In the short time (for me) since I last posted, a lot has happened. I haven't invested much into learning how to manipulate these posts, that's why they often look sloppy, but what can you do? Anyway, my little girl is nearly a woman, it actually moistens my eyes thinking about it. She had her prom last weekend and as you can see, she was stunning. She got a lot of help getting ready from Renae and her Aunt Annie and Susan. Where has the time gone? I still have a baby picture of her on my refrigerator that I've had there since she was born, or thereabouts.




The other day Rooney stopped by to yuck it up with Felix. Aren't
they adorable? They laughed, they cried, they made crank calls on the toy phone. It was pretty harmless. I don't think they really thought out what they wanted to say when Cookie Monster answered the phone because they would just hang up and giggle about it afterwards.

Who doesn't love Felix at the park? Felix sure loves Felix at the
park. We go there quite a bit now
that the weather is better.

Last post I said that I would include a picture from his grandmother's birthday party. I know it's blury, but it seems a little ethereal to me.









Felix, Felix, Felix. Sometimes we catch Felix "taking a play off". Actually, like many of the pictures I post, I don't know the story behind this one. I think one of the girls took this picture.
I do have a story that I don't have a picture for though, and it happened just last night. For awhile, Felix and I have this game we play where I go hide down the hall and he comes looking for me. When I see him, I crawl chasing after him and he runs away, giggling and laughing until I eventually catch him and he squirms and shrieks trying to avoid my tickling. Last night we did this when he thought he would try something a little different, after I chased and caught him, he walked down the hall and then peeked his head around to see if I saw him. When I did, he chased after me. What was so cute about it is that when he looked around the corner, he was initially trying to hide but not really, like he wanted to be seen so as to bait me over. He popped his head out then leaned back when he saw that I was turning his way. When we both knew he had been seen, that's when he jumped out after me. He didn't quite know what to do after chasing me, when he got close to me he turned into the couch and fell down laughing.

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Hey, look at that, if you scroll down to the bottom of this post you will notice that I learned how to take credit for my own posts.
Okay, so it has been a while since I've posted, but that just means there is more to tell. Why just today Felix broke a branch off of one of our plumeria plants, and that's just the beginning (or, to date, the last) of the misadventures of Felix Truman.
Several weeks ago, our family along with Felix's great-grandmother, Ramona, visited Northwest Trek. Northwest Trek is a wild life park that features animals indigenous to the Northwest. Unfortunately, we got so caught up in photographing the animals that we didn't get many of Felix. But here is an animal we saw, see if you can guess what it is.If you said "buffalo", you are wrong. It's a bison, and apparently there is a difference, as true buffalo, though related to bison, are only found in Africa and Asia. It's too bad because I really prefer the name buffalo to bison. We also saw moose, or meese as some may incorrectly refer to more than one. At this time of year moose are without their antlers, otherwise I would have included a picture. It would be like posting a picture of a horse.
As we have done for the last several years, and what has become a tradition, we hosted Easter this year. In Seattle the weather is always hit or miss, but despite an early storm the day was beautiful. We had a lot of both sides of our family come over, which meant lots of cousins for the Easter egg hunt. Even little(?) Rooney participated, kind of. Felix had a lot of fun and loved being around all the kids, which wasn't a problem as they loved picking him up and carrying him around. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures. We mostly videotaped. But we did make sure we got one picture.


That coat he is wearing is a coat that I wore when I was his age. I thank my mother for holding onto this coat so that one day my son could wear it. When we first put the coat on him, he wrapped his arms around himself, squeezed, and said "I love you, daddy". It was really touching.
Around Easter we discovered that Felix finally broke a tooth. He has two showing now, and a third upper tooth about to poke through. In contrast, Felix's cousin, Eva, has a mouthful of teeth, and she's only two and a half months older than him (she and I share a birthday, Jan 1st). We saw her, along with almost all of Renae's family, in Mount Vernon this past weekend to celebrate Felix's grandma Deanna's birthday. I think Eva's mom, Rita, said that Eva had a molar coming in.
Felix had a great time. He loved being around all those kids. Most of the kids played in this large room, large enough that it would echo. Felix screamed, and laughed along with the other kids. It was pretty neat to watch him interact with so many of his cousins, he has so much fun. Unfortunately the pictures didn't really turn out, they were blurry. Maybe later I'll post one anyway.

Lastly, Felix got a haircut. And I gave it to him. Usually my haircuts aren't that good, but after all those years practicing on Natalie and Megan, and then on Karma, well, it really paid off. Even Renae thought it looked it good. Also, you may notice that Felix is wearing shorts. We finally had a day warm enough for shorts.

Rockin' the Suburbs

He hasn't had any lessons either. Can you believe that?

Okay, well if you've been to Rooney's blog you'll know that Susan scooped me on Felix's birthday. I don't know what her problem is, she knows it only takes me forever to update this thing. But now I will give you my version of the events on that fateful day. A bunch of people came over, we had a Champagne toast, unwrapped presents, and had some cake. Only one of those things is not true.
Felix's cake was... I don't know, Renae made it. It had no added sugar (the applesauce of course has fructose) and it was made with whole grain flour. That's all I know. Renae's not here right now so I can't ask her. We did make another cake, one that everyone else would eat... you know, loaded with sugar and fat. MMMMMM
Felix loved the musical/educational chair his grandma Deanna got him. He stands on the seat then squats down to press all the crazy buttons. Unfortunately we found out that the chair was recalled. I'm not sure why, I think it's either the asbestos insulation in the seat or the lead chewables. He also recieved a handmade rabbit/dog (I'm sorry, I don't know which) from his great grandma Morse from Chicago. Here is a picture:









Today Renae had a conference to go to so I took the day off and took Felix to the park. Here is the sequence of Felix entering the playground and subsequently going down the slide.















And then he swung

Felix's First Birthday - Almost

Less than a month has passed and I'm updating the blog! Before I begin, I'd like to congratulate my cousin, Carie, who is pregnant with a boy and a girl. As I understand it, she will be naming them Dana and Andrea.
Felix is very active as you can imagine, and is now able to stand up from a sitting postion without having to use an object to pull himself up. He also moves faster than we anticipated. See, we put this gate up to block Felix's access to our washroom, which is where we keep the dog's food dish. We set the bottom of the gate about a foot off the floor, this allows the dogs to come and go while discouraging Felix, well really just slowing him down. So I remove the gate just while I'm moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer, and in that time Felix sprinted,I guess, from the family room, across the entry, through the living room, through the kitchen, and finally the washroom to a new found love- a mouthful of kibble. I was able to fish them out of his mouth, but he really likes the dog's food, and how can you blame him? It's really good.
As many of you know, Felix's first birthday is March 10th. We are very excited, but time seems to be moving so fast it feels like I'm missing out on something. But before I get to that, Felix didn't want to seem like a hog so he asked me to help him extend a happy birthday to his Grandma Peggie, someone he almost shares a birthday with.This is my proof that Felix can stand, how else could he put those letters up?
Anyway, back to Felix's first birthday. Well there's not much to tell yet, I'll have more to write about his first birthday after his first birthday. Then I will share it with you.
Renae has taken to feeding Felix in the nude, um... that's Felix in the nude. Actually, she did it this one time because she was going to give him a bath, then thought maybe I should feed him first, blah blah blah. Anyway, here is a picture:
Okay, honestly I don't know if any of that is true. Renae took this picture, I thought it was really cute and so I invented a backstory so that I could put it on the blog.

Yes, Felix is walking

Okay, I know it's been awhile, sorry. Anyway, Felix began walking a few days after he turned 10 months- around mid-January. He now toddles everywhere, and it is really cute to see this little baby walking around.
Here you can see Renae and Felix exploring the beach at Gene Coulon Park on Lake Washington. Felix walked to that spot.
At the end of January, I had to take a business trip to Portland, Oregon. I was able to bring Felix and Renae with me, where we took advantage of the pool at the hotel. We had a lot of fun. Felix loves the water and while I was working, he spent much of the day in the pool with mommy. Later that day, when I was done working, I spent some time with Felix in the pool. Check out Felix's speedos. Oh, and Felix walked to the pool.
So here you can see Felix in action. Felix's aunt Lisa came down to visit so we all walked down to the park.Felix almost made it the whole way, but it is a little too far for his little legs to carry him.
Scroll down and see Felix's monthly diaper picture. I've included January and February's. Can you believe he is almost a year old already?
And, in parting, more Felix Truman.

Santa Felix

I had a long descriptive entry with several pictures ready to post. It had pictures of Felix doing all sorts of adorable things, including a picture of Felix performing a mind meld on his cousin Rooney. Then my computer inexplicably restarted and I lost all that I composed along with the will to try to put that post together again. That was a couple of weeks ago and only now, after the pain has subsided, can I post again. So, with that, I bring you SANTA FELIX.

Felix had a lovely Christmas, his Grandma came up from Los Angeles to spend it with him. His aunts, uncles, and cousins came by on Christmas Eve. After a tasty breakfast and exchanging gifts Christmas morning, Santa Felix traveled north to visit more family. From his great-grandmother, Santa Felix was given a magical singing ball that displayed all kinds of flashing lights and moved in odd ways under it's own power. "What is the manner of this magic? What is the source of power for this remarkable sphere?", Santa Felix asked himself, "I see no hand of man upon it's smooth features, no tethered horses pulling to and fro", Santa Felix pondered, "perhaps a miniature enchanted dragon with a sweet, melodic song, and expiration ablaze in multi-hued luminescence is imprisoned within the orb's core that causes the ball to evade my grasp". Santa Felix was soon distracted by the crisp metallic wrapping paper nearby and formed theories on the essence of its shine.

Are you ready for some football?

Some family members will appreciate this picture. A little fan already, Felix watched the Seahawks football game with Daddy while Mommy used her new laptop (anniversary present from Dana - well, actually, it was a business expense that I wouldn't make up my mind about so Dana just took it upon himself.) to get some work done. Speaking of which, Mommy has been busy with bookkeeping jobs and will be leaving her Bellevue engineering firm in order to do more work from home. So far, things are working out!

He ate!

11/3: I gave up force feeding & just gave him the spoon.
10/23: Finally, we found something other than breastmilk that Felix will eat willingly! Per the Super Baby Food Cookbook, I was cooking up a batch of organic foods, blending them in my Magic Bullet, and batch-freezing them in ice cube trays for later. I had an extra spoonfull and offered it to Felix. He opened up wide and took mouthful after mouthful of winter squash! No high chair, no baby utensils, just a plain teaspoon and my boy on my hip! I'm so excited.

Felix's first Halloween

We had a rainy Halloween in Seattle, so much so that we got very few trick-or-treaters. But the rain didn't deter Felix- at least from putting on his costume. Well... actually, he didn't really have a choice. And then, as good parents do, we took him out into the rainy cold to get a couple of pieces of candy he can't eat. So, as you can see, Felix is some kind of dinosaur/dragon thing, we'll let him decide which, and he loved it. He went around making some kind of roaring-snarling-almost an intolerant crying sound, he was so cute.
You'll notice the world class jack o'lanterns we carved. Is that one with the guy hanging from the spooky tree eerie or what?

11 months? Unbelievable!

 October
November
December

January

February

Here we are at eleven months, the time has gone by so fast, and yet he has become such a central part of the family and household it's hard to remember what we were like without him here. Everyday I feel so privileged to be able to share his life with him, yet I know in a few years he's not going to want me hugging and kissing him all the time. What an ingrate. The blog seems to allow only five pictures per post, so this months picture is here. To see the earliest months, scroll down. Also you can click on a picture and get a larger view of Felix in all of his near naked splendor.

No thank you!

Well, our first attempt at feeding Felix baby food went pretty well but since then he wont eat solids. His response has been a pretty consistent, "No thank you". He purses his lips, scrunches up his face, turns away and frowns. At first sign of one of his spoons he starts to get a stubborn look and then the only time he'll open his mouth is if we cajole him into laughter! His refusal to try any solid foods has worried us a little bit as we want him to develop his swallowing, etc. Mom is having a hard time providing all his calories (about 42 ounces per day) via breastmilk and would really, really like to have him sleep longer through the night on a full tummy. But we are holding out and not using formula yet. We've tried rice cereal, barley, sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas, green beans, peas, and carrots. We've tried home made from scratch and boxed / jars. The closest we've had to success was either sneaking in a spoonful of peas or the one time he grabbed a green bean from mom's plate and choked on it. Felix's grandmother was convinced that bananas would do the trick and so when we spent the weekend at her house recently we tried squashing an organic banana and feeding it to him. I think mom still has it in her hair!

Field Day for Felix

Each year around mid-September, we look forward to the crocus bloom in our front yard. Two years ago we missed it, but we happened to be in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland and saw fields full of wild crocus. Felix seems to like them, well at least not mind them, even with the bees buzzing around. Perhaps in a few years we can take him to the Swiss crocus.
Felix ate his first solid food meal. It was brown rice mixed with breast milk. He seemed to like it that first time, but since then has refused to eat his porridge. Picky baby, must take after his father. Unfortunately, the pictures of this event must have been accidently deleted as I can not find them.
Also, Felix had his sixth month check up. He is doing very well. He can sit up, transfer objects between hands, make various sounds, and some imitation. He is nearly 27" long and weighs 15lbs. 1.5oz. This puts him in the 60th and 15th percentile respectively. We believe his low weight is due to the scale being skewed by formula fed babies, which tend to be heavier. Either way, he is very happy and very healthy.

The many loves of Felix Truman

Aside from getting his picture taken, Felix also loves looking at himself in the mirror. Combine that with his other love of standing, and it almost beats out his loves of eating and sleeping. Though he does love it more than his love of taking a bath, rainbows, and cuddling puppies. But not more love than for those actual activities... So he claims.

Grabby!

Felix has started grabbing at things. Most of the time they tend to be attached to mommy (her hair, her jewelry, her clothes) but this time he got Dad's glass. All I have to say is, thank goodness it was just water or Dad would be in a lot of trouble with Mom!

Happy, Joyous & Lucky

Everywhere we go people tell us that Felix is so happy. He smiles so much and so readily greets strangers that I thought I might show the other side of the story, just for perspective! This side only flares up occassionally but sure amuses us when it does! It is worth noting, however, that Felix doesn't enjoy his car seat much and spends a good deal of time in it screaming.

Okay, I really like this picture, I believe it really illustrates why we chose the name Felix. He looks so engaged, so positive and optimistic. This picture is from July 12th. Everyday when I take his picture (I take a mugshot everyday) he smiles. He could be crying when I set him down but when he sees the camera he must know it's showtime.

6months! Where has the time gone?

 May
June
July

August
September


...... I can't believe it has been 6 months already. We've really enjoyed him and he is growing so fast. That sounds like such a typical mom thing to say. How about the truth: I'm tired, sick of well-intentioned people with unsolicited advice, I look back at my pre-baby woes and laugh at my naivete, and I miss my selfish days of doing as I pleased and having much less neck pain. The rest of the truth is that I count myself so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful little guy, I feel completely blessed by his presence and when he laughs at me, I melt. He stops crying when I pick him up. Let me say that again, he stops crying when I pick him up. I'm a mommy. Wow! - Renae

Felix's First Fourth

This is Felix on the fourth of July, maybe you guessed that. We had a great day at Downtown Bellevue Park.  We'd gotten there early for got a good spot in the shade and a great view.  Felix had a good time, he was unfazed by the fireworks... actually, he slept through them.