Weirdling Files: Week 11- Drools and Valentines

By Dad
Roland is having a lot of growth and this week was full of examples of that.
Sunday he came out to my race, the third biathlon of the three-race series that started the day he was born. It was very cool to have Angela and him there. He was a great boy the whole time, got up fine in the morning and was good with all the people at the race. Lots of friends were run/swimming that morning and of course everyone wanted to say hi and hold him. He's been great getting passed around whenever we've done that. Guess he's a social kid.
After the race we went over to Andy's house, a training partner of mine, for waffles and so Andy and his wife could spend time with Roland. Really, Hiromi, Andy's wife, bribed us over with waffles so she could hold the tiny human. It worked. It'll work again.
The 14th was a big day for Roland. After school I rushed to meet mom and him at Tripler hospital for a doctors appointment. He was born with a condition called hypospadias, which I'm not going to go too deeply into so follow the link if you want to know more. In his case it isn't a serious problem, but we were told to go see a urologist at around two months for more information. After doing his examination the doctor told us that while Roland doesn't absolutely 100% need corrective surgery, based on his experience and what he sees he suggests it. The deformity could cause problems later in life and the easy surgery can fix that. They won't do surgery like this on infants under six months because their tiny size makes the anesthesia tricky and dangerous. So in a few months we will schedule a pre-op and meet his surgeon and then one of the last things we do before moving to the mainland will be taking Roland in for surgery. At the moment, neither of us are too concerned, but that's sure to change as we sit in the waiting room in June. We both agreed easily that surgery was the right choice for a variety of reasons. Other than the hypospadias he's a completely healthy baby, so we don't have anything to complain about.
When we got home from the doctor it was time for Valentine's Day! (Correction- We stopped at Target on the way home from the doctor because it's on the way and it's wife's favorite store and I'm a romantic.) I bought Roland a Valentine's Day card because he should get one and it had a ninja hamster on it and OF COURSE THE TINY BOY NEEDS A CARD WITH A NINJA HAMSTER ON IT! Grammy also sent him a onesie (that is the dumbest looking word and there is no way to spell it correctly) and a card.
We've been noticing he's been making lots of bubbles and drooling in the last week and a half or so. At first we thought, "No, please don't be teething already." But the wife is strong in the Google-fu and found that nope, drools are a normal two month benchmark. The only issue with it is he's not all about the swallowing yet, so sometimes he'll be nearly asleep only to *GASPCHOKEGASP* and wake himself, upset and frustrated.
He continues to go bald, which is pretty funny. The sides of his head and getting thinner and thinner, but not the top. Pretty soon the little cannonball is going to have a mohawk whether he wants one or not.
He's taken to sucking on his fist sometimes when we hold him, which we are trying to gently discourage by giving him his pacifier (sucker) instead. I don't want him being a thumb sucker and we figure the pacifier can be taken away. Rather get him used to using that than his hand.
He's become a flier too. A few times a day, sometimes to calm him down and sometimes just for fun, I'll pick him up and fly him around. He makes the cutest face, looking around while I hold him up in the air making engine noises and zooming sounds. He's not in an airplane, and he's not Superman. Nope, when we fly he's Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, zipping around in his Iron Man suit.
I still only see him when he's asleep before I go to work and then when he's had a long day of refusing to take a decent nap after school, so I get the fussier boy a lot of the time. Which is ok. Sometimes I pick him up when he's sleepy and his head drops, bonk, right on to my chest and he has a big sigh and relaxes. That makes every frustration with school and the people I work with ok. And sometime I sneeze or blow my nose and it startles him. He's funny, we can watch Breaking Bad and he's fine, but blow you nose and holy crap what was that gaaaaaaahhhh.