Eye of the Storm
Events of the past few weeks have left me too short on time and worn out for much blogging. The biggest challenge has been Eidan’s sleeping. We had actually just succeeded in getting him into a nice routine a few weeks ago, when he started getting an allergic reaction to something. His primary symptom is post nasal drip, which makes him cough when he’s lying down, and he would usually end up having a coughing fit and vomiting. The advice we got from his pediatrician was to tilt his mattress and get a cold air humidifier blowing in his face (he’s too young for cough medicine). It took a while for him to adjust to the humidifier, but now he’s finally sleeping fairly well again. Soon after we moved here three years ago, Kai developed a similar problem, although it wasn’t as severe (of course, he was also older). Kai’s problem went away about a year ago. It’s probably some kind of household mold, but I’m hoping that in Eidan’s case it’s seasonal and will go away soon. We’ll see…
Aside from that Eidan is doing great. He’s walking like a pro now. Well, actually, he’s walking like a drunk, but every day he gets better at it. And he turned one a few weeks ago! It’s hard to believe. He still has more energy than Maria and I combined, but he’s become easier to manage recently, as he’s developed the ability to stay focused on a task for more than a few seconds. For example, going out to eat previously had been a tag-team effort between Maria and I, with one of us keeping Eidan reigned in so the other could eat a few bites. Reigning him in usually meant letting him climb all over me like some kind of little feral animal while he giggled constantly, and making sure he didn’t fall as he’d go up my chest, around my head, down my side, and so on. But the other night we went out and he sat calmly in his high chair for a full 20 minutes and ate his food. When I say “ate”, I mean he smeared his food all around the table and himself, with maybe a third of it finding it’s way into his mouth (and yes, we always leave an extra nice tip when we take him out with us). Hey, it’s progress - it was a mind-bogglingly pleasant experience to sit, eat at the same time, and actually be able to exchange a few words. Of course, Kai is always there to redirect the conversation to the topics of Superman, Batman, legos, etc., as he’s not about to sit through a mind-numbingly dull “adult” conversation.
Last weekend we began the process of moving Kai out of his room. He’ll share Eidan’s room until we leave for Japan (and they’ll share a room in Japan too). Maria’s friend Jen, who will be staying in our house while we’re in Japan, is moving in early and taking over Kai’s room in a couple of weeks. I never quite finished the renovations in Eidan’s room (he lacked a ceiling light and the closet wasn’t finished), so I’ve been doing some work in there.
Maria’s been busy preparing for the Shibusawa conference, which she and Jen are co-hosting at Villanova and Penn in a couple of weeks (Jen teaches political science at Penn). This is the conference we attended in Japan two years ago. It’s in a different part of the world each time, and hosting it rotates through some of the regular participants, so this year it’s Maria and Jen.
So this weekend is the eye of the storm, in that our schedules are not overloaded, for just a little while. Maria will attend some panels at the APSA conference tomorrow (Marc Lynch shared some humorous thoughts on the conference - humorous if your a poli-sci geek, anyway) , and on Sunday we’ll finish Kai’s move into Eidan’s room. Then next week our schedules will become totally crazy again, as I’ll start a Japanese class, and Maria will be making final preparations for the conference.
I’ve added a link to the “friends” section of my blogroll - Maria’s page at Villanova! Many of you have asked about Maria’s work. Her Villanova page is not complete yet (I’ll see if I can help her spruce it up), but it should give you an idea of her interests. Also, now that Maria is a CFR fellow, they’ve posted a nice, concise bio for her on their site.
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