Evan Valentine, Stay-at-Home Dad

Like everything else in my life, this blog goes in very severe phases. During the times that I actually want to work on it, I develop a backlog of saved drafts to post on later dates where I may not be so motivated. The last several days have been a pretty good example of that. One of my many Useless Facts post, a little post about what I listen to on satellite radio, blah blah. These were pre-prepared.

We got this kid a music-themed activity table. It stands about 18" off the ground and has about 25 buttons you can push and get different responses. It has "speaking mode" and "music mode" which has no words. He only likes it if I put Cheerios in the pocket. Then it's his favorite.

Weekend was great. Concerts were great. Thanks again to Martha and Eric for holding us a table at Leon Redbone. We had good seats. Leon Redbone is a very odd man. Every time I see him in concert, there is more silence between songs, and more weird things like playing the same songs twice. He did two doubles in his set on Friday. Weird.

My son has just cried for two days straight. I don't know if he has more teeth coming in or what, but he is one pissed off kid. Here is a pretty common exchange:

he: [Reaches for coffee mug on coffee table]
me: "No no... that's hot" [I move it to the direct center of the coffee table]
he: "I hate you, Dad! I hate you and I hate this family, and I wish I was never born! This house is stupid and I hate these clothes and I'm gonna run away and never come back!"

Seems a bit of an overreaction. Then I take him up to his room where he cries while playing with all his toys. Like, he's opening and closing his "spin and learn" alphabet book over and over, and spinning the letters, all while crying at maximum capacity with tears running off his chin. I don't know if some teeth are about to come through, but I hope so. That would mean there is an end in sight. I'm really sick of this.

Jaime had a good idea to just let the video camera run while she fed Stephen the other night, and I could just edit it down. I took it from seven minutes in length to just under three minutes in length. It's still a bit too long. Stephen is attempting to feed himself pureed carrots with a spoon. If you get tired of watching it, skip to 2:35 when jaime grabs the camera again.

Stephen had his nine month checkup today. He has fallen to the tenth percentile in weight. Doctor said it's not a big deal and that it doesn't mean he's not getting enough to eat, but he also said "We'll have to keep an eye on his weight next time." Yeah, really? You mean you're going to weigh him next time? Wow. He got one shot and got blood drawn to test for Anemia. He was a champ for the shot, didn't even make a move. Then I had to take him down to the lab, still unclothed, to get blood drawn for a standard 9month Anemia test.

This is where things went south. We got our name called quickly, the nurse got Stephen's ticket and went back to the back area where the "boss man" was, and asked how they should proceed, etc. I could see and hear them through a little open area and they couldn't figure out how old he was for like three minutes. Then they had every nurse in there... "you hold his hand, I'll hold his head, we'll put this bar down over his legs.. ok, ready?"

So, they tied the tourniquet on his upper left arm and proceeded to stick him inside his left elbow about 20 times without finding the vein. Stephen never even moved or cried or looked like he felt it at all. Then they switched to the right arm. After about 20 more pricks (no exaggeration), they found a vein. Stephen felt this and was a little upset. Since they had all given up hope on this working, everyone had abandoned their stations, so Stephen's hand and foot were unrestrained (he was sitting in my lap this whole time, but there's only so much I can do). He began wiggling around and crying a little bit, and the guy was like "we lost it."

So THEN, with gauze taped to the inside of both of Stephen's elbows, they pricked his thumb and collected a whole vial of blood drop by drop. They let some drip on my pants.. ugh.. it was quite clear that I thought they were inept. They kept marveling at how good Stephen was being, and apologizing to me. Their (approximately one dozen) apologies were met with cold, silent stares, but other than that I was polite, patient, and understanding.

Things like this are the disadvantage of not going to a Pediatrician. We take Stephen to a general practitioner, because he is my doctor and I like him. I don't have a problem with the doctor at all, but when it comes to performing procedures on a tiny human body, some of the people are not very experienced. All in all, it was much worse for me than it was for Stephen. He cried for a total of three minutes, which is probably what would have happened if everything had gone as planned.

The reason they do not typically prick the thumbs of babies quickly became evident as the guy put three band aids on Stephen's thumb, all while Stephen was trying to stick his thumb in his mouth. The whole time I was checking out, we were battling over what Stephen put in his mouth. I would put the pacifier in; he would spit it out and stick his thumb in there. Then, back in the waiting room on my way out, I got Stephen dressed again. I kept his whole right arm inside the outfit so he couldn't suck his thumb. By the time I got home, I pulled his arm through the sleeve and took the band aids off. The bleeding had stopped. We managed to not ruin anything with blood stains (my pants are dark grey so they should be fine). He was extremely tired after his HIB shot, but now he's happy as a clam and standing next to the shelves where we keep his toys, destroying everything in sight.

Age: 9months
Height: 28.5"
Weight: 17lbs, 10oz
Head Circum: 17.5"

Related charts, graphs, etc.

Stephen had a few "firsts" yesterday. He took his first step (from holding onto the dog to holding onto his mom). Jaime doesn't think it was a step, but he was holding onto the dog, then he let go. He moved one of his feet forward (towards Jaime) and then planted it on the ground. Then he grabbed onto Jaime. I consider that a step. He also had his first (two) french fries.

I hate it when I come up with a new tag for this blog after the fact. A conversation I had with Krystle last night made me think I should have a "firsts" tag where I can track the approximate date of all all Stephen's firsts. First time sitting up, rolling over.. all that. So now I am searching through 330 posts to find firsts and re-tagging them retroactively. What a pain.

Edit: Okay, searching for things like first, roll, skills, and sitting, I was able to come up with a fair amount of "firsts." You can follow the the tag here. I was not able to find a real date on when he first sat up on his own, but it seems to be somewhere in the middle of the 4th month.