Moments I Love

Yesterday, I went downstairs to switch the laundry. When I came back upstairs, I found all the boys in my home reading. I love it!

Mark snuggled up in the rocking chair.

Seth pulling books off the shelf, but he would open one page and look,
then pull another one. That's his favorite book he's holding.

Randy helping Dax read--he's not really making a lot of progress,  but at least he's trying.

Seth is 9 months

Technically Seth is 9 1/2 months, but he just barely went for his 9 month check up. He weighs 22 lbs and 2 ounces--he is our chunkiest baby by far. But he is only in the 71% for weight. Seth's head circumference is off the chart. Our pediatrician told us his head is average for a 2 year old. We weren't too surprised since we can barely squeeze most of his shirts over his head. Other than that Seth is healthy and doing well.

Seth is such an easy baby. I have probably posted that before, but he is so easy going. I wake him up from naps constantly, we drag him on all sorts of adventures, and he keeps on smiling. Seth loves his brothers. They can both get him giggling and they are usually pretty nice to him. Seth also loves his mom. He is pretty clingy to me, but I feel like the last two weeks he has started to like his dad a little bit more. I hope that keeps up.

Seth loves to eat food, as long as it's not baby food. He moved past baby food about a month ago. The real problem is that he won't let me feed him. He only wants to feed himself. It's so frustrating having these independent children--Dax was like that, too.  And his highchair is SO messy. I hate cleaning it after every meal. Seth loves pears! He would eat them all the time. He also loves those Gerber yogurt melts and Gerber Lil' Crunchies (especially the cheese ones).

Seth is crawling. He is a whirlwind--books off the shelves, toys scattered, the destruction is everywhere. It's fun to have him mobile, but his brothers are having a hard time with it. Seth thinks he can walk. He pulls up on everything, cruises around, and then falls when he tries to reach something too far away. He has a permanent bruise on his forehead.

This is a short video of Seth's crawl. 

This took him about 2 minutes.

Seth is a light in our lives. His smile brightens our days and his happiness is contagious. We all dote on him (which is going to come back to get us later) and we are grateful every day that Seth is a part of our family.

Seth is pretty proud of himself. He loves to stand up in his crib.

Seth loves being outside!

One of Seth's favorite pastimes is spinning wheels. Any car or truck he picks up, he immediately turns it over and spins the wheels. Look how hard he concentrates!

Every day Seth has to play he piano. Whenever Mark practices, Seth has to practice too!

Always happy!

This picture is from Easter. Isn't he so handsome?

Stitches!

Mark was not happy about me taking this picture. He is very worried about uncovering his stitches.

It eventually had to happen. Mark has been working his way up to stitches for a long time. First glue, then a staple, and today we hit the big time. Four stitches in his elbow. I wish there was some amazing story to tell, but all he did was fall down in the road while getting on the bus.

About 9:20 I received a call from the school. Being a former teacher when I heard them say, "We have Mark in the office and we think you should come look at this cut on his elbow," I knew we were talking about a more serious injury. I have sent lots of students to get a bandaid in the office and for some ice just to make them feel a little better about a scraped knee or elbow. Hardly ever did I need students to call home because of an injury. So I woke Seth up from his nap and dragged him and Dax over to the school.

The office staff had been so nice to Mark and they told me how brave he had been--no tears. I saw the blood on his shirt and slowly pulled off the bandaid. The wound looked pretty open and I told Mark we had better let Dr. Knorr take a look. Then he started to cry. Not because we were going to the doctor, but because he had to miss school.

The wound--I decided not to subject you to the close-up that I took.

So we went to the doctor's office and the nurse looked at it and said, "Yep, stitches." So she put some numbing gel on his elbow and said she would be back in 20 minutes to check on you. So we settled in and watched Toy Story 3. She came back in and tested to see if he could feel--of course he could, so then we were in for 10 more minutes of waiting.

Finally, the doctor came in and looked. She also tested and Mark kept saying he could feel her poking his wound. So she tried to secretly give him a numbing shot, but he saw the needle and started to cry. The whole point of the gel was to avoid the shot, but Mark got both. I got him calmed down and the doc started stitching. Mark asked me a few minutes after she started the stitches when she was going to start. I told him he already had one stitch done. He said he hadn't felt a thing and then relaxed for the rest of the time. I think I could have distracted Mark more easily I hadn't been trying to hold Seth and Mark's hand at the same time. Dax was amazingly good thanks to Toy Story 3.

I never got much more information about how he fell. Just that he fell, someone might have tripped him, and then he got on the bus. His arm started hurting while he was waiting in line at school so he told his teacher, and she took him to the office. I was very proud of Mark. He really was very brave. We have to go back and get the stitches out next Monday. I hope that is easier than today.

Mark waiting for his arm to numb.

Spring Break!

Randy and I decided we needed to take a little trip for Spring Break this year. So we headed to Vernal. When we told people we were going to Vernal, everyone's response was, "why?" So I'm going to tell you why.
1. It's not very far away (only 3 hours), so our boys can handle the drive.
2. We figured we could go for pretty cheap (which we did).
3. There is a temple in Vernal to add to the boys' temple books.
4. It feels hotter in Vernal -- even though it isn't.
5. Dinosaurs! Mark and Dax love them, and they are very abundant in Vernal.

Anyway, we had an amazing time. The boys traveled well. Seth even slept in the hotel which I worried a lot about. We went on a few hikes, saw lots of dinosaur fossils, and had a lot of fun. Instead of boring you with all the details, I'm just going to include a few pictures that highlight our trip (okay, it ended up to be more than a few, but hey, we were in Vernal for 3 days). We are sad to say goodbye to Spring Break, but now we are really looking forward to summer!

The Quarry at Dinosaur National monument. There are a lot of dinosaur bones here.

You are allowed to touch some of the fossils. It was awesome.
Those bones have been there for over  149 million years.

Seth loved riding in the hiking backpack.

We went on a hike where you can spot fossils  on your own in the rocks. This is one bone we spotted.

Mark and Dax at the entrance to Dinosaur National Monument.

We went to Josie's cabin at Dinosaur National Monument.
She ran a homestead near two box canyons which we hiked to.

Hiking to the box canyons from Josie's cabin.

Swimming in the hotel.

The Vernal Temple steps

Dax seriously sleeps like this in the car quite often. It's hilarious!

Junior Scientists at the Utah Field House of Natural History.

There are dinosaur statues outside the Field House--the boys loved them!

An osprey! We birders love to see things like this.

Mark and Dax next to a dinosaur footprint. We hiked to a spot where there were a bunch of tracks in the rocks.

A porcupine in a tree--we saw a bunch of these on the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. Amazing!

We saw a moose on the drive home outside of Heber.

I love these boys! This is where we saw the dino tracks.
It was a beautiful end to the hike.