More vids!!

HA! Check these out!

A video! (maybe)

I'm going to try to ....upload? download? unload? wideload?.... a video of Baron gnawing on his first carrot stick a few months ago. We'll see what happens.

He's Walking!!

Wow, it's been over a month, almost two, since I last wrote. He has three teeth now, and a forth on the way. He's walking really, really good now. The moment I've been anticipating and fearing is now upon us. I've got to turn my Baron Danger Radar up to fifteen now. It's awesome though.
This is my first ever weekend without my wife and son. They went to Milton-Freewater to visit Calvin n' Clan for Jordan's birthday party. I would've gone but Ghostmob had a show last night so I couldn't go. Ghostmob can't play without their guitar player. It's just not allowed.
So, they went, I stayed. Friday night I slept for ten hours for the first time in a couple of years. It was magical. And then lonely. I thought I'd relax and take it easy, soak up my free time. But I missed my little Barbarian Bear. He's my everyday everything and without him I'm kinda stuck shufflin my feet. Oh yeah, I miss my wife too. LOVE YOU HONEY!!
But, I've talked to the wife on the phone a couple of times and she said that Baron keeps lookin for me, wondering where I am. He probably thinks I've been in the bathroom the whole time. (Maybe I have been....)
With his new found mobility he has also acquired some delightfully colorful bumps, bruises, scrapes and scabs. His beautiful little face looks like a battle ground. He's in the Ultimate Fighter Preemie Division. You should see what the other toddler looks like! And again I have to mention his amazing resilience and capacity and tolerance for pain. It's frightening. He's fallin and really given himself some hum-dingers, all on his face, and he still never cries for more than a minute. About two weeks ago I was packing his diaper bag so we could go to his doctor appointment and I walked away for THIRTY SECONDS and I heard a 'thump' and a 'WAAAAAHHHHH...' and apparently he had fallen off of our chair and scraped his nose and face down the side of our wooden book case. He cried for less than a minute and we left. The next day his little nose was more scab than not and it was completely healed in six days. He does have a healing factor! My little mutant.
And!, at that doctors appointment he got two shots and blood drawn and he took it all like a battle hardened barbarian, impressing not only his parents but also the seasoned medical professionals who don't often have the opportunity to work with young ones like the Burly Bare Barbarian Bear. However, we are getting to finally see the flip side of his strong will and determination. He's thrown a couple of tantrums lately and now we are stepping into dangerous waters. Dealing with children's' negative behaviour is a true test, if not the greatest test, of a parents skill. It is so easy to give in to the dark side and let go of your anger and fight the toddlers' fire with equal and greater adult fire, but that never helps in the long run. It's not only the younglings who learn in these circumstances. Thank goodness for going to daddy play group with Andy and Ollie! It is so helpful for me to be around other fathers and see how they do their stuff. We've been going to several weeks now. It's in the Community Center near Andy's house, which is a long way from me but it's really nice to go to something like that with a friend. Especially if that friend is Andy. He who has a magical way of getting along with anybody and everybody and making almost any social situation a little more laid back. Love him.
I need to get Christina to take Baron to a mommies play group because it is such a wonderful thing on so many levels. I want to look into other Community Centers closer to home that Baron and I can go to, maybe we can find one that isn't parent gender specific! Good stuff.
I sat down with some free local parenting activity guides and wrote down the dates and times for all the free activities that go on all the time in the Portland Metro area. Every awesome attraction like the Zoo, OMSI, the Children's Museum, the Art Museum and others offer a free admission once a month, you just gotta know when they happen. And now I do! And knowing is half the battle.

He keeps going and going and going....

He's awesome! This morning he used one of his soft furniture pieces to stand on and reached up and grabbed a hold of, and tried to turn, the bathroom door knob. What's the use in putting locks on the doors? He's just gonna figure out how to open those next week!!

Everyday brings something new.....

Yesterday he carefully backed down the steps until he reached the bottom!! Can you believe that? I think that's a pretty major step for a kid who tackles every thing with wild, manic energy. I expected him to just throw himself down stairs until he gets much older, like in his teens. But, nope, he tried the first two steps several times over and over until he got the hang of it and then he just went all the way down, one step at a time. He is so smart!!! I really didn't expect that kind of problem solving at such a young age. I'm beaming, can you tell?
And, I'd like to take this opportunity to heap huge amounts of thanx on my sweet sis. Several people expressed concern when they heard we were moving in with her 'cause Sis and I tried cohabitating waaaayyyyy back in the day and it didn't turn out well at all. But we're both older, wiser and better people now and I have so much love and respect for her. If you don't know my Sis, you're missing out. THANK YOU SIS!!! You're a great person and I love you immensely!! We are very happy living in your home with you and I'm very glad that Baron gets the chance to grow in your presence. Thank you.

The only constant is changing diapers

Stuff, stuff and more stuff. It never stops. And neither does Baron!
We've moved into my sis' condo off of Marine drive and we're lovin it. L. O. V. I. N. it!! Baron has so much more space to get his crazy on and we can tell he really likes it here. He finally has his own room!! WE finally have our own room!!!!! Dear God, I don't have the words to help me convey just how much of a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. 'Course, we are in such a deep pit of financial misery it's frightening. Everyday we check the account to see if our salvation has arrived in the form of our long awaited tax refund and everyday it isn't there is more late fees, more phone calls, more spiraling down, down, down.....

But hey, we've got each other. And that's a lot for love.
We'll give it a shot!
Whoah, half way there, Whoah, livin on a prayer!!
Oh Jon Bon, could I borrow a few bones?
It's hard to feel the pain of scraping bottom when it's coming from a millionaire.

Aaaaaanyway... We'll make it. We always do.
Baron had his follow-up appointment with his surgeon yesterday and every thing's lookin good. We have some at-home maintenance to do on his unmentionables and I was going to give a brief description but then I thought 'Ya know, this blog could still be around when he's older and it would really suck for other kids to find this blog and use the information within to tease and taunt him'. I shudder to think what my childhood would've been like if my folks had kept a public account of my upbringing.
But, yeah, he's doing great. I love his surgeon, Dr. Newman. He's a good, good man. The kinda guy I'd like to shoot the shit with over a cold six pack. I should invite him over to a barbecue.

Baron is in a forward facing car seat now.
He loves to clap with his parents when something fun happens.
Yesterday he shoved puffs into my mouth after I shoved puffs into his mouth. (And anybody who truly knows me knows that me letting a baby stick his nasty, sticky, grubby cherubish hand INSIDE of my mouth is a big, big step for me. Ucky!!)
He can pop the lid off of his container of puffs. (uh oh!)
He LOVES LOVES LOVES watching the Sesame Street spin-off for toddlers, Play With Me Sesame!!!!
I've been reading Treasure Island to him. We're half way through it.
He freaks out whenever we're in a store and he sees a balloon. Freaks out!! And it's amazing how many places have balloons! I'd never paid attention before. They're everywhere!!!
Last week I took him to the kid play area at Clackamas Towne Center early in the morning. We had the whole area all to ourselves and it was friggin awesome!!! He had a blast, he was playing so hard he was gasping for air and still trying to go, go, GO! The first time it was just the two of us and then we made Mommy come with us last Saturday. I can't believe that of all of the thousands of babies in this city that we are the only ones to take ours to the Clackams mall at seven in the morning. It's FREE people!!!
He gets nibbles of whatever Mommy and Daddy are eating now. More Mommy than Daddy though 'cause she eats better than me.
He's just doing fantastic, as always. His tolerance for pain just seems to get stronger and stronger. Yesterday he crawled into the bathroom, stood up, grabbed one of the drawers by the sink and pulled it out so it smashed into his face and then slammed his fingers into it. It looked painful (if not a bit comical) but he only cried for a couple of seconds. He just doesn't have time for the pain!!
HA!
I put him in his stroller last week and it took us fifteen minutes to walk to Jantzen Beach. How rad is that? We are going to have an awesome, radtastical spring and summer.
Look out, here we come!!

Baron's surgery!!!!!

What a day. Again, I have to say it just one more time; He is such a friggin trooper. Dr. Newman, one of my most favoritist peoples in the world, sat us down (again) and told what was gonna happen and what to expect and all that what-not. Said the procedure should only take about an hour. Well, when we were waiting, in the waiting room, we watched an hour go by. And then fifteen minutes more and then five minutes more and then minute after minute clicked by, each one infinitly longer than the one before. And then we heard the pager go off on the receptionists desk and we held our breath as she looked at the message on the pager, put it down and started to get up as she looked our way and saw all five of us (myself,wifey,sis,momanddad-in-law) staring at her from across the room with expectation in our eyes. She told us we could go back and see him in about ten minutes and when I heard that, it felt like I'd won the lottery there for a second. Christina went to Baron and I talked with Dr. Newman and he told me a bunch of stuff that was way over my head and I can't remember crap anyway but the gist is that Baron had an odd hernia. He said he'd never seen one quite like it.
That's my boy.
I could go into some specifics, but I don't think I need to. He's put back together. He's going to be more sore than the average baby after this type of surgery because, well, Baron just can't do anything like a 'normal' child (I recognize that there is no such thing as a 'normal child'), but he's on some good drugs and even though I'm no advocate of the fix-everything-with-a-pill mentality I won't mind him being doped up for a few days if it will keep him from hurting.
Damn, I hate to see my son hurt. It almost puts me in a panic. It gives me a near unstoppable urge to rip the world apart to find a way to make the pain go away. Is that bad?
So, yeah, the next few days will be like the old days, when he first came home and I was up every night, all night long just watching him. Hours at a time just watching him breathe in and out, making sure that he never stopped. Yeah, maybe a little extreme but I'm not an out of control parent yet. Yet. But please, keep an eye on me and let me know when to ease up a bit. Thanx.