Because I'm Smart
29 April 2008 [jd]
I was just looking up the sign for toast. After 25 minutes of hysterical screaming which started with a trip to the high chair, throwing our teethign biscuit across the room (Cayden don't throw food, just shake your head no if you don't want it), scattered prunes, a trip out of hte high chair, repeated requests to be picked up, throwing himself backwards out of Mommy's arms, rolling on the floor crying, and collapsing in a puddle when we OFFERED HIM MILK, Cayden crawled back over to his high chair. I put him in it and tried another teething biscuit, which he rejected again (not throwing it this time). Then it dawned on me. He wanted toast. Not bread. He is a big boy and he wants bread the way Mommy has it, toasted with melted butter. Mmmmmmm butter. After surviving this I had the brilliant idea that I would look up the sign for toast, since he is picking up sign more quickly than spoken language. So I go to the ASLpro site, which is awesome, click on toast and watch the video. Watching the video, I instinctively see the guys lips move and think, "something is wrong, the sound is out".
It's more than just a name...it's a lifestyle.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Something Good is Coming....
[jd] 22 April 2008
You know that feeling you would get when you were a kid and realized Christmas was only a few days away? Or when you were sitting in the house waiting for aunts, uncles, and cousins to arrive, and they were going to be there any minute? I was getting all excited last night and I realized that I get that feeling every day when I am driving to pick up Cayden. Of course it goes away when he collapses in a dejected heap on the floor wailing because I shut the door (can you imagine such a horrifically cruel Mommy?). But, it will be back again tonight.
[jd] 22 April 2008
You know that feeling you would get when you were a kid and realized Christmas was only a few days away? Or when you were sitting in the house waiting for aunts, uncles, and cousins to arrive, and they were going to be there any minute? I was getting all excited last night and I realized that I get that feeling every day when I am driving to pick up Cayden. Of course it goes away when he collapses in a dejected heap on the floor wailing because I shut the door (can you imagine such a horrifically cruel Mommy?). But, it will be back again tonight.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
KUAZ
[ty]
So I'm driving home from work yesterday listening to All Things Considered on our local NPR station KUAZ. They're not a bad public radio station. But they're not really a very good one either. Perhaps I'm spoiled by WGBH and KUOW but when your main news anchor consistently stumbles over the strange and difficult word "Tucson" I'm thinking it might be time to call it quits and turn the equipment over to Christian Life Radio.
Anyway, as per FCC regulations, KUAZ initiated a test of the emergency broadcast system during a break in my All Things Considered program and there's NO NOISE. Nothing. Dead silence for the required 10 seconds. Then they come back on the air with the standard "If this had been a real emergency, the noise you just heard would be followed by...blah...blah...blah".
Yet another reason to get the hell out of Chrysler: If there's actually an emergency we'll be the last to know.
[ty]
So I'm driving home from work yesterday listening to All Things Considered on our local NPR station KUAZ. They're not a bad public radio station. But they're not really a very good one either. Perhaps I'm spoiled by WGBH and KUOW but when your main news anchor consistently stumbles over the strange and difficult word "Tucson" I'm thinking it might be time to call it quits and turn the equipment over to Christian Life Radio.
Anyway, as per FCC regulations, KUAZ initiated a test of the emergency broadcast system during a break in my All Things Considered program and there's NO NOISE. Nothing. Dead silence for the required 10 seconds. Then they come back on the air with the standard "If this had been a real emergency, the noise you just heard would be followed by...blah...blah...blah".
Yet another reason to get the hell out of Chrysler: If there's actually an emergency we'll be the last to know.
April 18th 2008[ty]
So its officially been one year since Jordanna, with much patience and profanity, birthed our son Cayden Hoyt Henry Sprayberry. We celebrated his first b-day with a ritual trip to the local pool, his favorite dinner of Annie's mac and cheese, and a phat pumpkin spice muffin from the best desert shop in town, The Epic Cafe. He seemed to enjoy himself throughout the day and appears to have survived his latest bout with his emerging teeth.
In other news, the boy has learned the sign for All Done. We generally use it to indicate when we're done eating, done with a bottle, or wish to get down from somewhere. Thursday JP was over to hang out with JD and as usual he was barely in the house before he scooped up Cayden to give him love. Cayden gave him about 7 seconds of snuggling and then turned to Mommy and carefully signed All Done.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Even MORE Famous
Last week was NPR's guilt drive, and we called in our contribution in the last 2 hours. One of the advantages of giving to public radio in Arizona is that nobody else does, so they will read your name on the radio. Tyson gave them Cayden's name, then came careening into said child's room an hour later going. "Did you hear it? did you hear it? I forgot to get you!". I, of course, did not get to hear Cayden's name. But, I got a call from our friend Kristin less than five minutes later saying she did, which was almost as much fun.
Last week was NPR's guilt drive, and we called in our contribution in the last 2 hours. One of the advantages of giving to public radio in Arizona is that nobody else does, so they will read your name on the radio. Tyson gave them Cayden's name, then came careening into said child's room an hour later going. "Did you hear it? did you hear it? I forgot to get you!". I, of course, did not get to hear Cayden's name. But, I got a call from our friend Kristin less than five minutes later saying she did, which was almost as much fun.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
He's Famous!
A little while back (like 8 months ago) Cayden did some modeling for a friend's organic baby store, www.tinybirdsorganics.com. I was just ordering some diaper liners and looking at sale items when I found him modeling one of our favorite nightgowns. I had previously found his legs (the blue and brown striped ones), but realized that only a mother would notice or care about that, which is why this post didn't come earlier : )
A little while back (like 8 months ago) Cayden did some modeling for a friend's organic baby store, www.tinybirdsorganics.com. I was just ordering some diaper liners and looking at sale items when I found him modeling one of our favorite nightgowns. I had previously found his legs (the blue and brown striped ones), but realized that only a mother would notice or care about that, which is why this post didn't come earlier : )
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Birthday Parties and Other Milestones
joint effort [6 april '08]
Cayden's birthday isn't for another couple weeks, but we wanted to have a joint picnic/ party with his friend Ian who is a month older. When Ty's Dad booked a trip to come visit halfway between the two birthdays, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. So Saturday afternoon we headed to Children's Memorial Park for a low-key picnic with some friends. The weather was gorgeous. In another month it will be too hot to go outside, so we are enjoying all the sunshine while we can. All in all Cayden had a fantastic time. Ian suffered a bit though, as Cayden expresses his affection by grabbing, pulling, and shaking the object of his affection vigorously. Cayden really likes Ian.
We rounded off the weekend by going with Grandpa Spray and Ellen to the Fourth Ave Street fair, which was occupied by a couple thousand people that had the same idea.
In other news, after 11 1/2 months our son has discovered his penis. This had made diaper changes far more entertaining, as it is very difficult to affix a diaper on the child if he won't let go of his penis.
Do these babies look drastically different or is it because one of them is mine?
To greet this dog Cayden grabbed him, threw him on the ground, and then looked very surprised that the dog seemed upset.
Cayden attempting to greet Ian.
Big Nate is very very big compared with the B-Day boys.
Ian's father Jamie teaching Ian CPR on a unresponsive dog.
joint effort [6 april '08]
Cayden's birthday isn't for another couple weeks, but we wanted to have a joint picnic/ party with his friend Ian who is a month older. When Ty's Dad booked a trip to come visit halfway between the two birthdays, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. So Saturday afternoon we headed to Children's Memorial Park for a low-key picnic with some friends. The weather was gorgeous. In another month it will be too hot to go outside, so we are enjoying all the sunshine while we can. All in all Cayden had a fantastic time. Ian suffered a bit though, as Cayden expresses his affection by grabbing, pulling, and shaking the object of his affection vigorously. Cayden really likes Ian.
We rounded off the weekend by going with Grandpa Spray and Ellen to the Fourth Ave Street fair, which was occupied by a couple thousand people that had the same idea.
In other news, after 11 1/2 months our son has discovered his penis. This had made diaper changes far more entertaining, as it is very difficult to affix a diaper on the child if he won't let go of his penis.
Do these babies look drastically different or is it because one of them is mine?
To greet this dog Cayden grabbed him, threw him on the ground, and then looked very surprised that the dog seemed upset.
Cayden attempting to greet Ian.
Big Nate is very very big compared with the B-Day boys.
Ian's father Jamie teaching Ian CPR on a unresponsive dog.Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Nubby Update
ty [2 April '08]
It's official. Nubs has learned to use sign language to communicate with us. He has only mastered one sign so far and I'll give you one hint as to what it is...
That's right. "More food please."
He is currently working on "All done". His present method of communicating that concept is to grab double handfuls of food and paste them to any wall unfortunate enough to be close to him. In the queue right after All Done is Want, Dirty and Water. Although I guess we could combine all of them into Cholera and be done with it.
There are very few people who care that I managed to cleanly mount this pull cord into a kitchen fan using only my wits and a trained iguana but dammit, it took me 3 hours start to end.
Unfortunately Cayden doesn't always enjoy his dinner. You'd think this would stop him from eating it. Nope. It simply leads to him crying as he continues to stuff his face. Very serious determination. Although I give him lots of crap for eating constantly and weighing 16% more than his friend who is a month older I am actually pretty pleased with his eating and his weight. According to the literature he'll be staying roughly the same size for the next year-ish as he focuses all of his caloric stash on biting mommy and attacking the dishwasher (his ultimate nemesis).
As we've been painting the house the last couple of weeks we've discovered that sticking a bunch of tape on the child is funny. To us.
ty [2 April '08]
It's official. Nubs has learned to use sign language to communicate with us. He has only mastered one sign so far and I'll give you one hint as to what it is...
That's right. "More food please."
He is currently working on "All done". His present method of communicating that concept is to grab double handfuls of food and paste them to any wall unfortunate enough to be close to him. In the queue right after All Done is Want, Dirty and Water. Although I guess we could combine all of them into Cholera and be done with it.
There are very few people who care that I managed to cleanly mount this pull cord into a kitchen fan using only my wits and a trained iguana but dammit, it took me 3 hours start to end.
Unfortunately Cayden doesn't always enjoy his dinner. You'd think this would stop him from eating it. Nope. It simply leads to him crying as he continues to stuff his face. Very serious determination. Although I give him lots of crap for eating constantly and weighing 16% more than his friend who is a month older I am actually pretty pleased with his eating and his weight. According to the literature he'll be staying roughly the same size for the next year-ish as he focuses all of his caloric stash on biting mommy and attacking the dishwasher (his ultimate nemesis).
As we've been painting the house the last couple of weeks we've discovered that sticking a bunch of tape on the child is funny. To us.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Planes and Fences
[ty] 9 March '08
So lots of Exciting Stuff has been happening lately. Chief among these is that instead of having 12 months to finish remodeling our house we had 6 weeks. Yay! Luckily we have amazing friends who've been all too happy to turn their "lets visit Ty&JD&Nubby" vacations into "can I stop drywalling now, my back really hurts" vacations.
Steve and Paula came to visit and we tore up and moved a fence section. Nubby decided that Paula's lap is his new favorite lap and refused to leave it even to poo.
www.sprayberries.com/febandmarch08/febandmarch08.html
Lallo came to visit and we hung crown molding, fixed the window, and geeked out on all the planes here in the desert. Well, technically Lallo geeked out on the typography while I geeked out on the planes.
www.sprayberries.com/lallofeb/lallofeb.html
[ty] 9 March '08
So lots of Exciting Stuff has been happening lately. Chief among these is that instead of having 12 months to finish remodeling our house we had 6 weeks. Yay! Luckily we have amazing friends who've been all too happy to turn their "lets visit Ty&JD&Nubby" vacations into "can I stop drywalling now, my back really hurts" vacations.
Steve and Paula came to visit and we tore up and moved a fence section. Nubby decided that Paula's lap is his new favorite lap and refused to leave it even to poo.
www.sprayberries.com/febandmarch08/febandmarch08.html
Lallo came to visit and we hung crown molding, fixed the window, and geeked out on all the planes here in the desert. Well, technically Lallo geeked out on the typography while I geeked out on the planes.
www.sprayberries.com/lallofeb/lallofeb.html
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Who knew I would agree with Geraldo Rivera on something?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2008/03/geraldo_rivera_takes_on_antiim_1.html
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2008/03/geraldo_rivera_takes_on_antiim_1.html
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
New Favorite Lap
jd [26 Feb 2008]
Paula and Steve just left this morning after a long-weekend visit of beer drinking, fence mending, and baby cuddling. They were unaware that we planned on putting them to work, but took it like champs. Not only that, but with the four of us brainstorming the project we came up with a plan to fix the old fence instead of replacing half of it, which saved us about 300$. Ty and Steve rented a two-man auger and filled our yard with holes last friday. The majority of those holes become homes to fence posts, cactuses and trees, but a couple were just for fun. Cayden spent some serious time bonding with Auntie Paula, and after twenty-four hours decided she was his new favorite lap. Saturday morning he crawled over to her, tried to pull up on her legs, then just held out his arms to be picked up. The idea that somebody was willing to hold him all the time was just too exciting for words. To be posted later: pics of the "new" fence and construction madness, along with a bonus video of our three legged cat trying to attack a stray dog.
jd [26 Feb 2008]
Paula and Steve just left this morning after a long-weekend visit of beer drinking, fence mending, and baby cuddling. They were unaware that we planned on putting them to work, but took it like champs. Not only that, but with the four of us brainstorming the project we came up with a plan to fix the old fence instead of replacing half of it, which saved us about 300$. Ty and Steve rented a two-man auger and filled our yard with holes last friday. The majority of those holes become homes to fence posts, cactuses and trees, but a couple were just for fun. Cayden spent some serious time bonding with Auntie Paula, and after twenty-four hours decided she was his new favorite lap. Saturday morning he crawled over to her, tried to pull up on her legs, then just held out his arms to be picked up. The idea that somebody was willing to hold him all the time was just too exciting for words. To be posted later: pics of the "new" fence and construction madness, along with a bonus video of our three legged cat trying to attack a stray dog.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Can't take your eyes off him for a second
[jd] 14 Feb 2008
So I went to pick up Cayden on Tuesday afternoon, and when I walked in he was sitting behind a woman kneeling and giving her son antibiotics from a syringe. Cayden was chugging a bottle and when he saw me, he gave a huge grin and pulled the bottle out. I thought to myself, "that doesn't look like his bottle", just as the woman turned, saw Cayden and exclaimed "Oh my god that is another baby's breast milk". There's not really anything clever I can say to make this story funnier than it is, so I'm not even going to try.
[jd] 14 Feb 2008
So I went to pick up Cayden on Tuesday afternoon, and when I walked in he was sitting behind a woman kneeling and giving her son antibiotics from a syringe. Cayden was chugging a bottle and when he saw me, he gave a huge grin and pulled the bottle out. I thought to myself, "that doesn't look like his bottle", just as the woman turned, saw Cayden and exclaimed "Oh my god that is another baby's breast milk". There's not really anything clever I can say to make this story funnier than it is, so I'm not even going to try.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
A dream come true
[jd] 12 Feb 2008
Last week when I picked Cayden up at daycare, his lunch was still in the fridge. He has officially begun refusing 'baby' food. He only wants finger food, with the exception of yogurt and applesauce. He has apparently been trying to steal all the older baby's foods for a while. One of the home made baby food sites I frequent has a whole page talking about how to get your baby to take more textured foods. This apparently will not be an issue for us. As we are moving into this new phase, I realized that we can ALL EAT THE SAME FOOD. Why this excites me so much I don't know. But for several nights in a row, we have all sat down to the same dinner (vegi-chilli, potato and mustard green casserole, beets & turnips & polenta tonight!). Life is awesome. I can eat dinner with my kid and I got a real job.
[jd] 12 Feb 2008
Last week when I picked Cayden up at daycare, his lunch was still in the fridge. He has officially begun refusing 'baby' food. He only wants finger food, with the exception of yogurt and applesauce. He has apparently been trying to steal all the older baby's foods for a while. One of the home made baby food sites I frequent has a whole page talking about how to get your baby to take more textured foods. This apparently will not be an issue for us. As we are moving into this new phase, I realized that we can ALL EAT THE SAME FOOD. Why this excites me so much I don't know. But for several nights in a row, we have all sat down to the same dinner (vegi-chilli, potato and mustard green casserole, beets & turnips & polenta tonight!). Life is awesome. I can eat dinner with my kid and I got a real job.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
A Discerning Palate
[jd] 2 Feb 2008
I have discovered that if my laptop is all the way back on our little Ikea coffee table, I can type without Nubs being able to reach the keys. He likes to stand next to me while I am kneeling and typing and bang away on the table. I was working and noticed that the banging had stopped. So I looked at him just in time to see him carefully pull a piece of old tissue off the wad in his hand, put it in his mouth, chew and swallow. Curry? Yum. Old snotty tissue? Yum.
[jd] 2 Feb 2008
I have discovered that if my laptop is all the way back on our little Ikea coffee table, I can type without Nubs being able to reach the keys. He likes to stand next to me while I am kneeling and typing and bang away on the table. I was working and noticed that the banging had stopped. So I looked at him just in time to see him carefully pull a piece of old tissue off the wad in his hand, put it in his mouth, chew and swallow. Curry? Yum. Old snotty tissue? Yum.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Homeward Bound
[jd] 31 January 2008
So I had an interview for a grown-up job (biology professor) last week in Allentown, PA, about 90 minutes from where I grew up. I loved the department. During the 1 1/2 days I spent there, it was really easy to envision myself working there, being productive, and being happy. Apparently they felt the same way, because they offered me a job on Monday! We have had to make decisions on a really short time scale, because they also really liked their second choice and wanted to be able to make an offer to that person if I turned it down. Happily Tyson has reconciled himself to, and is even excited about, the idea of living in Pennsylvania. So, I have informally accepted and provided nothing bizarre happens we are moving to Allentown this summer! The amount we have to do before then is STAGGERING. So, if you were planning on visiting us in Tucson and feel like painting a house, or putting up some crown moulding this is your chance! Likewise, if you have a hankering to learn how to do multi-unit extracellular recordings, I have plently of experiments that need doing : )
In other news, drool-meister G has popped his second tooth. I discovered this when he bit my finger yesterday and left 2 painful indentations instead of one. To all you new parents, your fingers may seem like a convenient portable teething toy, but this is a BAD HABIT to get into.
[jd] 31 January 2008
So I had an interview for a grown-up job (biology professor) last week in Allentown, PA, about 90 minutes from where I grew up. I loved the department. During the 1 1/2 days I spent there, it was really easy to envision myself working there, being productive, and being happy. Apparently they felt the same way, because they offered me a job on Monday! We have had to make decisions on a really short time scale, because they also really liked their second choice and wanted to be able to make an offer to that person if I turned it down. Happily Tyson has reconciled himself to, and is even excited about, the idea of living in Pennsylvania. So, I have informally accepted and provided nothing bizarre happens we are moving to Allentown this summer! The amount we have to do before then is STAGGERING. So, if you were planning on visiting us in Tucson and feel like painting a house, or putting up some crown moulding this is your chance! Likewise, if you have a hankering to learn how to do multi-unit extracellular recordings, I have plently of experiments that need doing : )
In other news, drool-meister G has popped his second tooth. I discovered this when he bit my finger yesterday and left 2 painful indentations instead of one. To all you new parents, your fingers may seem like a convenient portable teething toy, but this is a BAD HABIT to get into.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Nubby's First Oxygen Tent
[ty] 17 Jan '08
Over the course of the last 7 months we've become relatively accustomed to the variety of nasty excretions produced by our son because he's in daycare. He's young and building a healthy immune system doesn't come without a cost. In many respects we consider this a boon. Better chickenpox as a child than shingles as an adult for instance. So we thought nothing of it as his most recent cough turned wheezy and he became more lethargic and needy. That is, until Jordanna checked on him as she was coming to bed the other night and his breathing was strange enough that she brought him into bed with us.
Despite the fact that it was 1:30 in the morning his breathing was so strange that we lay awake listening to him discussing whether or not we were being paranoid. Eventually I decided we were not paranoid, his respiratory functions were not ok (64 breaths a minute), and we needed to take him to Urgent Care. So we loaded him into the car and tore off for UMC. Ironically I drove to the hospital very very quickly not because he was in dire straits but because we thought Urgent Care closed at 3am (it actually closes at 1am) and the difference in co-pay is significant.
Upon our arrival they rushed us into care (if you ever need to fast-track through admission write "respiratory difficulty" on your intake sheet), checked him out, and agreed that his respiration was labored and the O2 levels in his blood were too low. They put him on some oxygen and admitted him. Even sitting in a hospital and knowing that he was basically fine seeing my 9 month old son with oxygen tubes in his nose was difficult. I can't even imagine what our friend, whose child has had multiple surgeries, must go through.
We stayed in the hospital for a day and a half as they waited to see if his oxygen levels dropped again. Turns out he has RSV (a respiratory virus) and an ear infection. They were all very nice and provided us with a great deal of disposable crap. We were discharged this afternoon and Nubby has been happily eating and hydrating all day.
On the bright side he learned to hold his own bottle while in the hospital.
This is the very cool device they use to measure his blood oxygen saturation. As far as I can tell it's a light/doppler thing going on. But it just tapes onto his foot and thats it. Very nice and easy for a baby.
Mommy with her "I slept in this chair" sassy hair.
One of the nurses walked in, saw him like this, and said "Well, you're not a very sick baby now are you?"
[ty] 17 Jan '08
Over the course of the last 7 months we've become relatively accustomed to the variety of nasty excretions produced by our son because he's in daycare. He's young and building a healthy immune system doesn't come without a cost. In many respects we consider this a boon. Better chickenpox as a child than shingles as an adult for instance. So we thought nothing of it as his most recent cough turned wheezy and he became more lethargic and needy. That is, until Jordanna checked on him as she was coming to bed the other night and his breathing was strange enough that she brought him into bed with us.
Despite the fact that it was 1:30 in the morning his breathing was so strange that we lay awake listening to him discussing whether or not we were being paranoid. Eventually I decided we were not paranoid, his respiratory functions were not ok (64 breaths a minute), and we needed to take him to Urgent Care. So we loaded him into the car and tore off for UMC. Ironically I drove to the hospital very very quickly not because he was in dire straits but because we thought Urgent Care closed at 3am (it actually closes at 1am) and the difference in co-pay is significant.
Upon our arrival they rushed us into care (if you ever need to fast-track through admission write "respiratory difficulty" on your intake sheet), checked him out, and agreed that his respiration was labored and the O2 levels in his blood were too low. They put him on some oxygen and admitted him. Even sitting in a hospital and knowing that he was basically fine seeing my 9 month old son with oxygen tubes in his nose was difficult. I can't even imagine what our friend, whose child has had multiple surgeries, must go through.
We stayed in the hospital for a day and a half as they waited to see if his oxygen levels dropped again. Turns out he has RSV (a respiratory virus) and an ear infection. They were all very nice and provided us with a great deal of disposable crap. We were discharged this afternoon and Nubby has been happily eating and hydrating all day.
On the bright side he learned to hold his own bottle while in the hospital.
Here he is showing how he proudly holds his own beverage. Now he refuses to let us hold any bottles for him. Damn kids.
This is the very cool device they use to measure his blood oxygen saturation. As far as I can tell it's a light/doppler thing going on. But it just tapes onto his foot and thats it. Very nice and easy for a baby.
Mommy with her "I slept in this chair" sassy hair.
One of the nurses walked in, saw him like this, and said "Well, you're not a very sick baby now are you?"
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