From dad: 11/30/11

11/30/11 - 5 ½ months

I skipped a month, OOPS.  The big oops is because shortly after writing my previous entry, I tossed you for the first time and you LOVED it.  And you were strong enough to hold your body straight (there was a very unfortunate fad at the time called planking, look it up and you’ll know what you were doing), so I could do “airplane” with you (even though you weren’t really putting out your arms).  I would hold you above my head, make the airplane sound, then I’d do a machine gun and lightly shake you.  You loved that machine gun too; you’d squeal when I did that.  But I would also toss you above me.  As of the time of this writing, I haven’t banged you against the ceiling, or any other object yet; I barely let you out of my hands, just enough to give you a moment of free fall without being what I consider too risky (e.g. if you balled up when I let go of you, I could still catch you, but I might not be able to if I tossed you too high).

You still love your baths (usually), still love to stand, you love to smile... like, a lot.  Grandma Jeanie came to visit you during Thanksgiving.  We went up to Estes park and actually had our big dinner on Wednesday.  Grandma Jeanie was very relieved to see you weren’t fat.  From the pictures she gets every day from Grandma Judy and the video chatting, they saw your cheeks and were worried you were one of these blobs of a baby; but she was glad to see it was just the cheeks, the “biggest cheeks in the world” she said.

In Estes park, you hit two big milestones.  Your mom and I were slightly worried that you hadn’t gotten the hang of rolling over; the only times you did was either with a little bit of help or out of pure frustration.  But in that condo we stayed in, you rolled over, and you did so every time we put on your stomach.  You rolled over both ways; you didn’t always immediately roll over and you still would get somewhat upset because you just don’t like being on your stomach for the most part.  I was a very late walker, Grandma and Grandpa Powell were worried something was wrong (they’re still worried... they’re pretty sure actually, but not about walking), but when I did start walking, I was very good at it; Grandpa Jerry seems to think I was practicing in my crib.  I say all that to say, maybe you were practicing too, though I don’t know when; Grandma Judy watches you during the day, you’ve got us in the evening and your “crib” is in the bedroom with us.  But once you started, you were doing like you’ve been doing it for month.

You also got your first tooth on this day.  Between the last writing and this one, you enjoyed chewing/sucking on my finger occasionally, with gusto.  Sometimes you’d be fussy and we couldn’t quite figure out why, thinking maybe you were teething.  So at Estes park you seemed to be a little in that mood so I offered my finger and you greedily took it.  That’s when I felt it; the inside of your mouth used to be all gummy, now there was something sharp.  So, it was mom who put you on the floor and was paying the most attention to you when you rolled over (I saw it out of the corner of my eye), and it was me who discovered you got your first tooth.

Grandma Judy had mixed feelings, vastly joy.  But, there was a twinge of sadness because she had been working so hard with you, especially rolling over.  That sadness was overcome with happiness because Grandma Jeanie got to see not one, but two firsts.

In case things have changed, your mom and I have a deal with Christmas.  She likes white lights, with red decorations, especially outside,but also inside, and a fake tree.  I like colors everywhere, silly ornaments, and a real tree (I want things to be as festive as possible).  So, we decided that every year, one person decorates the outside, the other gets the inside.  So, this year I got the inside; since I got the inside, I decided to get a train to go around the tree.  I set up the train because this was my first train and I had just bought it; I wanted to see how it works and whatnot.  During the test, you were entranced by it; it could’ve just been a moving object that moved in a repetitive path, or maybe it was the choo-choo sounds it made, but you could barely take your eyes off it.

Grandma Jeanie is absolutely over the moon about you.  Everyone says how lucky I am because you are such an easy baby and happy guy in general.  You being my first and only, I can’t truly be grateful since I have nothing to compare it to, but I am as much as I can be.