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.