Flowers & Face-plants...

On Sunday my dad came up and spent the day and night with us. The weather was beautiful and we had a yummy bar-b-q chicken and asparagus dinner! The next morning was just as great, so we headed over to Ironstone Winery in Murphys; a beautiful sprawling vineyard that has thousands of daffodils that are all in bloom:)

We got some cute pictures of Forest! My vision was to sit him in the middle of some flowers, but because he can't sit up yet I had to put him in his Bumbo seat with a blanket over it. It worked fine... until I got a little over-ambitious, and saw the PERFECT patch of flowers... the only problem was that it was on a bit of a slope. I set him in his seat and he was perfectly stable, until he reached forward to grab at one of the bright yellow flowers (just out of his reach) just as I had stepped back to get the PERFECT shot.... and he took a 'header' right into the dirt! His seat just tipped right on over. Of course it happened in slow motion, and I saw the whole thing unfold millisecond by terrifying millisecond!!! As I was taking my 3 giant steps towards him I had time to look at the ground where his face was about to land, so I knew there would not be any major injuries... but still:(

He cried of course, and had dirt and twigs on his shirt and face and in his fuzzy hair, AND... he got his first non self-inflicted scratches on his face:( Poor little guy. He stopped crying a second after I picked him up and was fine, but I still felt super guilty.

Like most new experiences with Forest, I am glad when each new one happens and is 'under our belts' because now I know that he will be fine when it surely happens again.

An un-thought of first

Every once in a while I drive down to work with Jorian early in the morning and spend the day in the 'big city' of Modesto/Turlock going to Target, Trader Joes, Kohles (pretty much all the stores we don't have in Sonora), and visiting with my parents and brother.

Yesterday was one of those days, and I got a lot accomplished. I had been dying to get down there to see all the orchards in full-bloom.... and it was spectacular, as usual for this time of year:) It was also the first time I had ever done it all with Forest in tow... usually I have gone down when my mom is off so she can watch him while I shop.

It went OK. Because my car has studs on the tires during the winter I don't drive it out of the county when I don't need to, so I was in the Tacoma. It is higher and harder to get him in and out of than the 4-runner, so that was kind of a drag. He made up for that by being an AWESOME little shopper, but he experienced a first that I had never thought of... the WIND!!! Oh my gosh, it was soooo windy in the Valley! He has never been out in the wind like that before, and he really didn't know what to think of it. One time when my mom was holding him outside of her class (we stopped by her school so she could show him off to everyone!) he actually startled big time... his arms were flailing and he took weird breaths. He would shut his eyes when a gust hit him, and then open them to look very confused.

Every morning we look out his window together when I open his curtains, and this morning everything was blanketed in a layer of white snow, and was very, very still. He didn't even bat one of his amazingly long eyelashes at that wonder of weather.... instead he seemed to feel very at home and at peace. We'll have to work into the wind slowly. Boy, what's he going to do when the heat hits?????

Hmmmmmm.....?

From the moment we saw Forest, we, like all parents before and after us, began analyzing all of his amazing little features. We decided pretty early on that he has Jorian's eyes and lips and my nose and chin. His ears are nothing like either of ours... he got lobes from my dad. The forehead and hair are still a toss up. He definitely does not have near the amount of chub that I had (at least not yet), nor is his hair as light or fuzzy as mine was, but it's getting there. He's got Swedish genes from both of us, and we have seen hints of red in his hair since day 1. Both Jorian and Woody have red in their beards, so it is a definite possibility. (Fingers are crossed for some red!!!)

Having said that, it is so amazing to me how different the same kid can look from photo to photo! The 2 pictures here were taken one day apart from each other, and he hardly looks like the same little guy!

Anyway, I think that in the picture where he is in his duck outfit he looks so much like Jorian, and in the one where he is in his bouncer he looks like me:)
*In case you can't tell, I am in the blue and white dress, and Jorian is in the pastell outfit on the brown and white couch:)

Oh yea... he has given us 2-syllable laughs, has rolled over 2 times and has mastered the 'zerbert'.... which is making the 'motor' sound with his tongue, lips and lots of spit!