Winter fun

The Eppley grandparents came by for New Years and we got a dusting of snow here. Granddaddy took chris out to build a snowman



and to go sledding.

Christmas

Christopher had a good Christmas. He got so much loot, he hasn't finished unwrapping it yet. Here's a short collection of videos of him opening gifts.



I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Happy new year!

Movies: Back in Bowl

Another oldie.

Movies: Drawing and Dancing

This is an old one.

Movies: The North Pole Central Line

In anticipation of getting the Eppley family train set, we bought a Christmas set to add to it. So far it's a hit. Wait til he gets his hands on the whole thing.

Movies: Chris in a Box

Another movie, this time we cover Christopher in cardboard and paper.

Movies, Movies, Movies

I'm uploading a handful of movies. Enjoy

Project KIDs

We have news. I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but I was waiting until I had scanned the pictures. Christopher is not going to be an only child for much longer. We don't know much yet. (S)he has a strong heart beat and should arrive in mid June.

Thanksgiving

Christopher got three thanksgivings this year. We drove down to Connecticut Wednesday night and spent Thanksgiving day with Grampa. Christopher didn't like the transfer from the car to an unknown crib, so he slept with us. He was fine the next afternoon for his nap. I guess he just wanted to know where he was and he didn't when we first arrived. It was quite nice if you disregard the lack of actual sleeping. He usually won't snuggle for very long.

We had an early Dinner in Derby and headed to Auntie's house for our second dinner. Christopher got a plate of leftovers and we had some strawberry-rhubarb pie and a birthday cake. Chris spent much of the evening chasing the pugs around the kitchen. He had a blast.

I completely failed to take the camera out even once on Thursday, so I have no pictures or videos to share. Drat.

We had another Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with the Mortons. Kim was on call Thursday, so she hosted a dinner for friends and family in their new place. I'd poked my head in the door once before, but not for long enough to really appreciate what a nice house it is. The kitchen and living/dining room are huge and beautiful. Chris was particularly taken with the longhorns mounted on the wall.


He was also a big fan of the chocolate cream pie. After dinner he spent the evening running around the house with an apple which led to my favorite picture of the night.


He capped off the night with a bottle of formula. He usually drinks milk before bed, but the powdered formula is easier to travel with. We suspect it's a bit heavier on the stomach than milk. Chris's stomach was not prepared and returned the formula to sender. The biggest casualties were Mandy's sweater and Joey, who has fond memories of cleaning spit-up off the floor. Both have been cleaned since.

Christopher chose the perfect audience, however, as everyone in the room was a parent, doctor, or vet. Rey, who had arrived late and was working on a plate full of food a few feet away, only stopped a moment to laugh at the situation before resuming dinner.

Enjoying one of the last pool days of summer

Practice, practice, practice

Christopher spent last night waking in circles around the living room. We went out to dinner in Shrewsbury and then went to the Trader Joe's next door for entertainment. They gave him a helium balloon while we were there.

When we got home, he just walked around the house carrying the balloon . . . for about half an hour. He started out pretty unstable, but after a bit, he was making complete laps without falling.

Drunken Sailor

Chris took his first steps Friday night. Last week he started taking a half step and lunging between sofas, and Friday he started linking steps together. We counted 8 once. He's a bit unstable still, but on his way.

Flour Child

We read somewhere that a good way to entertain a toddler is to give them some flour and some cups and let them scoop and pour. The article suggested laying down some newspaper to contain the mess. Ha! We knew it was going to be a mess when Chris's first move was to pick up the paper.

Learning from Joey

When you get around on all fours, it's hard to carry things. Christopher recently picked up this trick from Joey.

At the Milford Hospital

Christopher had scrambled eggs this morning and they didn’t agree with his face. Apparently he is allergic, but the only reaction was where he rubbed it into his face. The egg he swallowed seems to have caused no problems so far.

Long story short…we panicked and took him to the ER, but nothing came of it all. No more eggs for Chris.

Week (nearly) at the cape

We spent 4+ days at the cape this week with Grammy and Grampa Paul and also Paul's daughter Ellen and her family.

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We had a great time. Christopher loved playing on the beach. He must have eaten a pint of sand, but showed no ill effects.

We walked around Harwichport and Chatham and ate lots of good seafood. We are now back home and attempting to finish moving in. We bought an unfinished wood table for the kitchen, so I am now tying with polyurethane drying on my fingers.

Self portrait

Christopher tests the slobber tolerance of the camera:

Settling in

We're still unpacking into our new place, so there has been a bit of a lull in posts. We've got broadband up and running, so I'll be posting some videos as I get them uploaded to youtube. There haven't been too many pictures latelly since we've been spending our days working on the house.

In the two weeks we've been here, Christopher has picked up two new tricks. He still can't (or won't?) crawl, but he can slither up to something and pull himself up to a stand. He also figured out how to get into a sitting position on his own.

Camera chaser

Christopher really likes the camera

Made it!

Saturday, before the wedding, we spent some time trying to figure out how to break up the second half of the trip. We had about 20 hours left and the ten hour days were kind of rough, but the more time in the car, the crankier Christopher was getting.

The wedding was great. Christopher had to be take to the edge of the field because he was babbling. Ashley and Michael arranged for a baby sitter for Christopher and Ashley's niece Fiona. It was great. I put him to sleep by pushing him up the hill in the stroller. (The gravel road had him out in about 30 seconds). Mandy and I then spent an hour or two square dancing.

Sunday we hit the road around noon. In the end, we solved our scheduling dilemma by not stopping at all. We drove through the night last night and arrived in Massachusetts around 10 this morning. Christopher slept from about 7 last night on. He woke up for about 30 minutes to eat in the morning.

Next up...moving in.

Arrived in MN

We have landed in Rochester. We stopped by the groom's family farm for drinks and a bonfire. For a minute, I thought Christopher had finally reached his breaking point. He was great on the 12 hour car ride today, but he seemed overwhelmed by all the people tonight. I tried to put him to be at 8 local time. He'd been up for 3 hours and was cranky, but he showed no signs of actually being sleepy and (surprise) wouldn't go to sleep. So we played in the grass and mingled for another 45 minutes. He was out cold by the time we turned around in the driveway to leave. And for the 4th night in a row has gone to sleep with minimal fuss in a crib he's never seen in before.
 Maybe he's doing fine and I'm reaching my breaking point. Tomorrow, we don't drive anywhere and get a chance to unwind.

Here are some pictures of Chris in the grass. There is a cute video, too, but the pictures took an hour to upload, I'm not going to try uploading video here. The wireless at the Travelodge leaves something to be desired (three or four bars of something).

The road to MN

We are headed to a friends wedding in Rochester, Minnesota on Saturday, so we're on a bit of a schedule. Wednesday we drove 9 hours from Salt Lake to Hot Springs, South Dakota and today another 9 to Rochester. Those are highway hours, not including stops. Chris is getting sick of being in the car seat all day, and teething biscuits only keep him occupied for so long.

So we've been trying to stop at parks. We've found some nice spots.

Thursday, we took a day off and just wandered around Hot Springs and let Christopher play on the floor in the B and B.

Crawling movie up on youtube

technorati tags:movie, chris

Elko

We had lunch in Elko, NV. This town has a great city park. Nothing fancy, just a few play grounds, some covered picknic tables, and lots of grass.

Headed East

Christopher is tolerating spending his days in the car seat. He was amazing while we packe up the house and spent the last two nights in his Pack n Play with no complaints. But last night at the Reno Holiday Inn, he conned us into pulling him into bed at 2am. We tried to get up early and get him into the car to finish sleeping, but he never went back to sleep. Tomorrow we'll try again. With luck, we'll do better as we have a 10 hour drive ahead of us.

I am uploading a video of Christopher draggin himself across the floor of our hotel room in Salt Lake City. I'll add a link once it completes.

more movies

Two more Christopher movies.

Uncle Geary

Geary stopped by last week at the end of a business trip to see his nephew and feed him beer. Christopher had a great time with his uncle. Here's a video of the fun Uncle Geary inflicted.

Standing

I just uploaded a ton of pictures from the last couple of days. There are a few from a sushi restaurant. We do take him out into the world, we just tend to forget the camera. These are the first pictures of Chris in the wild in a little while.

More exciting is the picture of Christopher standing (on the right). It is completely staged. You can see that my hands are blurred because I'm quickly pulling them back so Mandy can take the picture. But he really doesn't need much help to stand these days.

Teeth

I've been bad about photos lately. There was a lull in late March. I tried to have the camera with me more this week, but almost all the shots are in our living room. We do get out, really.

Last week, Christopher got teeth. Here he is with his toothbrush.

A Chip off the old block

Christopher is assuredly my son. Today, at dinner, he started getting fussy. We were stumped. He had slept just an hour earlier. We changed his diaper right before he went into the high chair. Plus, he was being fed.

Apparently, the food was coming too slowly. On a whim, we put the bowl to his mouth and just shoveled the food in. Using the new method, he finished the cereal and carrots in under a minute. Next, he cleaned out half a tub of applesauce and the the rest of the peas and rice from breakfast. He looked like he wanted more, so we cracked open some bananas. In a few seconds, the tub was bare. The empties just kept piling up.

He was mad because the spoon was taking too long. Yup. He's definitely mine.

New Movie: Spitting Pears

I just posted a new movie. Christopher invented a new game involving blowingg rapberries whenever we give him a spoonful of food. Joey is a big fan.

Update: now on youtube.