Look at the size of that Noggin!

Adam had his 9 month appt on Weds, and here are the stats:

(imagine announcer voice here)

"Weighing in at 22 pounds, 12.8 ounces, standing at 29 inches tall, with a head circumfrence of 18 1/2 inches..."

Which means that he is 75th percentile for height, 85th percentile for weight, and 90th percentile for head size. He might have a Claus head after all.

And Ted says I have to say that this was posted by Jean.

Washington, My Washington: Part Two

After the birthday party in Woodinville on Saturday, we went back to Centralia/Chehalis for the second first birthday party for Charlie and Logan on Sunday. The heat wave finally broke that day (the cooler front moved in during the party, actually), but it was still warm enough to enjoy ourselves. As you can see, Adam was hardly overdressed.

The twins enjoyed opening their presents... well, eventually. They required a little convincing, but they got into it after they realized they were supposed to be making a mess.
Adam watched. He liked the paper.
And grass. Grass is fun. For mom and dad, it was nice to be in an area where we didn't have to worry about chiggers.

And then it was time for the cake. After the experience of the first party (which involved both boys vomiting chocolate cake on themselves and their parents), Amanda and Aaron were careful not to overdo it on the cake. But, after starting carefully, the boys decided that, while cake is probably fine, they weren't entirely sold on frosting.

The next day, we set out for Anacortes. Of course, it would have been nice to be there during the heat wave and down south when the weather was cooler, but you don't always get to make those choices for yourself when you're only visiting for a short time. On our way north, we stopped in Federal Way and said hi to our friend Elis and met her two little ones. We hadn't seen her in about a year, so it was nice to catch up a little.The next update will cover our time in Anacortes.

Note: We've had a little computer hiccup here. That is to say that our old computer is in the midst of dying a horrible, lingering death. I'm typing this on the newly purchased super-duper computer, which does not yet have the pictures from the old one transferred to it. That is one of my projects for this weekend. We'll see if I can get that done and get the next update up before Christmas. I doubt it, but I'll try...

And Now for Something Completely Different

Washington, My Washington: Part One

We begin at the beginning.

We flew to Seattle via Dallas. Why, you ask? Well, you might as well ask why does the sun shine? Why do the birds sing? Why does Hawaii have interstate highways? Some things simply are.

But the trip out wasn't all that bad. Adam was good on both legs of the flight, and he had a nice time rolling around at the Dallas airport and gnawing on a carrot stick:

We were there for 12 days (in Washington, not the Dallas airport), so I won't bore you with too many details. I will, however, note that we arrived during a record heat wave in the Northwest. This allowed for some nice photos of Adam that will come in handy the first time (Oh, who am I kidding? Every time) he brings home a date. And in the first week, we got to see Scott and Katy and the girls, go to the SW Washington fair, visit with Aaron and Amanda and Charlie and Logan on the occasion of their first first birthday party, and celebrate several birthdays at once in Woodinville (and test out a baby pack that Jean's cousin Sarah is debuting soon):

Let's Start Here

Long time, no see

I know I'm way behind, so I'll get all y'all caught up with a series of posts over the next few days. We took a trip to Washington in mid-August, so this one will cover the pre-trip developments, and the trip and post-trip stuff will come soon.

So, Adam was getting a little more active - rolling around, pivoting on his ginormous belly, thinking that crawling would be great, if only he had the first clue how to do it. But at least he gets to grab stuff if he rolls a little too close:

Poor dog:

After his six month doctor's appointment, we got the thumbs-up to start him on solid foods. He likes this development:

He also started to sit up on his own before we left for Washington (to clarify, he remained sitting after we sat him up, not that he sat up on his own - though he's getting close to doing that these days). One day, he simply decided it would be nice to see the world from a different perspective, and he's preferred it ever since. As so many before us have done, we sit him in the boppy pillow for a little support and padding.

As you can see from the video, he likes that sitting up allows him to explore the world a little more thoroughly. He was pulling on that gym support for several minutes before I started recording, and he kept going after I stopped. He just thought tugging on that thing was the most interesting thing in his short life, I guess:

Try, Athlete. Try.

Summers in the KC Metro mean it's time for the KC Corporate Challenge. The KCCC is a series of athletic endeavors - some more athletic than others - in which employees of various companies around the KC area compete against each other to see who can discover and pull the greatest number of muscles they didn't remember they had.

As you can see from the first few pictures, Jean competed in a number of these events. I was only able to get pictures from the bike time trial (the first picture - she kicked butt, third fastest Deere person, men or women) and the triathlon (which technically became a duathlon when they cancelled the swim portion - you'd really rather not know why), but Jean also competed in the mile and 800-meter runs, bowling, soccer, softball, volleyball, and the 200-meter freestyle and the 50-meter breaststroke swimming events. And maybe some more; we can't remember them all. It was inconvenient, but it was all worth it. John Deere won its division, and they got a trophy and two parties featuring cake! So they had that going for them, which was nice.

While Jean was melting away the pregnancy pounds and competing in every event known to man, I was having leg problems (Bad IT band! Bad!). I was able to get some physical therapy and was pain-free for our planned triathlon in July (Thanks to Sharon at Select Physical Therapy and Day Care). Of course, being pain-free and being in shape enough to do the hilly Shawnee Mission Triathlon the way I wanted are two different things. So, long story short, I survived, but I didn't post a time with which I was very happy.

It also occurred to me at some point on the run that I'm not a good swimmer, nor am I a good bicyclist, and my running isn't all that, so I'm at a mild disadvantage in the sport of triathlon...

Anyhoo, Jean's cousin Elisabeth and her friend Holly came up from Texas to do the triathlon with us. We had a fun weekend, and Adam impressed our friends/neighbors/coworkers Casey and Kati, who were kind enough to watch him while we did our tri.

The morning was nice - cool, clear, and no wind. The lake was warm (83 degrees) and calm. What we didn't expect was that as soon as the sun came over the horizon, it was directly in our eyes for the second half of the swim. When we turned for home on the swim leg, we couldn't see a dang thing. Oh well. Such is the nature of triathlons and open water swims. You just have to deal with it and move on. Everyone else had the same problem, so there's no point in complaining too much. Just swim 'til you bonk your head on the dock, then turn left, I guess.

About to be "Blinded by the light. Revved up like a Deuce, Another runner in the night..."

And we were as ready as we were going to be.
Overall, things went about as well as can be expected. Jean ran better than she anticipated and was pleased with her time, while Beth and Holly did well, considering they were riding mountain bikes and hadn't been able to train as much as they would have preferred. The course is very hilly, and the bike leg for the long course (the distance we chose) is challenging, so doing it on mountain bikes, not road bikes, was a serious handicap.

But we made it. Now, I'm wondering what's next. Part of me wants to run the Phoenix Rock 'n Roll Marathon in January. Another part of me wants to get ready for next year's tri season and forget about competing for a while. And still another part of me wants to focus on the bike; my recent rides with Casey have shown how much I need to work on that.

We'll see. It may depend on what Adam likes most. Will he like riding in a jogger but not a bike trailer? Vice versa? Neither? We'll have to wait and see.

And That's the Tooth

Adam has had his bottom front two teeth for about a month now. I've been waiting to write something about it until we were able to get a nice picture of his chompers. Unfortunately, as you can see above, Adam has a special talent for hiding his teeth from the camera lens. But today I took matters into my own hands and was able to pry his mouth open enough to successfully document daddy's new bottle openers.

He was great about getting them in. He didn't really complain all that much, mostly just tonguing his gums for a few days and that was about it.

The top teeth don't show any signs of coming in right now, so we'll just have to wait and see. And when they do come in, we'll force his mouth open again for some more pictures.

Six Months

Adam had his six month checkup on Wednesday. Still doing great. No problems. He's not a fan of the shots, but he takes 'em like a champ.

But the big news is his size (Get it? Big news... size... big news... size... 'cause, you see...). The charts have caught up to his weight!!! Huzzah! He's now only in the 90th percentile for weight. So now, on average, only eight out of every ten kids his age weigh less than he does. Of course, there's only one in ten who weighs more, but it's good to know that he's no longer that kid for all the other kids. It's like the old saying about outrunning bears - you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the slowest person in your group.

The vitals:

20.4 pounds

27.75 inches

Waterworld

Adam likes the water. He gets a bath every morning, and he's starting to realize that if he lifts his legs up and then brings them crashing down into the water, it makes big splashes and plenty of waves. This pleases him.

Our subdivision has a pool, and it's only a few houses down, so Jean takes him over there when it's hot and she wants to cool down and/or when he's fussing and she wants to distract him for a while. Most of the time, there are plenty of kids in the pool. He likes watching the kids splashing around and playing. He also likes his new sunglasses, which save him from a lot of the glare. He also gets a lot of attention from people who find his sunglasses to be very cute. This too pleases him.

And he's learning to spit. Well, not spit exactly - it's more of a raspberry. We don't really want to encourage too much of this; afterall, it's not the most polite behavior in the world, and it can be... messy. On the other hand, it's cute as bugs' teeth. This pleases me.