Version 2.5

Welcome to the brand new "Kyle Beaudry" blog, which I know looks very much like the old "Baby Beaudry" blog, except it smells a bit better.  The biggest difference between this blog and the last one is the title.  It's rather difficult for me to call Kyle a "baby" anymore, so it seemed odd to write about him on the other blog.  That's the story I'll tell him, at least.  I figure it probably won't be best to tell him that his popularity has plummeted in the two and a half years since its peak a day or so after he was born.  Kyle no longer attracts the web viewership ratings he used to get, especially in the key demographics.  Meanwhile, numerous consultants and focus groups have reported that this trend could be reversed if the focus of "Baby Beaudry" shifted towards the little one due this June.  Naturally, Kyle had to go, but he cannot be fired because he's been granted tenure in our family.  So, in an attempt to bring the "Baby Beaudry" blog back to its past glory while still keeping "child number one" online, the powers that be decided to move Kyle to a deserted corner of the world wide web that will be lucky to get two visitors a week, one of them being me.  Yet, as far as Kyle's concerned, it's all about the blog's name.

Unlike those who experience similar fates in the business world, the cliche "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" does not apply to our son.  First of all, we would never, ever compare our little guy to a pet.  Second, the problem with toddlers is that they continue to learn new things, while they abandon all the things that make people go ga-ga over babies.  Kyle now knows a ton of words, so "ma-ma" and "da-da" are no longer cute.  He can walk, run, and jump, so "tummy time" doesn't command the same kind of attention it used to.  His newly-acquired boxing skills will also deter anyone trying to swaddle him.  Yes, Kyle left the baby stage long ago.  His behavior now may be more fun than it was when he was an infant, but it's no longer considered adorable enough to make him a prime candidate for an Anne Geddes portrait.  For some reason, nobody laughs when a two-and-a-half year old spits up.

So that's where we are: Kyle is now two-and-a-half years old.  It's been quite a half-year, too.  We visited a theme park for the first time, we returned to our favorite cottage in the Catskill Mountains (perhaps for the last time), and the little guy spent a week at his grandparents in Massachusetts while his parents escaped to Aruba.  Oh, there was that tornado thing, too.  And a blizzard shortly after his half-birthday.  No, we weren't starving for excitement here.  On top of all that, there's a baby on the way (shhhhhh! don't mention that here!).  Pictures of all the other stuff can be found here in the latest slide show:

Kyle: Age Two, Part One

That's it for now.  I'll send out many more updates on the other blogs, and I'll write here in about six months... when Kyle turns (gasp!) three.

Two-riffic

Nearly two years and one month ago today, as Jennifer and I were heading to the hospital, I started getting a little sentimental. At one point, I turned to Jennifer and said, "We're soon going to meet our new buddy." Jennifer looked at me with a tired, bewildered expression. You see, up to this point, Kyle had been punching her belly button, dancing on her bladder, and creating immense pain by sitting on one of her nerves... all during an exhausting heat wave. It wasn't exactly "buddy" behavior. During our car ride, Jennifer was strictly focused on getting the kid out of her, so my "buddy"comment might have been a bit ill-timed. But I know now that I was right. Two years later, I can easily say that Kyle is my buddy.

The little guy and I spend a lot of time together. Since I'm the stay-at-home dad, it's usually just him and me for most of the work week. I haven't taken many weekend trips away, either, so he also gets a lot of Daddy time then. The kid should be sick of me, but so far he's not. We share a lot of jokes together, and we enjoy going on walks and making silly noises that could get us kicked out of restaurants should we try them there (and he sometimes does). Kyle also can't be shirtless without finding me and waiting, with a big grin on his face, for me to exclaim, "KYLE! Where's your shirt?!?" He runs off like a crazy man after that. And then, every Thursday night, Kyle does his best union supervisor impersonation, watching me intently as I sort the recycling. It wouldn't be the same without him there. I also feel I have developed a strong understanding of his wants and needs without him having to spell them out, which is a good thing since he knows how to say only five or six letters of the alphabet. This all could start ending once he masters making friends with kids his age, but for now it's good fun.

That's not to say there hasn't been any rough moments. Kyle is still a two-year-old, and he has a reputation to live up to. Jennifer and I have both learned the hard way just how sharp the little guy's teeth are. The kid's living on the edge, finding every way to get on our nerves. He'll stand on furniture. He'll throw things around our living room. He'll give our phone number to telemarketers. Yet, once he pushes us to the limit, he pulls back, gives us a hug or simply a smile, and suddenly we forget that he almost got us arrested. Two-year-olds have that power.

However, if his mom's home, he won't even try to win me back. On many weekends, he's Mama's Boy, and only Mama's Boy. Recently he went as far as to say, "No Daddy," while pushing me out of the room so that he could be alone with Jennifer. Shortly afterwards, as I tried putting on his shoes, he screamed at me and cried until his face turned purple and his lips quivered. He wanted nothing to do with me. That kind of behavior continued until Monday, and then it suddenly switched. He barely acknowledged Jennifer as she left for work, and then he asked me to read to him and play games. Just like that, he was my buddy again.

Because I spend so much time with the little guy, I often find myself irrationally perplexed by his sudden disdain for me on the weekends. I try to think of where I might have gone wrong, or of ways I could get him to at least let me pick him up. The problem is, since he's the only person I talk to for most of each day, I often think of him as a complete person, and he's not quite there yet. He still has a lot of growing to do. The other weekend Jennifer had to remind me that he's been on this planet for just two short years, and that he still eats crayons. He's not exactly ready to act reasonably. Sometimes I need reminders like that.

Yet, for all its trouble, being a dad is still the best experience of my life, and I love having the little buddy around. Just making him laugh can erase any struggles I may be having on a particular day. If that's not the greatest gift a person can receive, then what is?

Below is a new batch of pictures from the past six months, including Kyle's birthday. The smaller images were taken with my archaic cell phone (I hope to get a new one someday). Enjoy!

Kyle's First Half of 2010 & Birthday

This album contains 82 pictures, which is a lot... but it's still smaller than the album of Kyle's first MONTH. Wow, were we trigger-happy then!

I'll have more Kyle photos in six months. So, I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, 'Id al-Fitr, Yom Kippur, Columbus Day, All Saints Day, Election Day, Diwali, Veterans Day, Id al-adha, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day.

Cheers!

Eighteen is enough

Somehow we ended up with an 18-month-old. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but we went from having this child yesterday:



to having this child today:



It's hard to call him a baby anymore. Yet, just a little more than two short years ago, I was using this blog to announce that we were expecting. A lot has happened since then, of course, and our lives changed dramatically in the time between my first entry and now. This blog is a record of that, and sometimes I find myself going through it to relive some of the better memories, and groan at my own bad jokes. But even with all this proof, it's still hard to convince ourselves that June 13, 2008, did not just go by. Last month, right before the 13th, Jennifer emailed me from work in disbelief that we were becoming the parents of an 18-month-old child. "Where did the time go?" she wrote. I felt the same way.

The years were flying before we had Kyle (how am I suddenly in my 30's?), so I didn't expect the clock to slow down once he arrived, but for some reason I thought that certain stages would last longer, like the "baby" stage. If Maggie Simpson could be a baby for 20 years, surely Kyle could be a baby for 20 months. Not so. He already was shedding his baby-ness by his first birthday. A symbol of his infancy, the bouncy seat, which had allowed us to just plop him down and pelt him with socks...



... was taken apart in early 2009 and placed into storage. Now, instead of a baby, we have this little boy, who roams freely whenever he wants. He still hasn't quite mastered speaking just yet, as this New Year's video shows...



... but I have no doubt he will be reciting Shakespeare a few months from now. The potty training and driving lessons won't be too far behind.

I know I'm a little late than usual with this post. Kyle actually turns NINETEEN months old next week. During the past month we've been busy with all the holiday insanity. I also wanted to wait a little bit so that I could include a new photo album in this post:

Kyle's 18th Month & Christmas '09

Chances are the next batch of photos won't be sent out until Kyle's birthday in June. Now that he has reached 18 months, we have decided to stop taking monthly pictures on the chair. Instead, we'll do them every half-year. The Baby Beaudry blog will follow that schedule... unless there's a good reason to do otherwise. So, sadly, the next entry will be in June. Of course, I will still keep blogging stories about Kyle each week on DaveWeekly.com, in case you care to join me there. I know many of you subscribe to that one, so this news might be a relief to you, since you won't be nagged with more than one post/e-mail from me each week until after Kyle's next birthday.

In a way, this is the beginning of the end for this version of the "Baby Beaudry" blog. It had to happen at some point. Kyle will be going to school someday, and I don't think he'd appreciate being called "Baby Beaudry" then. He probably will want me to stop the Dave Weekly blog, too... but there's no chance of that happening.

So, take this as a little "good-bye," at least for now. It's been fun. See you in the summertime!

Friday the 13th, Part XVII

Once again, the 13th fell on a Friday, the same day of the week Kyle was born. The little guy is 17 months old now, and, despite Jennifer's insistence otherwise, he is no longer a baby. It's tough to swaddle him these days, and his legs dangle off the baby carrier. Chances are, if we put him in that carrier, he would just stand up and run away, with the seat still tied to his back. It's a funny thought, and perhaps I will try it sometime just for kicks.

Our kid has developed quite a bit since my last post on this blog. In fact, on the very day I published that post, Kyle decided it was time to start walking on his own (click here for that story). Since then, he has perfected the art, moving faster while doing other things at the same time: carrying shoes, drinking water, or programming the DVR. The following video shows Kyle's newfound walking skills, and his obsession with having closed baby gates in our home:



While he may be talented in walking, he could use a little help when it comes to being a modern-day vampire. These days, blood suckers seem to be everywhere, from TV to the movies to the federal government. The most popular of the film bunch are played by young, attractive, brooding types who apparently have spent more time at a mirror than at acting school. They're the big thing right now, and since Jennifer and I never shy away from the trendy, we thought it would be appropriate for Kyle to be a vampire this Halloween. Unfortunately, he didn't get the look quite right.

Kyle instead was one of those old-fashioned vampires, the kind made famous by Dracula and Sesame Street. He even learned the "ah, ah, ahh!" laugh the old vampires used to give after informing a victim of his doom or counting to ten. Kyle neither instilled fear nor had the teenage angst that modern vampires have. However, he still managed to put the ladies under his spell. There was a costume parade just a block from where we live, so Vampire Kyle was able go through the neighborhood and work his magic. He certainly received a lot of attention that night. No doubt his fans would have given him their necks so that he could take a bite and suck their blood. However, that wouldn't do for Kyle. He prefers to drink blood from a straw cup, with a nice bowl of Cheerios on the side. Again, he wasn't a very threatening vampire.

There are plenty more Halloween pictures, as well as other highlights from the past two months, in my newest photo album:

Kyle's 16th & 17th Months

By the way: the smaller pictures in the album were taken with my out-of-date camera phone.

Enjoy, and see you next month! Expect the next post to be a little later than usual. I will want to include photos from all the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah/Boxing Day activities. Happy Holidays!

Sweet sixteen

We have been really working on this whole "walking" thing with Kyle, and we seem to have achieved some success. However, by "we," I mean my parents. All it took was a trip to Kyle's Pepere and Memere's for him to end the stalemate. Up until the weekend he spent there while Jennifer and I were in Maine, Kyle would refuse to walk on his feet, outside of a few instances including his first steps. He did not see the point of it, since he could get around just as quickly walking on his knees. Every time we would try to get him on his feet, he'd bend his knees and dangle his legs in the air until we'd give in and place him down on the floor. Even a nurse at the doctor's office thought the behavior was odd. The doctor himself said Kyle's just doing what comforts him, and he'll start walking once he felt like it. In the meantime, we have seen plenty of kids his age and younger walking, running, and pole-vaulting.

Then, suddenly, Kyle changed his mind. Feet are good. When Jennifer and I arrived at my parents' place to pick up the little guy, my Dad walked out, holding Kyle's hand as our son walked alongside him to to greet us. We couldn't believe it. In the two weeks since, he still walks on his knees a lot, but now all you need to do is grab his hand, and he'll get up on his feet. We practice each time we go out, having him walk up and down part of our block. We shot this video during one such stroll last weekend:



The next milestone: Kyle's first time stepping in doggie doo. Being a city kid, it's only a matter of time.

As you can probably tell from the title of this post, Kyle officially turned 16 months old on Tuesday. Kyle is now eligible to get a learner's permit for his toy train. Hopefully he'll pass his driver's test, though I must admit his parallel-parking skills need some fine-tuning. Once he masters that, I'm sure he'll be out all night with that thing, cruising for 14-month-old girls (he likes the younger ladies). I'm sure they'll dig the squeaky noises his wheels make.

As for us, we're coming to terms with the fact that Kyle is not really a baby anymore. He's looking more and more like a little person, and he's showing a lot of personality. So far, he doesn't seem like a jerk, which is a relief. Kyle still enjoys a good joke, and it's not too difficult to get a good laugh from him. You don't even have to throw socks at his head anymore. Here's another video to prove my point:



All in all, I'd say things are going well. I'll have a photo album in next month's post, including a picture of Kyle in his Halloween costume. I won't tell you what it is, but I'll give a hint: it involves blood and a bow tie.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Feelin' alright

It's been three months since Kyle's birthday, which means it's check-up time. Yesterday I took Kyle to his pediatrician, and I got him to go along by pretending we were going to an amusement park. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized that, instead of going on the ferris wheel, he was going to be poked, prodded, and shot in the arm. It was a good laugh... well, for me at least. Kyle didn't do much laughing, especially after feeling the needle.

I am happy to report that the little guy is in good health, which is welcoming news for us, considering a few days earlier he had a fever with a temperature that shot over 104 degrees. A week before that, he threw up for the first time. Jennifer and I were a wreck over both instances, hardly sleeping through the night, listening for any sign that things were getting worse. Kyle took it with stride, acting perfectly normal after the heave-ho, and still drinking plenty of fluids through the fever. While I feared the worse (an infection, the plague, premature cooties, etc.), the doc pretty much said that these things happen to kids, and after inspecting him, determined that Kyle was completely healthy.

The doc also addressed another concern of ours: Kyle's behavior. As the picture to the right may or may not reveal, Kyle has been a bit more rebellious lately. As many of you know, he's been giving us lots of trouble during meal times. He's also starting to do things we thought we had successfully convinced him not to do, such as touching the radiator, crawling into the bathroom, and gambling on baseball. The doctor said that children at this age like to play the "no" game, and that telling Kyle not to do something only entices him to do it. Basically, we have to either not make a big deal about something, or we have to move him away from the "bad" spot and distract him with something else. Eventually we will be able to get him to behave by telling him "no" or flushing his toys down the toilet, but that time has not come yet. The doc also gave us some pointers on getting Kyle to eat more foods. Apparently he won't eat other things because we're making him full by giving him too much milk. So it looks like I will have to return the cow. We'll see if that works.

In other news, I have put together yet another collection of photos for your viewing pleasure:

Kyle's 14th & 15th Months

Hope you enjoy them. See you next month!

The heat is on

It's August, and you know what that means. It's hot out. The temperatures have been rising almost as fast as the Red Sox have been falling in the AL East. The humidity is making everything wet and sticky, and the searing sun has toasted the skin of any foolish person to walk outside unprotected, like myself. Kyle has been wearing plenty of sunblock - he's a smart kid, taking after his mother.

Staying cool hasn't been easy on these scorching days. Kyle and I have tried to beat the heat by drinking plenty of milk and iced coffee (I won't say who drinks what). But often that's not enough, and after a half-hour or so of walking outside, my shirt is soaked in sweat, and Kyle is partially melted. At that point we go back inside and worship the air conditioners.

"Oh, great and powerful air conditioner," we say, "How you rumble with the power of a thousand armies! Your cold air dances from your mouth, showering us unworthy servants with a cool breeze that has become extinct in the outside world. You suck our electricity with no restraint, but we will gladly forfeit our suppers to pay the power bill and keep you satisfied, oh mighty one!"

We have two glorious air conditioners in our apartment: a window unit in Kyle's room, and a floor unit in ours, and each one receives the proper respect each day. I'm not saying that we have turned completely pagan. We understand that these are merely appliances, and outside of the occasional animal sacrifices, we don't really do anything extraordinary to pay tribute. Often it's just a simple gesture, as Kyle demonstrates in the video below...



Since that video was taken a couple weeks ago, Kyle has perfected his worshipping skills, doing them much faster, much more frequently, and with less support from the bed. The air conditioner has seemed to appreciate the attention and gladly sprays him with more cold air. The practice has given Kyle strength, while keeping him from developing smelly armpits. Of course, this will all come to an end shortly. The heat waves will end, September and the fall will arrive, and cool air will return outside. The air conditioners will shut down for the season, and the one in the bedroom will once again become just the annoying obstacle that I stub my toes on in the middle of the night. By December, Kyle won't remember the air conditioner's generosity and will likely ignore it or deface it with a crayon. Such is the circle of life.

It's been a busy month for us, and we actually took a good amount of pictures (see DaveWeekly.com for stories of our vacation, beach trip and crib recall). However, I'm sticking to the "every other month" schedule with the slide shows because I don't want to spoil you... and I'm also just too lazy to put together an album with captions right now. I blame the heat for that.

See you next month!