Time Marches On

Well, Princess Ella has just recently turned the magical age of 6 and it seemed a good time to add a new blog entry to commemorate some recent and not so recent experiences from the Father’s point of view.

Ella’s Tooth:
Ever wanting to not fall behind her older sibling, Ella counted own the days until she too lost her first tooth. Sure her brother had lost is long ago and ever since that day Ella would consistently point out how wiggly her lower front tooth was and that it was sure to fall out at any time. Months later the first tooth actually did fall out to the great joy of Miss Ella. The tooth was collected, pillowed and tooth fairy fees paid for the detached organic.

The second tooth carried with it a bit more emotion.

The second tooth, adjacent to the first, became more and more wiggly over time to the point where it was barely hanging on. Ella had asked her never trained in dentistry father to remove the tooth, much like he had done the first and for each of her brothers. I had agreed.

Then life took over.

The tooth, ready to be removed with the slightest of tugs had to wait until after dinner because, really, who wants to remove a tooth from a child with a mouth full of food? Then it was time to rush off to Ella’s soccer game – no time for the tooth as we need to rush to get soccer gear on and shoes tied, into the car and off to the soccer field where, by happenstance, the rest of her team were waiting! No time for tooth extraction now, there are friends to play with and a game to win….. then came half time of the game.

Time for orange slice snacks.
Suddenly, there was no tooth – it had been dislodged by the biting/sucking of orange slices.

Let the emotional flood gates open and tear ducts shift into overdrive.

The teammates helped look for the tooth in the strands of grass and dirt around the area Ella was eating.
Parents and others joined in the search, including the father who was now feeling really badly that he hadn’t pulled the tooth prior to or during dinner down on his hands and knees trying to look in and around each and every blade of grass in the area for anything looking like the half pencil eraser sized bone white tooth. To no avail.

More tears.

Then, in true perseverance fashion, Ella wiped away the tears and re-entered the again underway soccer game to the cheers of those watching and those playing ‘for Ella’s tooth’.

They won the game.

The following morning all was well with the world as the Tooth Fairy had been alert enough to the missing lower incisor and had visited during the night leaving not quarters as it had done previously, but leaving an actual dollar bill – which proved to be special indeed.

San Juans 2008

The Stutz family, east side chapter, ventured out on our annual boating trip through the San Juan islands. This year we chartered a 43' Bayliner sedan which worked out much better then last years chartered aft cabin style which required two toddlers who had a hard time staying vertical to go either climb up stairs or down stairs any direction they wanted to go.

The only loss was three year old Ella's pink princess fishing pole when she accidentally dropped it on the Deer Harbor dock by the ramp leading up to the main pier. The pole took a quick bounce over the side into the dark green water with me quickly dropping down onto the dock surface chasing after it, thrusting my arm in to the water only to get a finger tip on the pole as it quickly descended into the murky depths. Ella's brother Aidan was very upset about it. Ella consoled Aidan letting him know that 'It's alright'.

Aidan was so upset because he remembered my telling each of the kids that they needed to be very careful with their fishing poles and that if they dropped one into the water we were not going to replace it with a new one. (Aidan, during the previous summers boating trip, had dropped his first, brand new, blue and orange Scooby Doo fishing pole approximately 30 minutes after it was presented to him.)
After Aidan calmed down we discussed the fact that, while I did say we would not replace a fishing pole dropped into the water, he did get a second chance last year and that maybe we should afford Ella the same second chance. Aidan thought this was a good idea as he didn't want his little sister having to go the rest of the boating trip without a fishing pole.

The next day:

Being the dedicated father I am (or a foolish adult who still thinks he is in his early 20s) the next day noted that low tide was at 3:30pm – time to go look for the pole before spending $20+ on a new pole at the floating, dockside store shack with the 'We've got you and we know you have no other options' pricing model. After some time searching (the tide wasn’t all that low, still a +2.7), along with my kids and my own father('Papa' to his grand kids) I finally see what I think is the submerged pink princess fishing pole and decide the best course of action, other than leaving it there and spending the $20+ for a replacement, is to dive after it. After my swim shorts I went. I was on a mission to make my daughter happy - and save myself $20+.

My father, being the wiser of the two of us, had headed off to create a grappling hook with which he intended to lower and drag the bottom with in hopes of hooking the pole and bringing it to the surface while staying dry and warm all at the same time.

I return to a quickly gathering group of blue plate special, early cocktail hour enthusiasts who are waiting for me to freeze my backside off for their entertainment. Outfitted in my dark green, Hawaii print swim shorts, Tevas and my son Aidan's 4 year old sized light blue goggles which only fit one of my eyes at a time (I figured wearing Ella's pink goggles would have just been too much) I started to reconsider my course of action. As I was preparing to dip my toe in to test how frigid the water actually was, ignoring the comments from the growing peanut gallery gathering on the ramp above, a lady called from up the dock wondering if I would prefer to use a dive mask that she happened to have in a bag she was carrying. This seemed like a far better idea then the one eye'd goggle approach and the swap of aquatic optics was made. The downside to this exchange was that I was now a bit more committed to putting the graciously provided mask to use.

I slipped myself off the dock and into the 52 degree, thinly oil slicked water sporting the borrowed dive mask and, after taking a few seconds to regain control of my breathing and reminding myself how much Ella had enjoyed fishing with her pink princess fishing pole, ducked my head under and kicked towards the bottom. The bottom, it turns out, was a bit deeper then I had anticipated. I reached the spot on the all green/gray marina bottom where I thought I had seen the reel of the pink princess fishing pole.

Turns out, I was wrong. It wasn’t there. Not wanting to come up empty handed I quickly started looking left and right, looking for anything that wasn't green/gray and was more pinkish in nature. Out of the corner of my eye, about 5 feet away, something pink caught my oxygen starved attention. I quickly made my way over where I was able to grab the pink princess fishing pole and surface to a smattering of 'He must have a few screws loose' courtesy clapping provided by those who had received the proper entertainment value for their price of admission. Seeing I had surfaced with the pole rather then drowning the easily distracted crowd then moved on about their sleepy marina, summer vacation business and I returned the dive mask with thanks.

I then returned the pink princess fishing pole to Ella.

Ella didn't seem all that impressed.

Her Grandfather then returned with his wire coat hanger grappling hook setup ready to go.

Not So Little Any More

Wasn't that long ago that little Ms Ella was a tiny baby. Last night, given the 9pm hour and the 80+ degree weather out side, many of the neighbors of our new little neighborhood street were out milling about, some ooh'ing and ahh'ing over the latest new addition to the street, a baby boy born just a few days earlier. It struck me that not only was the new, not quite so bouncing baby boy so small, but that our own most recent edition wasn't so small any longer.

Princess Ella is now fourteen months old. I know, in other postings I went on about how I really disliked the parental use of a number of months to indicate the age of their child, but fourteen months is much easier to type then ('ok, take the number of months in a year, what month was she born again, wait, that's not right... carry the one... no, there are twelve not ten months in a year... recalculate...') One Year and Two months. So, while it is easier to type, when asked I still respond 'A year and a couple of months' or 'A little over a year' - less actual math to perform in my head that way and I don't have to look like a super geek carring my pocket sized abacus around on my hip like a cell phone.

But getting back on track - Ella is really moving along, literally. She crawls faster then most other babies I've seen, not that I've seen a large number of babies seemingly hopped up on the latest major league baseball performance enhancing drug, but she seems to move pretty quickly, even without sports beat reporters chasing her. Ella actually prefers to be the one doing the chasing. She'll try and chase her older brother Aidan around the house, scampering as fast as a one year old on four appendages is able to do so - hands slapping on the floor, butt seemingly detached from the rest of her body as it adjusts right to left with each knee being thrust forward in an ever faster attempt propel her forward and keep up. All the while squealing with glee at the fun she is having.

Ella's seemingly always happy, well, at least most of the time. Did I mention cute as a bug?, at least any of those bugs depicted by Pixar - not necessarily any of your garden-variety bugs that you might find in, well, your garden. Ella enjoys playing on slides, and with water, but not really needing to actually be in the water, just to the side where she can reach in and splash around is fine with her. She's a bit dainty that way.

Ella also seems to be taking to boating at this early age. The noise doesn't seem to bother her, the rocking and bouncing doesn't seem to bother her, sleeping on the boat doesn't seem to bother her. She just seems to take it all in stride.

I wish I had some speech progress to report, however there really isn't any yet. She communicates with a few hand motions and various, random screeches and grunts which gets her message across, but certainly can't be counted as an actual language other then her own.

Overall Ella's a pretty cute, happy, fast crawling little girl who, while not yet really talking, is making strides towards standing independently, walking while holding on to someone's hands, and every once and a while tries to take her own single step for little girl kind.

Wasted Time?

Poor little Ms Ella has been sick the past couple of days. Emptying the contents of her walnut sized stomach multiple times per day. It's amazing how much can come out of such a small stomach - yuck!. Needless to day, Ella hasn't been her normal, full of energy, wanting to chase her brother around all over the house self. She's been pretty quiet for the most part.

Today is a holiday for me so I had the luxury of staying home. Being a wet and rainy day, the 28th of the last 29 days - apparently a record for Seattle which, in itself is hard to believe - there really wasn't much to do outside so, for a good part of the morning, sat on the couch with little Ms Ella. We played a little bit, gently bouncing around on my knee like a rubber balloon stuffed with sand until she had enough and immediatly fell asleep on my chest for the next couple of hours with her mouth open just enough to let just the tip of her pink tongue poke out to fill up the space.

Wasted time? If so, it was the best wasted time I've had for a long while.

Mobility

Since the last Ella blog entry Ella’s become quite mobile and grown into a fun, cute, entertaining little baby girl. She hasn’t produced any new teeth so she seems a bit lopsided when she opens her mouth showing her three lower, front teeth, but I’m sure she is working hard on some more. Her hair has gown in quite a bit more so she doesn’t look like a fuzzy que ball any longer and she’s developed her own personality along with a vast awareness of the world around her.

A week or so ago she’d discovered the concept of forward mobility by performing the baby army crawl; reaching out in front of her, hoisting herself up on her elbows, then falling forward on her arms pulling herself forward in 4 inch increments, her feet trying to help propel her forward, sometimes succeeding, other times not. So, combined with her her ability to roll around all over the floor in either direction, she can now move forward, making it that much easier to pester her brother Aidan by moving over to him and trying to touch him, something he’s not all that fond of. It also allows her to entertain herself by moving from one toy to chew on to the next providing 30-minute chucks of entertainment and relaxation value for her parents.

Ella also has, on loan to her thankful parents from her daytime nanny, a little baby scooter – something akin to a lunar rover with four independently turnable wheels and a baby seat in the middle of it allowing Ella’s feet to hit the ground and provide independent leg action. This is her favorite and most used baby item as it allows her to move herself all over the lower level of the house – made that much easier as the floors are all wood. She just scoots herself around following anyone she wants, trying to keep up. Brother Aidan will play with her by running down the hallway to the front door, and Ella will spin her little feet as fast as possible, propelling her baby landing craft down the hallway after him. Many times bumping into one wall or the other, where she immediately adjusts course and continues on to her destination. Upon reaching her brother, Aidan will then run back down the hallway to the alternate end and wait for Ella to get herself turned around and sets off back down the hallway after him.

Ella does not like baby food. Hard to believe given the every so appetizing nature of the multi puréed assortment of vegetables and fruit mush available. She prefers fresh bananas, graham crackers, and baby bread sticks. That all being stated, she has started to accept the Gerber mac and cheese mush which is a victory in itself. She has also developed a taste for the Crystal Light lemonade product. I’ll have to admit right off that this is my fault, I gave her a taste by dipping my finger into the liquid then sticking it into her mouth. She, within seconds, moved to drinking it out of my glass. When she wanted more, she would crane her neck forward, head tilted back and little, pink tongue spilling out over her three front teeth and lower lip, waiting for me to place the cup back in her mouth so she could get more of the best liquid modern chemistry has to offer. Heck, it looks like she’s already in training to pledge a Cougar sorority. I say Cougar only because I’m sure it’s would be more fun to imbibe in her favorite beverage after her school has won a football game and it doesn’t look like the home town team will be doing that anytime soon. Of course, what would I know, it’s not like my alma matter is known for it’s gridiron winning ways, but she’s certainly welcome to go there if she so chooses

Teeth… we have Teeth…!

This past week the newest member of the Stutz clan, baby Ella, has two new lower, front teeth poking through her gums which, understandably, has made her a little more cranky given how sharp they are. They must be taking a toll not only on her gums, but also on her tongue which, as it continually zips in and out of her mouth like a dessert snake looking for food, is always in motion. Overall she is still a pretty happy baby.

Ella's reaching out with her still tiny hands and fingers and grabbing her feet these days as well. Pretty cute to watch actually. Ella is now far more aware of her surroundings then she has been looking all around, taking it all in. Ella’s also using her hands to grab on to much more then just her feet - noses, hair, fingers, toys - pretty much anything within reach she’s trying to grab on to. Where Ella used to be too small even for the 0-3 month sized clothes, she’s now out grown most of them and is able to wear a wide variety of "oh isn’t she cute" clothes. Now if only she would take scheduled naps, all would be well in the land of Stutz.

I tried giving her Mandarin orange slice last night. That did not go over very well. I haven't seen a happy baby face turn to bitter beer face so fast since I tried to feed her brother Gerber peas. I think we'll wait a while before trying those again.

Ella did get some outside time yesterday. Ella, her brother Aidan and I all went out for a walk. Actually I went for the walk, they pretty much just went for a ride - all packed up in Aidan's little red, all terrain, jacked up, knobby tired radio flyer wagon. Ella in her car seat, placed perpendicular across the back of the wagon, Aidan in front immediately taking his little toddler Tevas off. Ella seemed to enjoy the ride, looking around at all that was slowly moving by as we trudged up the hill to the local high school and quickly fell asleep. Well, at least she had some fresh air for a bit - well, semi fresh given the number of cars which seemed to keep slowing down while passing us to take a look a the cute little girl snoozing in the back of the little red, all terrain, jacked up, knobby tired radio flyer wagon.

Catching Up

Well, we’re now on month five. The months have gone by so fast and young Princess Ella is progressing right along with all those things that newly established wee-ones are to be progressing along with. She’s able to hold her head up fairly well, is able to move it about, in more or less a semi-jerky like motion, but, regardless, still gets the job done, and is continuing to eat constantly.

Ella is adapting to her new surroundings very well, given that her two parents, while only recently inaugurated into new parenthood with her slightly older brother Aidan, still are climbing up the learning curve. She is very tolerant of her elder brother who seems to enjoy entertaining his little sister by dancing around in front of her, spinning like a top, shaking his head back and forth or stringing together a series of non-understood words using different pitches of sound which can only be taken as his attempt to sing to his little sister.

While being presented to her new family as the second child, Ella has had her own series of firsts: First to open her eyes following birth – Ella had her eyes opened and was trying to take in her new surroundings immediately where Aidan seemed much less interested and simply kept his eyes closed for the first couple of weeks.

Ella has grown much over the past four months! She used to be this little pink lump of flesh that we had to re-adjust all the car seat settings back down to their smallest/lowest level – which still seemed to far to large to be effective against her tiny body. Now we find ourselves in need of adjusting the restraining straps to allow for more room and more height!

Ella and I have had our personal bonding moments. Just this past weekend as we were playing by my picking her up over my head horizontally, then down, then back up again, to the giggles and shrieking laughter of Ella, quickly followed by Ella spitting up half her lunch on top of my head. On, what a fun, memorable father/daugher bonding moment that was. Yes, the good ‘ole learning curve continues – (make a personal note: not good to play or swim with infants for at least 2 hours after they have eaten).

Ella has also started sleeping longer periods during the night, allowing for to make the transition from bedside bassinette to her own crib in her own room. Along with this major shift in household residency, Ella has also migrated from the size 1-2 diaper to size 3! Not really so much from her needing a larger size for fit, but from her parents feeling the additional holding capacity was required – boy, can that girl produce some output – she must be destined to follow in her Aunt Kristy’s footsteps and become a finance data cruncher providing reams of analysis.