Category Archives: Happenings

Airplane!

Leave a reply

Paul did not cry or fuss very much during his first 24 hours of airplane travel, much to his parents’ delight. He slept a lot. A fellow traveler congratulated us on having such a “good baby.” Does that mean that he would have been a “bad” baby had he cried? Would that have meant that we are “bad” parents?

After day one in his home country, Paul has met 2 of 5 grandparents/great-grandparents, 2 of 11 aunts/uncles, and 2 of 8 cousins.

We’ll make sure to take pictures (I haven’t really done so yet). I’ll post them when I get a chance to do so!

Four-Month Checkup

Leave a reply

Since we’ll be gone next week, we had Paul’s four-month update yesterday. It’s only been three weeks since the last one, but here are his stats:

  • Weight: 5860 grams (gain of 640 grams; 15th percentile)
  • Length: 61 cm (25th percentile)
  • Head circumference: 41 cm (25th percentile)

Here’s what he can do (taken from his four-month “gross motor development” page in his Child Health Record):

Supine (on his back)

  • Head in midline
  • Waves arms and legs symmetrically
  • Hands open loosely
  • Pulled to sit, no head lag
  • Head held erect and steady for many seconds
  • Ventral suspension, head about body

Prone (on his belly)

  • Lifts head and chest well up
  • Standing, will take some weight (he’s really good at this!)

Vision and fine motor

  • Visually very alert
  • Follows adult’s movement within visual field
  • Follows dangling ball horizontally side to side and vertically from chest to brow
  • Converges eyes as dangling ball moves up to face
  • Defensive blink shown
  • Holds ratter for a few moments with meaningful grasp
  • Watches own hand movements in midline

Language, Speech and Hearing

  • Responds to sounds
  • Turns eyes and head toward sound
  • Eye contact and turn talking with carer
  • Vocalizes using single vowel sounds
  • 2 or more different sounds

Social behavior and play

  • Reacts to familiar situations—coos, smiles, excited movements

He “failed” the rolling prone to supine milestone, but he’s not yet four months. Maybe he’ll make it in the next few weeks. (He rolled over a few weeks ago, but he’s acting like he’s forgotten now, so I don’t think it counts…)

Australia Christmas 2007: Mt. Buller Area

Leave a reply

Note: This post was originally posted April 12, 2008. I have posted dated it to be closer to the Christmas holiday when the photos were taken.

I have taken quite a long time to go through my photos from Christmas. It is very interesting to revisit these photos long after taking them. I find that, while my husband enjoys the landscape photos, I prefer the more abstract close-ups of things: tree stumps, flowers, posts, fences, windows, etc. I don’t feel like the landscapes are my favorites. I don’t know what one does with a photograph of a post (one probably won’t put it on a wall in a frame) but I like that photo the best.

We spent Christmas Eve near Mt. Buller (pronounced Bull-er; we kept saying Bueller and getting weird looks) in the High Country.

The idea was that we’d get to the summit of Mt. Buller in time for sunrise Christmas Eve morning. Well, we got there in time; however, it was completely foggy. We could barely sense the clouds lightening as the sun came up. We drove back down the mountain. It was beautiful coming down out of the fog. By 8 a.m. or so, we were driving by a lovely spot in the road so we stopped for photographs.

crw_6269lr[1] crw_6277lr[1]

After a while there, we headed to Pickerings Hut. This is a cattleman’s hut, much like Wallaces Hut. It is on the side of a river. I thought the hut was quite ugly. That’s one reason I kept it in black and white. I kept finding other things to take pictures of there. I don’t know why, but there was a random clothesline with clothes pins on it right behind the hut.

crw_6300lr[1] crw_6330lr[1] crw_6309lr[1] crw_6328lr[1] crw_6323-2lr[1] crw_6323lr[1]

As we drove back to Mansfield (where we were staying), we saw a beautiful field, called Sheepyard Flat. I didn’t take many pictures (because Paul required attention) but I did see kangaroos hopping down the hill to the right. I took my favorite picture–the post.

crw_6335lr[1] crw_6346lr[1]

That night we visited Craigs Hut for sunset.

The next morning, Christmas, we were too tired to get up for sunrise. We had a great day relaxing at the apartment. That night, we headed back to Mt. Buller for sunset pictures. This time it was clear and beautiful. I’ve included our family picture, too, even though I know you’ve seen it before.

reid-familyfinallr[1]

crw_6403lr[1]

crw_6400lr-c[1] crw_6410lr-c[1] crw_6418lr-c[1] crw_6427lr-c[1] crw_6434lr[1] crw_6435lr[1]

We had a wonderful Christmas. I’m glad Paul was such a great sport with all of our photographing. He got along really well in the carrier, and he slept a lot.

I suspect he won’t sleep quite so much next vacation!

Dreaming and Singing

2 Replies

Some times when Paul is asleep, his mouth opens in a wide smile and he giggles to himself. He stays asleep.

Some times when Paul is sad, I sing him a song. The other day he was wearing a Noah’s ark outfit, with animals on it. As I was changing his diaper, he was very cranky. I began to sing “Rise and Shine”.

Paul stopped crying and smiled at me. I sang it to him a number of times through the day and he always seemed happy to hear it.

Ever since he was born, I’ve developed the habit of singing him “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam” and “Jesus Said Love Everyone” and “I am a Child of God” at least once a day. Even though I don’t have an incredibly beautiful voice and I’m probably off key, he usually calms down when I begin to sing.

Ryan thinks babies dream in colors and faces. They don’t have words, but they have colors. I like to think that Paul dreams in song as well. He may not have the words, but the sounds and the love behind them are pleasant to him. I like to think that he smiles in his sleep because he’s thinking of music.

How do you think a baby dreams?

Healing

2 Replies

The surgeon cut me open four times. Three cuts were half an inch. The last was one inch. He removed one of my organs (my gallbladder) through one of them.

For one week, I left the waterproof bandages on. I had bled, and the bandages were weary. My muscles were sore, like someone had punched me in the gut. I rested. But then I stood up. I swept the floor. I picked up my baby, and I went to the grocery store. I lived.

After one week, a nurse removed the bandages and the stitches.

Now, four bright red lines mark the spots. The skin has come together. There is no more blood oozing, there is no more pain. My body has healed itself.

As I look at my week-old wounds, I think one word: Miracle. My body is a miracle.

Your body, whatever its natural gifts, is a magnificent creation of God. It is a tabernacle of flesh–a temple for your spirit. A study of your body attests to its divine design.

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

Mosiah 4:9

Watching my body heal has strengthened my testimony of God’s majesty.

Australia Christmas 2007: Wallace Hut

3 Replies

Wallace Hut is the oldest of the cattleman’s huts still standing in the High Country. It was built in 1889 by the Wallace brothers from slabs of snowgum trees. The roof has been replaced, but otherwise, it’s still the original building.

I think this is a beautiful hut, out in the middle of the snowgums in the High Country. We visited Wallace Hut on Boxing Day. (I know, I’ve been holding them for a long time! And I still have more pictures from our Christmas road trip.)

As I processed the pictures, I couldn’t decide which I liked better: the color versions or the monochrome versions. I am not a very experienced photographer. My understanding is that monochrome is preferred when there is contrast in the frame: when the photograph is left in black and white, the textures are better revealed. I think there is delightful contrast on the building and reflecting in the windows. However, as I look at these pictures, I also like the contrast of the green grass with the reddish-brown building.

Here are four pictures in both color and monochrome.

Which do you prefer for each shot: color or monochrome?

crw_6517lr[1] crw_6517monochromelr[1]

crw_6520lr[1] crw_6520monochromelr[1] crw_6528lr[1] crw_6528monochromelr[1] crw_6529lr[1] crw_6529monochromelr[1]

Little Rookie

2 Replies

Paul will always be a rookie in baseball. Why? Because neither of his parents care for the sport and will therefore never nurture his baseball playing nor his baseball game attendance. We will never take him to a ball game (that’s for the grandparents to do, I guess, if they really feel strongly about the matter). But Paul has a cute baseball outfit so I couldn’t resist taking pictures.

I guess the song for our family should be “Take me out to the photography studio.”

CRW_6588.hr CRW_6592.hr CRW_6600.hr CRW_6605.hr CRW_6607.hr CRW_6615.hr

Australia Christmas 2007: High Country, Victoria

5 Replies

On Boxing Day 2007, we drove up the mountain and entered the high country, which essentially is the plateau on top of the mountain. There, the trees were naked. At first glance, I thought it was still too cold for leaves; it was the beginning of summer, but maybe at such a “high” altitude, it was still early spring. The trees still had to bud.

But the further we drove in the high country, the more I realized that these naked-looking white-barked trees were the famous snow gums I had heard so much about. They were supposed to be undressed.

In August, we visited the Dandenong Ranges, and I mentioned how much I liked the naked trees. I liked these even more.

When I first moved to Australia, I asked some Relief Society sisters what it is that Victoria, Australia is famous for:

“What do you have a lot of? When you think ‘Victoria,’ what do you think of?” I asked.

“Well, we have a lot of gum trees,” one sister said.

“And we have koalas,” another answered.

I mentioned kangaroos, surprised no one had mentioned them.

“Well, yes, those too.”

I guess Victoria is to kangaroo the way Illinois is to deer: there are lots of them, but that’s not what they want to be “known” for.

Gum trees are another name for eucalyptus trees.

While I really don’t know anything more about these plants, I found them incredibly fascinating.

I like viewing my pictures in black and white because that is the general mood I had looking at these trees: since the trees themselves were only black and white, color didn’t seem to add anything to the composition. Rather, the contrast between the black and the white provided most of the interest.

The one color exception in this batch is the moment, during the sunset, when the light rested on a tree across a small valley. I didn’t have an appropriate zoom lens (so it’s probably out of focus), but I took the shot anyway.

crw_6479monochromelr[1] crw_6538lr[1] crw_6542lr[1] crw_6545lr[1]