quality (that's not necessarily a blanket statement about my personality, just about this blog posting). Especially the last few. Oh, and I've got six videos this week, so cut me some slack on the photos.

First off, here's what Theo thinks of Halloween candy. If only he could figure out the wrapper...

His face is sure maturing quickly. He's starting to look like a real toddler, as Steph and I have reflected on during the course of this week. It's only a matter of time.

I love these overalls because, well, see for yourself. Here's Theo...

Doesn't he remind you a little bit of this guy (sorry about the tiny little photo)?

Okay, maybe he's got a ways to go, especially in the muscle department. But hey, can you blame us for wanting our kid to be a contractor? I mean, there's nothing but work, and maybe he'll build us a nice addition to the house we don't own. Okay, I'm starting to see some flaws.

Anyway, here are some more from that photo shoot. We have this little wooden thing called "Mr. Happy" (stop laughing) that is for back massages (I'm serious--stop laughing). So Theo likes to put this thing in his mouth, you see, and, as negligent parents, we oblige, but only for the sake of cute photos...

The other day, we decided that we needed to stave off cabin fever, so we'd take a walk. Good idea, in theory. Theoretically, it should be refreshing to go for a walk, right? Fresh air, and all that. Yeah, not so much. I'm such a typical west-coast wimp; I just can't handle temperatures more than five degrees below freezing. Okay, it was -8. And then there was wind chill. Brutal, bone numbing windchill. And so the challenge becomes what to do with Theo in this kind of weather. Obviously, we have to bundle him up, and so we put on the long-sleeved shirt, the parka, the mitts, the balaclava, and we wrap a blanket around his legs to keep them warm. At the end of it, we've got one bundled baby. And yet for his part, Theo looks thoroughly unimpressed...

That's probably our last walk of the season, except as necessitated by circumstance. Our last voluntary walk, how about that? Ah, cabin fever, I will slip into your loving embrace.

Okay, that got a little bit weird. Sorry. *Ahem* Hey look, cute little feet...

Now, the next few pictures are going to have to be top-secret. As I mentioned last week, we're not allowed to celebrate Halloween here--it's verboten, as they say. But, being the rebels we are, we dressed Theo up in a Halloween costume. Hey, when the kid is this cute, you just have to dress him in cute little clothes, right? Besides, he won't let us do this in the future, so we need to take advantage of it now.

Now, his costume, as you'll see, is a bit of a shout-out to the Alberta lifestyle. But as I've said in many previous postings, I don't care how you dress as long as you don't listen to country music. Oh, one more thing: for the sake of putting the best picture last (which is my M.O.) I'll have to put some not-as-good pictures first. Don't worry, they're still good--they're just not the best. Here we go...

"Howdy, pardners..."

"I'm gonna go wrangle me some outlaws..."

"Hey, out of my way!"

And finally, the very cutest picture of them all, one that I'm sure will be on desktops across the land shortly. Or at least on my parents' computer desktop...

Maw. So cute. So hey, how about some videos? Like I said, there are six this week. You're so spoiled. Actually, we're really getting into this video thing since it's been getting such rave reviews from the blog-consuming public. Let's see, what's on tap this week?

*Note: I am having major problems with the first two videos, so you may not be able to see them. If I must, I will reload them to YouTube tomorrow, but it's too late in the evening to do it now (and it keeps you coming back)*

Okay, first one, an attempt by mom to capture him using his walker, that ended up as a paper-eating fiesta...



Next up, finally a video of him crawling. Be warned, though, the cinematography is more Blair Witch-like than anything else. If you're feeling nauseous, please put your head down and the feeling will soon pass. Or at least, that's what they say at the IMAX. Anyway, here it is...



Third, a little bit of time spent in the laundry basket. The video itself isn't all that exciting, but it gives you a good idea of his range of speech. Or, more accurately, his range of sound-making. Unfortunately, he's never at his talkative best on the video, so this is the best we could get...



Fourth (I feel like I'm writing an essay with all these points), a bath tub movie, filmed in such a way that no embarrassing parts are showing. Actually, it's no trick of good movie-making, it's just that his Buddha belly covers it up. Anyway, he's really splashy, and this video shows how much fun bath time is now (which, as you might recall, is a huge change from when he was first born and bath time meant screamy time)...



Next up (I'm quickly running out of transition lines), a quick one showing the results of giving him a squishy food. As I mentioned, we're trying to get him to interact with his environment by touching his food and getting used to feeding himself. Here's what happens (sorry for the bad narration--I was trying to give the back story)...



Whew, last one. This one is a new game he likes to play in his crib involving puppets. Again, the full range of his reaction isn't available on video--for some reason, he gets all reserved when the camera comes out and we haven't figured out a way to film the video so that he can't see the camera. He was laughing hysterically before the camera came out, but the subdued reaction is pretty funny, too...



Okey-dokey, I think that's about it yet again. Thanks for stopping by again and giving me some patronage. I always say this, but it's still true--I appreciate that all my work isn't going for nothing on this site. So thanks for being a consumer. Speaking of consumers, the Three Hills blog has also been updated tonight.

See you next week.