The body in the basement

I think we have a body in the basement. I hope it’s a small one, perhaps the carcass of a rat or some unfortunate rodent which strayed into the crawlspace and could not escape. I don’t know what it is and am loathe to investigate because the basement is crammed with toys and clothes which I have saved to span the years between Wren and Frost along with all the plates and plattters from the unfinished kitchen, Joshua’s discarded computers and game platforms and journals from high school, every board game known to man and a lot of other crap beside.

Joshua says the air from the heating vents smells like burning bugs or hot dust and I have noticed large black flies coming up the basement stairs when I open it during the day. We really notice the flies at night because they are attracted to the living room lamps and it took some rushing around with the old masai zebra tail whisk to fell most of them. The few remaining we lured to the porch light by darkening the house and letting the icy night breeze come in the open door. I don’t like either of these signs. I asked Joshua to sniff around and find the origin of the burning dust-bug smell but he claims it is pervasive and non-directional. I have had a diminshed sense of smell since pregnancy (along with my diminised aural acuity which suggests some sinus issue going on) and can smell nothing short of burning fat or toast and in these I am helped by the signs of smoke and blackening, so I do not consider myself a good judge of stink.

Once, long ago, I found a dead possum in a fridge which had been stored in the garage by the owner. At first I thought it was the neighbors cat and only after calling around noxious cleaning services (and getting exhorbitant quotes) did I don a plastic smock and gloves and noseplug and go and clear it out myself. It was vile and scary and full of maggots and tragedy. Now these flies have me worried.

Joshua suggested they could be eating something benign like compost and that the thing could be very small to hatch a crop of flies but I am tainted by CSI and Grissom with his experiments and I know he would find something altogether more ominous. The other weird thing is that the flies are silent. In Australia and South Africa these large glossy black flies are called “bluebottle flies” and they make a large and irritating buzz as they move around. These fat black flies are noiseless. There were 3 of them in the bathroom and I heard not a sound. You could say that this was due to my (alleged) hearing impairment but Joshua did not comment on the noise so I suspect it to be true.

I will post more on this peculiarity when I have more clues.

Wren is 11months and walking!

Wren is 11 months and one week old. Since yesterday he has moved from occasional tottering steps to taking up to 10 little steps towards a goal. His gait has changed. Instead of throwing himself forward in a plunging tumble towards my legs he makes steady little steps and stops himself between them. He is most likely to fall over onto his bottom if he loses his balance. He stands up at every opportunity.

He has also taken to climbing. He climbs onto the couch and then uses the side pillows to climb up to and sometimes ONTO my desk. This is over a meter off the ground and is haven for sharp implements, camera, laptop and various precarious stacks of CDs and papers. I do not like him being up here. However, Wren believes that he must do everything we do and since I am often at my laptop doing things to it he feel entitled to do the same.

He also copies holding up the remote control to the TV and taking plates out the cupboard. When denied he becomes frustrated. He screams, falls over, cries buckets and then tries again.

I try and allow him as much freedom as possible and he is permitted to climb on the couch as long as he doesn't use it as a route to something higher.

Wren is also enjoying pushing the little red ride-on toy that Mum bought for Frost when he was 18 mths. He pushes it up and down the living room and into the kitchen, shouting in frustration when he bumps into something and cannot go any further. Sometimes Frost sits on the car and lifts his feet up and Frost pushes him hooting and happy.

Wren is still sleeping short nights (less than 10 hours) but only wakes once around 3-4am so I am getting some good stretches. He gets up for the day between 5.15and 5.45am. I wish he would sleep 11 hours from 7.30-6.30am but he hasn't agreed to my request. He naps well in the daytime - two naps that are 3 hours in total when he is not interrupted by carpool in the afternoon and errands in the morning.

Its late. I must go to bed but will write a few more anecdotes of Wren tomorrow.

Pictures from James

Here, belatedly, are some pictures James sent us after his visit last month. They are some of the best pictures we have of Wren, the neighborhood and even of me.

14 teeth - 11 months

Wren now has 14 teeth and is 11 months old. Over the past few days he has been growing the upper incisors. If you have a look at a chart of normal tooth development you can see that Wren is growing his teeth very early. On the chart he already has upper teeth 1-4 and lower teeth 1, 2 and 4. In fact, he has all but one pair of teeth expected by 18 months!

He came with me to a school Parent meeting tonight and I fear it will be his last public appearance there for a while. He climbed on the table, pummeled a satsuma into a puddle of juice, ate food from the floor, shrieked loudly amid quiet reports, smiled and stood up on the table, begged for grapes and pointed at everyone. It was hard to concentrate.

We also went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Audubon exhibit. It was the first time I had seen original copies of the Birds of America folio - they are HUGE. The format is called Double Elephant and is about 70cm high. I was amazed at the detail and line work in the etchings, also the drama in many of the pictures. Wren has come to like owls which we have in our house as Halloween decorations. Every morning he points to the plastic owls lurking in among the potted plants. He seemed similarly fascinated by the owl paintings and I was going to buy one for him if they had one in the gift shop. They did not.

I shall write more about Wren at 11 months tomorrow. I really need more sleep tonight. The 5.15am risings have been routine for the past few nights and I have been having trouble getting back to sleep quickly after the 3.30am nursing so it is a short night and I need to get as many hours as possible before midnight.

Buddha bashing

I know Wren is in Frost's room again. I hear a shout "no no noooo Wren" then the appeal: "Shannon, Shannon, HELP ME. A little guy just invaded my personality!!"

I know how he feels.

Wren seems to get into everything these days. If I put a cup away he creeps to the cupboard and tugs in frustration against the baby locks. When I put away a Halloween decoration he fetches it from the box. Out and in, out in an he loves to take out and sometimes put things away. When I go into the bathroom he follows and pulls all the toilet rolls out of the closet. When I flush he crawls over to the toilet and pulls up and flushes, again. He is compelled to copy and be everywhere we are.

He is very sweet.

Tomorrow is his 11 month birthday and I starting to see his one year old self emerging. I will write more later. Today he goes to the pediatrician for his flu shot. I hope his reaction is better than mine. I had my flu shot on Friday and was ill for 24 hours with fever, chills and aches. I am all better now.

Wren is bashing the brass buddha with true enthusiasm. I shall go and save one of them.

Sleeping improved

Wren's sleep seems to be improving. I am hoping this is not a short-term marvel but since that night he slept till 5am he has not woken at 1.30am again. The following night he slept from 7.30-3am and then woke at 5.40am and last night it was:

7.30pm
4am (nurse)
5.15am (muttering)
6.30am wake

That was a wonderful night and I am very pleased and proud of him.

His fourth molar has cut through and is still working its way out but perhaps that had been bothering him.

He is now pushing a Hot Wheels monster truck around the kitchen floor. He crawls with it under one hand and mutters to himself. He really likes the monster trucks which are really for age 3+ so I shall have to watch him.

Since our babysitter quit suddenly I have advertised. My ad yesterday must have had the right buzzwords because I have had 4 replies. All are from nanny's who watch children with their own child present. I think that would work fine. We are looking for 8 hours per week - one morning while I am working at school and one other morning for errands and general R&R. I am going to interview a few of them by phone this afternoon.

First haircut, first sleeping through the night

Yesterday, I trimmed Wren's hair for the first time. He looks very boyish and sweet with blunt and crooked bangs and tufts of hair sticking out at the nape of his neck. He was very tolerant and I kept my eyes on the goal of not paying $22 dollars for a 10 month olds haircut. It took about 3 minutes so it was money well saved.

That night Wren went to bed at 7.30pm and I woke at 4am wondering what had happened to him. Usually, I wake around 1.30am when he cries and Josh goes in to try and settle him. Lately, it has been hard so I have often got up and nursed him back to sleep at this time. Afterwards, I remove the earplugs I put in at bedtime in an attempt to get 3 hours uninterrupted sleep.

Last night I still had my earplugs in at 4am - that is 6 hours of sleep (the longest stretch since Wren was born).

I crept into Wren's room to see how he was. I felt quite wide awake and frisky after my good nights sleep so I was a bit disappointed to see him sleeping deeply. I considered waking him to nurse so he would sleep in but then became curious to see how long he would sleep.

It took me a long time to get back to sleep because I was so well rested. Eventually I managed to do it by remembering the dream I was having when I woke up and returning to it and continuing it voluntarily. This had the desired effect and I woke again to Wren (crying) at 5.15am. So Wren slept from 7.30pm till 5.15am without waking Josh or I. I am slightly suspicious that he cried and I didn't hear him but it can't have been for long or Josh would have woken.

Now, fingers crossed that he does well tonight too.

Infant Pointing

Wren points all the time so I was interested to receive reports of a new study on babies' pointing:

A new theory of infant pointing provides evidence that when 12-month-old infants point for an adult, they are trying to influence his or her mental state, rather than using the adult as a "tool" to obtain a desired object. The evidence suggests that infant pointing is produced by the uniquely human motivation of cooperation, and that it is an essential milestone in the development of language skills.

Source: Child Development 78 (2007): 705-22.

"Ah ha!" or "What?"

I guess this theory suggests that when Wren points at a ball or fan or cat he is not wanting me to say "CAT" or to GET THE CAT or "LOOK, A CAT" he is trying to co-operate with me in things CAT.

Still, its ambiguous. Influence the adults mental state how exactly? Drive the adult nuts? Get the adult confused? Get the adult co-operating in pointing?

This adult's mental state is influenced, okay!

MEANWHILE:
This is Frost's poem of the morning:

If you heard a bang in a park
Then there would be two things waiting for you
Because if you take the b off the bang
Then that spells Ang, the avatar
And if you put the reakfast in front of the missing B
That spells BREAKFAST!!

Nightdark Losing

Last night our clocks switched back an hour at 2am. This suits everyone except those with young children. Young children cannot be switched back an hour at 2am. They want to go to sleep an hour early and wake an hour early. In Wren's case, morning was 4.45am which had just become 3.45am. Yuck.

I let him cry for 15 minutes and he fell asleep for an hour until 4.45am nightdark losing time and we got up. Through diligence and perseverance I managed to get him to bed at the usual time by the clock rather than by the body. It was seven thirty BTC and he was exhausted.

I bet he will wake in the 4's so I am going to bed in an hour or so in resigned anticipation.

Got to love those long hours of darkness in which I drink instant coffee, clean up the living room, unpack the dishwasher, make Frost's lunch and watch half a CSI by 6am.

Like greased lightning

Wren does not like me to go out of his sight so when I had to do the laundry I put him in the sling and carried him and the huge pile of laundry to the basement. Wren helped me pull the laundry out of the basket but when I had finished stuffing it into the washer he motor-crawled out of the laundry into the basement. I quickly poured in soap and pressed start before following him.

I found him 4 steps UP the basement stairs with a horse chestnut in his hand. He kept on going full speed to the top with me following close behind.

What was the hurry?

He had left a half chewed Swedish Fish on the carpet when I picked him up. It had been dropped from Frost's stash of Halloween candy. He picked it up and looked up, pleased.

Wren has been enjoying a wider range of food recently (including the candy fish) due to my decision to allow him wheat, a bit of dairy and some fish. Josh has felt its okay to give him these things but I have been vacillating between naturopath advice to hold off until age 1 or more and pediatricians who seem to advocate excluding different foods. Our pediatrician says no fish but wheat okay. The Current Time magazine even talks of introducing peanut butter before age 1 (verboten in the US but not in most African and many SE ASian countries) to try and reduce peanut allergies. This is all speculation but shows how little science is in the current dietary restrictions for Western infants.

Wren had French toast for breakfast. It was wheat toast made with milk and whole egg. He thought it was delicious and washed it down with pear sauce and baby cereal.