Splashes and Tumbles

You are growing and learning so fast that it is hard to find specific topics to write about. Just about every day when I get home from working Mom has something new to tell me or show me. One really fun activity you have started is going to the gym. There you tumble, walk on balance boards, play in a tub of balls, and learn to play with other kids without us parents around. Every week on gym day your mother has something to show when I come home; and you love this stuff! Next week you will start swimming lessons and that will bring a whole new group of really cool things you do and ways you learn... grow on.

Dad

Your favorite curtain rod

When we brought you home from the hospital you couldn't see a whole lot because your eyes were being used for the first time ever... this is the same for all babies. So, you loved looking directly at lights and at high contrast stuff like picture frames on the wall and our black curtain rod in the living room. We would bounce and bounce on your magic ball and you would just stare at that curtain rod, comforted. So you may wonder what the history is on that curtain rod, let me tell you. When your mother and I moved into the house she went curtain crazy one day with Grammy and came home with something like $600 worth of curtains. In the front room the window is something like 10 feet wide and the curtain rod sets she bought don't span that far and wouldn't look good one-next-to-the-other, so I decided I would just make one. We used the hangers from one set and some 1/2" metal pipe in two sections to span 11 feet. Then I painted it and made posts that the end caps would hold on to. So every time you stared at that curtain rod it was like a great compliment.

Now days you are over the curtain rod, I haven't see you stare at it in weeks, but you Mother and I talk fondly of your Favorite Curtain Rod and now you will know why.

Best thing since breast milk

You really, really love jumping in your Jumparoo! Some days you can do it for 45 minutes at a time, smiling all the way, and jumping maybe 2000 times or so (we only count to 100 right now). Right at this moment you've been jumping for 10-15 minutes and you are having a great time. This is definitely the best thing since breast milk (I'd say sliced bread but you haven't had that yet).

All-Nighters

You slept all night for the first time on 12th. I woke up at ~5am (on my own) and realized you mom handn't gotten up, and I had not gotten up and was dumbfounded. Of course the mind is very suggestible when in that barely awake state so I quickly had the thought that you might not be okay. Rather than lay there and let the thought snowball I got up and checked on you. There you were in your play pen sleeping like someone had just laid you down. So I went back to bed.

Then you did it again on the 13th... heaven on earth!

Love you,
Dad

Great Aunt Mary

This past weekend your Great Aunt Mary passed away; she was your Grandpa Kelly's only sibling. Your aunt Jana and I spent a lot of time with Mary over the years and she was clearly our favorite older relative. When we were younger Aunt Jana, Grandpa Kelly, Nana Banana, and I would visit every Christmas, call on every major holiday, and take a trip down at least once every summer. When we were in town we would get to do all the things that our parents didn't like... go to rated R movies, eat fast food, get cool toys, and listen to inappropriate music. We also got to do all sorts of great things our parents loved, like go to the library, visit Willamette university, go to the park, play in the back yard, and help your Great Grandma Kelly (who Mary lived with and cared for) around the house.

As we got older and went to college, and particularly since Great Grandma Kelly passed away we saw Mary a lot less often. This past few months however, we made sure to visit her so that she could meet her Great Nephew... She was very excited, held you often, told stories about your Aunt Jana and I, pulled out pictures of the family over the years (she kept a great collection), showed you off to her best friend Na Na, and was all around joyful; something she had not experienced too much recently. Before we left we made sure to get a great picture of us in front of the fireplace on the couch. That is now the last family picture of your Great Aunt Mary...

This year we sent her a digital picture frame full of pictures of you for Christmas, something she would really love. We always loved Christmas with Aunt Mary. I think she single-handedly kept Santa in our lives for more years than he would otherwise have been. I can remember walking up to the store with one family member or other on Christmas Eve to get ice cream every year, and every year Santa came while we were out. It took me years and years to realize that Santa always came when we went to the store.

We all talked to Mary on Christmas day this year. Grandpa Kelly called her like always and we passed the phone among us discussing you, the family, Na Na and the kids, or whatever other such things came up. We all got to say goodbye, happy that we were able to share a part of such a special day with our favorite Aunt, Mary.

Big Baby

Over the past three weeks you increased your weight by 25%! I guess when the doc said it was time to add solid foods he knew what he was talking about! You went from a lean, mean, ready for martial arts 4 month old to a plump 5 month old; exactly what we wanted. Bring on the growth spurts.

Eating

Your mom and I were very pro-breast-milk when you were born. Supplementing your diet when you had jaundice was not what we had in mind, but we are way to practical to be stubborn in a situation like that. Now however we are drifting away from the breast-milk-only world. Some of what has happened to move us this way:
- You are not making weight and Dr German started you on solids to bulk you up (its working)
- Now that solids are in, you're eating less milk, anticipating what is next (and dropping milk production)
- We have had four months of up all night with you
- Formula is really, really easy
- I learned that I was completely formula fed (and I seem to have turned out fine)

So from here the path is less clear and you are enjoying a bottle as I type...

Love,
Dad