Houston, we have liftoff... - Project Half Calf

…or in other words: One day, with no warning, no practice, no failed attempts, Half Calf was mobile.

I mean, sure, other things have happened but we figured that one is probably a “jump to the top of the list” item. And it really was like described above. One day I went to pick him up at daycare (I arrived before Momma) and they told me he had been doing an army crawl that day. I proceeded to have him doing laps across the room; once he would reach me, I would take him back to the other side and let him come back. Momma was quite surprised since she had been there a couple hours before and didn’t know he was doing it yet! I suppose I should clarify that last comment for people. Momma literally works in the building next door to Half Calf’s daycare; they share the same parking lot. So she goes over a couple times most days.

Another new thing is that I (Dad) am claiming his first word!!! Granted his first word is “Ba”, which is Vietnamese for Dad, but he says it all the time so I am counting it. Momma claims he occasionally says “Ma” too though I am not sure I believe her. He seems to be very much a Daddy’s Boy at this point. Momma (jokingly) chastises him for always just staring at Dad and smiling every time he sees him and never reacting like that when she comes into the room.

For the first time since we started writing, we have a somewhat GOOD update on his skin. In general it has been very good this month but that is for a couple of reasons. The first is knowing that he is highly allergic to dogs, we have begrudgingly taken to giving him anti-itch medicine when we know he will be around them. While medicating him is not our first choice, we also don’t want him to be miserable either. Another huge help is that his daycare (Kindercare at ANTHC) is going above and beyond to work with him and us. They have two infant rooms and the kids spend time in both. After some trial and error we have determined that the most likely cause of his continued irritation is that the teachers in both rooms have dogs at home so he is getting a lot of second hand exposure when they hold him. A second likely cause is that they are using different cleaning supplies than we do at home. We usually take our own blankets and bedding and such for him but just to eliminate that option, his daycare has started washing all items from those two rooms in the same laundry detergent we use at home rather than the one they normally use. So any blankets, bedding or other items are less like to cause a flare up. They have also purchased smocks for the teachers to wear over their potentially dog exposed clothing, which will be remain as part of the “room gear” that is washed and clean every day. We are so grateful that they are going to such lengths to help us try and figure out and control his reactions.

We did our first “backcountry” experiment this month with Half Calf. We are eyeing some longer, multiday trips this summer so figure we need to learn how and what to pack for him so need to practice. Some friends booked a cabin for all of us (which in Alaska means you book it months in advance and hope it fits your schedule) but none of them were able to go. Even after they were unable, we decided we still wanted to do a trial run. We did ask some other folks if they wanted to join us but no one was able to last minute so we went alone. The cabin itself was not that far from civilization, it is about a 1/2 mile ski/hike to reach it, which is why it is a great choice. If things to really poorly, we can always just go home early. So we packed what we thought we needed for him to spend two days, but kept it as minimal as possible to simulate a backcountry trip where we are limited to what we can carry in a couple backpacks (yes, in the photos there is more stuff than that but that is because we took other items for the cabin specifically that would not normally go, like board games). It was overall a good trip for us. We the parents got to spend some down time reading and playing games, which has been a long time coming. We took Half Calf out skiing a couple times and as always he really loves the outdoors. We also had a couple friends come and visit us for the day with their son so that was an added bonus. However our biggest concern, which did turn out to be the case, is that Half Calf did not sleep well (so those who opted not to join us, excellent choice). When he is at home he has a controlled temperature instead of a wood burning stove that can easily be too hot and too cold plus he usually sleeps with a whitenoise maker and that was not an option in the cabin. Ideally we need to ween him off of that anyway but cold turkey in a single room cabin is apparently not the best place to learn. So in general the experiment was successful, but we still need to be in a better place to actually take a multiple day trip still since sleep is rather important for all of us!

We threw in a bonus video of Half Calf trying to feed himself…

OK, here are all the other photos you came to see.

P.S. For all those who try to read these on your phones, I think the weird formatting issue has been fixed so you can go back and read old ones now if you like. Let us know if you still see any issues.