10 Months and Moving!

Hello all!

We hope everyone's having a lovely fall. Ours has been wonderful; it's just going too quickly!

Our fall has been happily dotted with lots of family visitors. Baba visited us the first two weekends of September. We're lucky enough to get visits from him each time he has to come to Boston for meetings. He'd never miss an excuse to see Lewis! We took a trip out to the beach while Baba was here, spent time with Lewis's cousins, barbecued, and mosied around Bucks County. It was lovely. At the beginning of October, Papa John and Uncle Tyler visited us as well! Mike and Jake got in a couple rounds of golf with their dad and bro. And, we had some great meals, chats, and games. It was also lovely! And, we're always lucky to have Jake, Michelle, and the girls closeby, mostly for their company, but also for Michelle's photography business! She took the fabulous fall pictures on this post!

The other treat that we've had this fall has been having Auntie Fobo live with us for a couple months while she prepares to move to Mozambique. Norah has absolutely loved having her company during the day. We've played endless rounds of Big 2 at night! Lewis now expects an aunt around to play with him during the day, and he's quite put out if he ever finds himself just stuck with mom one day. And, we've been completely spoiled by our live-in nanny who has provided lots of evenings of babysitting to cover her "rent"! I genuinely think we'll go through a bit of shock and withdrawal when Fiona leaves in mid-November! We LOVE having her here!

As for Lewis, he just keeps getting bigger and cuter!!!

Our biggest, latest news is that he took his first steps on Friday, October 23rd. Norah had a number of mom friends over for lunch. Just before everyone left, Lewis let go of his fire truck that he loves to push around and walked about 4 steps over to a basket of toys. Auntie Fobo and Mommy spent the rest of the afternoon getting him to walk to us. He realized it was a game and that we got very excited when he cooperated!!! Daddy got a walking show too when he got home. Now, Lewis doesn't seem to have converted from crawling to walking yet; he's still just as happy to get around with his little monkey-crawl. But, soon!!!

While we're on the subject of important dates for Lewis, I wrote down a few on a scrap of paper the other day, realizing that I didn't want to forget any of them.

July 10 (-7 months) - Stood up in his crib and then promptly began standing up everywhere and cruising.

July 25 (7+ months) - Started saying "Dada"

Aug 1 (7.5 months) - Cut his first tooth - The front-center-left one on the bottom (that's the official name of that tooth...I'm pretty sure!) Lewis had been teething on Didi's gold bracelet all week, and it finally poked through.

Aug 16 (8 months) - Once all our summer company was gone, we decided to let Lewis learn to sleep through the night, and he did from here on out!

Sept 23 (9 months) - Lewis's 9 month doctor's appointment. He weighed in at 20.75lbs, which meant he had finally dropped down to the 50th percentile for weight. Still 50th for height too at 28.25 inches.

Mid Sept (9.5 months) - Got 3 more teeth! The top two and the other bottom-center one! Those ones weren't so fun for Lewis as they were coming in!

Oct 23 (10 months) - Took his first steps!

Other than that, Lewis is still our sweetest, most happy little boy! He is very active; Mommy has had to come to terms with the fact that he's not a snuggler at all - he just wiggles away from her. He is very interactive, but he's also an observer, always looking around and taking everything in. He loves to jabber away...ba ba ba, wa wa, da da da da, ga ga, etc. As mentioned, ma ma ma ma ma is mainly for when he's feeling a little tired or hungry. Fiona tells me that he now even says it when I leave in the evenings. Lewis loves sitting in the shopping cart at the grocery store. He still loves going for jogs with Mommy - it's his downtime! He is eating more table foods now. Chopped up banana, pear, and steamed zucchini are all favorites. He loves yogurt but doesn't seem to like cottage cheese. He likes hummus. And, he's a full-blown meat eater now too. He is still a good napper usually. For a while, it seemed like he was starting to wake up a little later in the morning and then not need his morning nap. But, now we seem to be back to the old schedule - a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, jog in the middle of the day, and to bed by about 7pm. It's great!

He is a little minx, as we call him! He loves getting into everything! We recently moved the gate that blocked off our dining room across the room so that it just blocks off the kitchen. Well, Lewis has been very excited that he now has access to the dining room - more area to explore! Favorite new games in the dining room include finding the cheerios and eating them off the floor, pushing the little side tables around the room and knocking them over, pulling the outlet covers out of the socket (I don't know how he manages to do that!), and actually pulling the whole outlet plate back away from the wall. Hmmm...we're going to have to do some work on this room!

Favorite games in the living room include pushing his fire truck around and around, playing his new keyboard, pushing Mommy's desk chair around the room and sometimes knocking it over, trying to pull anything off Mommy's desk (especially her cell phone!), racing to escape out the front door every time it's opened, and cruising everywhere. It's so fun!

As for Mom and Dad, we're doing really well. Mike's still been really happy at work. The world of Neosporin is treating him well! I finished the big work project I was doing, so that has been very nice. I also started a new choir for the season that is keeping me quite busy. Sweet Michael has been a very understanding and supportive dad since I've had concerts or rehearsals for either the big choir or chamber choir every weekend for the last month or so. I'm really finding it fulfilling, so that has been wonderful.

Our other excitement has been a few trips that we're busy planning for. The first is over this coming Halloween weekend - we're headed down to DC. Aunt Cat will be visiting at the same time, so we can't wait! And, Lewis will be sporting his new little bumble bee costume for Halloween! :-) Gogo bought him a little bee hat, and Mommy made the rest of the costume! Over Thanksgiving, we'll be heading out to Boise to see most of the Wasdens! We absolutely can't wait to be with everyone! And then, we're taking a 3 week trip to Malawi and Zimbabwe over Christmas to see most of the Ellis clan. Norah is a little terrified of all the spiders she'll be seeing, but we can't wait for Lewis to growl at the lions and play with the monkeys! :-) It will be a very exciting trip!

Love and hugs to everyone!

Where did the summer go?

We can’t believe how quickly this summer has flown! We’ve had lots of fun, being spoiled with wonderful visits from family and a couple great trips. While it’s sad to see the summer winding down, we’re rather enjoying the hint of fall weather!

So, what has our almost 8.5 month old Lewis been up to?
He’s not walking quite yet, but all signs indicate that he can’t wait for that to happen! He has the funniest, lopsided crawl; he crawls on his right knee, like normal, but he keeps his left foot down on the ground when he crawls. It’s very funny! He still loves standing up as much as possible, and he’s getting better at cruising around the living room. We’ve caught him balancing himself for just a quick second before dropping down to the ground! And, most recently, he’s discovered that he can mostly walk along while pushing our picnic basket. Here’s a video of that! (Our picnic basket was a wedding present from our dear friend Debby. It’s Lewis’s favorite! He loves playing with the handles and standing up by it – endless entertainment!)

Lewis has now tried lots of different foods. Here are his likes and dislikes:
Doesn’t really like:
Broccoli
Avocado

Loves:
Butternut squash
Peas
Green beans
Zucchini
Summer Squash
Pear
Apple
Banana
Cantaloupe
Grapes
Peaches

It’s also so cute to see him try to pick up cheerios! They get caught up in his hand, and then there’s a whole process of trying to mush them into his mouth from wherever they’ve gotten stuck in the hand! Adorable!

Another very cute thing we’ve discovered is that Lewis seems to like to groove! He’s going to take after his Daddy who was a mini-Michael Jackson when young! Here’s a video of the 90’s dance party Lewis recently had with Mommy!

As for talking, there’s not too much there, but we love what he does say. He mostly loves to say “Dada”. He’ll jabber it away when excited! He learned to say “Mama” a little while ago, but has only begun incorporating it in the last couple weeks. It now seems that he mostly says “Mama” or “Mom” when he’s tired or hungry or whiny or upset. “Dada” is more for being happy and wanting to play! As of just a couple days ago, he’s started mimicking the sound when we say “All done” after Lewis finishes a meal. It’s so cute! And, sometimes we think he’s trying to mimic “Amen” after a prayer. Hmmm…all his words seem to be remarkably similar…”A dada”, “A du” (for all done), and “A mm”. While the words aren’t too distinctive yet, Lewis is actually very communicative. Lots of people have commented on how engaged he seems in “chatting” with people. Also, he hasn’t forgotten his screaming! While he doesn’t do his excited, velociraptor/ bird of prey scream as often as he used to, it still emerges from time to time!

Lewis gave us a funny story recently with another loud noise. We attended a baptismal service at our church last Saturday. During a rather quiet, solemn moment, Lewis decided he needed to let some gas out – and boy did he! It was a riot!

Our friend, Charlotte, recently lent us her doorway jumper. It took Lewis a couple days to really figure it out, but now he’s giddy when we put him in! See the video below! The only drat is that he seems to be giddy for about 4 minutes, and then he wants out. Oh well!

In sad news, Lewis has been cutting another tooth over the last couple weeks. With his first tooth (which emerged at the end of July at our family reunion), he did great – no real fussiness…just lots of drool and chewing. This time, he’s not so happy. We are pretty sure that the separation anxiety phase has set in simultaneously, so the combination just means that Lewis is somewhat whiny and doesn’t want to be left alone. Poor thing! The second tooth (on the bottom) now seems to be emerging, so we’re hoping he’ll be feeling more like his old, happy self. We realize that we’re spoiled rotten with what a happy, sweet, fun boy Lewis is. So, it’s been rather strange having him be fussy and clingy recently.

Lewis does like to read with Mommy, even if his attention span for it is extremely short. He now knows that the pages turn from the right side to the left side, and he’s a great page turner!

Other regulars in Lewis’s week:
He loves baby story hour at the library, which we visit once a week. He’s usually very happy when Mommy goes running or walking with her friends. He loves sitting up in the grocery cart now – high excitement. In general, he likes new places and new things to see. Now that he can sit up in the bath, he’s very happy playing there. (Although he’s starting to try to crawl out of the bath, which is a problem!) He is usually very happy playing in the living room with his toys. Actually, his toys hold his attention for a short while, and then he’s off to find the furniture, any wires we’ve accidentally left out, magazines, cell phones…generally, anything he can’t have! He doesn’t really sleep in church too well anymore, so Sundays are more of a challenge than before. Luckily he’s usually so happy to see all the people there that he does alright! Lewis still gives the best smiles, and we just love him to bits!

As for us, we had a fun-filled July and August. We took a trip to the Hudson River Valley at the beginning of July and thoroughly enjoyed that. At the end of the month, Mike’s whole family flew out as well as Norah’s mom and sister, Fiona. Then we all headed up to the finger lakes area in NY and spent a week staying at the most beautiful inn on Lake Cayuga. We were celebrating Papa John and Didi's 40th wedding anniversary. It was so fun and very relaxing too. We felt so lucky to see everyone! After that, Norah, Lewis, and Gogo took off to visit Auntie Louise in RI. We had a really nice week there and discovered that Lewis does like the beach after all – we just have to find warm enough water for him! It was very cute to seem him racing around on the sand, crawling in and out of the waves. Gogo was here for another week after that, then we’ve had a couple weeks of down time, and now Baba arrives this weekend for a visit. Aren’t we lucky fish!!!

Mike’s been busy filming commercials and getting everything off and running for the launch of the new Neosporin Lip Health product. Look for it in stores! It’s fabulous!!! There’s a day treatment and a night treatment product, and they work SO well. Norah’s been doing a project for work from home. It’s going well, although it’s making her feel a little crazy trying to fit everything in. And, the Young Women’s program at church is keeping Norah quite busy too. A couple weeks ago, she got a day away at camp with all her girls and Lewis spent the day at home with Auntie Michelle. They had a fabulous time, but it was so strange for Norah to be away from Lewis for so long!

That’s all the Wasden news for now!
Lots of love to everyone!

A rainy June, but lots of fun for Lewis!

It’s been a little while since we caught you up on the adventures of Lewis!

While June turned out to be a terribly rainy month, we seemed to fare quite well with lots of visits to and from friends.

At the very end of May, our dear friend Debby visited. Aunt Debby is now a favorite of Lewis’s. And no wonder – she has two nephews of her own whom she dotes on, and Lewis got the same treatment! We spent a fun day out in Lambertville together, and then Lewis got his own night out with the babysitters while Debby and Daddy came to Norah’s choir concert.

Then Norah headed down to DC with baby Lewis for the Annual “Hoohah” – her college roommates reunion weekend! It was a really fun weekend, and Lewis got lots of love and attention from the other 4 girls. He also did amazingly well, even taking his regular naps in the stoller while we walked around DC. Here’s Lewis in the signature Hoohah pink hat!

After that, we slipped in a couple trips up to NYC – one to visit Norah’s high school friends, and one to take advantage of the youth babysitting while we attended the temple there. It was fun to have Lewis out in the big city again!

At the end of June, we hosted a baby shower for our good friends and neighbors, Jaime and Jeff. It was a lovely garden party, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

As for news and developments, a cute one is that Lewis can now sit in the swing at the park! We like to walk down to the neighborhood park in the late afternoon, and Lewis swings in the swing – very cute!

The other big news of the month is that Lewis is now eating some solids! He started with rice cereal at the beginning of the month. The first night he wasn’t too sure what to do with it, but by the second night, he had figured out how to suck and slurp it all up! After his 6 month appointment, we started with veggies and fruit too. He has now tried peas, bananas, butternut squash, and zucchini. The bananas and squash, he loves! Peas and zucchini, he could take them or leave them. It’s very cute to get to feed him every night!

And, finally…we have a crawler on our hands! Lewis spent a week or two grunting and groaning as he tried to figure out how to get going. He could push himself on his hands and knees, but didn’t know what to do with his arms so that he could get going forward. He could, however, somehow manage to scoot and make it across the living room if he really wanted to. Here are a couple pictures of him getting into things before he even really crawled! In the picture on the right, Lewis had started out on that playmat at the far side of the room. He went under the coffee table, and made it here! And, this is before he really crawled!

On Friday, June 26th, he all of a sudden started sitting up on his own. And, by Monday, he had figured out how to crawl a little. We still wouldn’t say that he has mastered it. But, he is certainly more mobile, and he definitely can crawl. We’re getting used to him all of a sudden popping into the kitchen to see us when we left him playing on the rug in the living room. Or, finding his way to every cord in the room. (Baby proofing is well on its way!)

New Personality Traits and Favorites for our little Munchkin:

Lewis is still a very strong little baby. He seems to be very determined too. If he has decided that he wants to get somewhere in the room, no matter how hard you try to distract him, he’ll remember! He’s a sweetie-pie. Our friend Debby said that she couldn’t believe how good and sweet and calm he was. It’s true! He’s usually an angel – especially for other people. He is a very happy baby! Unless he’s getting tired, he’s normally all smiles for us. And these days, we’re hearing lots and lots of little “chatter” – screams and coos as he tries to talk with us! We still think he’s a people person, because he loves to just stare at other people when we’re out and about. But for now, he prefers to observe and take it all in before he'll try to interact.

Lewis loves music; it’s always a sure way to calm him down. He seems to like being independent. Now that he’s sitting, he’s quite pleased with himself! Everything goes in the mouth – of course! He loves to touch everything, although he’s not the best at holding on to things still. He likes story time with Mommy, even though he’s often more interested in eating the books than reading them. He loves going for walks and jogs in the stroller. He is a bit ticklish. We get the cutest laughs when we wipe under his chin at night! And, he loves it when Daddy attacks him with zerbers on the tummy – he just squeals with delight!!! He spits up less. His poop is now gross and smelly! He’s normally a good napper, and he sleeps pretty well at night (although he usually still wakes up once to eat, or sometimes twice on a bad night, or if Mommy and Daddy aren’t quiet enough when we come to bed).

Lewis loves the tags and labels on things; they’re more fun to him than the toys themselves. He loves pushing large objects like his chair. He loves licking large objects too. He likes playing with his ear. He loves playing with or eating his feet. He likes pulling hair. He still startles pretty easily. He does OK with bath time, but it isn’t his favorite. He loves trying to grab the computer. He loves “The Wheels on the Bus”, and most any song with actions. He loves "Fly Banana Baby" (see below). He is obsessed with the tassels on the rug. He still doesn’t like going down for naps. He rarely sleeps on his back anymore. He likes to suck his thumb. He likes to suck his Daddy’s thumb too! Overall, he’s just a cute, happy, easy-going little guy, and we adore him!

Hospital Baby!

Lewis continues to bring lots of exciting adventures into the Wasden home! The other night we had our first trip to the emergency room with our boy.

Earlier in the day, Norah had him on her lap and when to turn him the other direction. As has happened before, his arm got twisted behind him as he turned. Usually, he's fine when this happens. However, this time he screamed so loudly and didn't calm down for about an hour. We realized that he was not using his left arm at all, so off to the hospital we went.

At the emergency room, we learned about "nurse maid's elbow." When a child's arm is stretched back and twists slightly, the ligiment in the forearm can pop out of place. Not only is it painful, but severely limits their control of that arm. Whenever Mike has gotten too frisky in the past few weeks, Norah has unsuccessfully tried to pull his arm and twist it - but to no avail!! I guess it only affects babies and toddlers.

The worst part of the whole ER experience was the x-rays; Lewis hated that! Poor thing. There he is in so much pain, and then we have to hold him down to a table and hold his arm in place while they shine a bright light on him. So sad! But, once they determined that it was just nurse maid's elbow, the doctor manipulated Lewis's arm a little, popped it back into place, and voila! It was like magic - Lewis started using his arm again right away!

All better!

We're hoping to limit the number of future ER adventures we have to go through. But, we were grateful that our first ER experience was non-life-threatning and not nearly as scary as it could have been.

In other news, our dear little baby began eating a little bit of rice cereal the first week of June. He gets more of it all over himself than in his mouth, but it's very cute to watch!

Messier Days

I just had to share a little picture from a fun clean up job!

Here was my morning yesterday:

Lewis woke up at 6am and ate. Then, Mommy gave him a bath, and he settled back down for a morning nap around 7am. I managed to get dressed, tidy up, read my scriptures, read the newspaper, catch up on e-mail, make a batch of brownies, and make a strawberry compote all before Lewis woke up around 9am. Not bad! (Sometimes if I'm really tired, I'm lucky to do one of those things during a nap!)

Lewis ate again, and then I put him down on his play mat while I finished up something in the kitchen. I came back to see this...

So much for the bath!!! It was such a gross clean up effort. That shirt is pretty tight on our chunky little guy, so the poop got all over his back and arm when I was trying to get him undressed. Ah well!!!

While we're on the subject of funny clean ups, here's another one that wasn't nearly so gross!

Last week I went out for a run in the early afternoon. It was bright and sunny when I left, but I quickly turned back when rain started sputtering. About a half hour later, it was gorgeous again, so I headed off, only to be greeted by thunder clouds. I thought I'd just see if I could beat it. I got about 2/3 of the way through my run, and then the rain started. It wasn't too bad at first, but a few minutes before I got home, it turned into a torrential downpour! Lewis was asleep for most of it, but I heard him wake up just as I turned onto our street. I raced up to the house, pushed the stroller up onto the porch, and pulled back the visor on the stroller to see how my baby was doing. The picture shows it all - soaked!!! Shame! Poor baby! He gave me a big, big smile, although he seemed a little confused as to what was happening. It was priceless!!!

And finally, here's a little video from our very happy, Happy Mother's Day picnic by the river at Washington Crossing Park. It was a gorgeous day! We loved talking to our moms. Mike spoiled me with lots of help with Lewis, yummy food, and flowers. And, our picnic was delightful!

Chatting and rolling!

We wanted to share a few recent videos of Lewis!

This one is from March 21st, and it's Lewis having a little "conversation" with his Mommy.

And now another conversation, this time with Daddy on March 23rd. (Notice the little T-bird shirt! We picked that up on our trip down to southern Utah when Lewis was just 3 months along in utero. It's so fun to see him wear it now!)

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for...Lewis can roll!!! He's quite good at it, in fact; we can hardly get him to lie on his back anymore! The only trouble is that he isn't very good at rolling from his tummy back to his back. So, he sort of gets stuck, and then we hear about it! This is our best video of his rolling yet, this time from May 4th.

More adventures at 4 months!

Lewis seems to be thriving! We think he looks like a mini sumo wrestler!!! He’s such a sweet, happy little boy, and we just love him to bits.

A few weeks ago, Lewis discovered his voice, and he loves to “chat” with us, particularly after he finishes a good meal! He also loves to let out some really high-pitched screams when he’s getting tired or excited. We call him our little bird of prey! It seems he’s destined to be a tenor, but for now, he’s a high soprano! He’s slowly moving away from the screaming phase, but it’s still pretty funny when he does let it rip!

He’s had a couple exciting changes as of late. On Easter, Lewis finally figured out how to suck his thumb! We had been waiting on that for months, watching him frantically trying to stuff his fist in his mouth and sucking away at his knuckles. All of a sudden, he managed to pop his thumb out from his fist and start sucking. He is quite pleased with this discovery!

On Lewis’s 4 month birthday, April 19th, he rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time! It took him a few tries of kicking his legs up and rolling over to his side; sometimes he would get stuck there for a minute. But eventually, he just rolled right over. When it happened the first time, he was playing with his favorite toy – Blabla, a polka-dotted lion man from Norah's cousin Rhiannon. He had thrown Blabla off to the side, and was so excited to try and get him again that he just rolled right over! Since then, it’s so fun to watch him roll around on the ground now. He’s able to entertain himself so much better! That said, Mommy is becoming more and more aware that the window of time is closing before she will be spending all of her energy running after this little guy! Anything else of note? Well, you have to watch out for hair grabbing, because Lewis is getting better at holding and latching on; hair seems to be a favorite of his!

Other vital stats – At Lewis’s 4 month appointment last Monday, he weighed in at 17lbs, 3 oz, which keeps him right at the top of the 90th percentile for weight – he’s a chunker! He measured 24.5 inches, which is still 50th percentile. And, his head circumference was 75th percentile. He seems to do OK with his shots, which we think is due to the abundance of padding on his thighs! The doctor was very proud of his tracking, talking, and rolling abilities!



As for us, we’re doing really well!
Our big adventure as of late was a trip out to Las Vegas to visit Aunt Cat. Uncle Tyler, Didi, and Papa John also came down to join us there, and we had a wonderful reunion for a long weekend. Didi treated us to a fabulous dinner at a fine French restaurant in town. We had a great picnic after church on Sunday while we listened to the philharmonic orchestra play. The guys all got out for a game of golf while the ladies relaxed by the pool. And, we just had lots of good chatting, playing games, catching up, and oogling over Lewis. It was wonderful!



Mommy and Daddy did learn that there are definitely consequences to traveling with babies. While Lewis had been getting up only once in the night for a month or two before the trip, it took him a good three weeks to get back to that schedule after we got home! Finally, he’s sleeping a bit better again and Mommy’s starting to feel a little better rested herself.

We had one funny night out in Vegas with Lewis waking up all the time! Mike has been so sweet to help with the night feedings on weekends recently. Norah had been able to express enough milk for a night feeding, so we thought that Mike would take a feeding while we were on our trip. Well, it seemed like a great idea at first. But of course, since we were both staying in the same room with Lewis at Cat’s apartment, it didn’t play out so well. Norah ended up holding Lewis while he screamed, waiting for Daddy to warm up the milk. Then she lay in bed just laughing at the fact that she was totally awake the whole time that Mike sat there feeding Lewis. Oh well! Norah may not have gotten any sleep, but she did appreciate Mike’s support!


We also had our first time leaving Lewis with someone besides family! Norah had a choir concert in March, and our friends Laura and Dan were kind enough to watch Lewis for a couple hours so that Mike could come and watch. It was during his screaming phase, so they were very sweet to do it!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with a fun outing to go antiquing in the area and yumma dinners with Jake, Michelle, and the girls. Easter Sunday was a beautiful day, and we had a rousing Easter egg hunt for the girls at our house after Easter dinner. Wonderful memories!

Norah’s been able to meet a couple moms in the area, and one is becoming a running buddy. Lewis still loves being out in the jogging stroller, so our favorite afternoons involve jaunts around town on sunny days. Otherwise, all things Neosporin are keeping Mike busy at work! Norah will be doing a little bit of outside item writing for work, but otherwise, she’s happy to be staying home with her little guy. We’re hoping to tackle a couple projects on the yard over these next couple weekends, so wish us luck! It’s so much harder to get a lot done these days!!!

Lots of love to everyone! Hugs from us, and drooly kisses from Lewis!