Personal History: Parallel Play: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

While listening to my NPR podcasts I was pointed to the article Personal History: Parallel Play: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker by Tim Page in which he talks about his life with Asperger's. I found this article amusing as it discusses a few of my own quirks (we don't share most but a few are incredibly familiar). More entertaining was when I hit a section in which he describes an abnormal behavior to which I thought "That's interesting, I never realized that was abnormal, but it makes sense".

Life with Baby - Big News

I have started quite a few posts and not quite finished them before something new to write about comes along. Aiden (formerly known as Daemon) is growing like a weed. We think he is incredibly smart and expect him to start walking any day now. Wouldn't that be funny, A little 10 lb., 23inch man walking around. (Those are his current stats). OK it's probably going to be a while.

We have been trying to see more of the East. Plenty of diaper changes in mommy's truck:( Even a few on the tailgate, (thanks to Daddy). We went to the National Zoo when Aiden was 4 weeks old. Apparently the Pandas are a big whoopty doo there. Here is a Giant Panda holding Aiden (then Daemon).

When Aiden was 6 weeks old we went to Gettysburg. There Aiden (that day I think he was Jack), got his picture taken as a union soldier. Or confederate, not really sure but I asked Aiden and he is definitely against slavery. Rest assured...

This weekend we are doing home repairs. Papa Dave is out here helping us with a deck and a new furnace/AC. Papa thinks Aiden is a great baby and that I just need to stop pinching him.

And of course the big news, drum role please.
As some of you may have figured out, Our babies current name is Aiden. Daemon just didn't seem to fit him. He is most certainly an Aiden. Sorry for the delay, but imagine being a nameless baby, it was harder for him, trust me.

All Our Love, Josh, Emily and da da ta da AIDEN.

To see more pictures of our great adventures click here

Baby Stats

At the baby's 2 week Dr's appointments he weighed a whopping 8 lbs and had grown to 21 inches. However he is now a week older and I'm sure larger. I am not sure how exactly it is, that he is managing to grow. I think Josh will agree he's got to be pooping more than he's eating.

Josh took some beautiful, I mean handsome pictures of the baby at 3 weeks old. Just click under Links (to the right, top of the page) Em & Josh Photos. Under the file Daemon scroll to the bottom to see most recent photos. My favorite is the picture where he is giving his dad the middle finger. He takes after me already.

Happy 1 Week Birthday

Daemon became one week old today at 5:02 pm.



It has been a wonderful week. Very tiring! Daemon and Mom eat and sleep all day and poor dad has to take care of both of us. I feel like I will be up and walking again about the same time Daemon learns to. It is very frustrating. The day after we came home from the hospital, we had a nurse come to the house (apparently this is a fairly common thing on the East Coast). She checked out Daemon and Mom and removed the staples.
Josh is doing a great job. He's had a lot to learn in the last week. He has turned into a champion speed diaper changer. His favorite question is, "At what age to they get bowel control?"

Click here to see pictures of Daemon's first week of life.

It's a Boy -- Daemon Joshua

Daemon has my head. It's a rather big thing as heads go, especially when it is inside someone tiny like Em. Much to my surprise this head came with a bunch of brown hair already installed. He has wrinkly skinny fingers that look like they should be attached to a very very tiny and very old man. He likes to flex his fingers into strange positions and point his hands at things. This reminds me of the emperor from Star Wars shooting lightning from his fingers and has lead to his first nick name, spell caster. I doubt that it will stick but his 5 year old cousin likes it. His little legs also have bulging thigh muscles, reminiscent of a cyclist, under his loose skin. Em, Rachael, and Cindy all say that he looks like me and is very masculine looking. Not being a baby connoisseur I have to take their word for it :) The official word is that he is what they call cute in women speak. Cute enough that the nurses happily borrowed him last night for a few hours to keep them company at the nursing station so we could get some sleep (even happy baby noises can keep you awake sometimes).

When Daemon first came out he was so excited to experience everything that he didn't go to sleep for 12 hours. He just laid on his back or cuddled up next to whoever was holding him looking around, waving his hands and casting spells of enchantment on all those who passed. He didn't scream at all, though occasionally he would do a little cry with one little quiet cry at a time with 30 seconds in between each cry, nothing like some of the other babies that I have heard that are just wailing as loud and as fast as they can. He then proceeded to sleep for 4 to 5 hours straight. We are hoping that this keeps it up!

Outside the obvious eating, sleeping, and excreting waste his favorite activities are: grabbing tight and holding onto grownup fingers, sometimes even getting them to his mouth; waving his hands around (he does not like to have his arms swaddled) generally accompanied by changes in breathing pace and grunts; fighting any effort to keep his head rested on anything because he would rather be holding it up himself and looking around; and pooping whenever I hold him. I have been the holder during 4 of 6 so far.

Em is recovering quickly as c-sections go, though it is an extremely painful and difficult recovery. Today she has had to get up for bathroom trips as well as a few extra curricular walks around the room, tomorrow they are going to have her walking laps in the halls. She is dealing with all this, still feeding Daemon, dealing with the frustration of not being able to take care of him herself like she wants to, and instead having the added pain of teaching me how to handle him (talk about difficult!), all without getting too stressed out, she really is amazing, or as she would put it 'tough' :) She knows so much about this little person, what he wants/needs, what will comfort him, I am truly happy to have her as my wife. We expect to be discharged sometime on Tuesday.

Here is what everyone has been waiting for, the stats.

Name: Daemon Joshua
Born: Saturday, 2007 June 30 at 5:02 PM EST (3:02 Utah time)
Weight: 7lb, 9oz (3,430 grams)
Length: 19.75 in (50.2 cm)
Hours in labor: about 24

Frogs

As some of you may know we have a very small pond in our backyard. In this pond we have Frogs. When I discovered the frogs I was not pleased. Josh had to find a new home for as many as he could. One weekend he removed 13 frogs. Unfortunately we did not get them out before they did the nasty, and we now have a zillion tad poles.

A few frogs remained after we tried to exile them. I don't mind them as much now, so they will probably remain, unless Toby eats them.


This weekend Parker and Isabella wanted Josh to catch a frog so they could see it and hold it. After several attempts, one of which we learned that them there frogs are great jumpers, we adjusted our plan to include a lid for the Rubbermaid, Success! Josh caught us a cute green one. Bella loved it. She was so brave. She petted it, held it all by herself, and even kissed it multiple times.
Parker was very scared and forced to touch it against his screaming will.

Toby and Zeke were way fascinated. Toby was very hyper and couldn't control himself. He was jumping on anyone holding the frog and almost turned this story into a tragedy when the frog got out of our hands and made a break for it. After a fun day Bella released him back to the pond.

Click here to see all the cute froggie pictures.

Thirsty Dog

Joce loves bedtime. As I start heading toward the bedroom after putting the boys to bed she starts barking little excited barks and running in circles. Shew knows that it is time for her bedtime snack, a greenie. Em and I finish up our bedtime preparations about the time Joce finishes her greenie and she heads off to get a drink of water, but last night the water bowl was empty. This happens every couple months. Joce has developed her own special way of letting us know that she needs more water. She finds a water bottle from somewhere in the house (usually under our bed) and brings it to us. She is smarter than we give her credit for.