M is for Montana

Our first full day in Montana we hiked to the "M" that some industrious individuals created on the side of the Bridger Mountains with painted white rocks. Scott and I had hiked it years ago and thought it would be a good (tiring) outing with the kids - our own and our nieces Bryn (about to turn 8) and Maryn (just turned 6). So along with Scott's sister Mandy and his mom, loaded down with water and snacks, we headed out.

We discovered later the hike was steeper than all of us had remembered! And tricky at times, with slippery dirt paths and rocks to climb over. But despite the occasional falls and slides, not one of the kids complained or asked to be carried the entire trip - 1.6 miles up, 1.6 miles down! Pretty impressive, I think.

The hike itself was gorgeous - lots of changing terrain along the way. And the view at the top - spectacular. On the way down we accidentally took a different route, which resulted in some interesting maneuvers over some minor cliffs and rocks. But we made it - the first of many great adventures on our trip!

On the way up:

At the top:

On our way down:

4 months old

We were in Montana visiting Scott's family for the last two weeks or so, which is why the silence on the blog. I'll get to the various stories and posts about our trip shortly... after I go through the all the pictures!

Charlie turned 4 months old while we were gone. As a result, his 4-mo doctor appointment today was a week+ late, but here are the latest stats: 23.75 inches tall (10-25th percentile), 13 lbs 1 oz (same), with a 16 & 7/8 inch head. He's "petite," as the doctor put it - he is still fitting into most of his 3 month size clothing, and I just saw that our friend's 2 month old is the exact same height! But all that matters is that he remains on his growth curve, which he is, including that big head, which is in the 50th -75th percentile. :) The doctor happily pronounced him "100% perfect."

The information sheet we got from the pediatrician today says that the 4-month mark "is considered one of the most social ages in infancy." This could not describe Charlie better. He has become so interactive - his facial expressions are priceless and often hilarious. People are always commenting about his big eyes and his expressive eyebrows. He is really watching the world now; his eyes find us across the room, and his head is always turning to watch Zach. And then there are the smiles - so plentiful and joyful. We're also hearing laughs regularly - big guffaws that usually come out sounding like a "huhn!"

Scott's parents commented on how different Charlie seemed from the beginning of our 12-day visit to the end. One of the most noticeable changes is his new ability/willingness to stand. His little legs would just collapse; then one day he started holding himself up when we put him on his feet, and now he appears to love it. As I mentioned before, Charlie is not a fan of being cradled in the traditional baby hold; his opposition to this is even stronger now. He doesn't even like to recline much - if he's sitting on your lap he'll strain to pull his head up and forward, with his back held as stiffly as possible. When you hold him upright on your shoulder you have to be prepared to catch him when he flings himself backward - he is certainly not going to rest his head on your shoulder (unless he's asleep... see below).

Charlie's hands also have new life - they're either stuffed in his mouth (as many fingers as possible or even an entire fist) or grabbing on to whatever he can reach. The doctor had just asked me today if he was grasping toys when he reached over and got a death grip on the stethoscope hanging from her neck. I didn't have to answer that question.

He continues his love/hate relationship with the carseat. He is better about napping in it now, but he will certainly let you know when he wants out. In fact, he's become more vocal in general, both with his babbling, but also with his crying. While 95% of his waking hours he's a very happy guy, when he's mad, he's mad - and he'll let you know. Not much of an in-between with this guy.

Charlie also prefers to take his naps in someone's arms these days, usually laying on their chest or shoulder after being walked/bounced to sleep. And since there were plenty of arms available in Montana, we're going to have some work to do to get this boy to nap in his bed! Sleeping in the crib at night - no problem. Sleeping there during the day - he'd rather not.

Scott's parents almost got to see Charlie roll over too - he would get his shoulders turned, but couldn't quite get his hips flipped all the way. So I had to laugh when today I sat down to write this, with Charlie on his tummy next to me... and he promptly rolled onto his back! It definitely scared him; he had some momentum going, so it'll be interesting to see how long it takes before it happens again.

Happy "birthday" Charliebug!

3M family picnic

What now seems like a long, long time ago, there was a family picnic for the employees of 3M's office supplies division. They put on a fun party, and despite the almost unbearable heat they outdid themselves once again.

First there was the petting zoo, with an impressive array of animals. Not pictured here are the donkey, alpaca, bunnies, goats of all shapes & sizes, and two panting white Newfoundland dogs (referred to as the polar bears).

Unfortunately the farm had a "no chasing" rule, or else Zach and that chicken would have had one heck of a game.

And then there was the bounce house. As you can see, Zach and Sylvia had a grand time.


And Zach's favorite - the big inflatable slide. He climbed up, he slid down. Repeat 20 or so times, and you have one happy, sweaty boy.

Zach finished off the night with an air-brushed tattoo. While there was a Twins logo, that's not the direction he went.

And then there was Charlie, often found nice and toasty warm in the Bjorn. Here he is reacting to the cloggers and their music (nope, no wooden shoes, to my disappointment). I don't think I've included enough pictures of Charlie like this - his classic reaction to anything new or interesting. Mr. Wide Eyes!

In the kitchen with Dinah

When Zach had a "witching hour" as an infant, my mom would walk around with him endlessly, singing to him, trying to console him. She eventually declared that he loved the song "I've been working on the railroad." So Grandma K, this one's for you:

In typical three-year-old fashion, Zach didn't want to "perform" for the camera, despite the fact that he LOVES this song and sings it with great enthusiasm whenever we're in the car. So that's why he starts out pouting a bit, won't look at the camera, and eventually closes his eyes. Oh well - we still love the "uh-huh" and "yeah" interjected into the song!

A bit of a disaster

I have been wanting to try to take pictures of the boys together, outside. So we decided to finally give it a try Sunday morning, despite the fact that it was already 80+ degrees and crazy humid at 9 AM. For a variety of reasons, the attempt was quite unsuccessful. I could go so far as to call it a disaster. This is the only picture of the two of them I'm even remotely happy with. What do you think - color or B&W?

Tummy time

^ A staredown with his owl.

^Quite intrigued by the owl

^ Zach's neck is pretty strong too.

Oh - and I think Charlie's eyes are changing color; it's a little hard to say for sure when you look at them every day. But I think I'm seeing more flecks of green and brown, like someone else I know.

Fair fun

Summer wouldn't be complete without an outing to a fair. We met the Roses at the Washington County Fair yesterday, for some cheese-curd and pronto pup eating, lumberjack contests, pig racing, and more.

^ Ready for the pig races... here the come!

^ Feeding an animal of the deer species; Zach's fastball was clocked at 19 mph

^ Kasey taking a ride while Zach takes it all in.

^ Photos by Zach

* All photos were taken with my old point 'n click camera; please forgive the blurriness, particularly on any "action" shots

** Yes, Jenny, Reagan, and I were there too.

Growing like... cucumbers?

We've spent the last couple weeks just enjoying summer - barbecues with friends, swimming when we can, visiting parks, etc. So I thought I'd just provide some random updates about the boys, starting with the fact that they are growing like cucumbers - at least like the ones in our garden. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this latest one with the boys; it measured 14 inches! Soon we are going to have cucumbers coming out of our ears, to go with the peppers that are already more than we need. Our gardening experiment this year is sweet potatoes - it'll be interesting to see if we have some yummy sweet potatoes to eat at the end of the summer. Zach loves going over to see if any tomatoes are ready; he checks every day and points out changes from the previous day. I feel like we should start tracking his growth from day to day; he's all arms and legs now!

And Charlie certainly isn't shrinking; our friends have a baby scale, so over the weekend we learned Charlie is now about 13 lbs (13 lbs 3 oz with his clothes and diaper on) at 15 weeks. He's got lots going on, particularly at the moment with the amazing amount of snot coming out of his nose. I'm not sure if he has a cold or what, but he doesn't seem particularly crabby, just a runny nose. It goes well with the drool now always present on his chin; I think he's going to have to start wearing a daily bib.

I am pretty confident I heard Charlie laugh for the first time Monday. And guess who he was laughing at? Zach, of course. It's funny to observe - when Charlie is watching Zach play or listening to him talk, he just sits there staring at Zach with a big smile on his face. But the instant I point it out to Zach and he tries to make Charlie smile - goodbye smile. It's not surprising, since Zach's general method of trying to make Charlie smile is to get his face about 1 inch away and do a REALLY loud fake laugh. These efforts generally make Charlie jump, not smile. It was the same situation with the laugh - Charlie was just looking at Zach's face, and out came quite a few laughs. I love it! I can't wait to hear more.

What I don't love is Charlie's new dislike of the carseat. He used to be content in the carseat as long as it was in motion, whether in the car, the stroller, or with me rocking it. Not true anymore. And he rarely falls asleep in it, even when we're driving for 30+ minutes! So I took that as a sign that it was time to make more of an effort at naps in his crib. We've have varied success with that, and while it's hard for me to stay home mornings, after a few days where he barely slept at all during the daylight hours, I'm going to keep working on it. He is still sleeping great at night, we've now had 3 "thru the night" sleeps total. Other nights he's generally right around 8 or 9 hours. Works for me.

Charlie is also really starting to make a lot of different noises. He loves having "conversations" with us; it really looks like he's working hard to get his tongue to work and make sounds come out. Occasionally I'll hear a sound, from the monitor or across the room, and I'll think it's Zach - it's so loud and so clear. But no - it's Charlie! We may have another talker in our house...!

Charlie has come a long way with his neck strength too. Like most babies, he does not enjoy tummy time - it usually results in a face like this:

And for a long time, he'd spend most of tummy time barely raising his head or like this:

But check this out:

Those pictures are from a couple days ago. Today, I plopped him down for some tummy time and headed for the bathroom; when I came out it took me a few beats to realize Charlie wasn't how I'd left him. He rolled over!!!!! I don't know if I can really count it as his first official roll-over, since I'd left him a little bit propped up on his elbows and knees. And he wouldn't show off and do it again while I was in the room. But still - it's a preview of what's to come!

And then there's Zach, full of the usual funny stuff. I've been noticing lately than whenever I ask him how he learned something, the answer is "at school." According to him, he's learned things like how to hop on one foot and an alternate way of getting into his carseat at school. Somehow I doubt that stuff is on the curriculum!

A frequent phrase we hear now is "can I try that?" Making his own pb&j, pouring his own cereal, that type of thing. I'm doing my best to encourage it, and ignore the mess and/or additional time everything takes! And other things we've been trying to encourage him to do on his own, like getting dressed (the shirt has stumped him for a while), blowing his own nose, etc - he's much more interested in doing now too. Mr. Independent! It must be his age - he's very proud of being 3 and a half!

A certain pitcher for the Twins has grown a mustache that I personally think is hideous. So, of course, Scott and now Zach have taken to teasing me that Scott will grow a similar 'stache. So the other day Zach and I surprised Scott with a mustache for Zach - what do you think??