A lunch time visit with Jill and Kate

I don't remember the last time Jill and I were able to together in person. It feels like it's been at least a year. We talk on the phone as we can and keep up with each other's life events through blogs and Facebook otherwise. But, actually in the same room together?!

Fortunately, today worked out and we were able to provide Jill and her daughter, Kate, with a lunch break on their drive to Salem to visit Jill's parents.

Saul and Kate are just 19 days apart. Kate born June 1 and Saul born June 19. As we walked to the local deli, it was so fun to look down on the kids in their strollers as they talked and sang together. Jill and I were able to talk while pushing them. Then the kids played together in the play area at the deli--rocking on Ikea rocking horses, talking on the phone, playing with all the toys--while Jill and I caught up. How crazy that without any effort our first kids are so close in age and our second kids will only be about three months apart - me due any day and Jill due in mid-May.

A few pictures of Kate and Saul playing a little before they continued on their drive:

Drawing together on the chalk board.

Jam session part 1: Kate playing the xylophone and Saul singing along.
Jam session part 2: Saul accompanying Kate's xylophone with his rooty-toot-toot.

CO Trip Days 3 - 5: Denver to Leadville to Salida

On Saturday morning we went to a gorgeous community center in one of the burbs outside of the city for a dragon boat team practice that Aaron found. While he was paddling in a boat held stationery in a pool, Saul and I went for a very crisp morning walk and then ended up playing on the playground at the center. It was a great way to burn off some energy before sitting in the car for a while.

Dry air = static electricity + bright sun = hair-lo (halo)

Fortunately, we had room for Saul in the car! This is his one nap of the day while driving from Denver to Leadville. We experienced a brief snow storm cloud and beautiful but very cold weather on the drive. So amazing and such beautiful mountains.

Saul sleeping while surrounded by luggage.

By the last few days he would say, "Move bag. No bag!" (Also notice the winter sweater.)

Salida is one of the towns we visited on our honeymoon. We fondly remember the pizza and brew pub and the rose quartz location. It really hadn't changed that much in the historic area off the main highway. We had coffee and explored the little shops on a quiet Sunday morning, also letting Saul burn off some energy before the drive to the Sand Dunes.

The next few are at Sand Dunes National Park. It was really cold and ended up snowing on our hike back to the car. Saul was NOT pleased with this, was tired, and generally was ready to be done. However, on the way up and while exploring the dunes during Aaron's 33 minute hike up and 6 minutes down, Saul definitely had fun walking in the sand with bare feet.

Fussy cold face.

"Go this way," he would tell me.

I'm not sure what his directional sense was telling him,

but he definitely knew which way he wanted to go.

Bath time and cuddling with babies

Saul loves bath time and is having more and more fun with his "dada". Some nights he'll request that "dada coming" to bathtime. The cup is used for rinshing him off. However, he also likes to drink out of it. To keep him from drinking bubble bath water, we turn the faucet on really low with cold water, rinse the bubbles out and fill a bit with water. The northern European in Saul appears to like taking a few sips and then dumping the remainder of the cold water on his own belly. He always inhales from the shock of it and asks for more.


The next few shots are Saul with his baby dolls. Santa Clause got him the doll on his left (right side of the pic) and Auntie Julie and family got him the bigger doll on his right. When Nanny Vicky asked Saul one day in late January if big baby had a name Saul replied, "Nini". And Vicky suggested that maybe the little doll could be Bobby. And that's the way it is.

Saul's taken to cuddling with Nini, Bobby or both, depending on the evening and whether we can easily locate them.

Pointing to Nini.

Cuddling his babies.

Saul in a sweater

In keeping with the intended play on words, it's finally time to post a picture of something yarn-related. Of course, Saul's also involved. Here's a picture of him in early October wearing a newborn-sized sweater I made for him before we knew just what a big kid he would be. I only forced him to wear this long enough for me to take a few pictures as proof that he actually wore it. I have a larger version in the same pattern that I'll need to be sure to document soon.

(Note to self: don't make super warm sweaters in newborn sizes for June babies!)

Contrast II

Another example of Saul's growth as seen through the position in which he sits in his high chair. This top picture is from Saturday (12/13)--the kid probably thought he was being followed by the paparrazzi this weekend! The bottom picture is from mid-August. I think it's time to remove the little infant head rest from the chair.

Contrast I

Proof that our son is growing and we change our sheets at least every five months! The top picture is from last week and the bottom picture is from mid-July.

The pacifier

We have a few pacifiers in the house -- two or three are just loose and one has wooden beads on a rope attached to it so we can clasp it to something (like his shirt) to keep it from hitting the ground. Saul discovered last week that the pacifiers without the string are great for more than sucking or teething. They also make for silly faces! Below are pictures of his new "trick".

Daycare fun

I've noticed in the last few days that Saul is really in tune with older kids. He loves to watch them at the coffee shop and was particularly interested in neighbor Ella (almost 5) and Jessica's little girl Sophie (almost 3) today. It made me realize that he's around two older kids at day care three times a week and is paying close attention to them. Oscar turns two soon and Violet is about 18 months. Corbin-a June 2 baby-is there, too. Corbin's moving around a little more than Saul right now. Of course, we found Saul spending some very determined floor time this last weekend trying to figure out how to keep up! This involved laying on his belly, arching his back and moving his arms and legs as quickly as possible ("swimming") with deep gutteral noises for full effect.

All of these thoughts reminded me that Marian, Saul's daycare provider, has kindly sent us pictures on a number of occasions so I thought I'd post some to share.

Playing on his 5-month birthday.

Playing outside on a cool afternoon.

The happy guy at play.

A teething baby

Saul is teething . . . again. It feels like we just got through his bottom two teeth making their way up and now he is definitely working on his top two teeth. Before we were fine with him using our fingers to gum but now he has more than gums and his teeth are sharp! Uncle Jeff can attest to this. He rode in the back seat with Saul the other afternoon and loudly hollered, "Ouch!" after kindly (and ignorantly) letting Saul nosh on his finger.

We keep finding ourselves comparing Saul to a puppy. But it's true! Between the whimpering, chewing on anything in sight and the cuteness-factor, the comparison is definitely there. Here are a few picture of Saul chewing on anything in sight this weekend.

Chewing on his book

Chewing on his pacifier.

Chewing on his chew toy . . . I mean teething toy!

Saul loves the shower!

In the midst of Saul's three weeks of a snotty cold, ear infection AND teething, we discovered that the steam from Aaron's shower in the morning was a great way to get his stuffy nose flowing. Saul and I would hang out in the steamy bathroom (easy since we have no fan) and use the shower curtain to play peak-a-boo with Aaron. A few times, I would hand a naked Saul in to Aaron to let him get enveloped by the steam and to just make it fun. We found he loves it!

To rinse off the overnight diaper dampness this morning, Saul got to join Aaron in the shower and embrace his nakedness! Don't worry, we cut off the photo in just the right spot.

Lulled to sleep

The stroller has proven to be a place that induces sleep. Saul may be awake on the walk to Jim & Patty's, but he'll definitely be asleep on the walk home. Only once was he awake on an entire expedition in the stroller, and that was on a walk to Trader Joe's and back sometime in late-September. He must have just woken up from a nap when we started out.

These pictures were taken last Saturday morning when I walked/jogged during Aaron's dragon boat practice. I couldn't resist stopping to catch both my breath and these pics of Saul.


And, for comparison, here is a similar shot in August, when the weather obviously impacted Saul's attire.

We're going live!

I've given up on trying to catch up and, as Michelle said recently, "Just start!" So, here we go - I'll send the blog address out to everyone after this post and then see what happens.

Aaron has the flickr page with Saul pics, but there are stories and other things to share that I think will be easier to do this way.

This four-day holiday weekend is so nice. We went to Barbara's for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, back to an old tradition from before Alexandra left for college - and now she's a college graduate! Saul had a place setting at the table in his hippo highchair and a nice wooden spoon. He didn't eat anything, but clearly found the company entertaining.

Below are a few pictures from earlier in the day. His face is so expressive! I couldn't resist posting a few of the Thanksgiving morning photo shoot.

One month birthday

We've officially been parents for a month. The good news is that according to the stats the little guy is thriving.

6/19/08: Weighed 8 lbs, 14 oz and was 21.5 in long

7/17/08: Weighed 10 lbs, 8 oz and was 22.5 in long

We're really getting a sense of his personality. Saul makes great noises (particularly while eating), loves to lay on the floor and bat at his toys, and provides us with smiles that make it impossible to have a bad day.

Saul's first month

Here's an assortment of pictures taken in the last month. Saul's definitely the same little boy, but it's still amazing to see how fast he grows and how much he changes even daily. His toes now touch the end of the little booties that he wore home from the hospital and we were barely able to keep on him at the time because they were so big.

Saul chillin' with his dad, or papa. We haven't decided what we'd like Saul to call Aaron. Of course, Saul will ultimately decide.


This is one of my favorite pictures of Saul. There's so much character in his expression. And those bright eyes capture the essence of what I see in him - an alertness and interest in what's going on around him that has us saying, "But he's only X weeks old!" No, we're not proud parents!

The little guy is celebrating the 4th of July with all the energy he can muster after a good feeding.

And, a classic baby pose.

Saul Warren's birthday - June 19, 2008

I hope this is the last bit of catch up. Then the goal is to keep up-to-date with pictures and stories about Saul growing up. I still haven't gotten to the other reason for the name of my blog . . . another day.

Here's a picture of Aaron and me heading out the door to the hospital around 5:30 in the morning. It was taken by our doula, Jill, and is a good representation of how HUGE I got carrying our little guy.

We were so glad we had Doula Jill with us! I'm not sure that Aaron or I would have thought about morning traffic. But she made sure we understood that we should either go early or we wouldn't want to go until around 9 a.m. Things were moving quickly enough, we went for the earlier option and are very glad we did. Saul was born at 12:40 in the afternoon.

Here's a picture of Saul very shortly after he was born. It's one of my favorite pictures, partly because the facial expression is one that I continue to see and love.

And here's another picture of the little guy. In both this and the last picture, you can see that he had not yet been cleaned up. But, he had already made his first poo and was working on sucking.

Growing belly

We didn't get all that many pictures of my growing belly. Here are a few from mid-April.





















The belly is much more prominent now. Aaron took a few pictures about a week ago, but we haven't downloaded them yet. Let me just say that today while at Trader Joe's a woman walking by asked, "When are you due?!" I just can't tell complete strangers how many days PAST due I am. Instead, my answer is simply, "Any day now."

Michelle was with me and after we were out of ear shot of the lady I just had to ask, "Do I really look that big?" Michelle's answer was a definitive, "YES!" Oh, well. I guess I'm supposed to considering there's a fully baked baby in this belly of mine.

A Green Theme

Green has always been a favorite color of mine. See the blog colors for proof!

The color is in my name and my birthstone (emerald). It's also that deep rich color found in the northwest outdoors. All in all, I find it a very soothing color. Now green is being applied to the little guy's room. It's been fun to see things come together so well. Here's a picture of the green application in the baby's room. We love the curtains! The little table and chairs were a gift from a friend of Julie's, in Tillamook.

Slow Adopter

I can be a a slow adopter. Sometimes I just wait for others to prove to me that the time and effort to transition to a new medium is worth it. When it comes to blogging, that day has finally come and I have succumbed to blog pressure. The pressure was not directly applied. Family and friends have so successfully used their blogs to communicate with other family and friends that I've decided that it's worth trying with the upcoming arrival of Baby Wieting and my insane need to be creative through crochet.

Due three days ago (6.7.08), Baby Wieting is a primary reason for this blog. (The other key reason being crochet.) Below is one of Baby Wieting's earliest pictures taken at about 20 weeks in utero. Yes, he's waving a greeting to all of his fans. The next few posts will be some catch up on all things baby and other related interests.