Thanksgiving

William and Dave and I took a trip to Grandma Judy and Grandpa Joel's for Thanksgiving. We were a little nervous about traveling with an infant for the first time, especially in light of potential full body scans or TSA gropings. But Will was wonderful! We left Reno at six am for a completely uneventful flight to Phoenix and had Thanksgiving dinner later that afternoon.


Grandma and Grandpa were DELIGHTED to see us (and mostly William). We all had an amazing dinner that Grandpa cooked. Will enjoyed gnawing on the turkey leg.


Grandma and Grandpa took Will to see Santa (I still have to scan in the photo) and Dave and I went to Sedona. While Will was giving Santa his Christmas list (tupperware, newspaper and electrical cords please) Dave and I were driving around trying to find Sedona's famous energy vortexes. I think we got close, but I'm not sure.


It was a lovely trip and everyone had an amazing time. It's good to know Will is a chill traveler.

HIYA! And a short trip

Will's really got the crawling thing down now. And he's standing propped and even cruising along on things. He earned a new nickname with this new found mobility: "Livingston The Explorer." Our baby proofing continues and adapts and changes as he does. We haven't found a baby gate long enough to block him from parts of the room so we've placed chairs and boxes in his way (a temporary solution, I know) and spend a lot of time with one eye on him, listening for his chatter. When it's quiet is when it's time to check on him.


Along with his mobility is a completely different energy level. As Alicia said to me about Danny (Will's cousin), "he never, ever stops." And really, Will doesn't unless he's napping. After a day of watching him I'm as tired as I was when he was waking up every three hours. He's pretty independent- can play and explore for extended periods, but we still play a LOT of peekaboo and crawling here and there and removing cords and other inappropriate things that he gets in his hot little hands.


This week he's a lot more open to new foods- soft solids. He's tried cottage cheese, eggs, mashed potatoes and broccoli, mac and cheese. He's having solids three times a day consistently now. He still drinks formula but the solids come first. He loves those little Gerber snacks- the yogurt drops and puffy things which are easy for him to pick up and stuff in his mouth.


We went to Donner State Memorial Park yesterday and it was a little chilly. We stuffed him into the jacket Ashley R and Emmett sent to him and stuck a little hat on his head. He looked adorable but was reminiscent of the baby brother from A Christmas Story.


I think Will enjoyed the outing as much as we did, although I think he missed the irony of such a beautiful little park made for camping and barbecue from a place where people were so hungry they resorted to cannibalism.


This week is Will's 9 month check up. We'll post stats as soon as we get them.

And a video of William not quite getting the purpose of the sippy cup. It is for drinking but shaking is way more fun.

How Baby Socks Are Made

Dave took William to Grandma Veronica and Grandpa John's on Saturday and I had 24 hours to roam the quiet and empty house. So I made a little animated short (research for my Foundation Arts class).

I call it: How Baby Socks Are Made.

Enjoy.

Mobile William

I edited a movie with some "special effects" to try and describe what it's like now that William is consistently crawling and pulling himself up. I removed the audio because it was just weird....

Happy Halloween!

Who knew having a kid could be so much dress up fun?

New Chapter

William has had a huge couple of couple weeks. Poor guy had a secondary ear infection last week and we had to dose him with a new kind of antibiotic. It's a delicious minty flavor that he likes, so it's easy to give it to him.


He's over his ear infection now and on to big big things! I put him down for a nap last weekend and a half hour later went in to see if he needed more bottle and found this:


He was pleased enough with himself, and steady enough for me to go back out to get the phone-camera and then back out again to get the real camera and snap a couple of pictures. He's pulled himself up a couple of times in his crib since then.

He's also started to crawl. He goes straight for cords, electrical outlets and the sharp knives we leave scattered around on the ground (just kidding, we only leave dull knives around). We've been baby-proofing like mad but I think we've entered a new phase. We call it the "chasing around phase."

And all of a sudden he's a million times more interested in the pets. He tracks Orange Kitty like a predator, digs his mitts into Cicero's fur as long as the cat will let him and actually plays with Tony. Rocky is a little nervous around him and prefers to remain neutral.

Video evidence of our little rambler and the new friendship between a dog and his boy.

Closed for Business

It's been a dramatic couple of weeks. At least in Babyland. Poor Will had a cold and diarrhea that got better, then worse and finally resulted in a spiking fever, visit to the doctor and diagnosis of ear infection. Exposure to germs is just pummeling him. So it was a trip to the pharmacy to get the pink stuff- Amoxicillin in delish bubble gum flavor and dosing twice a day. The antibiotics cleared up his ear infection pronto, but he's lost his appetite and can keep nothing in him. Poor guy has a butt as red as a baboon from all the pooping he's been doing.


Throughout it all, Will has been generally cheery. He's had a few days, or a few hours each day where he's a little fussy and a little clingy, wanting more snuggles and less exploration, but who can blame him.


Last night we shoved some yogurt down his gullet to see if that would help his tummy. Surprisingly it seems to have worked. The nurse said that yogurt was OK and that it would replace friendly gut flora that was knocked out by the antibiotics. Dave and I have been switching off night duty and last night was my night to stand sentry. I slept far worse than young Will did, waking several times to check on him, always on the ready waiting to heat up a bottle or do a diaper change, but Will slept peacefully until 4am. I hope he's on the mend and the yogurt did the trick.


He was the perkiest he's been in a couple of weeks this morning and we're both hoping that he gets his appetite back really soon. It's back to daycare next week so he can tackle more germs.

Here are some videos of him being adorable.