4 month Check up

Dallin will officially be 4 months old in 2 more days. I can't believe he's growing up so fast! He's sitting up very well with support and he's almost ready to sit on his own, but not quite yet. Every once in a while he shows interest in rolling over, but for the most part is content to lay still. He has very big eyes and he's always looking around soaking up the world around him. He watches the little things we do (like eating, cooking, writing, folding laundry) and I can just see his brain working to figure out what we're doing and why we do it. He is very strong in his arms and legs. He has been able to support his weight with his legs since about 3 weeks old, but now he does it even better. If you hold onto his hands and give him a gentle pull up, he'll do the rest himself and pull up to a standing position. He's always smiling and talking. I'm constantly amazed at how much he is growing up and learning.

He had his 4 month check up yesterday. Here are the numbers:

Weight: 11 lbs 5.5 oz

Length: 23.5 in

Head circumference: 40 cm

We knew that Dallin would be weighing pretty low at this appointment. His cousin Lucas is 2 months younger and 2 lbs heavier. He's gained 1/2 a pound in the past 2 months. The doctor wasn't super worried about it though. Now that he's getting more active, it's typical for babies to be using more of their calories and storing less of them. It's just something we need to be aware of. Before I would generally let Dallin set his feeding schedule, but now I'm trying more to make sure he has more frequent feedings to try to give him more calories. Other than his weight, he amazed the doctor at how well he is progressing and developing. We have a pretty amazing little boy and I'm excited to see the ways he'll continue to amaze us.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

My mother has been in town for the past 2 weeks, so we've been trying to find fun things to do to entertain her during her visit. Yesterday, we went to the Thanksgiving Point gardens and took a tour on a golf cart. My brother Bret was our amazing driver, and Julie, Katie, and cousin Lucas joined us too. We had a blast. Dallin loved riding on the the golf cart. It was the combination of all his favorite things: being outside, riding around really fast, while being held. What's not to love?! (I guess he never really showed emotions that he "loved" it, but he was content the whole time sucking on his hand, and he didn't cry. That usually mean he likes it.)

He liked looking at the flowers

But he wasn't so sure he like us getting his feet wet in the fountain.

Dalbert, Dalberto, Dalophosaurus...

...just a few of the affectionate nicknames that Dallin's aunts and uncles have given him.

He's finally discovered his cousin Lucas. Dallin will stare at Lucas and now, and even smile at him. Yesterday, that shared a tender moment outside on the grass.

And Dallin is talking a lot. No one is quite sure what he is saying yet, but he's a chatty boy.

Mayan Adventure

We went out for dinner last weekend. My mom is in town again and she offered to watch Dallin for us. We went to this place called Mayan Adventure. They serve Mexican food, but it's so much more than just a restaurant.

The dining area is this huge 3 level open room with a huge rock/waterfall feature in the middle that all the tables can see.

the view from our table

Every 20 minutes or so, all these "mayan" divers would come out and do a show of dives and flips off the cliffs into the water below.

and a girl would do a fire show

So while you are eating your delicious food, you get to watch a show. Pretty cool! And I fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine by having Fried ice cream for the first time. It was so delicious! I could not stop eating it!

Here is a view of the dining area. You can see all these treehouese and caves where people sit at tables to eat.

some pictures of the waterfall:

This fire dancer was amazing! She had 2 balls of fire that she would swing around and do cool tricks with. I'm amazed at how close the fire would get to her body without buring her, like in this picture:

And finally, a video of a fire dancer at the top of the cliff.

A look at what Dallin is reading

He's a multitasker.

We discovered that he really likes the musical mobile in his crib. He will listen to the music and watch those animals spin for a long time. When they stop, he cries for someone to rewind it.

Celebrating our Independence...

...by camping! For the weekend of the 4th of July, we went camping at Eagle Lake in northern California. My mom's side of the family goes camping there every year and we decided to join them. The drive took about 11 hours, which wasn't bad considering it was supposed to take 10 hours. Dallin did really well in the car, much better than our trip to Denver when he was 4 weeks old. My sister Sarah drove with us and I think Dallin liked having someone to play with and look at for the entire trip. Although, when we got close to the lake, Dallin could not stop starring out the window at all the huge trees by the road.

Dallin did really well camping. With a lot of great aunts and uncles to hold him all the time, he was a pretty content baby. And he likes being outside a lot, so it must have been a treat for him to live outside! He slept well and didn't wake anyone up in the middle of the night (except for me...). Our campsite was really close to the lake and we walked down to play in it everyday. Mckay and I went on a little kayaking trip on the lake one day. My uncles brought two boats along for waterskiing, tubing and overall general merriment. I didn't do any waterskiing this time, but Mckay and I did some tubing. We were both out at the same time and our tubes kept hitting each other. One collision was so big it knocked me off the tube and sent me flying into the water, causing me to almost lose my swimsuit. That was the end of my adventures with tubing. We had a lot of fun playing with cousins and seeing a lot of family that I don't have many chances to see often. We were driving back on the 4th of July, so we actually spent our Independence day trapped in a car, but we did get to see a few fireworks here and there along the highway. It was a really fun trip and I'm glad we were able to go. Here are a few of the pictures I managed to take.

Next to the lake. Notice our awesome boats in the background.

The water was a little cold for Dallin. Right then he was just enjoying his hand and hadn't noticed the water yet...

...but as he got deeper he got more concerned.

lounging on the beach

Joseph (my brother), Dallin (cousin not my son), and Ryan(cousin). 3 cousins around the same age getting ready for missions.

teaching my little cousins how to start a fire with my glasses

this is all we could get burning

playing Settlers of Catan, a traditional Eagle Lake pastime

My cousin Stori loved Dallin! She was always looking for him and wanting to hold him. She would run grab a tissue whenever he had the slightest bit of drool on his chin. In the picture, she put her blanket on Dallin. I think the stroller ride was a little rough and Dallin was trying to figure out who was driving.

We found this huge gross bug under our tent!

Mckay playing frisbee with my cousins. Mckay loves frisbee and my cousins were always wanting to play too.

Freedom!

Since Dallin's birth and all the medical "problems" he's had since then, we've had tons and tons of medical bills piling up. It's very difficult to get bill after bill for large amounts of money that you don't have. We saved up enough money for Dallin's birth and were feeling ok financially, but then with a trip to the emergency roon in an ambulance, a 3 day hospital stay, and numerous echocardiograms to look at his heart, we wondered how in the world we were gonna pay for it all. Luckily, we were able to get Medicaid for Dallin and they will cover ALL of his medical expenses. It was such a great feeling today to call all the hospitals, doctors, etc. (We seriously had at least 10 different bills being charged to us) and give them the information to bill medicaid. It feels wonderful to not have to worry about that anymore. Maybe we'll actually start to get some exciting things in the mail now!