Needles

Turning six months comes with its drawback: the six-month doctors visit...

M was given a clean bill of health and a pair of vaccinations (round three if I remember correctly). We received strict orders to have everyone in the family get a flu shot when the season starts.

He is also now scheduled to receive monthly shots during the winter season against the Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus (aka RSV). RSV is ubiquitous in all parts of the world so just about everyone gets it at some point in their lives - 60% of infants get infected in their first season. Being infected does not make you immune so you can get it again and again... For most people it just shows up looking like a common cold but it causes 90,000 annual hospitalizations in the US alone. It is especially serious if you are, as they say, immunocompromised. The shot is not a vaccine (there is none) but a moderately effective prophylactic drug. Injections are given in your home by a traveling nurse. After all, the waiting room in a doctor's office in the winter is RSV-central so it is probably not a good idea to go there.

ENT Visit

That's Ear-Nose-Throat for the rest of us.

The doctor at the ENT clinic took a thorough look at M's eardrums. The microscope used even had a second set of eyepieces so my wife got to follow along for the entire procedure. She said it was absolutely fascinating. I (nowadays referred to as bad cop) got to make sure that M didn't move his head while the doc scraped wax out of, and put various objects into, his ear. M was very, very unhappy with the whole ordeal.

The doc didn't seem particularly concerned and didn't recommend draining any fluids out. We'll go back again in a few weeks and see if anything has changed.

6

Recall a long time ago. Someone asked you how old you were. Half the time the number would be an integer. The other half of the time it would be an integer followed by 'and a half'. After all, we need to get the facts right. If you're a full six and a half there is no reason to misrepresent yourself as some mere six-year-old! When you turned six was eons ago. You let go of your childish ways of that era and grown considerably.
Newsflash for you: those were the good old days!

Today, if I get the same question I have to actually think about it. It goes something like: what year is it now?... 06... I was born in 71... Subtract 71 from 06... does anyone have a calculator? borrow one from the two... move it over to the right.. carry one digit and omigosh! I must be 35! If you're in the spot where you get to round DOWN by a half a year that's just icing on an otherwise bitter cake.
Then: time was endless.
Now: you can't turn around without another year slipping through your fingers.



Now, to the point!
As of today, M is officially zero and a half! Yessireebob, six big ones. Our neighbors came over to celebrate with some delicious Princess Torte!

Ren & Stimpy said it best: Happy Happy Joy Joy!
We did, however, apply the cruel rule: no teeth no cake.

9

This summer, prior to going to bed at night there were several critical questions to be sorted out: Who's on midnight? Who's on 3? and Who's on 6? Who's on point for feeding M when he wakes up that is. By necessity this should be decided while somewhat awake. When M is rummaging at 3 AM and you can't remember who fed him 3 hours earlier or what day of the week it is, you end up having Abbott & Costello-esque conversations . Alas, no more!

Behold the amazing 9-hour sleeper boy!













In the newly adopted routine he'll bumble through witching hour, put away some food, and fall asleep around 9. He'll sleep until 6! Perhaps not a high schooler's definition of sleeping through the night but we'll take it!

To experience how grand it is not to have to get up at 3 AM just set your alarm clock and give it a try!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who

12

It's been a few days since M was last weighed.
Based on where he was at that time, his normal growth trend, and this week's eating binge... his estimated weight is just over 12 pounds! (that's closing in on 6 Kg if you're metric). The pile of cute-but-outgrown clothing is growing rapidly. But so is the number of hey-he-can-wear-this-now! items.

The less than bashful ensemble below comes courtesy of our friends in Copenhagen. Thanks, Lotte/Thomas/Maya/Emil!

The Chatter Box

In the past week or so, M has turned quite talkative.

Any new-parent-handbook would tell you it is mostly practice sounds to imitate the sounds and voices that surround him. This will eventually turn into one or two actual languages.

As the proud parent, you can't help reading more into it than what perhaps is there. I'm thinking "I'm sure he tried to say Laffer Curve!" After all, it is an election year and why wouldn't tax policy be top of mind with any toddler?

Swedish 101

For the past three weeks (with a couple of intermissions for Midwestern travel), my parents have been in town. It was the first person-to-person introduction to grandchild #1. Goes without saying that there's been round-the-clock doting! They left this morning so the withdrawal has probably been setting in since the plane change in Chicago.

Now, to the Swedish part:
Father = Far
Mother = Mor













So, to create grandparent titles, just combine the two as needed. I.e. pictured here in their favorite poses are Farfar and Farmor. Morfar has been here on several occasions to supervise his developments. Mormor watches over him every day.













It can be taken one more step by adding on a possessive 's': Farmorsfar is the person for whom M received his middle name.

If the alphabet soup gets too convoluted we can introduce one more word: Old = Gammal

Putting that in front of the title skips a generation but it also makes the expression less precise and requires context (e.g. Gammelmorfar could be Hilmer and it could also be Ericka's mother's father: Lee). The same convention also applies to aunts and uncles. That'll be 102.