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My son has learned the eternal and universal symbol for the concept of “I want”… he has learned to point, which he does a lot now. Pointing is quickly followed by him looking up at you with his huge blue eyes, and say “uhwa too?”, or something like that.

I believe the literal translation of “uhwa too” is “my crazy daddy says what?” because, when I reply “what?”, he just laughs.

How we all evolved to this point is obvious, in retrospect.

Over the past month or two he had taught himself how to throw his toys, either out of his playpen, or from the platform around his ExcerSaucer, to the point where he can now get some pretty decent distance between himself and his lighter toys.

Throwing for distance, however, is not replacing his other means of clearing his space, he still stacks things when he has a chance, he still pushes toys and bits of food off his tray, he’ll still pick something up drop it to the floor, then lean way over to see if it still exists.

So, for the past few months, Victor has been training Diane and I by throwing an object, then waiting for us to bring it back to him. Now we’ve moved to the next step in our training, and that’s bringing back only specified items.

Sometimes it gets a little confused, like he’ll point to a non-toy item, like a book or a cat, and say “uhwa too”, but that just gets weird because there’s no way I’m giving him my copy of Georges Conchon’s ‘The Hollow Victory’.

Or sometimes he’ll point to an item then, if you’re not fast enough in reaching for it, he’ll point to something else just to confuse matters… does he want both, or first one then the other? This is how I spend my days now, interpreting the hand gestures of a fourteen-month old baby.

And misinterpretation is not always treated with patience. Most of the time he’ll reset, then point again, treating us like the simpletons we are. But sometimes he’ll raise his voice, jump around in his ExcerSaucer / tank turret, and wave madly around in circles.

But then he’ll regain his composure, look up at me and point again at whatever he wanted, and ask “crazy daddy says what?”.

I think the next step is him actually resorting to use our language to make things clear to us. Most babies I know of eventually get to the “want that” stage. I’m sure the use of constant repetition, as a teaching tool, will only serve to educate us faster.

There’s a video below.

Once again Victor is under assault from his ancient enamel adversaries. It’s not going well. Victor has six teeth now (including four that make it obvious there’s some beaver genes in the kid), and it looks like seven through ten are pushing through.

Victor doesn’t cry often, and he definitely never cries without a reason. Sometimes interpreting those reasons can be difficult, to the point where we basically go down the list of recurring grievances: diaper, toys, bottle, nap time, cranky the Senators suck.

But when it’s his teeth there are actual physical signs we can look for, specifically the size and colour of his cheeks. He’ll also have a bit of a fever as well.

For the past few days Victor has had a really difficult time getting to sleep, and then staying asleep. The OraJel has helped, and we’ve given him a 1.5mL hit of liquid Tylenol to take the edge off on a couple of nights.

His breathing has been pretty rough for a few days as well, nothing to do with the teeth, he’s had a bit of nose-cold since Wednesday-ish. So last night I finally broke out the humidifier I received as a gift three or four years ago.

Twenty minutes later both he and his mother stopped snoring and I was able to sleep, finally.

Speaking of the health of Victor’s daddy… for the past three weeks I’ve been putting up with an infection in my left eye. It seems to run in a four day on, two day off cycle.

Basically, for four days it gets progressively more painful, more swollen, more leaky, and my vision gets blurry. Then, over the next two days, the pain goes away and it deflates. At this point I might give it a name.

It has gotten better for a longer period of time, right now there’s still some leakage but only some mild itchiness. The corner does feel stiff, but the pain and swelling is gone. For now. I’ve promised Diane that I’ll see a doctor if it comes back… or gets worse again, I guess.

I’ve also been limping for a month, thanks to some diabetes-related pain in my right foot. It’s a burning pain plus, when I twist my foot, it also feels like a vice is being tightened… or someone hitting me with a hammer. Or something. I think what I’m trying to say is it’s painful.

It gets significantly worse when I’m walking on snowy sidewalks. The pain also shoots up to my knee when I walk.

I’d like it to go away, but it isn’t. I guess it probably will when I get the prosthetic. I should probably see a doctor and start eating twelve-grain bread.

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Video Of Victor’s Week:

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Photos Of Victor’s Week:

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