2004

December 29, 2003  Today, Arno pulled himself up to standing, using the coffee table for his support.  To celebrate, we let him play with the blinds.  He was one happy boy.  I also posted a few photos, including evidence of the accomplishment.

December 21, 2003  When we were in South Carolina, Bert's aunt Peggy remarked, "I believe Arno is a sensitive little guy."  The latest confirmation of this is that Arno doesn't like his Daddy's electric razor.  Bert has to go outside to shave.  Arno doesn't much care for his Daddy's rock and roll music, either.  But Bach's cello suites are fine.

More photos from South Carolina, presented by Bert's aunt Geri and uncle Jim.

December 19, 2003   Arno turned ten months old this week.  With a little guidance from Bettina, he's taking an interest in learning to stand.  Thanksgiving day photos are up.  We were at my uncle Wayne and aunt Brenda's house.  We also have photos from the next day, at Bert's grandmother Porter's house, and at Wayne's again, and then from Bert's grandmother Porter's birthday party on Nov 30.

December 15, 2003   OK, photos from the first weekend of our trip are now up.  The main feature is our mini-trip to Greenville, where we had "practice Thanksgiving" with Norman, Patti, Janet, Jim, and some of their progeny.  We saw some people we hadn't seen in far too long (uh, I guess everybody there fit that description), and even met some for the first time.  Norman gave Arno a Clemson shirt and took me for a tour of Clemson, highlighting places relevant to the time my father was there.  We watched Clemson embarrass the Gamecocks on TV, and everybody had plenty to eat.  I had some Blenheim's ginger ale - nice and spicy.  Jim made some really good coffee, and we had a little chat in the back yard.  I wish I could see all these people more often.

December 6, 2003   I'm still getting caught up from our trip to South Carolina, and from “upgrading” the OS on my desktop before that. Two nights ago, Arno said, “Daddy.” Sort of. More on our trip, with photos of course, soon.

November 16, 2003   Our headline news today is that Arno's cousin Caleb Schuster, who is in the National Guard and has been stationed in Baghdad for a long time, has a date set for returning to the States.  December 20 he is scheduled to leave Baghdad for Kuwait, and January 9 he flies to Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Come on home, Caleb!

Arno didn't mind the doctor's office, but he sure didn't like the examination bench, where he got his shots three months ago!  He cried through the entire examination, so much that, when he finally got his shot, he didn't even seem to notice it.  The poor little guy suffered more from anticipation than from the shot itself.  Aren't we all like that sometimes?

The photos of Arno's morning eyes were a good idea.  Dr. Witter knew what Bettina was talking about, and we knew that she knew.  The doctor said it's common for babies to have a blocked or partially blocked tear duct, which almost always clears up by twelve months.  And we know not to give him the antibiotics regime unless his eyes are like that all day.  Now we can relax a bit about the eyes.

Arno's not allowed to play with the blinds any more.  He loves them, but they give him lots of little scratches.

Tonight we found out that Arno likes tofu.  We also identified House Rule #1:  Daddy pulls up Arno's socks, and Arno pulls them down.

November 12, 2003   Today, after Arno did his chores (i.e. help Daddy read the mail), we learned that Arno likes spinach and pumpkin, and he likes to dance with Daddy.  He kept saying "ba ba ba ba ba ba" after dinner tonight.  (He's been saying "ma" for a long time.)  Tomorrow he goes to see Dr. Witter.  He's mature enough this time, I think, that the shots he gets will create a memory that he'll retrieve on his next visit.  Sorry, Arno!  We're also bringing photos of Arno's just-woke-up eyes with "sand" in them.

Arno is an international star.  He has fans in China, Taiwan, and Iraq, not to mention all over the United States.

November 8, 2003   New pictures

Well, it happened again.  We had to found a new colony for the rapidly multiplying Arnoids.

Arno does know how to sit, but he's been having trouble figuring out how to descend.  When he wants to move, he's typically fallen backwards or to the side, occasionally getting a bump.  Today, for the first time, we saw him negotiate a controlled landing.  Bravo!

He got his second haircut today.  This time he cried all the way through it.  What's more, we're less pleased with the results this time.  Next time, his daddy will give him a trim at home.

November 1, 2003

New photos

Get one of Arno's little board books and sit him down in your lap.  He will turn the pages, one after another, if you hold the book so he can.  When he gets to the end of the book, he'll turn it over (with a little cooperation from you) and start again.  He'll look at some pages longer than others.  Now and then he'll turn back to the previous page to look at it again.  His favorite page in "Spot:  My Toys" is the one with a teddy bear and cars - he pretty consistently looks at it longer than the other pages in the book.

Arno is not exactly crawling, but he is travelling across the floor when he wants to.  From his standard starting point -- the blanket -- in the living room, he goes first to the coffee table, where he can play with a drawer knocker for a while, to the end of the coffee table, where there used to be a couple video tapes to play with, to the TV, where there used to be some DVDs to play with.  As his range increases, we put move more things away.  I had a good laugh earlier this week, watching him squirm his way across the living room floor.

He didn't get his usual afternoon walk to the park yesterday, because it was cool and even raining.  He was a bit grumpy about that.  When the first trick or treaters came to our door, we brought him to see, and he started crying.  I think it might have been because he knew we weren't taking him outside, or because that was his way of telling us he wanted to go outside.  But, no dice.  Later, Bettina played with him with the big hat you'll see in the photos posted today (link above).  We were all laughing pretty hard.


October 28, 2003

Yesterday, Bettina put Arno down on the blanket in the living room to play, and he fell asleep there.  That's just about the first time ever that he fell asleep by himself.

October 26, 2003

Daddy's aunt Geri and uncle Jim came to visit today.  Jim took a lot of nice pictures and quickly posted them here.

October 20, 2003

Arno has been jumpy lately.  He got scared this weekend when a puppet on a Baby Einstein DVD popped up suddenly.  He got scared by a Pooh book that has little (but loud) noises that respond to buttons pushed.

Arno loves paper these days.  Give him an envelope, and he's good for a half hour or so.

He has seven teeth.

October 17, 2003

(Bettina)
Arno is 8 months old today.  Recently, he's been interested in Mommy's face.  When Mommy holds him, he will reach for Mommy's eyes, nose, or mouth, or scratch Mommy's face.  This morning I fed him Yobaby (organic yogurt for babies) mixed with oatmeal cereal.  He liked it.

Arno LOVES books.  He enjoys turning the pages, looking at the books and biting them.   If I take books away from him, he'll get upset.

October 13, 2003

(Bettina's diary)
Arno can unfasten the seat belt!  This morning I put him into the high chair.  Then I went to prepare his solid food.  When I came back to him one of the two seat belts was open!  This afternoon, I let him sit in the stroller in sitting position.  The stroller only has one side of the seat belt to use.  The other side is too short to buckle up.  I let him sit beside the fountain as he's always fascinated by the fountain.  To my surprise, when I came back to him the seat belt was open!  I didn't know how he did it.  I was partly happy, partly worried.  My baby learned a new trick.  That's good to discover.   However, I'll have to watch him closer from now on.  It won't be safe just to leave him in the high chair or stroller and walk away.

Arno is getting more and more interested in the newspaper.  He managed to move his body to the coffee table, where we put the old newspaper.  He'll grab them and chew the newspaper.  The ink makes Arno's face and hands dirty.  So, I brought the recycle bin from outside to the garage.  From now on, I'll dump the old newspaper in the garage.

Arno didn't want any solid food today.  I wonder why?  This morning, I managed to feed him 2tsp of chicken pasta (baby jar food).  He was fussy all the way until I stopped feeding him.  Then I used pork bone broth as a base and cooked vegetable porridge.  This is a typical solid food that Taiwanese would cook for babies.  Arno didn't want it.  In the afternoon after he woke up from a nap, I tried to feed him some apple sauce, he refused.  Why????  Fortunately, he had good appetite for formula.  He had 36.5 oz today.

October 12, 2003

new pictures

What's the latest on Arno?  He can sit without help pretty well now.  We're getting more clues that his eyes react to dust and animal hair.  He's more demonstrative about disappointment when he thinks we're going to pick him up, but don't.  We bought a rocker-glider chair, to help us cope with his need to be held.

Two-year-old Egyptian twins, born joined at the crowns of their heads, are being operated on in Texas.  This sort of thing we feel more personally, now that we have a child.  It also makes me grateful all over again that we apparently have a healthy, whole child.

 I'm starting to teach Arno the hand signals for "water" and "formula"  (I actually use the signal for "milk").  We have his passport, valid for five years.  The socks labelled "24 to 36 months" are long enough, but too tight on his ankles.

Arno loves his daily bath, and gets cranky when it is delayed.  Preparing to bathe, he can hardly wait to get out of the diaper and into the water.  He loves to slap the water, soaking himself and Bettina.

September 21, 2003

Yesterday, we had a small potluck at our home.  One of the guests was Alison, the nine month old daughter of Bettina's friend Aileen.  Alison grabbed a rattle out of Arno's hands.  This was the first time anyone had snatched something out of his hands, so he started crying.  Poor fella!  It so happened that he was getting hungry, too, so he was inconsolable until we gave him a bottle.

This past week, Arno started going after toys beyond his reach.  He squirms around to orient his body properly, then rolls over towards the toy and grasps the prize.

Arno's eyes are the color of ripe olives.

September 15, 2003

Pictures from the last two weeks are now up.

We can see five of Arno's teeth, when he permits.

September 14, 2003

Arno had his first "finger food" today.  He demolished two arrowroot crackers.  About half of each one got into his tummy.  Bettina and I tried them, too.  They're pretty tasty.

Our baby book suggested unsalted rice cakes as another good finger food, so I told Bettina I would get some.  "What are rice cakes?" she asked.  When I came back from the grocery store and showed them to her, she told me about a happy childhood memory.  There was a rice cake maker who worked the streets like one of our ice cream trucks.  People would go out to his cart, bringing a bowl of rice and half a bowl of sugar.  He would process them together through his rice cake maker gizmo, and out would come a delicious, warm rice cake.

Arno likes to grab Mommy's hair, so she has started to pin her hair up, out of his reach.

The kicking game has changed.  Now, Arno and Daddy lie on their backs on the floor, and whenever Arno kicks, Daddy does too -- until Daddy's legs get tired.

Now we get an easy-to-read "pick me up" signal from Arno -- he sticks his hands up in the air.  When he's happy and excited, he kicks his legs.

September 4, 2003

Bettina and Arno have been sleeping on the futon, and Bettina has been getting more and more unsatisfied with it.  So, when I got home from work today, I saw she had converted the futon back to sofa form (all by herself -- if she isn't careful, she'll tweak her back, too, one of these days) and brought in the crib parts from the garage.  Now we have it assembled, and Arno gets his first night in a crib.  Wish us luck.

September 2, 2003

Tonight, while Bettina was changing Arno's diaper, Arno looked at her seriously and said, "poo-poo."  And that's what she found in his diaper.

August 29, 2003

At last, here are more pictures.  I probably should have been a little more selective, but there are a few good ones in there.

We submitted an application for Arno's passport today, so we can all go to Taiwan for Chinese New Year (late January or early February) and visit with Bettina's family.

Arno had saw Dr. Witter this week.  He's gained three inches in three months.  Now he's 28.5 inches tall, and he weighs 20 pounds and 10 ounces.  The shots were, once again, a rude and sudden imposition of pain, but he recovered better this time.

We have a new game.  Arno kicks his legs to make Daddy say "kick."

August 25, 2003

For several days now, Arno has been seriously trying to roll over from lying on his back, to lying on his tummy.  He would get almost there, but he'd pin one arm underneath himself in the process.  Then he'd grunt with effort, trying to get the arm out.  Today, finally, he made it -- three times.  He figured out to bend the elbow of the arm that was going under.

Recently he grabbed his bottle with both hands and held onto it by himself.  Parents of babies are easily impressed!

August 23, 2003

Here's Nathanial, Arno's cousin.

August 16, 2003
Here are pictures  from a party we went to last weekend, hosted by our friends Steve Trowbridge and Ann Park, whom Bert knows from Project SEED. 

Here's Bert when he was four days old, and his mother when she was twenty years old.


August 9, 2003
Today we saw Arno put some of his toes in his mouth.  Another glorious first!

Bettina's sister Nu-Nu called because she wanted to hear Arno.  She got to hear him crying.  She told Bettina that her son Kai-Kai said, "Arno is so cute.  Can you have another baby boy, Mommy?"  "Well, if I do, I'll have to hold him all the time."  "Oh, you'd better not, then."  (Kai-Kai still likes to be the one that Mommy holds.)

August 5, 2003
Arno likes carrots, peaches, and bananas.  And who could blame him?  He went to his first party this weekend, and took his first trip to the farmers' market.  We have pictures to prove it.

July 20, 2003
Arno can support  his weight on his feet for about ten seconds.  He can roll from one side (facing left) to the other (facing right).  When we pick him up, he first lifts his head to help us get hold of him, and then just before his feet leave the ground, he pushes with them, to help us complete the lift.  He's getting pretty close to crawling.  He went to the farmers' market for the first time today.  He's showing signs of sometimes preferring us not to hold him - though he still wants us to be in sight.

I've added some photos from February - see the link at the bottom of the page.

July 17, 2003
Arno is five months old today.  He's also a certified Californian -- he likes avocados.  He likes to sing, and he can put his pacifier into his mouth.  Every night, he wants to hear Mommy sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" before he goes to bed.  We have a new slide show.

July 12, 2003
Sweet potatoes seemed to be giving Arno ferocious gas, so we quit them, and introduced carrots a few days later.  Carrots seem to be working out fine.  

July 4, 2003
Happy Independence Day!  We don't pay taxes to the King of England any more.  Here's a photo of Arno's great-great-great grandfather, Daniel Pinckney Cox, and his family, including Arno's great-great grandfather, Otha Lee Cox.

June 29, 2003
We just got this photo of Arno's auntie Mei Hui and his cousins Yi Ting (Katie) and Yi Ling (One Zero).

June 28, 2003
The last week or so have been very eventful.  Norman and Patti came to visit; Arno started reading; and he started getting his high chair messy.

June 24, 2003
We recently bought a cassette voice recorder, to preserve some of Arno's vocalizations for posterity.  Today I played some of it back, just to make sure the recorder was working.  When we got to a section in which Arno was crying, the recording immediately upset Arno, who started crying in sympathy with his recording.

June 20, 2003
Our friend Jeannette recommended a pediatrician to us, Dr. Debra Witter in Newark.   We went there Tuesday for Arno's four month checkup.  Dr. Witter's office was peaceful, quite different from the hectic atmosphere  at the previous pediatrician's office.  Dr. Witter and Janna, the woman at the front desk, were both wonderful.  Arno liked Janna a lot, and put on a big show for her, with lots of smiles and laughter.  Dr. Witter looks like her medical training and career never managed to root all the sixties out of her.  Arno had four shots, and I just about cried to see the unexpected and uncomprehended pain.  He got over it quickly, but then that night his thighs hurt a lot.  It also seems to take a few days for his familiar eating patterns to resume.

We gave Arno a few spoonfuls of baby rice cereal.  So far as we can tell, it all just poured out of his mouth as soon as we put it in.  He's definitely got teeth coming in.

See our new pictures.

June 14, 2003
Arno will be 1/3 (four months old) on Tuesday.  We took him out and about a lot today -- to Dr. Tereo's. then to Fry's Electronics, then to Babies R Us.  Two or three times today, he was sleepy and hungry at the same time, which was a little bit tricky to manage.  All that stimulation interfered with his normal sleep schedule.

One new behavior we've seen is that sometimes he'll keep crying until we put him down.  The little guy who loves so much to be held, sometimes wants to get out of our arms -- though he still wants to be able to see us.

June 7, 2003
Our chiropractor, Michael Tereo, introduced us to a great way to soothe Arno:  a Gymnic ball.  He'd found with his own babies that they like being held by Daddy while he sits on the ball and bounces or rocks on it.  As soon as I sat on it, I noticed that the bouncing motion was smooth, liquid, sinusoidal, whereas the rocking I achieved while sitting on a chair or sofa was jerky by comparison.  Arno loved it, too, so I bought one immediately.  We use it quite a lot.

June 1, 2003
Arno is getting used to the sling.  I put it on to carry him out to the back yard sometimes.  He's learning about shutting his eyes and turning his head from the sun.  He just generally likes to see everything out there.  Yesterday, I carried him around in the sling while I watered everything, and by the time we went back inside, he was sound asleep.

We have new pictures.  My favorite is slide 10.

May 25, 2003
Bettina's sister Nu-Nu has a four year old son named Kai-Kai.  All his life, he's been tagging along after his big sister Tin-Tin and his still older cousin Katie.  Then Katie's little sister Xiao Yi-Ling came along, so Kai-Kai wasn't the youngest any more, but he was still the only boy.  So now he's quite pleased to have a "little brother" in Arno, even though it will be some time before he gets to see him.  As he outgrows his clothes, he proudly saves them for Arno.

Nu-Nu has been teaching both her children some English.  Recently, Kai-Kai announced that when Arno comes to visit, Kai-Kai will teach Arno English.

May 24, 2003
It so happened that neither of the big bottles was clean when Arno got hungry this evening, so Bettina used the small bottle, which only holds four ounces of formula.  He sucked that down and yelled for more, so she trotted off to make some more for him, leaving him in the stroller.  He didn't care for this arrangement, so I went over to see what I could do.  I was about to pick him up, as he saw, but then thought I should do something else first.  This happened twice, and by the time I got to him, he was really steamed.  So when Bettina appeared with the refill, he was too upset to accept the bottle.  I had to hold him to my chest and walk around with him for some ten minutes until he was soothed enough to take his second helping.

Bettina says he gets his pouting from me, and checked with her mother to confirm that she didn't pout when she was a baby.  So, there!

May 17, 2003
Arno is now .25 -- three months old.  He laughs when I tickle him. He loves to be on the move. He's happy on a car ride, except at red lights. At home, when we get tired of carrying him around, if he's in one of those moods, we are reduced to pushing the stroller (with him in it) around from room to room.   photos

February 2003
These photos are from Arno's first days, up to the end of February.


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