Jun 19

It’s Father’s Day!

Today is Father’s Day. And since both my dad and my husband already have plenty of barbecue equipment and neckties, I’ve decided to post a few pictures here instead so that we all may glory in their greatness!

This is Ed, Shona's dad, in 1966.

 

The baby is me, Shona. I'm not sure what the year is... 1984 maybe? The dude holding me is Dad. I don't recognize anyone else in the pic. JK!! My paternal grandparents are to my dad's right. To my dad's left is my mom, and then her mother. The kids are, from tallest to shortest: Clark, Samantha, and Christopher. I think we're related.

I had Marcus scan these pics for me. I notice now that he saved this pic under the name "turkey dad." Funny.

This is Dad holding me up so that I remove the second to last ring on my Christmas countdown chain thingy. That means this is Christmas Eve circa 1999ish.

And now here are some pics I took of Marcus and Emrick today. The outfit is a new arrival from Grandma Cinda. Totally retro, and just in time for Father’s Day!

Emrick will grab just about anything he can reach. This includes your face.

Happy Father’s Day to my two favorite dads!

Jun 17

Tutorial #1

Jun 16

Happy 9 Month Birthday to Our Pookie! NOW UPDATED

Emrick is nine months old today. He’s also exactly 39 weeks old. And in three months he will be one year old. I can’t believe it. The other day a cashier asked me how old he was. “Nine months,” I said. She expressed surprise and then turned to Emrick and said, “My goodness! You’re so big I thought you must be a year old! Yes you are! So big!”

Of course, she could not be MORE WRONG that he is big (more on that later!) but I didn’t say anything. She later commented on all his hair which, of course, is the real reason that he seems older than he is. That, and the profound wisdom behind his intense, blue gaze. Duh.

Anyway, we had Emrick’s checkup with the pediatrician today, and almost everything looks good:

1. His weight looks good.

2. His head is nice and… BIG. His head circumference is at the 91st percentile, in fact. Ninety-one!!

3. They pricked his toe and took blood to test for anemia (routine) and were able to give me the results before I left. He doesn’t have it.

4. His muscle and motor development are excellent. I believe the doctor’s exact words were “the most advanced baby that ever lived” or something like that. Just kidding. But when I told him that Emrick could stand on his own for several seconds at a time and that he was a very proficient cruiser, he did say that was “a little advanced.” I honestly didn’t know that. Everything I’ve read says that 8 months is when a baby will start to pull himself up (that’s right when Emrick did it) and 9 months is when they will start to cruise (right on target again). So I think all he meant by “advanced” is that in the very-wide spectrum of normal, Emrick is somewhat at the earlier end. For all I know, a full quarter of all babies might be cruising at 9 months. But that’s not going to stop me from getting a bumper sticker that says, “My baby is a little advanced. Neener neener.”

But all may not be well…

5. The doctor is now starting to maybe consider becoming possibly maybe CONCERNED that Emrick is so short. In the past three months, Emrick has grown just half an inch an inch and a half. I believe the doctor’s exact words were, “the shortest baby that ever lived.” Just kidding. But his height percentile ranking? 1%. One!!!! That’s down from his all-time high of 7%, which is the real concern. They don’t care if a baby is short (especially if he has short parents), as long as his percentile ranking holds steady. But Emrick’s has not. I’ve been concerned, too, since I measure him at home and can see that he’s not growing so fast. So, we’re waiting until his next check-up (at one year) and if his growth hasn’t picked up by then, then the doc recommended we get a hormone work-up and make sure that Emrick’s growth hormone levels are normal. If they are, and he is still short, then we start considering more unlikely explanations (including the outside chance that he may have a mild form of dwarfism! I’m not joking). In the meantime, I have decided to put Emrick on a hardcore Pilates program to get him all stretched out. If that doesn’t work? Stilts.

What’s cooler than a baby that’s “a little advanced”?

a DWARF baby that’s a little advanced!

Emrick weighs 19 pounds and 3 ounces. He is 26 inches long.

We love you, Emrick Braden Sorensen. So, so much.

UPDATE SINCE PUBLISHING THIS POST: The pediatrician called me a few minutes ago and said he decided to get on the phone with an endocrinologist and ask her opinion about waiting until Emrick’s one year check-up before looking into his hormone situation. He said that he told her that Emrick has “a few symptoms of hypochondroplasia” which is a “cousin of dwarfism”. Anyway, she told him that the next available appointment to see her is usually 2-3 months out, so we should make an appointment now, and hopefully get in to see her before he is a year old. He said that she will look at Emricks’ growth chart, look at Emrick, and look at me and Marcus, and make a decision about whether or not to run labwork. He said she probably would, though. Anyway, her office closed at 4:30, so I will call tomorrow, and hopefully get in to see her sometime in August or early September.

Meanwhile, Marcus and I have spent the last 10 minutes googling hypochondroplasia, and other than a big head, Emrick has no other physical signs of it that we can see. HOWEVER, one trait of the hypo-C (my new nickname for it) is that it is usually not obvious until “middle childhood” so, who knows. It’s also extraordinarily rare.

Jun 09

Highchair!

All right, here’s a new post! As Kellie B and Merlyn noted in the recent comments, it’s been too long since we last posted! 😉

A few weeks ago we bought a little highchair from Ikea for Emrick. It’s been handy for his solid-food feedings, but it’s also been a great place to put him when I need to get some things done in the kitchen, or when Marcus and I sit down to dinner. He seems to like being able to watch us eat, or watch me do dishes during the day or prepare his bottles. If my chores take me behind his chair for a moment, he will turn his head around to see what I’m doing. So nosy! Anyway, here are some cute pics of him sitting in it!

Emrick doesn't look quite as happy here, but I like the way his arm is resting so casually on the edge of the chair. Cute.

In other news, Emrick has taken his first steps! He did this a little over a week ago, and he just keeps getting better and better. When Marcus and I sit on the floor and have him walk back and forth between us a few times, he can take as many as 5 or 6 steps without falling down. He does it pretty well the first couple of times he does it, but then after that he gets too excited; instead of walking then, he’ll take two steps toward me or Marcus and then try to belly-flop the remaining distance. It’s pretty funny, but it requires us to be quick to catch him!

Anyway, we’re in the process of trying to capture some decent video of it. As soon as we do, we’ll post it!

May 31

I Can Has Prime Rib?

Emrick has two teeth sprouting in his lower gums; it took several weeks before they were out enough that we could see and feel them without having to fight Emrick, but now we see catch glimpses of them all the time! Unfortunately, they are still tough to catch on camera, though the other day, catching them on camera was exactly what we determined to do! See, when he smiles, he flashes his teeth for a second and then immediately pushes his tongue over them, making a photo record hard to accomplish. And that’s all we got in this first shot:

 

Lots of tongue. No teeth!

After this pic, we got serious. It wasn’t easy; there were fingers, gums, groans, slobber, grimaces… and that was just Marcus! We survived, though, and got some pretty good shots!

Pretty good shots, huh? Of course, not all of our efforts were so successful. Below is a blooper reel of our less productive attempts. Don’t ask me what the red, plastic cup is about be cause I have NO IDEA…

 

WTH? IDK!

 

Am I supposed to be brushing these things?

May 30

Whistler

Hi, everyone. Sorry it’s been so long since we posted. This is Shona (even though the post says Marcus !). But we’re making up for it by posting a VIDEO today. Hooray! For those of you who have trouble watching the videos, we’ll post normal pics tomorrow — I promise!

About this video: Sometimes Marcus and I whistle to entertain Pookie, and apparently, he has begun to catch on. The other day I noticed that he was making a whistling sound. But I couldn’t see his face at the time because I was sitting behind him while he tried to climb the built-ins in the playroom. I wanted to be able to catch him if he fell backwards. Anyway, to be honest, it did not even occur to me that he could be making that sound with his mouth. I just assumed, in fact, that it was coming through his nose…. I figured that his nasal passages must be… ahem… heavily obstructed. And since later that day I spied and removed quite a bit of “material” from there, I was sure again that that was the cause of the whistling sound. But I was wrong! Later that night Marcus noticed the whistling, too, only he was looking right at Pookie’s face, and could see that Emrick’s little mouth was curled into a little “o” and our Pookie was whistling! For real! Then today Marcus did a great job of catching it on video:

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