home again!

the reason for the visit: family

I hope everyone endured their 10 days or so of radio silence. For his part, Peter was furiously at work growing and changing and developing new skills.

air travel
Peter was a complete champ on the airplane. It certainly helped that we managed to find direct flights from San Francisco to Indianapolis, and that he had his own seat. He slept almost the entire way out to Indiana, awake only during take-off and landing. This is particularly noteworthy since he really doesn't like his carseat very much.

On the return trip, Peter managed to handle the 80 minute delay with just a little frustration. Mostly, he was hungry and we were waiting to feed him until we were taking off. Peter never really waits to eat and is impatient if it's delayed for the length of a diaper change. This might be the only time I'll write this, but luckily the flight was quite delayed, so that he was hungry again by the time we took off. In the end, the only damage was done to the psyches of our fellow passengers, who had to be certain that they were about to spend a 4 hour flight with a screaming baby.

After we boarded the flight, Peter was a regular Baby Alive. He enjoyed flirting with all of the passengers around him and playing with Kevin and me, until he finally fell asleep. However, all attempts to put him in his carseat were fruitless. Oh, well.

telling stories
Peter's really babbling up a storm. Lately, he's taken to waking up two or three hours before his real wake-up time, apparently only with the need to talk. Seriously. He'll wake up, all smiles and grins, and just babble his little head off. This lasts for 30 to 45 minutes, until he's said all he needs to say, and goes back to sleep.

He also really enjoys talking to Busy Bee, who we suspect is his girlfriend.

One of his favorite noises to make is "aaah," which he will do over and over and over again at the same pitch and length.

And, once again, he enjoyed participating in church, although his latest contribution seemed to be trying to out-homilize the priest. But, as Kevin rightly pointed out, Peter's homily was better.

growing
Like a weed. Someone went through a growth spurt while we were gone, and it was oh-so-obvious when we put him in the bassinet last night. He really takes up almost the entire bed, proving to us that it is time to move to the crib.

I also think he's plumping back up! We love fat babies.

so big!

almost - but not quite - flipping over
He's working hard on the second phase of flipping over - back-to-stomach. Today, he managed to do it, with a little help from the sides of his crib.

hand-and-mouth
He's grabbing for everything. And putting it into his mouth.

He grabbed it himself

medical emergency
Let's just say that I now know how to take Peter to see a doctor when we're out of the state.

And he's fine.

playing the keyboard
We dug out my childhood keyboard for Peter to play. He loved it!
fingerpainting
Falling asleep one night, I had what can only be called a stroke of insane brilliance.

It was surprisingly unmessy, none of it ended up in his mouth, and he really enjoyed it.

Clean-up was surprisingly easy

explosions
Inexplicably, diapers have now failed us. It's gross, but sometimes funny, like when Kimberly was holding him, noted, "he's pooping," and then added, "and it's warm." Upon further inspection we discovered that his diaper remained clean, while my sister's new jeans became quite dirty. My suggestion that it could be much worse (at least he's not eating solid foods!) fell on deaf ears.

10 hours
One night, he gave me 10 hours, a feat that he's not even hinted at repeating.

There's a lot to look at here!

We enjoyed our trip in Indiana, and even managed to cajole Kevin in returning a night early to hang out with us. Peter definitely enjoyed being able to see his grandparents again, and loved meeting his other aunt and cousins.

Abby, Scott, Peter

Me, Grandpa, Peter, and GG