Going Pro

My mom has been telling me for months that we needed to get some professional pictures taken of Steven. When she and my dad came to visit for Thanksgiving she decided to take matters into her own hands. So the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we dressed Steven up (thanks for the cute outfit, Bill, Theresa, and Lissa!) and took him to do the deed. He was such a trooper! We hadn't made an appointment so we had to wait about 20 minutes, then the shoot, then waiting for the photographer to edit the proofs, then viewing the proofs, then picking out which ones to get as prints... all in all it took about 2 hours and I was so glad Steven was cooperative and not too fussy even when he got bored. We got a CD of all the the edited proofs, even the ones we didn't get prints of, so I thought I'd share. Some of the shots were a little more Christmas-oriented, so I think I'll save those for a later post!

This one and the one below cracked us up with his poses and expressions!

7 months!

Steven turned 7 months this past weekend. He's getting bigger all the time. In fact, in three weeks he gained two whole pounds! He had been steadily dropping in weight percentiles and was down to the 10th percentile (for age) at 6 months (we later learned by checking a chart ourselves that he would have been below the 2nd percentile in weight--off the chart low--for his length at the time!), so the MD suggested we start offering him a bottle after each nursing session. Well, he took to that well--too well. He pretty much started weaning himself within a week. He could have weaned himself completely by now if I'd let him, but we're going slowly for the sake of my body and to hopefully give him at least some benefits of breastmilk for a little while longer. We're down to two mommy feedings a day and the rest formula by bottle. I was a bit discouraged at first, but it's not worth stressing about.

In any case, after his gain of two pounds in three weeks he's back up to the 25%, and it's still another week or so until he goes back to the MD for an official weight check. I think she'll be pleased. The funny thing is that he looks just a LITTLE bit chubbier in places, but overall not much of a change. I think that means he's gained more length!

Steven is go go go all day long. He still enjoys playing in his exersaucer, but now his main interest seems to be rolling all around the floor of the family room. He isn't crawling yet and we have a suspicion that he might skip crawling completely and go right from rolling to walking. He gets everywhere he wants to go pretty quickly by rolling, so he doesn't have much incentive to crawl. His other favorite activity remains standing and walking with help from us, but he's down to needing to hold only one finger most often. He can also pull to a stand if the object he's pulling on is at the right height. The edge of the laundry basket must be the perfect height because I put a full laundry basket next to him the other day while he was sitting on our bed and he reached out and stood up in one fluid motion. It took me by surprise! Most of the time he tries to use things much too low to the ground (usually his toys) and ends up in a downward-dog type of position, with his rear in the air.


The other day he rolled into his exersaucer, and became very frustrated when he couldn't roll out due to the curved bottom. He gave up and played underneath it for a while, and then figured out that he could scoot backwards out of it.

He's also a champ at sitting up on his own, and so we've moved from the car seat to high chairs at restaurants.

Not much else new, especially since Mike posted some recent photos in a post a few days ago. Steven did get to experience democracy in action when he came with me to vote on November 6. Due to poor planning on the part of whoever was in charge of the voting in our precinct we had to wait 50 minutes, but fortunately Steven stayed in a good mood throughout.

A Cat-astrophe!

This morning, Steven and I nearly missed church due to feline intervention.

Karen left early to church for bell choir practice. After a 45 minute nap, Steven woke up. I changed him, fed him, and checked his diaper to see if it needed to be changed (it didn’t). With only 15 minutes until church started, and a ten minute trip ahead of us, I then picked Steven up and picked up the diaper bag, and opened the door to the garage. As I tried to step out into the garage, I nearly stepped on a cat.

Knute has been taking advantage of the open garage door lately when we are distracted by Steven.

“Great. Just great,” I said as a turned on the garage light. There, running into the third stall, was a gray tabby. I opted not to open the garage door to keep him in the garage, but left the door to the house open so he could (hopefully) run back inside. I loaded Steven into his car seat, and carefully arranged his toys while I mentally prepared to go wrangle the cat.

Once done, I checked the vehicle, and made sure there was no cat inside. Then I checked underneath, and no cat there, either. I scanned the garage quickly, and again, no cat. So I scoured the garage. No cat.

Thinking I was mighty lucky that the cat chose to come inside by himself, I went into the house. Good idea.

Rounding the corner into the kitchen I could see two nearly identical cats, face-to-face in the family room (I wish I had a picture). One was obviously Knute, and the other I will refer to as Canute.

Canute hissed at Knute, then ran into the sun room under the futon. Knute, curious as ever, followed. Canute then starting hissing again, so I grabbed Knute, who had stopped short of the futon and locked him in the half-bath. I went back to the futon, and Canute was still there. As I went to grab him, he raced past me, through the kitchen and into the dining room. I quickly followed, then ran after him into the living room. We rounded the coffee table and a chair, then into the foyer. Finally, he ran through the mud room into the garage, with me close on his tail.

Will the real Knute please stand up?

I closed the door to the house and opened the garage door, through which Canute finally made his escape. I went back into the house, freed the sequestered cat, and gave him a handful of food to draw him to me. I then checked him over stem to stern, reasonable certain it was truly Knute.

I went back into the garage, where Steven had been sitting in the car the entire time, and saw Canute slowly walking across the street into the neighbor’s yard. After triple checking the garage and driveway for other creatures, we set out for church, barely arriving before the opening hymn.

After church, the cat was lazily lying in his second favorite perch. He has been checked over carefully again by both Karen and me, and we are reasonably certain it is Knute, and not Canute.