Playing with Sticks at the Park

Milk Mustache

Bath Time

8 months old and at the big house

Unfortunately, Reuben caught a nasty virus, RSV and spent his 8 month birthday at the big house. He has been bunking at the hospital since Sunday. We wanted to update you all with some photos.

While at the hospital, Reuben's progress has been monitored vigorously. His nurses have been outstanding and we are grateful to live near a children's hospital


The hospital staff members have been helpful and kind. Yesterday they gave him a little stuffed frog named Smoochie. When Reuben was born, his Poppy Pettersson gave him a stuffed frog, so this is his second hospital hopper.


Dad and Mom have eaten a lot of hospital food (we learned to look around at what the hospital employees order from the cafeteria). Dad and Mom have been able to sleep at the hospital, too.



Yesterday, he started being able to sit up and even took a short respite to play with his toys.


We have been thankful for the support and love of our dear family and friends.

Baby School Pictures

Skills, The Boy Has Skills

Reuben has learned how to stand up in his crib and as the following pictures demonstrate, he feels a great degree of pride in demonstrating his latest skill!

Somebody has chubby cheeks....

Soldiering Through

The past two weeks have been extremely busy for Colby, Hollie and Reuben. We have much going on professionally, personally, educationally and developmentally. We apologize for the lack of photos and updates. We have missed deadlines, birthdays, holidays, phone calls, opportunities and sleep over the past 6 months because we are still learning how to juggle it all. We are not fluent in the skills necessary to parent, work, and contribute to the greater good. We try, our intentions are good, and we still fall short.

We have learned so much over the past 6 months with Reuben. Perhaps the most important lesson we have learned is that time is the most valuable commodity we have and we want to invest it well.

Many thanks to you, our dear family and friends for being gentle with us while we learn and grow. As our friend Terri would say, "stretching can hurt!"

Rice Cereal, not so yummy!

Reuben's pediatrician said that he was about the right age to start trying rice cereal. So, we tried


And, um, yeah, he isn't quite ready....

Second Outing for Reuben's Mom and Dad

It has been brought to momma's attention that she talks about Reuben a lot. Dad has kept data and the interval between comments about Reuben, for momma, is less than 3 minutes (on average). So, we needed an intervention!

Thankfully, Reuben's Auntie Leanne was willing to babysit (or as us Utahn's like to say tend him). While on the adult's only date, Momma was able to go 7 whole minutes on average between comments about Reuben... Progress is progress.

As you can see, Reuben was 100% spoiled by Leanne... never leaving her arms!

Reuben came home with cute presents--night out plus loot for the boy, double bonus!

Too bad Reuben inherited from his parents a HUGE CLOWNISH CRANIUM--this cute hat would have probably fit a normal baby's head perfectly! It will be modified by Christmas.

Thanks Leanne, we appreciate and adore you! We also think you have excellent taste!

5 months old today!

We can hardly believe it, Reub is 5 months old today!

Still a thumb sucker...

During the past month, Reuben has:
1). Started a new baby school, this one is fondly called BABY YALE... No expense spared for the boy...
2). Gone on a road trip and celebrated Thanksgiving
3). Spent his first night away from mom (while mom was out of town for work, dad took full responsibility and did a FANTASTIC job with this daunting task).
4). Moved from indiscriminant hand sucking to "thumbs up" style
5). Starting cutting his first tooth (we can see it and expect it will peek out any day)

Roadtrip!

The Reubster traveled to Nana and Poppy Bus' in Boise for the Thanksgiving holiday. This means he did 2, 5 hour road trips. He was a great traveler, thankfully! Let's hope this excellent car behavior continues for our upcoming Oregon trip to visit Grandma Sharon and Poppa Wilson...

Reuben's First UTAH vs. BYU!

Reuben is a Ute fan!


Tailgating on game day (thanks SERIOUSLY and co.)

Happy 4 Month Birthday!

Each month Reuben has learned new things and so have we! Here's the highlights from mom's perspective:
1). Reuben has learned to look for mirrors because he loves to look at himself. When he finds himself he smiles a big gummy grin and is so excited that we have started calling mirror gazing "doing a little baby crack"--we aren't sure if it is legal, but everyone at our house is addicted.
2). Reuben has learned to grab toys and other objects, including hair and eyeglasses. The first time he did it, he was confused and quite frankly, a little scared--but he has stuck with it and now loves to hold his toys (Jaque the Peacock is a favorite).
3). Reuben has discovered the dogs. Bartlet and Kitty will never have the leisurely life they once enjoyed! Its just a matter of time before Reuben is mobile and then... watch out puppies!
4). Reuben's momma and dad started calling him the BLACK-HOLE OF CUTENESS this month because he sucks us into his orbit and we loose minutes, hours and well, you get the picture...

The third month was by far our most fun and we cannot wait to see what month four brings!

Socially Skilled

Reuben’s momma firmly believes that everyone needs essential skills--especially, academic and social competencies. And, if she had to prioritize those 2 skill groups, she would reluctantly admit that although good academic ability gives an individual access to more options and choices (good), social competencies are the MOST important skills needed to live a happy life (even better).

The hard part for me and Reuben's dad is answering this question, “how does a parent help their child become socially smart?” We think about this question A LOT. We read to him nightly because research shows that this builds academic potential and we plan to help him in any way possible to build his academic skills as he grows up--But, we especially want to help our son live up to his middle name (Friendly) and live a happy life.

On this topic of teaching your children to be socially smart, I want to give some credit to Reuben’s Uncle Matt and Aunt Angi because clearly they are teaching social skills in their home and the following little anecdote demonstrates this fact: Yesterday me, Reuben, and Cousin Jamin were getting ready for a walk. I was holding the Reubster and struggling to get his stroller out of the car. Jamin, who is 4 years old, noticed me struggling and said, “Hollie, I can sit down on the sidewalk and hold Reuben for you!”

This thing that Jamin did was commendable on many levels and may be inappropriately viewed as simple, here's 3 reasons why it demonstrates complex skill in the social arena:

1). He came up with a workable solution to a socially presented problem within acceptable social parameters—he knows we do not let him hold the baby unless he is sitting down and at 4 years old, he is probably too little to get the stroller out of the car himself,
2). He anticipated another person’s needs and acted—a skill many people 10 times his age are not fluent with, and
3). He was gracious—when I thanked him profusely and told him he was really smart he just smiled and asked if we were going to walk “fast or slow?”

We hope Reuben grows up to be socially smart like his cousins. Feel free to give us your advice on this issue of essential skills for growing boys.

Reuben's First Snow

Here's Reuben and his dad on the front porch admiring early snow. Reuben's Grandma Sharon asked "where is his coat?"-- we say, "good question, his parents must be idiots!"

Grandfathers

Reuben's parents think that grandparents are a VERY IMPORTANT part of childrens' lives. Reuben is named after his maternal Great Great Grandfather, Reuben Davis, who lived with his Poppy Bus' family for 9 years when his Poppy was a little boy. Reuben's first funeral was this week for a dear family friend's grandfather, who was a "Super Grandpa" and Reuben has 4 living grandfathers, Poppy Bus, Poppa Wilson, Great Grandpa Glen and Great Grandpa Vontz.

Reuben's Poppy Bus is not feeling well this week, which makes everyone at our house sad. Multiple Sclerosis is not a kind disease, but we are thankful for every good day that Poppy has and wanted to share this fun picture, taken on a very good day:


Reuben met his Great Grandpa Glen on his momma's side last week and we took this happy picture:


Here is a very fun picture of Reuben and his Poppa Wilson taken when Reuben was just 3 weeks old:


Next month Reuben will travel to Colorado to meet his Great Grandpa Vontz--we will be sure to post a picture!

Making it Easy to be a Parent

This is how Reuben wakes up EVERY DAY! He is a happy little guy and we are thankful for him EVERY DAY!

Parental Guilt

This week has been an eventful one for the Reubster:

1). On Sunday, his momma was cutting his finger nails. She was using specially purchased baby nail clippers that came with this fabulous description "Product Description: Innovative safe-grip design, with stop edge and side guards for security and comfort. Secure grip for the parent, protects baby's fingers. From birth." and she cut his little thumb. It was HORRIBLE! He cried and it bled and now, 5 days later, mom still feels HORRIBLE!

2). On Tuesday, Reuben's baby school teacher (Ms. Cheryl) called with the news that he had a "low grade fever"--so Reuben's momma and dad took him to the pediatrician. He has an ear infection and requires medication... Reuben's dad feels HORRIBLE because he is the one who brought a pesky cold home and infected the family, or so he thinks.

3). In addition to giving people HUGE gummy smiles, this week--Reuben has started to giggle and laugh. The sad part is Reub's momma forgot to write down the date of his first social smile... lesson learned... write things down because new parent brains are not very good at remembering dates.

HAPPY 3 MONTH BIRTHDAY TOMORROW--LITTLE MAN!

Again, this picture was blurred for family viewing.... or Mom needs to learn how to take a photo that is actually in focus... geez!

Who knew?

Reuben's mom and dad are learning a lot. His teacher at Baby School, Ms. Cheryl, said he likes to stretch under a sensory gym. So, we hurried out and bought one. Which, he LOVES... and it give us 10 to 20 minutes of time that he is totally entertained so we can do important things like shower! Prior to this experience, we thought mobiles and the like were "silly" and "useless"--guess what? We learned we don't know it all (again)!