9 Month Appointment and a new gizmo

Beckett had his nine month appointment, and hooray! it's an appointment with no shots. Of course that's only to lull them into a false sense of security for the one year appointment in which they get 97 shots, 3 pints of blood withdrawn and some tissue harvesting.

Here is the big 21.1 pound baby. He is also 28.9 inches long with a melon that's 18 1/2 inches in diameter.

Here he is impressing the doctor with his ability to eat dinosaurs.

And here he is proving that, yes indeed, he has not figured out how to move forwards.

The New Gizmo

We don't have a lot of room for a conventional high chair since most of them tend to be ginormous (which by the way must be a real word as Blogger found no misspellings in this post), but the bumbo isn't working so great for eating anymore. We saw this online and thought it looked cool since it's portable and hooks onto a table. Then we were browsing at Target and it was on clearance for $14!! So of course we had to get it. I just set it up today and it worked great for snacking on banana and cherry puffs. Well...it worked great after I did a second adjustment which tightened down the tops that look a little loose in the picture and scooted him up closer so that eating the banana puffs was a more attractive option than sweeping them onto the floor in the space between his body and the table.

All but one of the puffs are gone, but to be crushed under my feet not to be digested in his stomach. I was victorious in round two and he ate the measuring tape he was playing with instead of throwing it on the ground.

President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

(KSL News) Officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced this evening that Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has passed away.

He passed away at his home about 7 o'clock this evening with his family at his side. President Hinckley was 97 years old. He was the 15th president of the Church.

For a more detailed look at his life please visit: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97

You can also find more information about his life at Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/id/105857/

This article was written by my friend Elise Soukup, one of Newsweek's editors. It's currently #1 on Newsweek's website.

But more important than the many honors and distinctions he was awarded was his testimony and love of Jesus Christ.

You are a great man and a wonderful prophet and leader. We love you and will miss you.

Transit Museum

Beckett and I tagged alonged with the Manhattan mommy group to the New York City Transit Museum.

Look, out that subway car is coming right for us!

Are you getting on ma'am?

Excuse me mom, but you're not allowed to be in front of the white line when the bus is in motion.

Let's go!

Beckett's CDL includes both old and new buses.

Here we are "riding" the bus. Open top buses are great idea in Manhattan winters.

Mmmm, Cheerio.

And it's fun to relax with Maddy after a long day of riding public transportation.

Slip Sliding Away

I feel like I have deprived Beckett because I thought we was still kind of little to be playing on a playground. But all his other friends, are swinging on baby swings and having a great time so I guess he's big enough. So here is his first playground adventure.

I didn't realize the slides were red when I put him in that snowsuit. Oh well.

I'm not sure what he thought about swinging. He didn't cry, but he didn't really smile or laugh. He kicked his legs alot though either showing a savant-like grasp of the pumping concept or perhaps just showing he felt a little insecure.

Here is actual swinging video. I rotated halfway through to get a better angle not realizing that later half the video would be sideways. Sorry.

Look what I got for Chris' birthday

These are without a doubt my favorite shoes at this point in time. With a bullet. I wore them around all night tonight. The only draw back with wearing them is that I can't stare at how cute they are.

Parenting Advice

Thought I'd try to blast you with more posts so that you didn't have to see my mug shots for the next week at the top of the page.

Dawnell and I learned some wonderful parenting advice last night that we thought we'd share with the rest of you.

1. Assuming that the heater gets replaced in your/your baby's room (and, of course, for us they are one and the same), and assuming that it is too hot in the room, make sure to ask the person who turned on the heater which way you turn the knob to turn it off. If not, you could end up turning your baby's room into a sauna.

2. When your baby, who is pretty good at sleeping through the night, is tossing awake because it's steaming in the room, you might want to try giving him some fluids so he doesn't get dehydrated. We got this part right.

3. Maybe he won't want milk. I mean, I've seen Anchorman, and I know when milk is a bad idea.

4. But, whatever you do, don't decide that now would be a good time to see if he likes pear juice. Because he will. And then he'll lay awake babbling in his crib for the next two hours.

So, to sum up, do not give your baby a sugar rush at midnight.

Happy Birthday Chris!!

In honor of Chris' birthday I'd like to show our celebrations of past years.

2007 and his flaming Cherry Garcia.

2004. Evidently his birthday can only be celebrated in a blanket.

I was sure I had 2005 &2006 in my photos but I can't find them so you'll have to settle for a picture of Chris with his cake from finishing the bar.

And Beckett says, "Na na na, ahhh, woooooo!" Which I'm sure means, "Happy birthday to the greatest Daddy ever!"

Enough of daddy, here's Beckett making a card for the birthday guy.

Capitol Idea!

At the tail end of my sojourn in Utah I learned that the state capital building was finally being opened to the public. So my family decided we should go see what a quarter of a billion dollars worth of restoration looks like. Turns out you really can't tell, but I'm sure when some huge earthquake happens we'll all be grateful for the seismic retrofitting we can't see. The best part was that the guide said everything was open to the public unless there was a sign specifically noting that area was off limits. Well, as you can imagine I was thrilled at the news. And luckily I was with the perfect brother-in-law to test this theory. I think he and I tried every door in the entire building. Unfortunately I was attending to my baby when he accidentally walked in on a meeting. I was so sad I wasn't there. His kids were a bit of a drag sometimes though. They kept saying things like, "Aunt Dawnell maybe you shouldn't open that door." And, "I don't think you should go in there it looks like someones office." That was their mother talking. Actually they were super fun and we all had a great time.

Del the door wiggler and his lovely wife, my sister Jil, reliving prom.

My reluctant partners in crime Ainsley and Elizabeth.

Here I am chairing a committee. The motion for Aunt Dawnell to move back to Utah passed almost unanimously.

Beckett surveying his future gubernatorial office and desk made from a tree blown over in the tornado. Possibly made by convicts.

The state bordello waiting room. Or "Gold Room". Nice design tastes 1918.

Here I am addressing the house. Beckett would not stop filibustering! I was going to make it up to sit at the speaker's desk but some 15 year old volunteer told me I couldn't. Boo!

My colleague, Representative Bircher (I) from District 14 and I are both concerned about the amount of pork attached to the current bill.

Hmm, maybe the Senator's seat are better than the representatives'....

Their chandelier is definitely better.

Here we come to Chris' arena.

And we wait for his opening argument to begin.

Beckett in the press box. As you can see he is engrossed in the heated debate below.

And finally right below the cupola so you can see all the designs up close.

It was lots of fun even if we didn't get to see where they found the worker's body the day before. I thought it was Great Wall of China style, bones being put into the walls, but it turns out he just fell off of something. Still sad though. Bummer. I don't want to end on a sad note. So here's a picture of Beckett looking cute and happy.

Don't you feel better now?

Christmas

Christmas was great. Lots of fun, lots of family. I can't describe it all, but since the only people who really read this blog were there you already know anyway. So I'll just post some pictures of Beckett eating wrapping paper which is what you all want anyway.

Here's the world traveler in his own seat on the airplane. Thank goodness for empty middle seats. And thank goodness for Jetblue's tiny water bottles, the best toy in the world next to their empty Lorna Doone cookie packages.

Um, who is this guy?

P.S. This dude legally changed his name to Santa Claus. Freaky, but you sort of have to admire that kind of committment.

Beckett is a little skeptical about his shirt. He's like, "actually all I wanted was 57 jars of baby food, a college savings fund, a real bed, clothes, toys and a house with a lawn."

I thought they meant something else when they said "Christmas cracker"....

Unwrapping presents from the cousins.I got the ribbon!!

Christmas morning

The bounty from Santa Claus. I have such mixed feelings about the lie of Santa Claus. Sometimes I don't even want Beckett to believe the hype. Why lie to your kid only to make them really really sad a few years later when you tell them you deliberately tricked them with what, in retrospect, seems a completely implausible scenario. But since he didn't know what was going on anyway I just put out some presents and let it go at that.