First Ear Infection

So a lot of the random fussiness, including a horrible Friday night has an explanation: ear infection! Jen and I can't remember ever having gotten them ourselves, so we had no idea how to spot one. I guess the answer is: If your baby is really cranky and writhing in pain, and it is not gas, hunger, stomach virus, teething, dirty diaper, then it is obviously an ear infection! (He wasn't running a fever and wasn't pulling at his ear, making it more puzzling) He's got a slight infection in both ears, most likely as a result of being sick for the first half of last week. So a dose of Tylenol helps the pain, and we got the proverbial pink liquid medicine.

We were worried that since giving him small squirts of cough and cold medicine was hard, then giving him 1.5 oz of pink stuff would be impossible. So here's what we did: We gave him the large eyedropper along with his pacifier and he curiously checked out the eyedropper and sucked on it. Then we said we are going to give him a "squirt" and he thought it was fun and ate the pink stuff right up - even asking for more!! So fortunately taking temperatures and giving medicine are now fun activities, however I'll bet the pink stuff has gotten tastier over the years. I thought I remembered it being yucky, but I tasted a bit, and it is quite good! Why do we always have to have it worse than the kids these days!?! :-)

Zack's First Podcast

So now we have the audio experience along with the stories and photos. Thanks to the Gcast tool from GarageBand.com this was really easy to set up. All I do is call a special phone number and can record audio directly to this site, so no matter where Zack is when he starts making funny noises or sentences, I can capture it for everyone if I have my phone handy. This should be fun to play around with. Our first posting isn't so interesting, Zack wasn't very talkative today. More audio clips will appear in the upper right of this blog page as we make them.

Update: Ear Thermometer

So I went out and got one of those digital ear thermometers. It was only $30 at Safeway. And now, getting our temp taken is fun! Zack holds still and he likes to imitate the beeps that it makes. You only need to do it in one ear, but Zack likes it so much he demands his temp be taken in the other ear too. Who knew this could be so much fun. And it only takes 3 seconds in each ear. Soooo much more helpful!

Fussy Fussy...Flop

12142005.jpg, originally uploaded by Drumbone.

We must be approaching the "twos". Zack's been sick and had a fever yesterday, but routine things that used to be easy are becoming more difficult. Giving him medicine was as easy as showing the eye-dropper to him and he would eagerly suck it down. Now it takes two people and a lot of restraint and tears to give him medicine. Even taking temperature under his arm is no easy feat (i should look into those ear temp tools), and even putting on a bib at times is too much.

We just did all three while restrained in the highchair for a snack, which lead to a lot of crying, not much eating, and an instant nap in the chair. I'm not kidding, this picture was taken 20 seconds after a 5 minute crying session ended.

End of the high chair?

Recently Zack has been asserting himself as a big boy in certain ways. Most recently he has demanded to sit in the booster seat, or big boy seat, at the table instead of the high chair. that way we all eat together at the same table. he's been sitting on the potty more frequently but no other progress there yet.

Zack is getting into counting now. We count trucks on the highway as we drive. Unprompetd, here is how he currently counts to ten:
"One, two, three, four, six, five, ten!"
I'm sure this will change by the end of the week because we are counting so much.

He got his flu shot last week, and cried after he felt the needle, but stopped abruptly when he got a band-aid on the arm, saying "sticker!". I guess stickers do the trick!

A Ham for the Cam

A shot today of Zack having fun at daycare. When he is asked to smile, he cocks his head and shows his teeth. Very cute.

Here's another criblet:
Smile Pants - He said this after seeing my boxer shorts that have smiley faces on it.

Stay tuned for the Zack Podcast Channel coming soon! Hear Zack's latest squeals, words, and noises! I'll be using GarageBand.com latest offering

Big shoes to fill

Heres a video of zack walking in mommy's shoes. Turns out i stopped the recording a few seconds too soon, because just after i stopped it he said "Bye Bye. Working" as he walked away, apparently imitating his mommy.

http://www.gracks.com/zachary/12022005(2).3gp

Here are some new Criblets: (Criblet - Meaning)

Play Lotion - He heard both of these words in the same sentence and though they sounded good together i guess. he repeated it a few times.
Andy Pandy - His new nickname for me. He recently learned our real first names, and thought "Andy" sounds funny. Flashes of grade school name-mocking memories are suddenly flying back to me now.
Santa Closet - Santa Claus, but i think he likes using other words he's familiar with.
Goofy - Excuse Me. He thinks burps and farts are funny, so we are trying to get him to say "excuse me" after it. However, he says "Goofy" instead, which unfortunately perpetuates his funny aspect.