Thor's First "Real" Photographs

With Sabre, I took to have tons of professional photographs taken to document her infancy. Fast forward 16 years to the days of digital cameras--all the pictures I have since Thor's birth announcements (taken when he was 1 day old) are candid, quick snaps with my phone or aging camera. So when I saw the gorgeous, inspired photos taken by my cousin's wife, Mindy Pitcher, I contacted her and made an appointment for her to take Thor's while we were visiting Utah in December (more on that trip later). And boy am I glad I did! Even though most of you saw them on Facebook, I am going to re-post the entire album. Why? Humph, just take a look at these:

The simple joy of having a boy:

 He makes this face all the time! It's like his tongue is way too interesting to stay put in his mouth.

 My hands are literally right out of the camera shot (I'm actually not sure if Mindy photoshopped them out or not because I remember being a lot closer than it looks in this picture!)

 And this is going to be his headshot. Seriously. Who would not want that smile promoting their product?

 This one captured the color of his hair really well. His hair is just like mine (before I colored it). It has a chameleon quality so it can look blonde one moment and dark the next.

 I'm holding onto Thor's foot here so he can't roll over--we had a devil of a time getting him to stay on his tummy (as usual!)

And there he goes! Free at last!

 He has been able to sit really well for a while .

 This one is my favorite, I think. I know, I know, there are ones that show his personality better. But this one . . . because he's not smiling his dad's infamous, gorgeous grin, he looks E X A C T L Y like a picture I have of me at the same age. And I must be very vain, because seeing him look like me makes me much happier than I ever thought it would. It's like caring for a mini-me.

 Here's his best "what did you say?" look:

 In the middle of a laugh--I see this face hundreds of times a day.

 I love that Mindy caught him biting my chin--Thor's version of kisses. He has such a death grip on my face when he does that!

 And this one is Thor in a nutshell. Mindy captured his personality perfectly.

 See how patient he was with us?

 There's that tongue again. He definitely is orally fixated.

 My rolly polly bug.

 Believe it or not, he's not even unhappy with us. He's blowing a raspberry!

 Ah ha! We wore him down for 5 seconds (that and Mindy is really fast with her camera)

 I could just stare at this one forever.

 That's Stacy that he's looking at--glad we had her there. Thor was very interested in watching her.

 Just a happy, happy boy.

 He's being entertained pretty intensely by 3 loud adults here.

 This is his "mama, I'm done now" face. No crying--his face is so expressive, I know exactly what he means most of the time. When you have a face this expressive, crying has no purpose.

 Rescued by mom! I shouldn't be surprised by how heavy (ok, fat) I look in pictures right now. I'm so used to being skinny most of my life that I forget that I'm not anymore.

And those are the fabulous pictures that Mindy took. A GREAT BIG HUMUNGOUS THANK YOU to Mindy. I knew that she was a great photographer, but these turned out better than I ever imagined because she preserved his personality with her photos, not just what he looks like. We will be loyal customers for as long as she takes pictures!

Temple Lights

Last Friday night, Eddie and Marie Lynn called and asked if we wanted to go see the Mesa Temple lights with them. Sabre had stayed home with a cold that day and Gary wasn't feeling so hot either.  But baby Thor and I were a little sick of sick people. And we were bored. So we went.

Now there had just been a cold front move through the Valley that day. It could have gotten down to 45 degrees. So I had to find Thor's hat. And a  blanket. And put him in long sleeves and pants. Boy does the rest of the world take a long time to get dressed!

I tried to feed Thor before we left, but he kept spitting out the nipple. And then we waited for Eddie and ML to pick us up. (Eddie gave Maria Lynn the nickname "ML." I don't know why--maybe because it's faster to say. It is easier to type it.) They finally got there.

As soon as we got in their car, Thor started crying. Now, this child never cries unless something is gravely wrong. So I tried feeding him in his carseat--something I hate to do--but he still wasn't happy.  We thought he'd be happy when he was out of his carseat. He was "ok" in his stroller.

He did at least smile once or twice when we took pictures of him:

But then, my perfect angel baby, screamed his head off while we walked around the temple grounds. Now, there were not a lot of people there--did I mention that it was 45 degrees?--but I did not want to spoil everyone's tranquil time. So I carried him while ML pushed the stroller. And he gave everybody this look:

And then he started crying harder. I checked his diaper, checked him all over for pokey things, tried feeding him, bounced him, talked to him--nothing seemed to help. So we walked around the grounds faster. We left after about 20 minutes because we couldn't get him to stop crying. Oh, well! Sorry Eddie and ML! We heard a few carols and there's always next year.

The only thing I can think of is that he didn't like the cold. Did I mention that it was in the mid-40s? If that's the case, he's got a rude awakening coming in about a week! I just saw the weather forecast for Ogden and did you people know that your HIGH is in the low 30s??? I'm glad he has lots of cute hats.



Thor's Kisses

Thor likes to give kisses. Big, wet, lickery kisses (like on Goonies).  If he's doing it half-hearted, he will just give you an open mouth lick on the cheek.  When he really gets into it, though, he bites your chin with his gums! It feels so weird. I should probably discourage him now from doing it before he gets any teeth. That will probably hurt. But it's so funny, all I can do is laugh.  Jenn caught him in action the otehr night. He looks like a vampire.

 After his kisses he looks at you with so much love and fun in his eyes. I can't tell him not to do it. At least until it really does hurt.

He thinks he's just one of the big kids.  His translation of kisses makes me wonder about his experiences.  Do other people's kisses really look like that to him? Is he just excited?  He sure is cute.

Christmas tree

I promised Gary I would not buy any more ornaments this year.  I have enough anyway.  Instead, I did 2 things differently.  First, I used 3 inch thick wire ribbon in gold and red that I looped in 8-10 inch loops and secured to the tree with wire ties and looped the ribbon in a scattered pattern all over the tree and let the ends randomly curl everywhere.  It looks really, really, cool.  Second, I "clustered" bulbs. I took all the plain colored bulbs and put 3-4 of them in different sizes on the same hook before putting them on the tree. My tree looks updated.

I taught Thor the "Christmas tree OUCH" game that I started when Sabre was a baby. It's pretty simple. I coo, laugh, smile, and point at the pretty Christmas ornaments and when my hand gets close enough to touch it, I jump and yell "OUCH!" really loud and frown. Then I hold Thor close to the tree while we talk and coo and when he reaches for it, I jump and shout "OUCH!" The game ends when we don't touch the tree anymore. Sounds stupid, but I'm telling you that my kids (and my dogs) don't touch my Christmas tree. Instead, we play at the base of it and stare and smile at it forever. And Sabre turned out fine--no hangups about Christmas trees.

Thor is 6 months old!

Ok, so I am about a week late in reporting that Thor hit the 6 month mark. I took him in for his 6 month shots and flu shot last Thursday. He only screamed after the 3rd shot. I thought that was pretty good.

Side note--I really think it should be illegal not to give your child vaccines. This happens to be one of the only parenting choices I think the government should make and I despise paternalistic laws, but vaccines I think are different. Most times, your choices affect your child the most. An unvaccinated child affects others in a direct, physical, sometimes horrible way. If a parent's choice not to vaccinate only affected their child--i.e. only their child had a chance of dying--I can't say that I would care very much.  If that parent wants to risk losing their child, well that's their problem.  An unvaccinated child, however, is more like a suicide bomber.  If he's going, he's going to take out the rest of the people around him as well.  And that's where I have the problem.  If I were in charge of the world, I would criminally charge parents whose unvaccinated children infected someone else.  It's exactly as if those parents let their 2 year old walk around with a handgun saying "oh, it's alright, the safety is on"--a little too dangerous to others in the vicinity.  Anywho...

For those of you that didn't see Thor's cute 6 month picture, here you go:

You can't see it, but he has a Crayola green skeleton on his shirt-it's one of my favorite shirts of his. Now that he's a little older (and it's winter so he needs more layers) I am having a great time dressing him! He is so patient with it, too. We "play" for an hour just dressing him in different outfits. He thinks it's a great game. So do I.

As you can see, he also sits up very well by himself. Last night we sat on his playmat in front of the Christmas tree all evening playing with different rattles. He loved that he could chew on all the toys hanging from the arch overhead that he could only bat at when he was laying on the mat.

He has a head cold--really just a snotty nose and a cough that won't go away. No fever. I have to bring an extra jacket to work everyday because he inevitably sneezes all over me before we make it to the car in the mornings. Poor baby.  Thinking I was pretty smart, I don't dress until the last minute in the mornings. I just wear my PJs so if he sneezes or burps up I can change, no big deal. Then last week I picked him up after doing my hair and my make-up and he threw up in my hair. Back to the shower. . .