Halloween 2009

Daniel loves to suck on his bottom lip. Isn't that the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to show off our Halloween costumes. The inspiration for this costume came from Danny's lovely Hawaiian shirt that we found in one of the hand-me-down boxes we went through. Kimball and I went to Goodwill to find our coordinating outfits. We dressed up as tourists.

The awesomeness is subtle but check out those shoulder pads and that belt.

These yellow shorts are so attractive.

We had a lot of fun on Halloween night. I came down with a nasty cold that night so we stayed home and watched Psycho. I had never seen it before and I love Alfred Hitchcock so it was a treat. We decided to hand out Play-Do this year instead of candy. Some kids really liked it but one kid asked us if we had any candy. (The truth is we did have some in case something like that happened but I ate it a couple days earlier.) So now we are the weird neighbors. No one can tell if we dressed up for Halloween or if we just normally dress weird and we don't even hand out candy on Halloween.

4 months old and solid foods

Danny turned 4 months old last week! He is getting so big and he is so much fun. At his 4 month appointment he weighed 19 pounds and was 27 inches long. We knew that he was heavy but we didn't realize that his height is also in the 97 percentile range. The pediatrician said he is the same size as the average 8 month old! That made us laugh and really put things into perspective.

We also started giving Danny solid food. I was really looking forward to introducing cereals because he would nurse and nurse and nurse and would still act hungry. Rice cereal was a hit. He is so happy after a good feeding. Here is how the first feeding went:

He is not sure what to think of the cereal. His parents are a bunch of amateurs. We forgot to put a bib on him during this first feeding. I realized this after a couple of bites and decided to take off his sweater.

I took the bowl away from him so that I could take off his sweater and he grabbed the bowl. He wasn't ready to be done. No worries Danny, there is more.

This is how he looks at a typical cereal feeding. After he takes a bite he sucks on both hands. So cute.

He is getting so big and he gets stronger every day. Changing his diaper is getting more and more difficult. He is always arching his back, moving to his side and looking around. He isn't rolling over yet but he tries really hard. It is hilarious. We laugh at him as we watch him push and struggle. He has a lot of chub to contend with.

Silly Boys

3 Months and Baby Comparisons

It seems the first few weeks of school have gotten the better of us, and we haven't posted anything for almost the entire month of September. We found that Daniel continues to get bigger even when we aren't taking pictures of him constantly, so over the past week we've been buckling down and documenting his fourth month a little more faithfully.

Danny's gotten really good at grabbing things. He's taking a little more interest in some of his toys, but his tastes are still pretty unorthodox. His mom's hair is his favorite thing to grab right now, which Elaine just loves.

He also likes reading the stories I write in the college newspaper, but he's a tough critic. Here's him showing his disdain for my hacky opening paragraphs and formulaic organization:
September was also a good month to be a Beatles fan with disposable income. I saved up some money to get the remastered albums in mono, which sounds like listening to them for the first time in my opinion. They came in these cool mini record cases that look exactly like the original albums when they were released in the 60s. Here's Daniel checking one of them out.

He gets so big so fast that sometimes we're not really sure what milestones he's ready for yet. We're pretty sure that he'll be ready for solids pretty soon, as he stares jealously at us eating our food and grabs our plates at the table. He also laughs and smiles on a regular basis and even has a few ticklish spots. We busted out the Johnny Jump-Up the other day to see if he might be big enough to enjoy that, but he just sat there studying a strap in front of his face. Too soon, I guess:

We're starting to narrow down whose attributes he has. We think he's a pretty good mix as all or our Bennion relatives say how much he looks like me and all our Hickman relatives say how much he looks like Elaine. To help you draw your own conclusions, we've included mine and Elaine's baby pictures:

Quick Update

At Daniel's two month appointment the doctor heard a heart murmur that he has had since birth. She referred us to a guy who specializes in pediatric cardiology. We went to see him yesterday to get a closer look. Danny has a tiny hole in the upper chamber of his heart that connects his left atrium to his right atrium. This is pretty common because all babies have this hole before they are born. Sometimes it doesn't close all of the way after birth. The doctor says there is nothing we can do about it but it will probably heal on its own. We are going back to see the doctor in May and he is hoping it will be healed by then. In rare cases if this sticks around until adulthood it could cause a blood clot or a stroke. Again RARE. We just have to keep watching and hope it heals up soon.

The doctor is not too worried about Danny because babies with heart problems usually have trouble gaining weight. No problems in that department. Danny weighed 17 lbs 5 oz yesterday. He also said they have trouble breathing while they are crying and they turn blue and not red. Again no worries. My baby is a red hot fire baby when he is mad. You can almost see the steam rolling off of his mostly bald head.

I was pretty nervous about the appointment. I didn't want Danny to have to go in and have surgery but he is fine. He did great yesterday.

Just wanted to let you all know. Thanks for all of your worries and support. Danny is fine.

The Vest

When I got married I had all of my nephews wear matching vests. When I was going through a box of hand-me-downs I was excited to find the vest that Garrett wore on my wedding day. Unfortunately last Sunday will be the first and last time Daniel wears it because...

it's a little small. Garrett was 6 months old when he wore it. Danny will be 3 months old on Wednesday. I keep trying to show you guys how big he is. Does this help? Look at that belly!

This week was the first week of school. Daniel did great. He was a trooper when I had to take him to campus and he did great when I had to leave him too. It's really hard to leave him but I am looking forward to this semester. I love my classes and I am excited for the recital program I chose. I'm taking an online class about 20th century music and a dance class about incorporating movement in our teaching. So fun.

Daniel changes every week. Recently I have started to let Daniel splash and play in the tub. He loves it. The tub is definitely where we see the most movement from him. The rest of the time he is pretty mellow.

This week we are hearing more of his first laughs too. Kimball was playing peek-a-boo with him at dinner one night and we heard more laughs from him than ever before. He smiled big and let out a "gah" type of laugh. (Wow it's really hard to explain in words. We'll try to show you on video one of these days.)

We also started putting him down for bed earlier at about 7:00. It was rough at first because he was waking up every couple of hours but now he is back to waking up only once to eat at about 3:00 and then waking us up bright and early the next morning. I love the new bedtime. It's a great time for me to do homework and hang out with Kimball.

Laters.

Summer Internship

Kimball has been interning for an online magazine called NewWest.net. They published one of his stories today. Check it out.

Big Sky Town vs. Community Story