Christmas - Baby Style

Van had a jam packed Christmas schedule, starting with the annual Chilton family Christmas Eve...

Being held by Great Aunt Rhonda, but not feeling too sure about being passed around.

Some familiar faces get a hold of him, and get him what he wants... the balloon. Happy again.

Home well after bedtime, and wake up to Christmas morning and new toys!

First round of gifts at home.

So far (5 days and counting after), the overall favorite gift is the mega bloks building table.

Lots of food with my favorite people, my family.

More gifts at grandmas.

Forgetting the presents, to play with silver shiny bows.

And ending with a silver spoon in our mouth.

A perfect first Christmas. Thanks to all our family and friends who made this Christmas at home so special. Van is a very lucky and well loved boy. It makes his mama's heart fill with joy.

11 months

Happy 11 months, little man. You are SO big now, walking around (with mama or daddy holding your hands), opening cabinets, and babbling A TON. It's hard to claim you as a 'baby' anymore. Next month you will be one! ONE! I can hardly believe it and wish I could keep you small forever, yet it's amazing to watch you learn and you get more and more fun (and funny! you love to laugh) as the days go by.

Trapped

Since you are celebrating your 11 month birthday a couple days after Christmas, most of the month has been taken up with holiday prep and parties. You've been toted here and there, been kept up past your bedtime, and had a cold most of the month, yet you are still a happy guy. I love that. You did have your first instance of food snobbery though, turning away some black beans and rice.

You had hardly any interest in the tree, unless I took you over to it.
I doubt we'll be that lucky again next year!

Bored already, and heading back to your play space

You still love taking things apart (stacking cups, blocks, etc), yet don't have any interest in putting them back together. And you're fast, super fast, at crawling. When there's a goal in mind, you come racing around the living room chair or your jumperoo, slapping your hands down and movin' movin' movin'. Sadly, so much movement also means more danger... we had 3 face plants into the floor (x1) and chair (x2), one of which caused a fat lip (just in time for christmas!). I'm sure it wont be the last injuries you sustain, but for your mama's health and sanity, lets try to limit the blood.

We celebrated your birthday day with a trip to downtown Seattle for a walk along the waterfront. It was gorgeous outside and you got your fill of fresh air and checking out new people and new things. We'll be going back this summer, so you can run around and explore (and play at a small beach, with sand! yes, I said 'sand'). I forgot how nice Elliott Bay Park is.

I love you, sweet sweet baby of mine.

Happy 11 month birthday. You are our favorite person in the whole wide world.
xo,
mama & daddy

Twister

Haven't you ever played Advent Calendar twister before?! Left hand 'window 19', right hand 'snowman picture'.

Van's loving all the Christmas decorations and new 'toys'. Thanks for the genuine, brought back all the way from Deutschland, Rothenberg Advent Calendar, grandma!

Paint the Town

If you're a grandparent and reading this... maybe you can pretend some surprise on Christmas!

We coordinated an outing with nana (great grandma) after Tim left for Germany. We needed some activities to help get us through this 10 day stint without daddy. Plus, being baby's first christmas, we needed to commemorate with hand prints! And the 'sugar on top' was being able to hang out with nana (still feels wonderful to be home near family).

This event would not have been possible without nana. Van was sooo great at giving us his hand and foot prints, but afterward... it took me a while to do the writing and decorating, and he got bored. Nana took him, bounced him, talked to him, fed him puffs, all while I was working furiously to finish our mugs, plates and ornaments.

Van and nana loved hanging out with each other, and I was feeling very blessed.

Cartwheel

Yes, indeed, there was a bit of crying after this incident. The first of many adventures that will not turn out as he expects. Some for the better, and some ending in tears.

I also foresee some rough and tumble years. I love being a boys mama.
xo

p.s. I should qualify that he was trying to climb over my legs, I did not move or do anything to make him flip flop!

Post flop. All is fine.

Finding somewhere new to climb and explore.

Frost

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Brrrrr!

Advent

The Advent season has begun! After a lovely Thanksgiving, we had a long weekend full of Christmas activities. We put up the tree, decorated the house, and went on the Santa train with friends. The Santa train took us from North Bend to Snoqualmie, where we visited Santa in his workshop, listened to a christmas band while standing in line, sipped hot cocoa and played with big trains.

Meeting Santa

Family picture in front of a train

Kim and kiddos checking out the engine

Lisa and Conner

Jedd, Maxx and Tim

The older kids were so fun to watch. They all have such distinct personalities, I'm excited to see what Van's interests and quirks become.

We'll be back Santa Train! Thanks for a fun outing.

10 months

I remember the start of December 2008... thinking that with some friends coming to visit us and then the holidays, our baby would be here in the blink of an eye. I was wrong. It wasn't just a couple months that flew by, a whole year has passed in that blink.

We are so fortunate to have a happy, healthy, loving baby boy. Family and friends surrounding us. And to be celebrating a wonderful life this Christmas season. Our baby will be celebrating his first Christmas at 10 months old.

From the beginning, Van has been a curious sort. It has not lessened in later months. He's into EVERYTHING. One of his favorite pastimes is to stand up next to bookshelves and remove all the books. He's also taken to poking his head into the shelf to see what he can find in the verrrry back. Other than dust, I'm not sure what could be so interesting. While in my arms, if he sees something of interest, he twists and pokes his head around my shoulder to get a better look. And he's still a little ham for the ladies when we're out and about.

Other favorite things: reading (and flipping the pages himself, sometimes faster than I can read the words - no worries, I have most of the books memorized by now!), taking a bath, pulling himself into a standing position (then sitting, then standing, and repeating many, many times), hitting his open palm on chairs/daddy's head/the floor/etc while we say 'tap, tap, tap', and the christmas decorations (when someone is being a bit fussy, I like to take him over to the christmas tree and explain each of the ornaments and where they came from - he's amazed and pays such close attention!). He's also a mama's boy. It wont be like that forever, so I can't help but love it. Tim has his own niche with Van... when they play, he can get him to laugh with such crazy glee (yes, glee). Big hearty belly laughs that go on and on.

Watching daddy decorate the tree

Despite his interest, unless I take him to the tree, he leaves it alone. Our ornaments are happy about that.

This is such a huge exploratory time for Van, it's really fun to be part of his learning and discovery of the world around him.

We love you snuggle bug. Happy 10 month birthday!

Crawling II

I already mentioned that when we came home from Hawaii, Van was crawling. We scrambled to get some baby gates up (especially at the top of our hardwood stairs!). Here's a video to show our fast mover:



Our expert crawler. Van is so fun. With every change (big or small) and in every way, I am thankful.

Thanksgiving

Home for the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Aloha Baby

Wanting to eat the sand

We've been in another world this past week. To go from cold, rainy Seattle to sunny, warm Maui... it felt like paradise, and was verrry tough to return home. At least we have the holidays to look forward to. I've also been thinking of making some soups lately, and we have some fun things happening over the next couple weeks. See, we don't need Maui. (bah! I am soooo missing Maui)

My favorite picture

Considering how much Van loves the bath, it was no surprise that he also loved a swimming pool. He's a water baby, just like his daddy. But while Tim and I took turns going in the ocean, we didn't get that adventurous with Van (he seemed content enough trying to eat the sand). The current seemed really strong, even for me to simply keep balance. Next trip, Van can dip his little toes in the salt water. As a matter of fact, Tim can't wait to teach Van how to boogie board. And he already has plans for the two of them to take surf lessons together. Guess we'll be going back in the future - yay!

Water baby

Poolside

Boogie-boarding daddy

As I mentioned before, Van started to crawl the day before we left. He became a crawling expert while we were there (thank goodness our hotel room was pretty baby friendly!), but has had to relearn his skills since returning home... slippery hardwood floors are much more difficult vs. plush carpet. It took him very little time to start motoring again. I'm so proud.

So much fun stuff to explore in Hawaii!

Lunch with our feet in the sand

Kaanapali beach

And... drum roll for this one... Van slept through the night IN HIS CRIB while on vacation. I don't know if he was so exhausted each day, loving the warm ocean air, or just preferred his rented super soft crib mattress, but he didn't have his usual 1am wake-up. I willed it so hard to continue once we returned home, and so far it's mostly worked! Fingers crossed that the little munchkin starts to love long nights of sleep, like I do (or did, back in the day, which I can barely remember these days).

We ate well, relaxed a lot and enjoyed our family. Thank you Maui!

Watch out! He's on the move.

Someone hit a major milestone the day before our trip to Maui! Here's a hint:

That's right peeps, Van is a crawler. When I first saw him pull a knee forward and reach for something, I was soooo overwhelmed and happy, I couldn't stop smiling. We were in our baby class on Tuesday, so I had to try really hard not to cry out and swing him into the air, peppering him with kisses!

I'm so excited for him to explore and get some satisfaction out of reaching things himself. He could get a little huffy at not having things within reach, although he became quite efficient at the 'roll and scoot back, push up to sitting and then turn' trick. It always put him in a new spot, unfortunately, not always the spot he wanted to be in. Luckily, he's still pretty easy going and was generally happy with whatever new objects were within his grasp.

Ready, set... go Van! Go!

Happy Halloween - 9 months!

Van turned 9 months a couple days ago, with it was a dream come true. Years ago, I saw a couple with a baby in a pumpkin costume for Halloween and I knew that if I had a baby, I would have to have the pumpkin costume. It was just too cute and the idea stayed with me.

Well, check out our perfect pumpkin...

My heart skips a beat daily when I see his smiling face. And it's so special to celebrate all of these firsts with him. I have to say though, Halloween in the first year seems a bit more for the parents. Not too many happenings are geared for babies. We enjoyed it none the less, and I put that pumpkin costume on him as often as I could!

We took our little pumpkin down to see Great Grandma, who was also dressed up for Halloween.

At the party, spying the treats

We went to a Halloween Party for our large Issaquah Moms group, and hosted a smaller play date at our house with a few friends from the group.

It was a very full and happy Halloween.
xo

Responsibility

Making, having and caring for our sweet, happy baby seems so easy compared to our next hurdle. As 'responsible' parents (we are, most of the time... right? he, he), we need to get going on our legal documentation to care for Van in case the worst happens. I've been too lax about getting this done. We currently have nothing in place.

In case you're in a similar predicament, here's a great article about the 5 legal documents every parent/family should have... abc news article.

Our little buggers are worth protecting, just look at that face!

Stay safe.
xo

Happy birthday, grandpa!

Van loooooves his Grandpa. Grandpa gets down on the playmat and rolls around with Van, making fun noises and playing. The babe just laughs and laughs. It's the best thing in the world to watch.

We were lucky enough to host Grandpa's birthday party at our house this past weekend. Something we couldn't have done a year ago. Being close to family and sharing these special times are what make Seattle home.

We love you dad/grandpa, and we're looking forward to sharing another great year with you!

Sicko

Every time I think I know what's going on, or I get comfortable, the game changes. These last couple weeks have been a doozie!

Our sweet babe has fallen from grace... he has his first cold. Oh, what a great big germy world we live in! While he has his cranky moments at home, he's still a happy little guy. And he's almost always guaranteed to perk up if we are out in a new place with new people. The crank-a-monster seems to be reserved only for mom and dad. Which I find funny, thanks little dude! But in truth, it's not very often. We're so lucky to have such a happy baby. I think his normal tired/cranky/etc times are just a bit more magnified due to not feeling well. Plus, it's easiest to wind down and be tired when you're with people you're comfortable with - in this case, mama and daddy.

Sick, but happy

He also kept most of his appetite for food, although he lightened up on his bottle quite a bit. What do you think he's trying to say? Sucking on a bottle while you can't breath through your nose isn't a smashing good time? Pssh! Nonsense.

While he's on the mend now, his runny nose is lingering. I've tried everything to unblock it, especially at nights for him to sleep easier. I even bought the odd Nose Frieda. Nada worked. Guess we'll have to wait it out. (sigh)

Puff-monger

Gerber has one of the best products on the market: Puffs. Van was coughing and acting like he was choking on the crackers and cheerios we had tried giving him. Unlike cheerios, which everyone says disintegrate in the mouth, Puffs really do. They're a good intermediate food between purees and crackers.

Eating Puffs is a two hand experience. He's also spying the canister,
looking for his next sweet puff of goodness.

He likes them so much, I'm not sure we'll ever get him away from them. But, cheerios are a whole new frontier little man. I just know you're going to like those too! As soon as you stop coughing them up.

8 months old

Wow. Wow. Wow. The months are going by FASTER. Someone please stop time and freeze my sweet baby!

Our little dude has been busy this month... mostly great stuff, but some not so fun stuff too.

We started sleep training (this qualifies as 'not so fun'). As a matter of fact, I hate it (but probably not as much as Van hates it). The first night we put him to bed on his own, I was gone. Thankfully. The second night, I was home and I cried right along with Van. I wont lie, it sucks. And I partially feel responsible for getting us into this position. But! 6 days in, and I'm happy to report that he's usually only fussy when he goes down now and there's little to no crying. Fingers crossed that it continues, or gets even easier. Sleep is a good thing, my little love! We like to go to sleep.

Now for the FUN stuff... we started our baby class at BCC last week. Seems like some great moms and babies are in the group, and Van spent our whole first class checking everyone and everything out. He'd look back or reach for me occasionally, just to make sure I was still there, but otherwise, he seemed very interactive and loved the new environment. He was so enthralled, he didn't even bat an eye when an older, walking kiddo came over and took his toy right out of his hands. He thought the other kids were just as interesting as the toys.

Ready for our first day of class
(Van's expression is 'enough with the pictures, I'm staring at the sun here!')

We have not one, but TWO teeth on the bottom. I thought his gummy smiles were the cutest, but it keeps getting better and better.

He also started (last day or two) to get onto all fours and rock back and forth. Crawling is imminent and I really, really need to get the house baby-proofed!

And of course, we've spent more days out in the September sun. Here's a shot from yet another zoo, Woodland Park:


We're also a very happy babbler lately. The favorite sounds are: n-ga, gu-gu, uh-wahhh-eee.

Happy 8 month birthday, Van. You are so very loved!
mama

Husky season is here

We're all a little nervous to see how the season goes.

But we're loyal fans, through and through.

Go dawgs!