Kyle's First Airshow

On Saturday, we took Kyle to his first airshow. It was all the way up in Broomfield and it was like a bizillion degrees out on the tarmac. Kyle (for obvious reasons), didn't last long even under the shade of a bunch of blankets made tent. We got to see a few aerobatic airplanes before having to walk back to the car. After feeding him in the car, we were able to find a spot of shade next to our car to watch the rest of the show from. (In hindsight, this is what we should've done for the entire show and saved the $40).

Kyle didn't seem as excited for the B-2 flyover as Mom and Dad were, but he was a huge fan of the very loud F-16 and F-18. You could tell he was trying to track it in the sky, but they were just so fast!

It was a great experience for all of us and we hope to continue to show Kyle how exciting aeronautics (and astronautics) are. I think it's a given he'll grow to understand them both with parents like us!

How did I become an engineer?

My parents came by today to drop off a bunch of my old toys and games thinking Kyle may someday use them. In doing a survey of them, it became quite obvious how I grew interested in engineering:

A 200 in one electronics lab kit: I enjoyed flip-flops that weren't worn on my feet (ok only a few of you may even get that...)

Erector sets! These were the best!

And you can't forget the ever-important Legos.

My first learning "laptop" (wish I could find the picture of me writing a Magic 8-ball game in VBASIC when I was 6-- wow, I'm a nerd)

A super-fun race-car track. Okay, so my brother beat me a lot with this toy, but it was still a lot of fun!

Amongst all these nerdy toys did lie a more "girly" item... one of the few "dolls" I owned:

I'm not sure what hope lies in Kyle not becoming a nerd given his two parents. I would consider ourselves blessed if we get a kid JUST LIKE US. :)

I'm an Ikea Hacker

It's official, I can call myself an Ikea hacker. I love the Sweden company's simple lines and thought their bookcase was a perfect toy chest for Kyle, but I wasn't sold on the white doors with dark brown wood. So, I tackled the following "art" project:

Before: here's the bookcase as it came with purchased fabric baskets from Bed Bath in green ($15 for 4).

Dissembling the door and undoing the hinges yields a blank slate.

I purchased 4 sheets of 12"x12" scrapbook paper in a rocket pattern (but of course!). Cost = $3.99 for 4 sheets
I purchased 1 jar of Mod Podge ($4) and penciled in corners 1/2" in from each side (the door is 13"x13"). I painted a thick layer of Mod Podge with a sponge brush on to the door directly. I encourage you to strongly adhere (no pun intended) to their directions of using a generous amount of podge near the edges. You end up with wrinkles otherwise (I learned this the hard way).

After using a roller and wax paper to get the wrinkles out, I applied two layers of Mod Podge to the top of the paper letting each layer dry 15-20 minutes. It'll look glossy and somewhat cloudy until it dries. Note: I used the Matte finish version of Mod Podge.

After drilling holes through the paper and applying metal knobs, simply reassemble the doors/hinges and viola, you've got a beautiful custom cabinet for toys!

Here's the final piece! I'm pretty happy with it even if it took me a few doors to get the hang of it. The wrinkles just add character! Not bad for a total price under $175.

Play time

Kyle really loves his sisters. They aren't always huge fans of him (yet), but every once in awhile, Sequoia gets brave and decides to sniff him or sit and watch him play. Today she brought her yellow bone to him.

I think Sequoia is fascinated (as am I) by how much Kyle has his tongue out. She's often curious and tries to figure it out by sniffing.

She's really quite the excellent dog-- she's content to just sit and watch him. She's not at all jealous of him touching her toys and understands which aren't hers. That may change once he's mobile, but we're quite happy with her behavior at the moment.

Kyle has been rolling over front to back since he was 2 months, but he's only once gone back to tummy. He often is very close, so I don't imagine it'll be long before he does it consistently.

Another blanket!

I had some really cute fabric that matched burp clothes I made earlier with owls on it, so I decided to make another minky blanket. This will be my last one as they are expensive and harder than flannel blankets. It turned out really cute though. I can't decide if I like this one or the Robots one more. Kyle likes them both!

Happy 4 months!

Hard to believe Kyle is already 4 months old! Time has just flown by. I honestly can say I never thought it was possible to love a baby as much as I love Kyle. He's a miracle. He's precious. He makes me smile. He makes me cry. But most of all, he makes me love!

His 4 month old check up went well. He's 14.5 lbs and 24.5" tall with a 90th percentile head (!). Kyle has always had a huge head-- I think he was born with a head in the 95th percentile (I would argue that this is why his entrance was so painful!). He's a bit on the short side (must get that from me) and his weight gain has slowed a bit since we started daycare, but Ped says he's still doing perfect on just mommy's milk. Doc says he would like to see him go to 6 months on just my milk and then we can start introducing solid foods after nursing sessions. He's a great little feeder, so I have no issues with that plan.

The Ped did alot of tests and asked a few questions to gauge his social and motor development skills. Dr. Bob once asked "have you noticed if he has learned to put his hands together yet?" and Dave replied while pointing to Kyle "you mean like that?" It was as if Kyle heard what Dr. Bob was asking and wanted to show how smart he was by performing the action Dr. Bob was asking about! Such a good boy! He put him on his tummy to see if he could lift his head and was surprised that Kyle immediately lifted his head, pushed up with his arms and started scanning the room. He's definitely always been very strong!

He got his 4 month vaccines too. It's always so hard on me because he goes from pure happy and content to mad screaming. He doesn't like them AT ALL. He's actually a bit of a drama king about it. So far though he has handled the side effects better than he did at 2 months. He hasn't run a fever and he's still slept pretty well. He's quite a bit fussier when he's awake, but it'll pass, so I'm tolerating it.

Kyle's favorite blanket

Kyle hasn't really shown a preference to any particular blanket yet, but I can tell he loves the one I made for him this past week. It's the cutest, softest blanket! One side is green minky-dot fabric (feels like velvet!) and the other side is a quilted pattern of chenille and robot flannel. Turns out minky isn't the friendliest of fabrics for a newbie sewer, but I managed and I think it turned out pretty well! I really hope it becomes his "beakie" someday.

Picnic

Last Saturday, we took Kyle and all the dogs for a picnic lunch at the sledding hill park. We enjoyed sandwiches and drinks in the little shelter. It was a beautiful day full of sunshine. Kyle wore his "Grandpa Pete" hat and sported a fantastic smile for us:

Giggle fit

Kyle has been providing us tons of laughs for a couple months now, but tonight's giggle fest was especially funny. While his belly laugh is pretty cute, this grunting laughter is just outright hilarious! Enjoy!