A Show of Concern

We spin yarn on this site about Kole's troubles, foibles, and even some interesting events and firsts and accomplishments. Today, we have a tale of Kole showing compassion and concern.

The scene was in his bedroom preparing for bed. In his jammies and under covers, little Kole told his mother in a cheery voice, "Book! Book!" So Kathy retrieved a book from a shelf.

She then knelt down to the bed to read him the story, but on her descent banged her knee against Kole's bed. Going a little above and beyond the average knee stinger, Kathy gave a bit of an animated hobble was verbalizing some sort of pain or displeasure with her little oops.

Kole responded by laughing, as if his mother were some sort of jester providing one final nighty-night dance.

Kathy, not in a scolding way, simply gave a sad face and responded: "Mommy hurt her knee."

Kole's face then turned stoic with concern, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Waswrong, Momma?" he said in his soft baby-voice, as if he were on the verge of tears, still laying down with his head turned on the pillow.

Kathy responded proudly, "That's very sweet of you to ask of Momma. I just hurt my knee, but I'll be okay."

The book was read, then goodnights and kisses were exchanged.

Whether he's mocking what he's seen from his parents showing concern for Karissa or what, it's a bit of a breakthrough moment that he showed legitimate emotion for his mother's well being.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had Thanksgiving at Grammy and Grandpa Gedy's place, the Wah-Hoo Ranch, in NW Parker County. Karissa spent more than half her time in someone's arms and was loved on by her adoring family and fans. Kole had a great time playing with his cousins Riley and Reagan, but could not give a thorough review of the traditional Thanksgiving feast if he had to. He nibbled at his turkey and dressing and mostly just ate his roll and mashed potatoes, then later some peanut butter and crackers. Strange kid.

Because of the cold and wind he didn't get outside and play as much as he wanted to, or we wanted him to, but he still was able to have a great time and get lots of love from his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We were home by 9:30 and Kole was straight to bed and asleep within seconds. Karissa took one final feeding upon returning home and slept great through the night.

No Black Friday shopping around here. Nobody was awake until after 7:00am then we sloughed around in our jammies until midafternoon. I did catch a key moment on camera for the first time. Kole increasingly wants to hold Karissa. This request comes from the phrase "Help ... help ... help". It actually sounds something like "Hey-yope ... hey-yope ... hey-yope". We've convinced him that several actions of his are actually helping mommy or daddy, not just getting him to do something we want. He's done this for a couple of weeks, holding Karissa while sitting on the sofa. Only today would he allow me to photograph him and not freak out.

After taking this picture and when Kathy finally took the baby from him, he freaked out a little, wanting her back - "Help! Help! Help!". Sorry, Kole. Karissa needs to take a nap now. He doesn't fully understand now. He does love his little sister.

Many Things To Smile About

I have gone out of my way to avoid putting really, really embarrassing photos of Kole just for the sake of getting a cheap giggle for adult amusement. But, there's one particular little habit he has that must be ... documented and preserved photographically, since it would be too easy to think that it is something we've exaggerated. But - no, it's no exaggeration that we've had to secure many of Kole's diapers with duct tape. If left unattended, in his room for a nap as an example, he will have his pants off in no time. Then, without hesitation, off will come the diaper. There has been one very unfortunate incident with a diaper-less Kole, but otherwise there's just a constant threat of an incident. So, on ocassion, we will have to take drastic measures to secure the diaper.

In other news, we are getting some more frequent smiles from Karissa. We may be on the verge of cooing, giving us some other noise besides a cry. She is definitely more fun to have awake, as she also will keep her head up for several seconds at a time. Her big brother is learning to love his little sister. On a couple of instances, he has actually held Karissa while sitting on the couch. He smiles and has that look of being proud of himself for carrying out such an adult-like activity that he sees from his mom and dad. However, when a camera comes out, he quickly gets nervous and whiney. It's very strange and suspicious. It's like he knows what it is and just doesn' want to be photographed. Strange kid. Must be his Thomas genes coming out.

We Have A Full Night Sleeper!

Last night just after a feeding just befoer the 10:00 News, Karissa finally fell into her peaceful slumber right around 10:30. And then, there was a bit of a false alarm around 4:00am, when she was overdue for a feeding, as she began to cry a bit ... but then went right back to sleep until 5:30! It's a full night of sleep, right at about the 7-week mark!

It may not be a routine just yet, but at least we know she's capable of it. It probably helped that a couple of days ago she had a good sneeze - one of those big blowout sneezes, as gross stuff went everywhere. All kinds of oozy bright gold snot. But, it appears to have been just the clearing of pipes that she needed. She's been breathing without obstruction since and has been sleeping more soundly.

And I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Karissa - just like Kole - debunks the myth of the swaddle. She won't take it and doesn't like it. It took us a while to rule it out, thinking that surely this is what she wants, while something else is making her cry. But, desperate ideas soon became a pattern - just let her lay as she chooses to lay, on her tummy or back, and put a blanket loosely over her up to about mid-back, beneath her arms. Her normal sleeping pose on her back is with arms up in 'touchdown' position, or when not in her bassinet, she'll spread her arms out as wide as she can. Kole was the same way as a tiny infant, hating the swaddle. But where Karissa would just cry, Kole was very strong and would bust out of any blanket, no matter if the blanket was tightened with knots. The kid did not want to be restrained ... a trait that has definitely transfered over to his current state as a 2-year-old.

I won't call a baby's "need" to be swaddled a myth, but I know that it never applied in our house. The parenting books preach about "learning your baby's cry", which I think is an incredibly misleading expectation to heap on a new parent. A more appropriate sermon should be: Learn a checklist to go down to address your baby's cry. How long has it been since the last feeding? The last diaper? The obvious two. If it's neither of those, stop trying to finger through a mental index of cries from the past and what this one may match, just keep going down the checklist. Could she be too warm, which even the books acknowledge is a frequent foible, having a baby all dressed up then bundled up more with a blanket in a hot house. Etc., on down the checklist. Since Kole taught us that swaddling was a definite option that could be opted out, we added that to Karissa's checklist and - viola - without arms and legs tied down to her she calmed down and was soon asleep.

Halloween Night

It was another fairly fun Halloween. I don't think we put too much stock in the whole spirit of the holiday and it's dark origins, and the conflict of that being "celebrated" on the Sabbath. It's a kid dress-up holiday with candy involved. Simple enough. We did run into a house where someone said they "don't celebrate Halloween" and stiffed Kole of some candy. I understand where they're coming from, but at the same time ... really?

Kole was a fire fighter, a simple $20 purchase at a local party store that didn't involve makeup or any other special bells or whistles to make the costume complete. A cool helmet was part of the ensemble, but Kole would have nothing of it.

Karissa was a pumpkin - an outfit she received as a gift well before she was born, I believe. Luckily the weather was perfect on Halloween so we were able to get her out in the stroller and have her come along. Truth be told, she slept through it all. We tried hooking a little candy pail over her arm in an attempt to rake in more candy but it wouldn't hold.

In an overall update, Karissa is probably over 9 pounds now, eating pretty healthily. She still gets a little fussy at night, but we're not quite ready to call it full-blown colic. She still just takes a while to fall asleep short of midnight then does sleep fairly well thereafter - she's just not a sound sleeper. Well ... maybe she is a sound-sleeper and that's the problem, she's not a silent-sleeper. Throughout the night she'll make little grunts and squeals, and then give the occasional whimper. Nothing worthy of waking up the house - but enough to wake Kathy or I out of a sound sleep. It's something we never really encountered with Kole once he was over the hump with his brief spell with colic. When he was out - he was OUT.

That's still the case with Kole - but only once he gets to sleep. Getting him to sleep is more of a challenge. Even when he's so tired he's dragging around the house - once he gets alone in his room it's like he finds a stash of Red Bull and sugar, then the next thing we know he's doing gymnastics off of his bed. Soon enough, he'll find the plug to his monitor camera and pull it out. It's too bad he's such a busy-body and has to get into so much crap when he's alone in his room. It keeps us from putting any toys out in his room. He'd stay up all night if he had access to anything fun. As it is, he makes do with what he has - his drawers (which he's now standing on, renderring some very difficult to open and shut now), his clothes hamper and the window shutters. The shutters now have duct tape keeping it shut - not the

blades of the blinds themselves, but the outter frame that can swing completely open and shut. If given the chance, he'd open and slam that thing shut from 8:30 till 11:30.

Speaking of Kole, his fireman outfit got the ultimate soiling. On Friday while heading to the house of a dear friend I've known since the 5th grade, for a big kid event for Halloween. On the way - about a block shy of her house - Kole threw up all over himself in his car seat. Earlier he had a snack of grapes, goldfish crackers and cheese, and it was all deposited on his chest and lap. He's a strange kid when he pukes. It doesn't really phase him. I seem to remember kids getting freaked out and cry when they puke. Kole, who's really only blew his groceries three or four times in his life, remained fairly calm, and was not real bothered by it afterwards. Every kid cries after he pukes, doesn't he?? Not Kole. He rubbed his face (smearing the puke into his hair) and looked quite relieved by it all. Go figure.

By the time Halloween came around he seemed fairly unaffected by anything. Still, we need everyone to get healthy. Everyone! That will be a first in Karissa's life.