Friday, December 31, 2010

The Tooth

I mentioned before that Michael had his first tooth. Here's photographic proof:

Unfortunately, this picture is out of date as he just cut his second tooth earlier this week. He is a very cranky boy right now, and not in a very picture taking mood. Instead, here are some recent pictures of our boy being adorable.

In his new hat:

In his new highchair (a Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa Veronin):

First time sitting in a cart:

Just being a cutie butt boy:


Michael just turned 8 months old and has already passed 19 lbs. He loves to eat bread and fries but isn't such a fan of pureed veggies. Not even sweet potatoes. He can rock himself on his knees and commando crawls. He's starting his "stranger danger" phase and doesn't like to be held by anyone but mom and dad. He can almost push himself into a sitting position and loves to pull blankets off his head to play peek-a-boo. Our little boy is growing up and learning something new every day.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

A Very Merry Christmas

Michael's first Christmas was spent in Colorado. He was wonderful for the flight out, even though we spent far too long in the airport. Our flight was delayed, although Delta didn't think that the information was important enough to be shared with its passengers. We finally got sick of waiting and talked to an employee who apologized and was kind enough to get us on another flight which left only 2 hours after our flight was suppose to. It was better than the 4 and a half hours we would have had to wait for our original plane.
Michael loved the Denver changing tables. They had mirrors! He even got to dance with his reflection:

We finally arrived in Colorado Springs where Ki and Tess were so happy to see us.

They really were excited to see us. They really, really love Michael -or "baby Michael", as they call him. I was "baby Michael mommy" and Jeff was "Jeff daddy". They are adorable children.

We celebrated our 3 year anniversary and both Mary and Katie's birthdays while in CO.

Michael enjoyed borrowing Tess's highchair and his Grandma Veronin got him an adorable santa hat to celebrate Christmas in.

Tess still used her highchair a lot and can apparently even sleep in it. It's amazing to me, and so stinking cute:

We took Michael on a walk with his uncle Ki to the park. Michael loves being outside, but he did miss the use of his fingers while wearing his mittens.

They both had a lot of fun swinging on the baby swings:

Every year for Christmas Eve, our family reenacts the nativity scene. This year, we had the babies do it. I shouldn't have been surprised at how hard it was to get them all to hold still long enough to take a picture, but we were able to get some really cute ones:

Christmas morning is always a blur, and I didn't take any pictures, but Michael was not interested in ripping opening gifts. He liked the discarded wrapping paper and ribbons and whatever Jeff and I were holding, but he did get the perfect gift from his Great Grandma Durney: a stuffed kitty. He giggles at it and loves to pull its tail and ears and it can't run away or scratch him.
He also got an adorable knit hat from his Aunt Jessi which unfortunately took a few tries to get right (she knit it while we were there). We continually underestimated the size of our fat boy's head, but it finally came out perfect.

It was a wonderful visit. We got to spend a lot of great time with sisters in the car to and from our Grandma's, Dad played Eternal Darkness to show us the HP Lovecraft-iness of it, we got to eat Mom's amazing homemade meals, and of course we played cards. Oh, and we all got sick. It was great.
It really was a lot of fun. I love going home.

On the flight back home, we got over halfway through the flight before Michael decided he wanted to be one of those babies. He was happily sitting on my tray table when, without warning, he freaked out. I don't know why, but he just suddenly started screaming. He wouldn't calm down. We walked up and down the airplane aisle (bumping people's elbows and constantly apologizing). Then, while I was desperately bouncing him on my lap, he started playing with his toes and cooing. It was the weirdest thing. One second screaming, the other second playing with his toes and as happy as can be. Needless to say, we were very grateful when we finally got off the plane. I think we might take a break from travelling for a bit.
Here's Michael loving the plane window, sitting next to his new kitty:


Merry Christmas everyone!

Late Thanksgiving

This year Jeff, Michael and I stayed in Utah for Thanksgiving. Since a good portion of my extended family came to Utah to have Thanksgiving with my Aunt Karen, the Veronins braved the drive (beating the "blizzard") as well and stayed with us for Thanksgiving week. It was a little cramped in our three bedroom town home, but it was very much worth it. Ki, Tess, and Michael all loved playing with each other again and I always love seeing my family.
Unfortunately, I only took pictures with my phone, so they are almost all terribly fuzzy.
Thankfully, I got a decent one with Ki loving Michael:

Thanksgiving day, we went to the Day's where we measured Michael against some of his cousins, making us feel a bit better (he is still our little boy).

A little before the meal, one of Jeff's nephews, Braxton, came running upstairs. He had completely covered his hair in butter. He held his greasy hands out to his dad in a plea for him to clean them. Not the hair, just his hands. It was hilarious. Ah, the things we get to look forward to with small children.
After an amazingly fantastic meal, we played Bang! and chatted while some children (not Michael) slept. It was a long but very enjoyable day.

As per a kind of family tradition, my family went to the movies the day after Thanksgiving. Jeff, my grandpa, and I stayed with the small children since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows isn't exactly kid friendly. It was fun to watch them play together. Especially since Ki hasn't had too much experience playing with other kids his age.

It was a great holiday and I was sorry to see my family leave. Thankfully, it wasn't too long before we got to see them again...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

New Sister and Aunt

It's finally official! Tess is my little sister!

Jeff, Michael, and I flew out for her adoption on the 9th. I completely forgot to take airport or plane pictures, but the poor boy was exhausted in the car after the flight, considering he didn't nap at all on the plane. He loved looking out the window and gnawing on the cookies they served.


The adoption went really well. The judge just asked my parents if they had any qualms about adopting Tess (as she ran across the tables), and it was done. Then we took some pictures and went out to eat to celebrate. It was really nice to have to whole family together. Grandma even got a day off from her mission to come down and be with us. Michael was a bit fussy, but had an adorable outfit with a little tie and everything!

Jeff had to fly home after the adoption, but Michael and I hung out with the Veronins until Saturday. Michael loved it. My Mom has a lot more baby toys than I do and he absolutely loved the extra attention from Ki and Tess. Every morning when we came downstairs Ki and Tess would yell "Baby! Baby!" and run over to hug and kiss Michael.

(Yes, Mom, I stole this one from your blog. It's way cute.)

We had a lot of fun. We played cards (lots of cards -thanks Joe!), Mike got to know his Grandma and Grandpa Veronin better, and then I got to fly home alone with the boy.
Everything actually went really well. Michael was very good and happy and charmed everyone in the airport. He definitely enjoyed the airplane cookies again:


It was great until I stepped off the airplane and puked. I had had a migraine all morning and started feeling nauseated as we landed. I really thought I could hold it in. Thankfully, I was able to hand Michael to the nice lady standing next to me before I did it. It was so embarrassing, but people were very nice and helped me out, especially the woman holding Michael. He was asleep and just cuddling with her shoulder, so she was very willing to hold him as long as it took me to pull myself back together.
At least we're home now. Michael is happy to have his crib back, but I think he misses the extra attention from his aunt and uncle.

Last night, Michael had been feeling under the weather. He had a slight fever and a runny nose and kept pulling on his ear. I was really afraid the poor boy had gotten an ear infection, but this morning, he was chewing on my finger and I felt a tooth! It's just the very smallest edge, but it's broken through the gums and our boy has his first tooth! He is, unfortunately, still feeling a little unwell, but at least I know it's not an ear infection.

Hooray for Michael's tooth!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

6 Months Older and Wiser Too...

At Michael's 6 month appointment, he weighed in at 18 lbs, 2.5 oz. He's fallen in percentiles, now only in the 61st as opposed to the 72nd and, before that, the 90th, but not many babies can flaunt those thighs:


A while ago, we bought Michael a walker. When we first got it, he was on his tippy toes at the lowest setting. Now he's flat footed and can bounce himself in it. We weren't kidding about that growth spurt. He really seems to love it, and I can leave him in it while he entertains himself:


Our boy is also getting to be a pro at sitting up. He can't get himself into a sitting position yet, but he's working on his abs and can stay up for a long time on his own:

For Halloween, he was an adorable lion. This isn't the best picture but, as you can see, it has a lot of unnecessary padding. Then again, so does Michael:

We went to the Adobe Halloween party and met up with Jeff. It looks like Adobe is officially going to keep Omniture's Halloween tradition going. In fact, for the new office they're planning in Lehi, they intend to build it to make it easy to get the Halloween line in and out (or so I've heard).


So I always thought it was silly to have regular diapers and night time diapers. I thought it was just some diaper scheme to get you to spend more money. You know what we found out? Babies pee in their sleep. A lot. It reminds me of a frog's defense mechanism, like they're punishing you for putting them to bed. Of course, if I had really thought about it before, it would make complete sense. Especially for our baby boy who still wakes up to eat every few hours at night. In fact, sometimes even the "extra absorption" isn't enough and our poor boy wakes up wet. Fun times all around.

It can be interesting figuring out how to do normal chores during the day while Michael is awake (I could just put him down, yes, but this is more entertaining). Like when he helps me with laundry:

Michael is a silly boy who's getting more of a personality every day. He's a great time.

Oh! We took this video a while ago and kept meaning to share it. I love it!



Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Sleeping Boy

Just a quickie post:
No, Michael isn't sleeping through the night yet. In fact, for the last few nights, he's been waking up every 2-3 hours to eat. I think he's going through a growth spurt.
I've been having fun taking quick pictures of Michael when he falls asleep. He's adorable and can sleep through almost anything, including a camera flash. :)
Here are some of my favorites: