The Life of Stephen

He only lasted about a half hour in his costume but it was long enough to get a few shots off. The combination of a warm day (which meant a warm costume) and it being too close to bedtime made for a cranky baby. At least we got to take him to grandma and grandpa’s house so he could show off his costume a little. We’ll start to trick-or-treating next year. Mom and dad both were a little bummed, after having the costume for a few weeks we were anxious to see him in it. We’re are starting to see that some of these “firsts” don’t last that long sometimes.

Last weekend was Stephen’s first trip to the pumpkin patch. Thanks to The Mom he was perfectly dressed for the occasion, complete with BOO! on the feet of his onesie. Aunt’s Carol and Colleen and cousin Cole along with uncle Chris all made the trip. We didn’t do the corn maze this year although it would have been nice just to get away from the country music playing. Being as pumpkins are orange there was no problem getting Stephen to pick one out. At least we think he was picking it out - like most things these days he was trying to eat it, or put it to his mouth anyway. Stephen had a great time, visiting with the family sitting on a tractor, and if you look at the pictures page you can see he was pooped by the end of the day.

Pretty soon we get to see Stephen’s first Halloween costume.

This is one of the latest things Stephen has discovered - his feet. So now besides putting his fist or thumb in his mouth he has been reaching down and grabbing his feet. And I suppose they are the next thing to be put into his mouth. Anyway it’s quite funny as the picture shows.

One of the things that we have heard the most from people is that this is the age where there is something new almost every week it seems. Looks like there are some fun stories on the way.

So what does a dad do while he’s on vacation? Printout a larger than life poster of his sons head of course. While Stephen was playing at grandma’s house I printed out this poster consisting of 30 letter sized sheets of paper making up an image of his head. He probably doesn’t know what he’s looking at but he definitely stares at it and laughs. It’s pretty funny I must say.

Well it seemed like any other Saturday of a three day weekend, some family coming into town and everyone looking forward to some relaxation. Until we tried to give Stephen some formula. Mom has been under the weather lately so she had had a hard time keeping up the food supply for Stephen. So we tried some formula - BIG MISTAKE. We had another throwing-up repeatedly scenario and a dehydrated and listless baby at the end of it. So off to the emergency room again and to make a short story of it, Stephen is allergic to baby formula. We went through the whole IV, blood test, x-ray scenario all over again. Very similar to last time except that there was no obstruction this time.

So, Stephen was kept overnight to get some fluids into him and get him hydrated again and he came home yesterday afternoon. So today mom, dad and Stephen are all relaxing and catching up on their sleep. Happy Labor Day everyone!

Last weekend Stephen braved the big city of San Francisco went out to his first nice restaurant and even had reservations in his name. He won’t remember any of this because he was asleep the entire time (lucky us) but it’s a good story to tell. He seemed totally at home being pushed around the city as mom and dad did a little shopping. He got to meet his great grandma, great uncle and even meet up with autie Martie and Joel for breakfast - albeit a little earlier than mom and dad are used to but the quality of breakfast more than made up for the early hour.

Stephen can’t wait to go again.

Here’s a little video of Stephen in his playpen. It’s really cute when he gets going like this, sometimes he even has the whole thing shaking. If crawling and walking are like this we are in for a ride for sure.