The Reid Report

Reid is feeling much better, but still not completely dried up after going on two weeks of the snots. He still wakes up a lot coughing in the night and I'm still on clean-up duty after every sneeze. We've both gotten a little better with the nasal aspirator, but it still doesn't seem to be very effective. Perhaps it's providing some relief as Reid sort of tolerates it now. Or maybe he just figured out that it's a whole lot easier to stay relatively still and deal with it going up his nostril than struggling against the inevitable and getting it jabbed all over his face as he writhes around.

Other goings on in the world of Reid include increasing baby babbles. Sounds from the Hamilton household: AAAAAAAAGH! Aaaaiiieeeeee! Mmmma. Mamamamama. Gah! Dadadadada. Bababababababa. Aaaaah! Aaaaaa! AAAAAAHHHH! WAAAAAAAH! Blah. Blah. Blalablaba. Ted is certain that he's heard him say Mbah a Moute (the name of a former UCLA basketball player) a few times. Could be...

Despite the temptation to believe that mamamamama and dadadadada actually holds meaning for him, I think it is completely random at this point. But very, very cute.

His two teeth continue coming in strong. I've been trying to capture them on film, but given that he's usually so mesmerized by the appearance of the camera that he just stares at it in awe rather than smiling in delight, it's been a little challenging. He's also growing some hair, but very slowly. Which is fine with me as I like my babies a little on the bald side.

With all the aspirating and wipeddowns, I haven't done much picture-snapping lately but hope to be back soon with pics of a snot-free baby boy. And a much-loved schnauzer as well!

It Snot Funny

Around 1 o'clock this morning I was summoned by my master (WAAAAAAAAH! Wah!Wah!Wah!). Upon arriving at His Majesty's crib, I discovered the biggest, slimiest, nastiest snot mustache I have ever seen on any human being of any size. In all fairness, I suppose that is probably because I haven't been around many babies and thankfully I think all the grown-ups I know would wipe their own snot mustaches before they got that bad (I mean, at least on their hand or something).

But anyway, I was alarmed to say the least. Then I quickly realized that little Reid has his first cold. Poor little guy. I suppose we (and he) are pretty lucky to have gone 7 months without him getting sick. Now it's time for him to exercise that immune system.

He was up a few times in the night coughing, sneezing, crying... when necessary, I provided a brief wipedown and attempted nasal irrigation, which made him scream like a little girl. All things considered, he's dealing with the discomfort pretty well and was fairly happy all day in spite of the profusion of mucous coming out of his nose.

Anybody know how to clear a babies nasal passages with a nasal aspirator? I keep trying to use one on a very disgruntled and uncooperative Reid, but I can't seem make the thing work at all. I mean, I preface it with a little saline solution spritzer. Then I squeeze the bulb syringe thingie, stick it up one nostril, and release the squeeze... but I just don't seem to be getting a lot out of there, and there is quite obviously a lot up in there. I hate to keep torturing him with it when it is clearly unproductive. But neither one of us is going to get much uninterrupted sleep until those nasal passages get some clearance. So if anybody has had success with this, please enlighten me.

Tonight as I was nursing him before putting him to bed, he pulled back and looked up at me with the saddest eyes and said, "Aaaah ba ba baa baa baaa." I'm pretty sure that means, "I don't feel very good, Mommy." My poor little sick baby.

Scooter

Reid is not quite crawling, but he is increasingly mobile and true crawling is surely imminent. Right now, he is doing a little scooting motion, so his nickname of the week is "Scooter." Here's a little video of him demonstrating his scooting skills as well as his preference for consumer electronics over colorful baby toys.

Baby's First Christmas

December 25th was, of course, Baby Reid's First Christmas!

I insisted we get a tree this year so that he could enjoy his first Christmas tree at our house in anticipation of the big day. I don't think I did a very good job of decorating it, but while it may not have been the prettiest Christmas tree ever, but I figure it was still the prettiest one Reid had ever seen ('til he got to Nana's house anyway). He seemed alright with it.

We spent the actual day of Christmas in Dallas at Nana and Grumps' house where the Christmas elf got to make his final appearance of 2008 with Santa Schnauzer.

He got to spend some quality time with Nana, Grumps, and his adorable cousin Ian

as well as Auntie Ling and Uncle Michael.

Christmas morning was a blur of toys with two kids around. They made out like bandits! I hadn't seen a Christmas morning like that since... well, since my brother and I were kids. Reid enjoyed checking out his new presents

And of course, tasting them.

Harvey got a beautiful new Christmas collar

but apparently that wasn't enough for him. He wanted to be in on the toy action.

The only downside to our Christmas in Dallas was that Reid's sleep was once again disrupted by the change in environment, and he woke up every couple of hours. Often with babbles and squeals of delight signifying his mistaken perception that it was time to play at 3am. Which meant Momma was exhausted the whole trip. So much for those friends I wanted to catch up with and those movies I wanted to see while free babysitting was available... I was too tired!

Oh, well. Maybe next year, Momma will catch a break... this year, it was all about the boys. With faces like this, how could it not be?

Santa's Little Elf

Ooooh, so much to catch up on! Let's start with the weeks leading up to Christmas. I got a special Christmas outfit for Reid (natch) and we had to do a dress rehearsal (or two) prior to the big day.

At first he wasn't too keen on his new outfit.

Harvey (seen here, last Christmas) had to give him the "suck it up" pep talk again.

And so Reid warmed up to it after a while. Here's our precious little elf preparing for his debut with Santa:

Reid was a champ when it came to posing with Santa. No fear of bearded fat men in furry red suits for our little guy.

He hammed it up for the camera (aided by a rousing rendition of Pattycake), fully embracing his temporary existence as a Christmas elf.

I paid good money for that elf outfit so I maximized its use during the month of December, by having him wear it again when the whole silly family participated in the Jingle Bell Walk. (Harvey wanted to do the run instead, but he was leashed to us walkers. He was a good sport though.)

Already a little overachiever, Reid earned his first medal for finishing the walk - even though he can't yet walk. Oh, the irony!


By the time Christmas rolled around, he was a pro at this elf thing and ready for action. To be continued...

Happy New Year!

For months, Reid has been drooling, gnawing on everything he can get his mouth on, sleeping poorly and intermittently very fussy. Everybody has said he must be teething since he was 12 weeks old. He's continued to drool and gnaw, but for the last few weeks he's been sleeping exceptionally well (at least when he's at home) and generally a delight to be around - smiling, laughing, and just as happy as can be. So I was very surprised when he gnawed on my finger this morning and I felt what seems to be a little tooth poking through. Go figure. New year, new tooth! I'm sure that 2009 will be a year of many more firsts.

Happy New Year to all of you from all of us!