9 Months Old!

Derek is 9 months old already! Who said he could grow up so fast? He is getting so big and is so much fun. He weighs 16 lbs 5 oz and is 28 inches tall. So, not so big according to charts. He's actually way below the chart on his weight and continuing to fall further, a concern to the doctor. He doesn't seem that small to me. Apparently he has a heart murmur so has to go see a cardiologist to see what might be causing it. The doctor's guess is a valve that should have closed but hasn't yet. We'll see what the cardiologist has to say about it in a couple weeks. He didn't enjoy having chest x-rays done. He's a trooper. I love my little baby!

Derek still gets around by army crawling, going on 3 months of that. On Sunday he got up on his knees for the first time! He's starting to figure them out.

Today I walked into the living room to see Derek doing this:

He was having fun digging through Elliott's bucket of train tracks. I couldn't believe he was all the way up on his knees! He's been climbing up on things lately. He loves to play under the table and chairs. He usually gets stuck trying to climb over chairs though. But he still thinks he's pretty cool.

Speaking of trains, Derek LOVES Elliott's trains. It's hard to have Derek around when Elliott wants to play with his Trax. This time I decided to make a track just for Derek. Notice how he races over to the track when the train starts going. This was the second time I turned on the train. He moved twice as fast the first time. He loves to watch the trains go, but he really likes to grab them and eventually destroy the track. It's all fun!

He found the VCR the other day (before he figured out his knees). He was pulling himself up and hitting the flap of the VCR and having lots of fun.

Here's Derek standing up. He loves standing. The first few times we stood him up at the couch he would get a huge grin and laugh. He knew he was cool. He still thinks it's pretty fun.

Did you notice a theme in the last 3 pictures? Derek loves sticking out his tongue.

Derek loves to feed himself. I didn't think kids were supposed to do that at 9 months! Sure I understand feeding himself Cheerios, bananas, crackers, stuff of that sort, but cereal? Come on! He insists on grabbing the spoon and putting it in his own mouth. Fortunately he lets me help him scoop the food and put it in. But it's definitely messier. He's a good eater though, so I can't complain. I just started him on 3rd foods and he enjoys it. When Elliott tried them, he gagged all the time. He never did eat that stuff. Hopefully I get to experience what it's like to have a good eater with Derek - so far so good.

Here's a video by Elliott of Derek feeding himself. I think you can get a feel for it even though my hand is in the way.

Happy Anniversary!

Tuesday was our 8 year anniversary! And what a great 8 years it has been. I'm lucky to be married to such an incredible man.

It was great to announce in Relief Society during our "Good News Minute" that we had been married for 8 years. I got a few "Wows!" in response. Living in Wymount, we are definitely one of the longest married couples in the ward. I actually only know of one couple who's got us beat (by a whopping 7 months). We just had two new couples move in who got married 2 and 3 weeks ago.

We celebrated on Friday by going to Macaroni Grill, shopping at Borders, and going to the movies. Thanks to a wonderful visiting teacher for babysitting for 5 hours! It was so nice to be able to have a night out. It's been a long time since we've been able to do that.

Here's to 8 wonderful years past and to the rest of forever. I love you, Brent!

Elliott's Building Week

Elliott loved putting together his new puzzle of him and Derek. He did a great job with it. He was very proud of himself for being able to a 110 piece puzzle with a little help. He wanted to do it again the next day (that didn't happen). I got the puzzle online for $3.99 with free shipping from artscow.com. They have some amazing deals! I thought it would be fun to have a puzzle of the boys. It was fun for Elliott to put together.

Elliott played with his Legos every day this week, often getting them out and putting them away several times in a day. He had a lot of fun making new things - with and without instructions. This morning he even made his name. He has been very busy having fun!

Happy President's Day

Brent worked really hard to get ahead in his school work last week so he could enjoy his 3 day weekend. It worked! We were actually able to get out and have fun as a family. We went bowling at the BYU Games Center. Since it was a holiday, most of the Wilkinson Center was closed, so we settled on food from the snack bar. It was decent. The bowling was better. We had lots of fun!

Game #1 - Way to go Brent!

Game #2

I had to include pictures of the scores. Sorry, Brent. He didn't want me to post the scores of Game 2, but I got a good score. At least he wasn't in the "Under 80 Club." I had a good run going there!

Trip to Marisa's

Last week I was able to take the boys to visit Marisa and her family in Washington. Brent went to San Francisco for a school trip, so I decided to go away as well. We lucked out with our flights. We departed and arrived within 1/2 an hour of each other. It was perfect! We left Tuesday night and came home Sunday. I was worried about the Tuesday night flight since it didn't leave until almost 8:30 - way past both boys' bedtimes. Elliott did great. He read and colored until falling asleep. Derek was squirmy most of the time. Fortunately we had the row to ourselves for both flights. Both boys finally fell asleep maybe 20 minutes before landing. Elliott was so asleep, I couldn't wake him up. I was holding Derek and trying everything I could to get Elliott to wake up. It wasn't working. We were the last people on the plane. Finally one of the flight attendants (of course it was the smallest flight attendant of them all) offered to carry Elliott off the plane. Thanks to Marisa's suggestion, I had the Baby Bjorn to carry Derek and the stroller waiting for me when we got off the plane. Elliott got to ride in the stroller. He pretty much slept through all of it. He only woke up once we were in the parking garage trying to get everything in the car. It was pretty crazy!

Then it was off to Marisa's house. That was another adventure since her sewer line was broken, so we had no running water for 2 days. Let me tell you, bathrooms are a wonderful thing. It's not so fun to have to go to the neighbor's house everytime you have to go. Thank goodness for wonderful neighbors! We were so glad to have working water on Friday. We had a great time visiting. Elliott had fun playing with his cousins. I loved having a break from the norm. Thanks for having us!

Waiting to board.

On the plane.

Waiting to board again.

Not this again...(Derek slept for most of the flight home - hooray!)

Elliott and Jameson watching the sewer guys fix the broken pipe.

Playing the Wii. One of these days we've gotta get one of those. Maybe when we have a source of income. He-he.

Justin's basketball game (he's #3). They won! Good job!

Funny face.

Derek started eating crackers while we were there. He thinks that's pretty cool. It was good entertainment for him.

Jumpin' Jacks

Last week we went to Jumpin' Jacks in Springville for an MBASA activity. When we got there I prepped Elliott, reminding him what fun he has when we go to these kinds of places. (The fun usually starts an hour into the playtime, only after many, many tears.) He very slowly headed to the inflatables, with lots of encouragement. I took him to the one with the shortest slide and had him start there. After a slow climb onto it, he slid down and exclaimed, "That was fun!" After that, it was smooth sailing. He had so much fun. There was one huge slide there - it reached the ceiling of the huge warehouse. At one point I casually asked him if he was going to try the big slide. He looked at me like I was crazy and said "no way, that's too scary." A little while later he came to find me and told me he went down the big slide! I had to see it to believe it! He did it again and again, until some kid climbed up his back. He wasn't too thrilled about that. Jumpin' Jacks was great! It was way better than Pump It Up because there were so many inflatables to choose from. It was nice to have a variety. I'm glad he had such a good time. He's already asking to go again.

Catch!

One night I gave Derek a ball to play with and he just kept throwing it to me. It was really cute. This video also shows 2 of his signatures - the arm flapping noise making (cute) and the screeching (not so cute). The screeching seemed to be almost constant for a couple weeks. It was really ear-piercing. He seems to have stopped it for the most part (at least I hope).

And then came the tears. I guess I was too in to the game of catch to realize he was really done. It was such a cute sad face, I couldn't resist the photo opp.

Eight Months Old

So, it's already a couple weeks past, but Derek is 8 months old! How fast time flies. He looks all grown up! He is at such a fun stage. He has finally started figuring out how to get down on the floor from a sitting position, although he usually would rather just sit there. The past few days Derek has really starting talking up a storm. His main sounds are b, l, m, and just recently d. It's fun to hear him learn new sounds, especially when they are all strung together. He still gets around by army crawling. He just doesn't want his belly off the floor. He loves to follow Elliott around the house. They have fun laughing together. Derek lifts his arms when he wants up. He loves clapping and patting his hand on his mouth to make noises. Or else he'll put his fist in his mouth and flap his arm up and down while making noise. It is so adorable. He is such a sweetheart.