Monson is actually eight months old this last week! I can hardly believe it. The time has gone so fast. This is the picture I took of him today--I take a picture, well, actually many pictures of him every Friday. He was born on a Friday and I take a weekly picture. I am doing a scrapbook of him with each Friday's picture. The picture is always black and white and the pages and elements on the pages are basically the same. It has been fun. This scrapbook is the only one that is current. (Thanks for the pat on my back).
Monson has been a great baby. He is easy going and enjoys his life so far. He still likes to be burrito-ized when he goes to sleep. Most the time he wiggles out of the wrap by night's end. Sometimes he will roll over onto his stomach with only his left arm out of the wrap. That doesn't seem like a comfortable position to me, it actually worries me, but what else can I do?
Monson also likes to play a dangerous game of patty cake with his feet. I guess he likes the adventure of clapping his feet together, while at the same time balancing on his bottom. Sometimes he balances and sometimes he falls over. It just depends on the vigorousness of his foot clapping and his concentration.
He's kind of a quiet guy. He doesn't babble too much. Maybe there is already enough noise in this house.
He's also beginning to try his hand at crawling. Mostly, he just assumes the position of crawling. He looks really good, but hasn't quite figured out the coordination involved in moving ones hands and knees and also balancing on them. I have mixed feelings about him figuring the crawling thing out. It's nice just to plop him down and not have to worry about stairs, tiny objects, crumbs, and the dirty knees.
He really likes splashing in the bathtub, shaking noisy rattles, and playing with phones (sorry Bob--I figured out how to lock my cellphone keypad--that would be why you haven't heard from Monson this week).
His favorite food would have to be Cheerios. Those are the only things he will eat really well. He is NOT a fan of peas. Green beans don't really make him cheerful either. Sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots are accepted IF warmed up. Of course, he eats all of these well when his clever dad is distracting him.
We love our little Monson. All the kids are always eager to get him out of bed and see him when they return from being away. We are glad to have our "great big handsome do-do-do-do-do."
Here's Taft at his last soccer game. We were looking forward to a break from juggling games and practices for a couple of weeks, but no such luck. Hunter starts baseball on Thursday. Oh well, at least the practices and games for this sport are within a 2 mile radius rather than clear down at Utah Lake.
"Hope of America" is the name for a student showcase that is part of the Freedom Festival. This program took place in the Marriott Center and the 5,000 students that sang (the flag and surrounding yellow) are 5th graders from around the county. Kate was able to participate in this. She is one of the students in the blue part of the flag--towards the bottom of the blue. It was a patriotic program honoring our country and soldiers. My kids and I really enjoyed the last song called "We Can Be a Light." The lights were turned off and all the students singing had flashlights that they moved in unison during the chorus. The chorus said, "We can be a light...shining everywhere...all across America...show people that we care...oh, let your light so shine...help others find their way...we turn the darkest night...into the brightest day." Very inspirational show to have attended. Thanks, Kate, for being a 5th grader!!
Spring soccer is over for Hunter. Taft's last game is tonight. Last Saturday's game was freezing! The wind was blowing SO hard. Hunter has try-outs for the competition league the end of this month, so we will see how that goes. Tonight I will try to post some pics of our little Taft playing soccer. He is pretty fun to watch--he just caught the vision of soccer this Spring.
I thought some of you would like to see Gage. Mils says he is better than Monson. I think she just likes that he laughs at pretty much anything she does. Gage thinks she funny and ALWAYS wants to get his hands on her hair. He's messed up many a hair-do. Milly doesn't seem to mind though.
