Zerberts

When I was a kid we called them "zerberts." I thought everyone called them that, and didn't hear the term "blowing raspberries" until I left home. Over the years I never met anyone else who called them zerberts so I started thinking maybe that was just a made-up family thing. (Although to be fair, this isn't a conversation that comes up regularly in my social circles). Then I googled "zerbert" and found the Urban Dictionary definition of the zerbert. Apparently the Huxtable family also called them zerberts, so it makes sense that we would say it because I remember watching The Cosby Show all the time as a kid.

Melissa's family calls them fobees. I'm thinking her family made this one up because google doesn't give us any relevent results, although she's not exactly sure about the correct spelling of fobee. (Phobee? Fowby? Faux bee? Fobi?)

Anyway, the reason for this informative dissertation on zerberts is that this little guy recently perfected the art of a zerbert:


We taught him how to do one and were both amazed that his sounded so much better than ours! They sound just like farts! I've convinced Melissa that we need to continue the tradition and keep calling them zerberts.

Also, Jordan thinks he can fly:

Headswap!

I saw other examples of this on the internet and wanted to give it a try. I'll be honest, I laughed for two minutes straight when I was done.

Jordan's sense of humor

Disclaimer: 99.9% of you won't think this joke is funny at all, but if you happen to have the mind of a toddler who is obsessed with trains and you are currently learning animal noises, this might crack you up. Here's the joke:

"What does the train say?"

That's it - there is no punchline. Told you it wasn't funny. Last night while we were riding the Disneyland train I asked Jordan this question and he paused like he was thinking for a second, then he looked at me and busted up laughing.

Why so funny? In Norman Cousins' book Head First he explains that humor happens when an established train of thought takes an unexpected turn - that turn is usually the punchline. Lately with Jordan we've been working on the animal noises. He can tell you what a monkey, dog, cow, bird, and duck all say. I think he's associated the phrase "What does a ____ say?" with animals, and has established a train of thought that goes with the activity. When I, seemingly out of nowhere, asked what a train says, I disrupted the normal thought process and allowed his mind to make an unexpected connection - thus he laughed.

This is the first time I've made him laugh on an intellectual level. I'm excited to see what jokes he comes up with as his language skills improve.

How many houses do we own?

In light of John McCain's recent failure to answer how many houses he owns, I conducted a little poll among my family members to see if they knew how many we own. Melissa (my wife) got the answer right by answering "zero". Jordan, however, totally made a fool of himself by answering "choo-choo". Not even close buddy.

Jordan's Epiglottis

Ever wonder how babies can drink and breath at the same time? Think about it - you can't drink and breath at the same time (try it if you don't believe me), and nursing babies don't come up for air once they "latch on".

I was studying this very concept for my board exams just over a year ago, at the same time baby Jordan was just a wee infant. The answer lies in the epiglottis. Here is an illustration of the epiglottis of an infant:
The key difference is that the shape of the baby's throat allows the epiglottis (the green shaded area) to come into contact with the soft palate (yellow), thus allowing air (shown in light blue) to enter the trachea, while milk (shown in pink) can flow around on either side.

I was recently reminded of this concept during our summer break at my parent's house when Jordan was drinking from a sippy cup and started coughing. I looked at him and asked if he got some down the wrong pipe and then realized that this had never happened to him before. I realized my little boy is growing up - his epiglottis is no longer touching his soft palate when he drinks! He'll just have to alternate between drinking and breathing just like the rest of us now. I think this is a milestone in toddlers lives that most parents are unaware of.

Waterslideshow

Last Friday the dental school had a barbecue with a huge inflatable slide. You can probably tell from the pictures, but I had an awesome time! Jordan also thought it was kind of cool, but the last time I took a plunge he freaked out and screamed for a couple minutes. Good to know he loves me.

Melissa is a very talented photographer. One of the cool features on our spiffy new camera is the sports setting. It allows you to simply hold the shutter button down and it rapidly takes pictures, so you end up with some cool action shots.

Camping

We had a great time camping in the San Bernardino National Forest last weekend. Jordan didn't see it as a vacation - he spent all his spare time hard at work in the dirt.

Baby Jordan's repertoire of skills

He's seen enough basketball in his 13 months that he's started emulating the pro's. And dad.






















Here's his jumpshot. He's pretty confident and it shows when he backs up a few steps and actually bends at the knees before letting it fly. Not a bad follow through, eh?



Here's his finger-roll ala Clyde "the Glide" Drexler



Here he can be seen taunting the camera man.



The granny shot.



Strength training.



Yelling at the Jazz with Dad. This counts as working on his coaching skills.



The tomahawk jam.



This was obviously an alley-oop to me but I was caught off guard and messed up the play.

Jordy's at it again!

Here's a couple funny stories from our crazy son this week:

1. For a few months he has been obsessed with basketball. I claim partial credit for this because we have a nerf hoop in our living room and he used to love watching me shoot. Now his favorite thing is for me to lift him up so he can dunk and we both cheer. A few days ago I was in the bedroom and could hear splashing coming from down the hall and his tiny voice shouting, "Ba-ball! Ba-ball!" So I go check on him and he's got a football and nerf basketball floating in the toilet!

Here's a picture from a little earlier this evening - keep in mind this happened with only about 20 seconds of unsupervised freedom. He's figured out how to lift the lid so it's time to start shutting the bathroom door.




If you look closely there's a SUDOKU book, a spoon, apricot scrub, and a ballpoint pen. He's holding the toilet bowl brush. By my count that's 8 points going on 10.

2. If Dad's teaching him how to play basketball, then Mom's teaching him to, uh, shave her legs. Yup, the kid genius has seen it enough that he figured it out. Melissa was sitting at the computer surfing the web and she felt Jordan put something on her leg. She looked down to see him holding her razor with the most determined expression on his face, as he slid it back and forth.

Our day at the beach

Here are some pictures from yesterday. Jordan would probably tell you it was the best day of his life. He loved playing in the sand and he didn't stop moving the entire 4 hours we were there. The only downside was that he was enjoying himself so thoroughly that a diaper change was almost an impossible task, as was putting on sunscreen. If he wasn't out exploring, he wasn't happy.
Unfortunately, those few times when he really let loose with one of his "just let me play in the sand" tantrums, his tears must have washed away the sunscreen. Today he has a sunburn just below his eyes and on his nose, but I still think he'd tell you the 4 hours was worth every minute.



This picture should be side-by-side with the picture of blonde curly baby Benji at the sand dunes in southern Utah, also eating the sand. I know what it looks like, but he wasn't using the spoon to eat the sand- the sand would just stick to where he was drooling (ew, gross!).



Me and Jordy chillin at the beach.



He really didn't know what he was getting into. Of course he was intrigued by the waves and all the water, but twice when we let him get too close he wasn't at all happy about it. Once a little wave caught him off guard and I think the cold water surprised him and he fell over crying. I had to pick him up and console him.



Look at me, King of the ocean!

We brought the boogie boards and I had a good time catchin' the waves! There were some big waves so I had a few good ones where I stayed on the board cruising along for around 20 seconds. At one point I found myself on the wrong side of a wave - the bottom. I was drug along the bottom for about 10 feet and lost some skin off of my back but quickly popped back up. Anyway, we all had a great time.