Eamon vs Goop

Our little (big) guy had his first cold this week- coughing and goop in his eye. What made this episode particularly interesting is that he never got in a bad mood. Don't get me wrong, my boy can be fussy, but it's never for very long and it's usually because he is a) tired and needs to sleep or b) is gassy and uncomfortable. Both things are easily correctable, and he will quickly return to his smiling self once the problem has been resolved.

We think that the goop in his eye was a result of a blocked tear duct, something his cousin Lucas had problems with. After a trip to the doctor (where he weighed in at 16+ lbs!!), we got a prescription for medication that you had to smear on his eyelid. Needless to say, he did not appreciate this. However, once the initial placement was done and he voiced his displeasure, he would smile at us.

Unfortunately, the person in our household who got the worst of this sickness was Kate. A devestating sinus infection pretty muck KO'd her for the first 4 days of her spring break. Not good times. Kate has a remarkable knack of holding off any sickness until there is a break from school. I don't think I would classify this as a talent, but it does say something for her work ethic.

Eamon has started over the past week or so to become very interested in the world around him. Always very alert, even on the day he was born, he now finds all sorts of things fascinating. For example, we dog-sat for Kate's parents early in the week, and the interaction between Socrates and Nesta was the source of great amusement for our child. His grandparents got him a Giggle Elmo this week, and he is slowly but surely figuring out how to make it work. Nesta remains the most interested in the toy (she would like it to be hers and can't figure out why it's not), but Eamon does enjoy it.

One of Eamon's greatest pleasures is watching stuff (anything really- he tracks both Kate and I across the room, will watch Nesta do her thing, examines stuff on the wall, is particulary interested in the two Shisa lion dogs my friend Shawn brought us from Okinawa) so we got him a Bumpo chair so he can sit up and see. He loves it. While making brownies for the Meredith family Easter get-together, Kate put him in his chair and conducted a cooking show for him. He was very entertained (if for no other reason than Mommy was talking to him, which he enjoys.)

One of our worries is that he seems to have started exhibiting separation and stranger anxiety, which is unusual for a child his age. I took him to Kate's school last week so we could all have lunch together, and he was whisked up by the adoring teachers at her school and taken to another room. He is normally (as I've pointed out) a very happy child, but he flipped out when he looked around and there was no Mommy or Daddy. Maybe he'll grow out of it sooner due to the early start, but who knows. It will be an interesting time at Easter to see how he handles all the ruckus.

He can get over-stimulated pretty easily, as was evidenced by our second trip to Colonial Williamsburg last weekend (it was the kickoff weekend for the 30th anniversary of African American programming and I wanted to be there for it). He did really well while we sat outside the Peyton Randolph House waiting for a tour, but lasted only a few minutes in the house. In all fairness, he wasn't upset, just talkative, and the tour guide wasn't very good (not that he would know that, but Daddy did- and I had enough very quickly as well.) We made our way out to Great Hopes Plantation, where he lasted about 30 minutes being fawned over (he does get the rock star treatment almost everywhere we take him publicly) before having a meltdown. We took him back to the car, where he fell asleep before I had backed out of the parking spot.

Hopefully, he'll do better at Easter, where he will get to meet his cousins for the first time. He did really well when our friends the Weldy's (Courtenay, Andrew, Tommy and Tyler - pictured above with Eamon) came to visit, so I'm hopeful.