First food?

We've tried to hold off until 6 months--but sometimes if he fusses while we are eating, then we just hand him something to keep him quiet. He sucked on this pepper for a good ten minutes. We also gave him a lemon a couple weeks ago, and it produced exactly the facial expressions I'd hoped for. Jerry has that video on his phone, so I'll have to get it on here sometime. These are the fun times of parenthood.

Natural Eggs Part 2

My commitment to eating "natural" often leaves me feeling hypocritical. I attempt to avoid the artificial mostly at times when it seems fun. Case in point: coloring Easter eggs. Why buy a PAAS kit at the dollar store when I can experiment with everyday household food items? Last year's attempt left me with some cute little dinosaur eggs, and this year I have a couple...yin yangs? After soaking these eggs in a bowl of beets, fully expecting to get pink or purply loveliness, all I ended up with was mottled, chestnutty brown. Well, that's the fun of Mother Nature. Wholly capricious and artsy in her own way, never one to walk to the drum of modern holiday cheer.

ps. the eggs tasted like beets. Not bad.

Denim

Babies in jeans! Need I say more.

Sitting Up

Since he can't quite sit up unsupported, I was concerned that Little outgrowing his infant seat would cause a few problems when we went out. But I needn't have worried; he has just enough control to enjoy himself in a high chair at restaurants:

Sorry that picture above is so blurry--it was taken with Jerry's phone, plus that Lo wouldn't quit flailing his arms.
And buckled into shopping carts works pretty well too! We couldn't get him to look at the camera for this shot, because he was so fascinated by the shopping cart.

photos

A few weeks ago we had prefessional photos done that were just the look I had been yearning to capture--natural, candid, warm feeling photos.

Let's start with Little Tam, ever content in Daddy's arms:

double-chin Lo: Little-fishy-lips Lo
(SUCH a typical face of his!):

A bit off-kilter pose, but I LOVE that Lo's face:

Here's a more classic version of that same shot:

Colors always pop more in the cold, don't they:

Lo started to get zoned-out tired after about an hour. He still looked great though:

And last but not least, gotta include the most important member of our family in this photo shoot, our brother--our Savior--Jesus the Christ.
We love so many of the pictures from that day, we are having a hard time deciding which ones to hang on the wall.

Child Restraint Device

Turns out it was good timing for coffee to get spilled on our other car seat (aka child restraint device, I learned from reading the instruction manual). Lo had outgrown his infant seat's weight limit a few weeks ago and we were procrastinating moving him to the convertible. The coffee incident was the motivation we needed:




This new seat has no sun blocker, so we need to get some cling coverings for the windows to block out the sunshine. But WOW does that sunshine feel good. Hello Springtime. =)
He looks little again in this new seat.

And just for comparison, here he was a week or two ago in his old seat.

We miss being able to carry a sleeping child in from the car, as first of all, he doesn't sleep as well in the new seat since it doesn't recline as far, and secondly even if he did fall asleep in it, the new carseat is so huge and heavy we wouldn't be able to bring him into the house without extracting him from the seat first. Thereby waking him.

Anyway, we'll adjust. Upward and onward. This baby is growing so fast! We love our big Little.

(Un)lucky (non)Irish

Yesterday I forgot it was St. Patrick's Day. So did Jerry, but at least he accidentally wore a green shirt to work. I wore pink, and dressed Little in blue and yellow. And then we went shopping with a friend.

In hopes of rectifying my mistake for the latter half of the holiday, I changed Little into some green attire when we got home from shopping, and then us Tams went out to dinner. We had been eyeing two coupons that came in the mail: One was for a place that we knew served alcohol, so we decided to avoid it since the holiday might make it extra crowded. The other coupon we decided to use. It happened to be for a deli, and apparently this deli specializes in corned beef. And cabbage. Yes. They were overflowing with crowds dressed in green, wearing green painted faces, donning shamrock hats and leprechaun purses. But at this point we were fairly hungry and just decided to wait until a table was available.

We ended up getting wedged into a spot that must have been invented just for the holiday crowd. We had to put Little's carseat next to the table on the ground, and it touched both our table and the one next to us. The patron next to us promptly tipped her full mug of coffee into the carseat--thankfully after we had removed the baby. I was rather in shock, and did not do much at the time except wipe pitifully at the saturated seat with Little's blanket. I told a server nearby that we would need something to make the seat useable for the drive home. She retrieved for us a rag from the kitchen. "Can you spread this in the seat while you drive home?" I agreed it should work. But as we drove home, breathing the happy aroma of our infant seat and listening to the unhappy noise of a baby wail in his wetness, I began to wonder.

Should I have done something more? Should I write to the manager...requesting...what? Perhaps less crowded seating? Or maybe an apology? A free lunch?

Some accidents just "happen," and there truly is nobody to blame. So I'm still not sure, but debating in my mind. Thoughts?

ah, family

Here are the remaining pictures from our trip to Boise last week. I still feel a tinge of homesickness brought on by that little vacation! Sometimes it is hard to live far from family. It was so fun to see our Lo get doted on the way only family can do. We are already planning our next trip back there in the Fall, and are also looking forward to seeing the Hong Kong family in November. The 4 generation shot (my parents, my mom's parents, and us Little Tam Fam).
A rare Boise nap; because of all the excitement and noise, Little's naps tended to be short or non-existent. Oh my yes. We are glad to be back to the sleep routine here in Ohio.

Grandpa Dean picked us up from the airport when we flew in, and this is a shot of the first-ever meeting between Grandpa and Lo.


Grandpa Clark with Jerry. (Jerry's tie is tucked because we were in the middle of a meal)



Uncle Justin, with all the expertise his three years of Spanish class could muster, gave some Spanish children's book reading to that Lo. We also went to one of Justin's lacrosse games while we were in Boise, and I do not have a picture of it, but have to say it was one of the most exciting athletic events observed in my life. Picture a cross between swashbuckling, rugby, and Quidditch.

Uncle Matthew and that Lo. When Little first saw Matthew's facial hair, he couldn't stop staring, and then he reached up with his chubby hands and buried his fingers in Matthew's chin. Wish I'd had a picture of that moment. Then Matthew kissed Lo, who began to cry, and that was the end of facial hair appreciation day.

After the blessing, we had a big dinner at the church with friends and family. Lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles came from afar to visit with us, and we are so grateful to feel of their love. Especially thanks to all who contributed to the food and cleanup--even little cousin Kevin was a big help putting away chairs.

Aunt Stefani created this amazing honeybee cake. Since Grandpa Walter was a beekeeper, we all like the hive analogy for our big hardworking Steele family. Little Tam is just one more bumble bee to add to the bunch. These little bees on the cake were such a hit with the kids at the gathering. The bees are made of peanut M&M's, with chocolate eyes and stripes, and gumdrop sparkles of wings.

Some of the bees "landed" on the rice krispie squares as well. =) This is the dessert table at the gathering.

And one last picture of a Boise nap. It was so special whenever he finally fell asleep, we always had to whip out the camera to document.

First Flight

It was nice having the car seat there so we could hoard an entire row all to ourselves. Sorry for the blurry shots, but that Lo never really stops moving these days, so there ya go.

Little stayed chipper for the flight to Boise, and got lots of compliments from fellow travelers. He did mostly alright on the return trip home as well, but since he was tired after a big weekend, we had a few tearful moments. Next time we will try to avoid the late-night flight home if we can.

We just got back from a trip to Boise where we had Little's baby blessing. In our church, baptism is not performed on infants, but parents can choose to have their babies blessed by someone with authority. Since Jerry holds the priesthood, he got to bestow the blessing for our son. It was a special one compared to others I have heard, maybe mostly because it was for my own Little, but also because the opening included both Little's Chinese and English names. Grandpa Dean, Great-Grandpa Clark, and several uncles also participated. One of the members of the bishopric (seated on the stand above Little during the ordinance) told me afterward that as he was watching to make sure everything was done correctly, he had to smile because the baby was smiling, eyes alert and watching his daddy the whole time.

After church we had a meal with friends and family. More pics of that and the rest of the trip to follow...though it may take me a couple days because we are still unpacking (ack).

4 Month Stats

I forgot to report Little's 4-month stats. We had his appointment last week, though his 4 month birthday was yesterday.

Height/length: 26 inches

Weight: 22 lbs.

He is above the 95% for both. Apparently "Little" is not a good nickname for him. Well, we call him "Lo" most of the time anyway. I am a little weirded out, to be honest, because Jerry and I seem so average for height and weight. But I guess babies sometimes have growth spurts at different times?

Wintergreen

We stumbled upon a local greenhouse last Saturday. It turned out to be one of those happy accidents that occur while getting lost in a new city. The Little had never seen green stuff before, since the ground has been snow-covered since about the time he was born in November up until now. Notice how while Jerry and I are looking at the camera, Lo is just staring at...





Plants! It felt great to have some tropics in the middle of an actual blizzard right outside the glass windows.
Orange trees heavy with fruit.

The object of this stare-down is a fishtank. There were a lot of fish in it, just none visible from this angle.

Jerry loved, loved, loved the desert portion. It seems particularly exotic to him (whereas I grew up in a desert and was all set to zip through this section).

Once again, that Little was more concerned with staring at flowers and such rather than the camera, but here is another family shot from our fun outing.