Quiet Week

After Monday's excitement, things were quiet around here. Anders' rash went away. I think it was the new formula to which he was allergic. He still has some sniffles, but the medication has allowed him to sleep through the night most of the time.

Anders is cruising around the furniture a lot more and crawling much faster than before. He remains almost constantly in a good mood.

I would type more, and planned to do so, but Anders woke up just as I began this blog entry.

Oh, he clapped his hands for the first time last night and did so again this morning.

The other funny thing is that he will not allow me to pass by him without paying tribute with a hold or a kiss before I abscond to the basement to work on my classes or publishing projects. Maybe it's because I go away for days at a time sometime, maybe it's an evolutionary thing whereby babies try to make a special bond with their fathers, or maybe it's because I'm awesome. I shall investigate further, but I'm leaning toward my awesomeness.

Doctor's Office, Pharmacy, House Showing, Bloody Toe, etc...

What a day. Anders either has a virus or a food allergy. The doctor and I settled on an allergic reaction to Anders' new old formula. He was on Simulac Advance briefly back in the fall before we switched to high calorie preemie formula. Well, that was the only change in his diet over the last day or two. She prescribed some ointment for the rash, which had spread to his arms today. That was the trigger for me to take him in, plus the pediatricians would be working today. The scene at urgent care on the weekend can be pretty grim.

Regardless of the rash, she also prescribed Children's Benadryl, which seems to be working like a charm so far, although some kids get wired from using it rather than crashing. Hopefully, the entire Peterson family will get a good night's sleep. Anders was up about three times last night before our bedtime, then at 2:02 am (yep, between the sacred 2-4 am period), but then slept until 7:30 am.

It was actually nice here this morning, and because I was worried that he had a heat rash, we went walking in the morning. I am sold on morning walking. There are cool breezes, chipper old people, and we are almost always facing away from the sun on our route. The sports radio is better in the morning, but I am willing to make the sacrifice for Anders.

I received a surprise call from Anna in the late morning saying that we had a house showing at 4 pm that day, mere minutes after I made a 3 pm appointment for Anders to see the doctor. So we went to the doctor, Walmart to get the new old formula, and then to CVS for the prescriptions. As we were walking in, I noticed CVS has carts, I made a hard stop and jammed my toe to the degree that it turned to a bloody mess. I forgot that some days you need a sundial to measure your wait at CVS.

Meanwhile, Anders was having a ball. As Anna said, being slightly sick and visiting medical professionals is Anders' natural state. He charmed the doctor. She said something like "He has a happy heart" or something like that. I gave Anders the formula to hold in the Walmart cart, then at CVS he melted the heart of a woman who almost fainted (not from Anders, but from her flu shot).

After all of this filibustering, we arrived home well after the scheduled 4 pm house showing time. We rolled in at 5:10 EDT, and at 5:11 in rolled the agent showing the house along with his clients. I had just taken Anders's stuff in and was on the way back out to get Anders. I realize that the times they give are approximate but being over an hour late? I don't know, perhaps I might try to get in touch with the people who live in the house because, well, they are LIVING IN THE HOUSE and they expected you to be long gone.

I spent all of Anders' afternoon nap flying around the house to clean some things and hide others. Our AC is at Ice Planet of Hoth level for Anders, but I was sweating like Mark Dayton at a Lutheran coffee hour. It turned out pretty well, but I didn't get the vibe that this crew would be "The Buyers" from our accidental encounter.

Anyway, we left. I called Anna, and we met at Arby's for supper. Arby's and TGI Fridays were our two stops in Minneapolis for supper after a bad day. By this point I was so exhausted that I did not even turn to object as the Arby's employee sprayed me with disinfectant (we were sitting in the booth next to the tray dump). I did not want to discourage any Athens area food service employee from cleaning owing to the rarity of this occurrence.

I am trying to keep in mind the words of my friend Bill, who is leaving SE Ohio this week after doing four years down here, "Just remember, Jon, you're not wrong."

The important thing, though, is that Anders should be on the road to: recovery, a full night's sleep, and morning walks from now on.

This will be a long night.

Anders has a heat rash, allergies (to ragweed, I'm guessing), and some painful teeth are staring to poke through.

The heat rash looks worse than it is. Anna thought about going to urgent care, but then she realized that they would sit there for three hours and then the doctor would ask if she was using a new detergent or if Anders was eating a new food, and then the doctor would tell them that Anders has a heat rash that should be treated with ointment and corn starch, which we are doing.

As we tried to treat the heat rash, we realized that Anders was stuffy because of exposure to the outside. Opening the windows was part of my crackpot idea to air out the heat rash.

Then, as I was comforting Anders during one of the three times he has already awakened tonight, I saw his hand plunged in his mouth--teething.

If he could just sleep from 2-4 am, I will be okay. Anna will need more sleep than that as she has her first day of school tomorrow.

I better get to bed. I'll be up again soon.

Solo with Anders

Anders and I are alone again here at home. We have a new Ottoman, which I like to set Anders in and he likes to sit in. It has four attached, openable squares with tops so we can store Anders' toys in there.

Anders is, Anna tells me, cruising in baby lingo. He took a big fall today. I was ready for him to fall two different ways, but he fell a third way. You can see the bruise on his forehead on the most recent photos.

It got hot again here today. While I still enjoy it, Anders is ready for the heat to break.

I think Anders really misses Anna. He looked around for her today after we returned from our walk. A few times per day, he also says "Mommomomomomomom." He is throwing out a few "Dadas," which is nice.

Things are going well, except for the dull backache.

Tomorrow, we are hosting a goodbye party for our friend Bill. This will be my last Athens Farewell Party until it is time for our Athens Farewell Party.

Onion Loaf

Ottoman Prez

Anders in and around the new Ottoman

Anders Opening Sarah's Present and More

What Anders Does Now

I should take this opportunity to briefly talk about what Anders does now.  He started crawling on his birthday, which he does as needed but not excessively.  He only crawls a long distance if he sees one of us from far away and decides to crawl to us.  Mostly, he just crawls to get to toys.  Also, he does this thing where he throws a toy toward an outlet, cabinet, curtain, or someplace else he knows he shouldn't go and crawls over to track it down hoping that the cover of retrieving a toy will not arouse suspicion from us.  Even I have figured out this move.  

He pulls himself up on our couch and he can even do so on the higher love seat now.  I have to choke down my fear when he does so because it's all part of the walking process.  I was telling Anna yesterday about how nervous his little shuffles along the furniture make me, but that I was getting better---WHACK.  He went down and hit his head.  Now, I am right up behind him when I see it coming.  The nice part of him pulling himself up is that I don't have to hold his fingers as he motors around the house as much as I once did.  My back thanks Anders as well.  He still does it a lot, but not all the time.

Anders went to church today.  He is still better behaved than all the other little ones.  He was making eyes at this little red headed girl off to our right who was about 3 years old.  When we don't take Anders out in public for a while I forget how much he thrives in social settings.  

Otherwise, he's the same old Anders.  He has had a bit of a cold this week, which I think I caught from him.  I'm not convinced it's not allergies, so I'm back on claratin since I do get fall allergies now--one of the bonuses of living in SE Ohio for so long is that I am allergic to more stuff each year.  It also might be the AC since it is a lot drier in here than the misty and humid outside.  I think we might be leaving the 90s behind for the high 80s this week.  It's not much, but it is progress.  We have a lot more tolerance for summer after July in MN, where there was only a rumor of summer.  

I assigned a Nixon biography for class so I need to get back to reading it.  I never tire of reading about Nixon.  He's endlessly fascinating.  It's amazing that someone so antisocial could succeed at the highest levels that most social of professions.  Perhaps there is hope for Mark Dayton yet.

A Good Recliner

9 West Hills Drive, 11:45 pm EDT...

Anna: Good Night!

Jon: I don't think it's going to be good or much of a night either...

After sleeping for about three hours, Anders awakened a little after 11 as I settled into bed. He was crying and carrying on. Anna pacified him to a point, to the point that we had the aforementioned exchange. A couple of nights before, he awakened around 2:45 am and I was up rocking with him until he finally fell asleep at 4 am. Saturday night was fine, then we had last night. We tried our usual tricks, but then we settled on Anders and me sleeping in the recliner downstairs. Anders has had a stuffed nose and sounded a little horse the past few days, which is especially strange since he doesn't talk... I wonder if he caught something at that petri dish of a zoo we visited on Friday, or maybe it was something else. Anyway, it seemed that he needed to be somewhat upright for drainage purposes.

I love our old brown recliner. It was purchased by my grandma Neste in 1988. I pretty much commandeered it until she moved out. Then after she died, it was mine again until college. After college, it was about the only thing I asked to take from our house or my room. We took that thing up to our first apartment in Minneapolis in the Uncle Jesse (our 1986 Ford pickup I drove from time to time, so christened by the late Speez). I used to sit in that chair and fall asleep watching Seinfeld reruns after supper at our place on University Ave. It was a primary piece of furniture in our other two Athens abodes. About a year after moving here, the recliner got demoted by Anna to the basement. It made sense to do so, but it was still a sad day.

Well, the only good thing about last night was that I would get to spend some quality time in the brown recliner with Anders. I knew the old girl was up to the task. The chair has perfectly formed to my body over time. I actually slept fairly good for recliner sleep until I awoke at 3:20 am EDT having to pee. I sort of looked forward to seeing the sun rise over the recliner, but things were progressing in a different manner. Anders slept in his bed for about three more hours and I did much prefer sleeping in our bed over the chair, but it's good to know that old chair can still do the job in a pinch. Parting with that chair would be like abandoning 100 of my t-shirts.

Anders did not sound as stuffed up tonight. I am optimistic that he will make it mostly through the night. I plan on being in bed at 9 pm tonight, so I better wrap this up.

The zoo, briefly. The penguins put on a show next to Anders, which he enjoyed. He got a lot out of the aquariums. An orangutan was sleeping right in front of him, but he paid it no mind. I'm glad we took him. It is the #1 rated zoo in the USA, but it is enormous. It would probably be best suited for a school age kid with a couple of years of science under his belt. It was fun, but I think Anders enjoyed the people watching more than the animals. Everyone comes to the zoo, all shapes sizes, income levels, ages, physical and mental abilities. It had the feel of a MN State Fair crowd. Parenthetically the OH State Fair was going on at the time in Columbus as well, but it is a sad and poorly attended event compared to the Great Minnesota Get Together. We had to hustle through the "continents" at the zoo since Anders was zoning out due to a missed afternoon nap. I think we should take Anders back in about 7 years. We stopped to feed Anders at Polaris Fashion Place. I had a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. I see what all the fuss is about. It's now on the Good Regional Chain list along with Culver's, Potbelly, and In-N-Out Burger.

Well, that's the end of my glass of wine, which means it's time to go.

Happy 8th Anniversary to my darling wife, Anna. May the 9th year be easier than the 8th. She'll probably see this message right around her birthday next month when she checks this blog again. This note is not in lieu of a card and real gift, but I will be teaching in Chillicothe tomorrow night on our anniversary.

Zoo Part Two

Columbus Zoo

Greetings from the Tropics

It's so humid here that the window in the door between the house and garage steamed up today!  The other windows steamed up as well.  Good thing we dodged a month of summer in MN.  I know Minnesotans maintain that what they have constitutes summer, but if you have ever spent a significant amount of time during the warm part of the year in a part of the United States even a few latitudinal degrees south of MN, you will know that what they have is not summer.  It is an extended spring followed by an early fall with a couple of hot snaps sprinkled in there.  I would never dream of jogging in the middle of the day here, but did so in MN with impunity.  

So, that's not really big news, like most places not named MN or AK, it's August so it's hot and humid.  I've been quite busy since I last typed.  When not preparing for my class or taking care of Anders, I'm thinking about the stuff that I have to get around to doing.  

Anders was baptized on his birthday, then I left for Athens the next day, arrived on Tuesday and later that day began teaching in the second summer session at OU-Chillicothe.  Being back in Kansas reminded me that OU is Oklahoma, oh no!  The class is scheduled to meet for four hours, from 6:30 to 10:30 pm twice per week.  I went almost the full four hours the second day.  That was probably cruel and unusual punishment for all involved.  Anna gets bored if I talk for four minutes straight, let alone four hours.  The student haven't dropped yet, so I have that going for me.  

Anna and Anders returned with Greg and Dorene last Saturday.  I lived for five days as a bachelor.  Our friend Bill, who has serving as our house sitter also stayed with me.  I am convinced that without women, men would devolve into the state of nature.  Trudy stuck with Bill.  It was also a Roger-heavy period of time.  Without Anna around, I not only went on a walk but joined him for the Ruby Tuesday salad bar later.  Roger is off to New England for the month.  We will see him again around Labor Day after the Newport Folk Festival, Jazz Festival, and other festivals, shows, and revelry.  

Anders had a nice birthday and baptism.  Anna's grandparents' church in Litchfield, MN gave us a large wooden chest for his baptism.  Anna's sister Mandy and brother in law Matt served as Anders' sponsors on her side, and from my side it was our friends Brad and Martha Albers.  Most of Anna's family attended the baptism, as did my mom and uncle Fred. Anders tried to dive into the baptismal water.  There was a concert band at church led by Litchfield's Mr. Holland, so said the Star Tribune just a few days earlier in a big feature on him.  Well, the band leader had a bit too much leeway.  He called out the baptismal party to stand and clap.  Anna turned the color of a tomato!  They played the congregation out of church.  He motioned Anders up to the mike.  I took him up, the band leader gave him the mike, which he then tried to eat.  Anders loved having the brass section right in front of him.  He probably would have grabbed an oboe if he could walk at the time.   

Another funny moment happened when Anders took a picture with his great grandma Carlson and his second cousins.  For the picture, Anders was plopped down between his five and seven year old cousins, total strangers to him, but he took it in stride as if to say, "Hi, I'm Anders, nice to work with you today.  Where do you want me? Between you guys and below Great Grandma?  Okay."  Meanwhile, his fellow baby cousins were apoplectic. The girls were crying and had to have a parent hold them for the picture, so essentially they were acting like babies.  When it was over, Anders had a look that said, "Did you get what you needed?  Was that good?  Nice working with you."  And he went back to the party.  So, Anders is on course to be a child actor, should we so chose.

Anders didn't know what to do with his birthday cupcake, but he loved his ice cream cake later that he had at his second party at Greg and Dorene's house.   Anders gave it an approving shake.  Anders also picked his birthday to start crawling, much like he chose to to breath and eat on his due date.  He has a knack for doing big things on notable dates.  He changed a lot in the days I was away from him.  Anders now crawls, goes from crawling to sitting up, and can pull himself up to a standing position in his crib.

We have slowly begun moving our possessions downstairs now that Anders' head has become a magnate for sharp wooden corners.  All of our movies and CDs are now downstairs, along with our coffee table, and the big bamboo thing with the glass shelves.  I'm sure it has a name, but I don't care enough to ask Anna what it is called and suffer her contempt for not knowing the proper names of furniture.  They also brought back my aunt Marilee's flat screen TV for our living room.  It's nice to feel like we have a piece of Marilee in our house.  

On the evening after Anders' baptism, a friend of mine told me on the phone that another old friend of ours had drowned.  My high school friend Chris "Speez" Spilde was one of the funniest people I ever met.  He had one of the two most infectious laughs of anyone I ever met (the other being my friend Tom Wyse).  Speez was my tennis partner, a fellow Nordic Dancer, and also a teammate on various football and baseball teams.  I knew him for almost 23 years.  He left a wife and two kids behind.  It's dizzying to realize how quickly life can change.  A joyous day turned tragic.  I still can't believe Speez is gone and I will never hear his laugh again.

Anders Back on West Hills

Ice Cream Cake and Wrapping Paper

Party Animal

Party Time

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