8 months

Enjoying a little rest (in my bed).

He LOVES my Nalgene bottle almost as much as I do.

Focusing hard - Going to get it

So close!

Classic Derek "smile" - as soon as he sees the camera.

Little tuxedo, Big day

This weekend my little brother got married.  It's still hard to believe.  I still think of his being about 10 years old playing in the creek catching fish with his bare hands or climbing trees.  

About 2 weeks before the big day, our camera had an unfortunate incident with the pavement so we quickly purchased a new one.  It arrived about a week before the wedding so we didn't have much time to try it out and did not have as many good pictures as I would have liked.  But it was a wonderful weekend and so nice to spend it with all of our family.  

Decorating began Friday afternoon but I was a bit under the weather so I stayed home and joined the fun at the rehearsal.  

Dad helping Christopher try on his tux.

Rehearsing

Rehearsal - from Mike's point of view

Everything went smoothly at the rehearsal so we headed off to dinner.  The restaurant was previously closed because it changed ownership but opened special just for us under the new owners.  I couldn't even tell you what dinner was because I was still feeling pretty sick so I had a light supper.  But I heard from other people that it was pretty good.

My dinner - some crackers and water.

For the girls, getting ready on Saturday was a memorable experience.  Even though the stylists were confirmed the day before, we still had to wait almost an hour for them to arrive.  But when they did, we were cruising though getting everyone's hair done.  We had about half of the girls' hair styled when it started pouring outside.  It had turned almost night time black outside and water was rushing down the street and over the wheel wells of the cars.  We watched the storm from inside as we chatted, ate, and got hair done.  Then the lights flickered but the power stayed on.  Whew!  About five minutes later, the lights flickered again and this time we weren't so lucky - the power was out.  It's pretty hard to style women's hair without power - no blow dryer, curling iron, flat iron, etc. While we were waiting, Katie's relatives kept stopping by to check on her and give her status updates like "There is a big tree down and you can't get to the reception site.  [long pause]  But don't worry, I've got some of my best people on it with chainsaws"  and "There is a tree down and can't take X road to get into the church but we are taking care of it."  I sat there listening to them and was getting nervous myself.  I wanted to lock the door so no one else could come in with any "news".  Katie however, remained completely calm and didn't seem distressed by these updates at all.  I couldn't believe how calm she remained through the whole thing - still smiling and cracking jokes with family and friends.

 After about 30 minutes, checking with neighboring business, and phone calls to the electric company, it was clear it would be some time before the power was restored.  Oddly enough, the businesses across the street still had power.  So the stylists went over and asked if we could use their power and a back room to finish up.  The owner said yes (I can only imagine this happening in a small town like Northfield) and pretty soon there were bridesmaids wearing black capes and shower caps (we didn't want to get what part of our hair was done wet) running through the rain across the river, that used to be the street, to Edward Jones Investment office.  One of the stylists even lost her shoe in the water and couldn't find it because it was swept away!  We completely took over the bathroom and back room with 2 people getting their hair styled, make-up being done, and people coming and going.  That man was amazingly generous with his time and building and really saved the day.  Katie rushed back to get dressed and was ready to meet Christopher:

Waiting to take Katie out for pictures

Cousin Nate (ring bearer) & Christopher

My men - looking so handsome!

My in-laws came down to watch Derek for us since both Mike and I were in the wedding.  We said it was fine if other people held him and passed him around, but I felt so much better knowing that one person knew what was going on with him.  If he started crying, someone who just received him wouldn't know if he needed a nap, was hungry, (and if he was hungry, what he could eat and how much), etc.  They served as a point person for us for Derek and because of their help, I was truly able to focus on and enjoy the wedding.  Never once was I wondering if Derek was okay.

Chuck & Nancy (Mike's parents) and us.

Barb & Mike (my parents) and us.

All cleaned up and showing off his little tuxedo.

Pictures were held before the ceremony began.  Chuck & Nancy arrived early so Derek could be in some photos with us.  The pictures and ceremony time completely conflicted with his afternoon nap.  By the time the ceremony was ready to start, Derek was exhausted and crabby.  We were able to find a quite room in the church for him to relax and he slept throughout the entire ceremony.  The reception was at Carlton College and was beautiful.

Creative photographers - I love this picture.

As the clinking of the glasses continued throughout the night, Christopher and Katie became more creative with kisses.  At one point, they grabbed Derek and each kissed him on the cheek.  I'm bummed because this would have been a great picture....if only we still weren't learning how to use our new camera.

Kisses from Uncle Christopher & Aunt Katie

First Dance

Mom & Christopher dancing

I'm so glad though that he and Katie found each other - they make a truly wonderful couple and we are so blessed that she's now an official member of our family.

Mama, Mama, Mama

Derek has been babbling a lot lately but nothing really makes sense.  I try to repeat what he says back to him and wait until he talks again so he is learning conversation skills.  Today, Derek's babbling caused both Mike and I to stop in our tracks and look at each other.  I asked if he just said Mama.  Mike confirmed that's what he heard too.  I don't think it was wishful thinking on our part.  I really did sound like it.  Derek has no idea what it means but it makes me so happy to know his first word is Mama.  :-)

Date Night

We opted to try a date night exchange with some friends we met in baby class.  They only live a few blocks away and also have a little boy who is two months older than Derek.  Last night was our first outing.  We dropped Derek off around 6 pm (bedtime) with the only instructions being that he should sleep.  We gave them an extra bottle "just in case" and off to supper we went.

We had a nice time.  I experimented with some new foods.  My experimentation was due to our groupon - no down side to trying something you might not like if you have to "spend" the money anyway.  Oddly enough, I really liked the appetizer that was "new" and the main dish I was expecting like was not so great.  We had a nice time catching up on our weekend apart and rarely even talked about Derek.  

When we picked him up, he had been really fussy and hard to get to sleep.  It always seems to be the opposite of what you tell people.  They needed the bottle and made it all work - thankfully they are very used to the "go with the flow" attitude and "try, try again" motto until something works.  Plus, one of them is my exercise buddy so we frequently chat while working out and we had just seen each other so she knew some of the tips to get him to sleep from our conversations.

My biggest take away from the evening was to leave clearer instructions for babysitters (and more info than "he should sleep") like what to do just in case something that never happens, happens.  Regardless, it was a nice date night and a chance for us to reconnect as a couple (vs just being parents).  I'm looking forward to future date nights.  :-)

Eye Exam

Derek has his first eye exam yesterday.  We learned about this program called InfantSEE through Mike's eye doctor.  She was talking about it at his exam and how it's a free program for children.  Given that we both have bad eyes and have to wear contacts, we figure Derek is doomed so the sooner we know this and get him to be able to see clearly, the better.

We went into the appointment not knowing exactly how they do an test the eyes of someone who cannot respond back.  The doctor was very nice and explained each test she did.  He sat in Mike's lap the entire appointment and did very well.  She started by squeaking a toy in front of him and then bringing another one up around the side of his body to test his peripheral vision.  If he looked at the toy, he could see it.  The next test involved shinning a light into his eye (she moved the light to where he was) so she could see into his eye a little bit to test for cataracts, retinoblastoma, and eye alignment.

One of the last tests she did performed was to test his prescription.  I was seriously wondering about this one - he can't read back letters.  The tests involves holding up two ping pong paddles.  One is a light grey and the other has black & white stripes.  She explained that babies like to look at the more interesting items so they will naturally look at the stripped one.  She would mix up the paddles and then lift the paddles to watch his eyes to see which one he looked at.  He had to get 2 of 3 attempts to pass that round.  Each subsequent round, the stripes would be closer together and harder to distinguish - which paddles he looked at effectively determined his prescription.  Right now he is seeing 20/20.  Yay!!!

The one test we opted not to do was the eye dilation.  It's a similar process to that of adults.  Given that we were going to be going outside a lot that evening and the following day (with no real way of keeping sunglasses on him), we passed on this test.  She said the test results would not prompt action but rather create a baseline for future visits.

First 4th of July

Mike and I had separate plans for the weekend but both came home on Sunday so we could spend the holiday together as a family.  The morning of the 4th, we had family nap time and in the afternoon we all went to the parade.  Since we didn't get there early to get a "good spot" along the curb because Derek was taking a nap, we just walked down to the high school where the parade was ending and found a spot under a tree to watch the tail end as the parade ended near the parking lot.  This worked out surprisingly well because Derek could still see everything and was amused by all of the activity and we stayed nice and cool.

Happy watching the parade

Smiles a plenty.

Even got some candy.

Couldn't take his eyes off of the parade long enough to look at the sucker.

Visit with Great Grandma

Derek and I took advantage of the long weekend and headed out of town to WI to see my grandma, Derek's great grandma.  She doesn't do a lot of traveling so this was the first time they met.  It was a long trip over there - it should have been a 4 hour ride and I purposely left at night thinking he would sleep 90% of the trip - Nope!  He had other ideas and was not happy.  My 4 hour trip turned into 6 hours and he didn't fall asleep until it got dark and we were only about an hour away.

Derek was excellent at great-grandmas.  He showed off all of his talents:  rolling over, sitting up, eating solids, and sleeping through the night.  We went for a walk every day and he loved every minute of it.

Happy meeting Great Grandma for the first time.

Great Grandma has the magic touch.

Yum, yum!

On Sunday, I planned to leave around bedtime (6 pm) but he started showing signs of being tired after eating at 4:30 so I quickly packed the car and we were on the road by 5 pm.  Thankfully the trip home was sooo much better and he slept most of it.