No Voting Today

If you go to the radio station's website to vote today, you will not find Peter. They screwed up last Thursday's voting, so they're re-doing it today. So Peter should be up for voting tomorrow. April Fools Day. Great.

That kid...

A year ago or more, I read this story and I think "huh, well, that's nice."

Now, after I have a little charming guy thrashing his legs in my lap, kicking me in my private parts every so often, I read the story and I feel tears welling up in my eyes and my lip starting to quiver.

Why? Because evey story about "some kid" becomes a story about Peter in my mind. A kid has leukemia? That's Peter. A kid likes a basketball player because of his number? That's Peter.

Did you read that story in the New York Times about the kid who was habitually bullied? That wasn't Peter. Cuz he's stronger than his daddy. And he can kick well. And his parents would have garrotted and vivisected anyone who would have tried to lay a finger on our boy. Cuz we fierce, yo.

So anyway, don't forget to vote for Peter on Monday...

Healthy competition

Peter seems to be in much better health now. Last night he played energetically for several hours after I got home for the evening, and only coughed a couple times. It’s quite striking to see the difference between normal Peter and sick Peter.

In other news, it was reported on the radio that in Peter’s contest on Friday he got 59% of the vote. His next round should be tougher, so all readers are encouraged not only to vote, but to enlist others to do the same. In fact, if you can set up a bunch of temporary e-mail addresses and delete the cookie set on your computer, you should have no problem stuffing the ballot box. Anyone in Chicago is also asked to get the dead to vote, too.

March 31st

So as I mentioned last night, Peter was entered in a cute baby contest by his Grammy. He won his round, thanks in part to Grammy taking full advantage of the speed and ease of e-mail. It looks like his next round comes up on March 31st, so everyone who reads this blog knows what they have to do next Monday. The contest is located at http://www.mighty92.com/main.html under the Bracket Buster Babies link in the upper left hand side of the page. Currently you can see the four high vote getters that are possible threats to Peter's supremacy. I don't know about you, but the kid in the Brett Favre jersey looks like he's got a little head. But the jersey could get him points from some sectors of this community just because it's a Brett Favre jersey. Between you and me, if that kid wins you know it ain't the kid being cute that does it.

Another another attempt

Another attempt

Technical problems

I seem to be unable to upload pictures this evening. I'll try again tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Ok, but could be better

Peter's doing better today. Still has a cough occasionally, but basically healthier.

Oh, and his grammy enrolled him in a cutest baby tournament where his round came up today. Voting is over for the day, but he could be up again for the next round. More info to follow if and when that happens.

Now I'll drop some pictures on the blog.

Zzzz

Peter slept like a brick last night. I'm not going to say he's 100% yet, but he got a good long rest in, so that helps alot. And when he sleeps well, mom and dad sleep well, too.

Relapse

Peter woke up coughing last night at 11:30, and he spent several hours awake during the bouts of coughing. His mom wound up holding him in the rocking chair in hopes that it would ease his suffering, and it worked somewhat. What happened is all the stuff that was stuck up in his head loosened up and started dripping down. It eventually stopped for a while and let him get several hours of sleep in on the bed, but once he woke up gravity took hold and the dripping started up again. So, we took him into the doctor’s office to make sure everything was alright.

Peter actually did quite well on the drive down to the pediatrician’s office, as if the car seat put him in an ideal position or something like that. I was thinking for a while there that he’d be cured by the time we pulled into the parking lot, but once we got in the office he started coughing again. The receptionist at the office told us that her daughter (about a month younger than Peter) is going through virtually the same thing right now, and that his pediatrician missed work last week for the first time in 30 years because of this notorious bug that’s making the rounds. His doctor actually had the day off today, so Peter would be visiting the other doctor in the office for the first time. And, much like his last regular visit, Peter wanted nothing to do with the whole deal.

The long and the short of it is that he has a cold. A nasty one, but that’s it. He’s not showing symptoms of strep or pneumonia, and his ears were checked to make sure the cold didn’t bring on an ear infection. So all he has to do is put up with it until it’s gone, which could be tomorrow or next week. So we have to sit tight.

So now here I am, several hours after Peter’s visit writing about it, and I feel pressure growing in my head and my eyes getting itchy. It was bad enough he made his mom sick too, now he’s taking out his dad. Great…

Betterer

Peter overcame his malady by last night, and wound up having enough energy at bedtime to power Manhattan for 3 weeks during a heat wave in summer, with all the air conditioners set to high. Make no mistake, his mom and I were happy to have our regular Peter back, but getting him down was like Hemingway's Old Man struggling with the marlin (without the sharks). Each of us grasped on to an ankle as he crawled all over the bedroom, dragging the two of us around like we were just burrs stuck to his shoelaces. "Peter, it's time for night-night" his mother would tell him. He'd just shake his head, say "nanananana" and keep the motor going. I'd tell him we need to get up early in the morning and he'd just grab my face and try to crush my larynx with his big paw. He was sick of being sick, and now that he wasn't sick he was going to take full advantage of his return to health.

He must have gotten bored at some point because he eventually went down for the night, and stayed down. It was so bad that at one point I was wondering if we needed to give him a couple shots of Nyquil (of course, the serious-minded dad in me says you never give a 10½ month old Nyquil – especially in doses that would make the same serious-minded dad pass out for 3 days straight – but this is a satirical retelling of a serious event, and we have enough gravitas out there that I can skip it here (so nyah!)).

What we come away with is a further feeling of awe for our child, because he took being sick very well, even when it was obvious that he had a nasty sore throat that made it very difficult for him to swallow. I often think of him as my little rock (aside from the hardness of his head when he butts it into my face, that is), and while I don't want to encourage him into being a macho guy who claims to feel no pain, I am encouraged that he is able to endure discomfort and also to recognize when he should take it easy. Case in point, he was weakened by the sickness, but he was cautious enough in feeling that way that he rarely stood up so he wouldn't lose his balance and fall.

We did discover one problem, though. Peter is a very cute baby, even when sick. When you are sick you like to get sympathy, but Peter makes us smile too much, so our sympathetic reactions to, say, a very juicy sneeze, tend to seem more like we are laughing at him, because, well, it's just so adorable. I think that bothers him sometimes. Such a curse…

Better

Peter's fever came and went all day yesterday as the medications we gave him kicked in and wore off. When the fever was low he was himself, playing like normal. When it rose, he was a lethargic little guy.

But he had a good sleep last night, and right now his temperature is normal, even though he's had no Tylenol since 4:00 AM. Yesterday if he had gone this long without a dose he'd be red-cheeked and hot to the touch by now. He's still coughing occasionally, but he's just clearing out drainage from his sinuses.

We thought we'd be taking him in to see his doctor this morning, but since he's doing much better we'll just call in and report his status. I'm missing a morning at the office for this, but oh gosh, I'll get over the disappointment some day...

Sick

Yesterday while we were out running some errands we noticed Peter was getting a little warm. We assumed it was mostly because the car heated up nicely due to the sun, and that we had him in his coat most of the time. He had a little cough in the morning, but we didn't think too much of it at the time. He napped a while in the afternoon, but in the evening he was looking flush and acting somewhat unlike himself. We took his temperature and he was at about 101 to 102 degrees. He was still somewhat playfull and normal-esque when we took him upsatirs for bed.

Before putting him down we gave him some liquid baby ibuprofin, and like when we give him vitamins he was ok with it. He slept ok most of the night. We woke him at 3:30 to change his diaper, and he was acting like he normally does, clicking his tongue in response to me clicking my tongue.

He woke up at 6:30 in bad condition, though. He was pretty red in the face, and his body felt very warm. He was crying and his nose was running a good deal. We took his temperature, but it was actually about one degree lower than the night before, but he was suffering. We gave him another dose of the ibuprofin and gave him cool towels to try and give him some relief, but he didn't like the towels much. He also refused to eat anything.

The ibuprofin must have kicked in after 20 minutes or so because he quieted down and napped for a half hour or so, and then woke up in better spirits (if still sick). He found sitting quietly in front of the TV to be the thing that worked best for him. He was sitting on his mom's lap when I gave her some cinnamon toast, and that seemed to bring back his appetite. We gave him a piece of bread, and he ate little pieces of that.

He has since acted like his normal self, but obviously not at 100%. So he's now learning how it is to be sick. So far he seems to be annoyed by it, but isn't acting whiny or anything. Let's see how the rest of the day goes...

Peter: Torturer

Today is Peter's 10th monthiversary. To celebrate this occasion he beat the crap out of me.

There I was lying on the floor, minding my own business, when all of a sudden Peter crawls over to me, lifts up my shirt, and starts digging his fingers into my belly button. I reacted as any decent law-abiding American would, I laughed at the feeling of the little fingers tickling me. That only fed his sadistic glee, so he kept doing it. He'd poke my belly, I'd laugh painfully, then he'd move up to my head to laugh at me to my face. then back down to the gutwork.

He was kind enough to lay off the belly button after 5 minutes, and he moved back up to my head. Then he started sticking his fingers up my nostrils and tugging. Oh, how he'd laugh at my discomfort. Then he moved back down to my midsection.

He did slow down after a while and moved back up to my head so he could sneeze on my face. I think this was his attempt at waterboarding, unless that was what he meant by dumping his cup of water on my leg earlier...