the eelfang chronicles

Two Saturdays ago, we headed up north to celebrate our niece’s second birthday. Kari made amazing grilled pizzas and fresh raspberry pie, and we got to meet Hailey, Seth’s…hmm…what would their relationship be? I just tried looking up cousins removed and degrees, but anyway, she’s a peach.

Annika and her birthday pie

Seth and Hailey meet and talk shop

Papa and Seth get a little carried away

The next day, we ventured up north again to meet Elise, our newest young friend. She was born on 7/8/9 — the best birthdate and corny math joke ever! It was quite a thrill to hold a lighter, quiet newborn, as Seth is usually anything but. We’re so happy for the new parents Melinda and Corey, and Elise is one lucky girl.

Sweet Elise

Dear Baby Seth,

Boy, time is flying by! So much that this Monthiversary is almost a week late! Every day you are learning new things. Six months of age has seen you rock back and forth on all fours, scoot around using your arms and letting your legs drag behind you, and finally working all your limbs in concert to CRAWL! You use your crawling skills to get into all kinds of mischief. If Mommy turns her back for one second, you’re off trying to chew on her shoes or get to all the wires underneath the computer desk, or running away during diaper changes.

And now that you have mastered crawling, you’re on to your next goal: standing by yourself! You love to use Mommy, Daddy, the couch, anything really, as a step to pull/push yourself up to standing, and then want to let go and try standing by yourself. At the rate you are catching on to things, we guess you’ll have this down in a few weeks.

Besides loving all things active, you love giving Mommy and Daddy raspberries on any body part you can get your mouth on. You also love your books featuring babies (Global Babies and Baby Faces) and especially seeing babies and other kids in person. You met Elise (11 days) and Hailey (5 months) for the first time this month, and we had to hold you back from tackling them. Your favorite toys are spoons, the blue rattle that Skyler gave you, and anything you’re playing with for the first time.

You’ve been a bit more clingy and fussy, and getting you to sleep is more challenging these days. We think teething and all the new skills you’re learning are the main reasons, and hey! we can’t fault you for growing up and growing teeth. You’re good at saying, “nananana…,” which usually means “I’m hungry,” or “I want Mom,” or “Pick me up.” You can also say “dadada” and “bababa” and you like to practice your bilabial fricatives a lot.

We haven’t measured your height and weight since last month, but you continue to stay long and lean. Are you going to be a soccer player? Gymnast? Swimmer? We’ll find out soon enough, but for now, we’re enjoying our seven month old bouncy Baby Seth.

All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

New video of Seth, around 5-6 months. Watch for laughing and some early crawling!

Seth – 6 Months from Eel Fang on Vimeo.

The music is “Twist and Shout”, from another one of our favorite musicians, Ferris Bueller.

Just kidding! The mobile kept Seth distracted for, oh, three diaper changes, and now he’s back to trying to claw his way off of the changing table. Oy. Cross your fingers that it’s just a phase!

Seth is active. As in really, really active. About the only time he is still is when he’s asleep. Diaper changes have been increasingly difficult. For a few days I was able to charm him with a few rounds of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” but its novelty soon wore off. So what does a parent do when their child would rather show off their rolling and scooting skills than lay back for two minutes, other than use the diaper to wipe the gathering sweat from their (the parent’s) frustrated brow? Why, they run out and buy a photo mobile!

We thought of the idea this morning, bought the mobile while out this afternoon, and had it hung soon after dinner — a rare feat of efficiency in the Eelfang household. Someday we’ll put photos on it, but since Seth can’t appreciate them from down below anyway, for now it just has a couple of Chinese paper lanterns and pieces of origami paper. It’s not going to turn heads at hip kid sites like Ohdeedoh, but we had the first calm diaper change in ages this evening. Success!

1. Betsy reminds me that Seth is performing science experiments. Does gravity keep on working the same way every time I drop something? This is a good idea to keep in mind, and I realize that all of the work we’re doing is helping him learn about the world around him. At the same time, though, I can’t help thinking that there is a dual-nature to this experiment, one with a more psychological bent: how many times in one meal can I drop the same spoon on the floor before Mom and Dad get tired of picking it up? One drop every 20 seconds for 10 minutes is about the maximum so far.

2. A recent post on DadCentric resulted in some interesting conversations around the house. You can read the post for yourself, but in essence the question is this: if a bully is harassing your child, and they’ve tried everything (asking the bully to stop, avoiding them, appealing to an authority figure, ignoring them, etc), is it ever okay to advise the child to punch the bully? Curious to hear your thoughts.

(Standard word-of-warning: DadCentric uses naughty words from time to time and wouldn’t be appropriate to be read out loud in a workplace.)