2009, First Ten Days

Even though we are only 10 days in to the New Year (for the sake of this post, pretend it is the 10th), we've already had some firsts.

1-1-9: First New Year's Brunch with the South Dakota Contingent. An almost annual event that has blossomed in the last few years, where three RSVPs render a whopping 14 people, and Paul keeps an eye out for the person who hands off their mimosa (last year that was a not yet showing pregnant Amy). Here are the majority of the kids enjoying what Dylan refers to as the playground:

Nikko hiding in plain sight:Kel and Sage watching the big kids demonstrate how its done:
1-2-9: First Hockey Game. Alli, Kent and Finn invited us along for a Carolina Hurricanes game. The Canes won and a good time was had by all. Leave it to my child to block out Finn and not look at the camera at the same time:A little bit of shock while taking it all in:

1-3-9: First Full Teaspoon of Rice Cereal in One Sitting. Editor's note: This has since been voided. Seems that when you give Daddy the duty of feeding the child, everything must be explained. Everything. Including the part that when the kid does something silly like blow a raspberry while dining on a spoonful of cereal that you can not reinforce the behavior by laughing with/at the child. He is even blowing raspberries when we give him his vitamins. One step forward, two steps back.

1-5-9: First Second Tooth (okay, that is stretching it - but his second tooth is now coming in).

1-6-9: First Common Cold. You don't want pictures. Really.

1-7-9: Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'. Back to Front came pretty early, Front to Back came soon after and with dread in my typing, he has put both of them together to maneuver around small tracks o' land. Normally the movements include a back arch or two for good measure - providing access to stuff on the diagonal. Not to mention the belly pivot for a little bit of spinning action.

And in closing, although I like to attach dates and times to everything (type A strikes again), there are some skills that you have to attach a time frame to, instead of a pinpointed moment.

For example - after we got back from the trip to see Cort in New Bern, Sage started getting proficient in sitting. He would lump there and not fall over, until he lunged for something and then it was more of a diving faceplant in any given direction (normally toward something to grab). But then over the next couple of weeks, he has become even more proficient, being able to grab at stuff and not topple over (most of the time) as well as balancing while we nudge him in different directions.