In the neighborhood

Yesterday Kelton went for a walk with his friend next door, Clea. Clea is 5 1/2 months old.



Clea also likes an airplane ride with her Dad Calvin and being held by her Mom Cecile.


Meanwhile, Kelton is snoozing in his Bjorn on Dad with our cute little rental house in the background.

SOLD!

The sold sign is now out front of our new house. This wraps up our CA house hunting project we started in 1992. Sucess at last - we're very excited. We should get the keys Wednesday!



David and Kelton are enjoying backyard and the wisteria in full bloom. We're looking forward to some sunny gardening!

Lisa & Kelton

David's been taking a series of studio shots of Lisa & Kelton from early pregnancy onwards. He just finished the series with a set of Kelton post birth. Here's some of my favorites:

This last pregnancy shot was taken only 15 hours before Kelton was born


Here's a group with Kelton at 6 weeks old.




And while not done in the studio set-up, this is one of my favorite recent photos of us.

First smiles

The moment we've all been waiting for..... Kelton's first smiles! Nothing could melt our hearts quicker than these first smiles!



Smiling with Dad in the bath


Smiling with Auntie Nikki one night then smiling at Mike Schultz's funny faces another night


Well, we don't always smile.... Especially when mom makes me wear this hat with ears in public!

Sleep

Everywhere, creatures
Are falling asleep.
The Collapsible Frink
Just collapsed in a heap.
To the others before,
I am able to give you
The Who's-Asleep-Score:
Right now, forty thousand
Four hundred and four
Creatures are happily,
Deeply in slumber.
I think you'll agree
That's a whopping fine number.
  --Dr. Seuss, The Sleep Book

To that number we'll have to add Kelton who can sleep anywhere anytime except when you want him to sleep in his crib!



Everywhere,
Creatures
Have shut off their voices.
They've all gone to bed
In the beds of their choices.
They're sleeping in bushes. They're sleeping in crannies.
Some on their stomachs, and some on their fannies.
They're peacefully sleeping in comfortable holes.
Some, even, on soft-tufted barber shop poles.
The number of sleepers is now past the millions!
The number of sleepers is now in the billions!



The Sleep book was a Christmas present from Nana and Papa. As you can see on Nana is a great place to sleep.



While Kelton is getting lots of sleep in lots of places his parents are definitely not getting enough sleep in any places! That's why I'm blogging at 4am while he sleeps on me and you can see his Dad takes every chance to snooze...

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

Kelton is fascinated by a few things around the house and he will consistently stare at them. Since newborn babies are supposed to see mostly high contrast things and have a very limited focus range, I tried to simulate what Kelton is seeing by taking these photos from his point of view, converting them to B&W and defocusing them. So here's Kelton's world of favorite things to stare at.

Sitting in his chair he loves to look out the door. Lately the weather has been really warm so he's been able to stare out the open door which is even better!




When he's on the couch he loves this view of the old oak tree through the window panes - even more than posing for the camera with the adorable Kelton piggy bank Auntie Sue sent him.



When Dad is holding him in the kitchen he's always staring straight up at the hanging lights. If David turns, Kelton will rotate his head as far as possible so he can still see them.





After a long day of staring we do get tired....



The other thing he's mesmerized by is the zoo mobile from Su-Lin & Dave. Since it's moving I've captured this on video and will publish the clip soon...

Mini manicure

Post bathtime we need to have our nails done at the baby salon.



This procedure is best done when the fidgety customer is deeply asleep!

Dunk in the tub with Dad

After just a couple of sponge baths I was exited to try taking Kelton into the regular tub for Dad-and-boy bathtime. He was only about 2 1/2 weeks old but we decided to go for it. We didn't know what to expect but it went fine. He had kind of a surprised look on his face when I dunked him in up to his chest, but seemed to enjoy it for the most part, except when I left parts out of the water too long and they got cold. He floats real well so it's not too hard to avoid a full dunking. Just as with the sponge bath, his favorite part is getting shampoo massaged into his hair and rinsed with a paper cup.

In we go...



Dad's only chance for some skin-to-skin time...



Some actual washing does have to get done...



We've done this 3 times now -- once to show off for Nana and Papa.

What's not shown is Mom's role in helping get baby in and out and dressed again. In between doing that, she got some great video of this but it's not ready yet.

Boy that head smells good!

Kelton's room

We spent a lot of time in the last few months of the pregnancy preparing Kelton's room. Since we're in a rental house we couldn't get too fancy, but we did enjoy shopping for crib, dresser, rug and chair, and trying to give the room a light, whimsical look.



We made the shelf you see above the dresser here. Lisa painted it blue and David added the hooks and hung it.



Maybe we couldn't paint the walls, but Mom made up for it with her fishes painting and later her giraffes painting. She was applying what she learned in the art classes she took back in the fall.