Your height and weight through the years II

In a previous entry, I listed your height and weight through the years. When we got together on Saturday (Jan. 25), you were very excited to tell me that you weighed 51 pounds! So I figured I should update this list!

Here's a list of those measurements that I stumbled across as going through my computer files. It's a little incomplete because I have your height listed on a wall poster (which is packed away somewhere):

2007
Feb. 23 – Weighs 7 pounds, 7 ounces

2008
Feb. 5 – Weighs 20 lb., 14 oz.
June 5 – Weighs 23 lb., 6 oz.

2011
Jan 26 – Measures 3 feet, 10 inches tall

2012
Jan 10 – Weighs 41 pounds
Jan 21 – Measures 3 feet, 11.25 inches tall
Apr 21 – Height is hair under 4 feet

2014
Jan 25 – Weighs 51 pounds
March 25 – Weighs 44 points; measures 4 feet tall (added after entry was posted)

Photos from Christmases past

Merry Christmas, Kieran! I am looking forward to spending the day with you and making great memories that will last the rest of our lives!

Here are pictures from our previous Christmases together:
>>2012
>>2011
>>2010
>>2009
>>2008
>>2007

Playing with 'Lift off!' with you as a baby

Yesterday as going through my photos of you, I got to thinking about the time when you were about three or four months. One thing we always used to do together was I'd hold you out in front of me, my hands cupped just below your arms, your little toes playfully digging into the warm spring air, and say in my most serious news voice, “We’re 15 seconds to launching the first baby to the moon, and Baby Kieran is that baby!”

Then I’d start a countdown, and after “1” go “Lift off!” and raise you superquick high into the air then hold you over my head so you were flying like Superman. You’d break into a giggle as your flabby tummy pressed against my palms and would start moving your arms and legs like you were swimming. I’d shift you around from side to side, going, “Quick, fast, zoom, we’re on our way to the moon!” and the scent of baby powder would waft down toward me on the currents of air created by the motion.

After we’d done that a few times, whenever we got to “3” in the countdown, you’d ball up your tiny fists, close your eyes tight, and tense up, as if to ward off the sudden stomach-in-my-throat feeling you must have got from liftoff. But you always giggled with glee once I got you above my head.

 

You having fun with Grandma Bignell

You might remember that I earlier wrote that Grandma Bignell gave me a whole bunch of pictures of when you spent the winter and summer with them during 2007-2008. You also might remember that I couldn't find any pictures of you and Grandma (probably because she was the one behind the camera).

Well, I found one! It was buried behind another picture in the photo album. So I've posted it here!

I'm not certain when it was taken, but it would have been between mid-December 2007 and early September 2008. That's when Grandma and Grandpa Bignell raised you at their farmhouse in Wisconsin.

I'm not sure what you two were doing, but you sure looked to be having fun!

A baby picture of you at 12 weeks old

Here's another baby picture that Grandma Bignell gave me of you! You are 12 weeks old in the photo and laying in your crib in your nursery. At that time in 2007, we lived in Crescent City, Calif.

You had the most beautiful nursery. It was all Classic Pooh - pictures, calendar, bedding, decorative storage boxes, etc.

One of the Classic pooh items you liked a lot was a mobile that hung above your crib. When turning it on, it would slowly spin about with each of the classic Pooh characters hanging on it and play the Winnie the Pooh theme song. You loved to watch it go around and around!

It was during that time that you took to the classic Eyeore stuffie. Until your stuffie bunnies came along a couple of years later, you and your stuffie Eyeore were inseperable! And yes, I still have that stuffie Eyeore!

A picture of you at 10 weeks old

You might remember that I mentioned Grandma Bignell gave me all kinds of pictures of you from when you were a baby and when you stayed with them. Here's one of those pictures at right!

You are 10 weeks old and laying on the bed in the master bedroom at our house in Crescent City, California. That would have been at the beginning of May 2007.

Crescent City gets a lot of rain, so sunshine there is rare. I remember coming home one night from work when it was one of those rare days in which the entire sky was cloud-free. It was about the time you were 8-12 weeks or so.

I took you outside and pointed at the sky. Your eyes followed my arm, looked up at the blue sky, and you gasped in awe! You couldn't stop looking at it!

A baby picture of you at 11 weeks

Here's a photo of you when you were about 10-12 weeks old. You are in a bouncy baby carrier that you absolutely loved to sit and sleep in. You especially loved the blue bunny rabbit hanging from the handle bar. In fact, I still have that blue bunny rabbit; I cut it off for you because you wanted to play with it when you'd outgrown the carrier!

The picture is taken at our house in Crescent City, Calif. You are on the bed in the master bedroom. To the left of the bed would have been your bassinet where you would sleep at night during the first few weeks of your life before you moved on to the nursery.

The white and brown cat sleeping on the bed was named Merlin. He was a little skittish but always liked being around he. Should you start crying, he'd get very agitated and coming looking for me to help you! That's one loyal cat!

Remembering Easters past

 You ate the ears off your chocolate
bunny first at Easter 2010!

Happy Easter, Kieran! I hope you are enjoying the day. Today I've included some pictures of past Easters we've spent together.

I remember our first Easter very well. It was in 2007, and we were living in Crescent City, Calif., where I was the newspaper's managing editor. You were just a wee baby of only two months! Still, we got you a  Easter basket that included a baby's book about Peter Cottaintail and a stuffie bunny rabbit.

In 2011, you and I made Easter sugar cookies together! You helped me roll out the dough, stamp the shapes, and frost the cookies! One of the cookies that you really liked was of a baby duck, which we frosted yellow (except for the bill, which we frosted orange) and gave a dollop of black for its eye.

Here's are a whole bunch of pictures from Easter 2010, which was on April 4 that year!

My email to you for March 30, 2013

Your Easter basket, 2012

Here is my email to you sent on March 30, 2012, in case you don’t receive it.

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing? I love and miss you very much. I am not certain why our visit planned for yesterday was cancelled, but I want you to know that I had nothing to do with it. I wanted to spend time with you because you are the most important person in the world to me. You always have been and always will be. Hopefully our cancelled visit soon will be rescheduled.

Tomorrow is Easter, so I thought I would share a few memories I have of the holiday with you.

Our very first Easter was in 2007! You received a small basket with a tiny stuffie bunny rabbit and a little book about Peter Cottontail. We lived in Crescent City, Calif., at the time, and though the weather there usually was rainy, that Easter was nicely sunny. We went out to eat for Easter dinner, and you sat in your child carrier on the table and you slept through the whole meal! A lot of people stopped by to look at you because you were so darn cute!

In 2010, when you were three years old, you didn’t get an Easter basket. You got an Easter bucket! It was a Star Wars sandbox pail that we filled with all kinds of goodies. One of the items was a chocolate bunny rabbit. You ate the bunny rabbit’s ears first!

In 2011, when you were four years old, you and I made Easter sugar cookies together! You helped me roll out the dough, stamp the shapes, and frost the cookies! One of the cookies that you really liked was of a baby duck, which we frosted yellow (except for the bill, which we frosted orange) and gave a dollop of black for its eye. We also went to the Easter Egg hunt at Lancaster, Calif., City Park.

Last year, when you were five years old, we were living in the condo in Palmdale, Calif., and we had spent all day Saturday together. When you woke up Sunday morning, I mentioned that the Easter Bunny had left something for you at the front door! The Easter basket was a good mix of toys, candies and clothes I had picked up for you just the week before on our drive from Wisconsin to California.

After a little breakfast, we went to the Easter Egg hunt and festivities at City Park in Lancaster. At the end of the egg hunt, one child had just a couple of Easter eggs in his basket and was afraid that he wouldn't receive a reward for turning in the eggs (All the children received some candy and a little toy for turning in the eggs.), so all on your own you offered to share some of your eggs with him! I was so very proud of you for being so kind and generous.

I will miss you tomorrow during Easter. I hope you have a good day, though, and that the Easter Beagle brings you everything you wish for! We are next scheduled to get together on April 26, but hopefully we will see one another once before that date as well.

Love,

Dad

Standing in front of a pteranodon

Here's a great photo of us I found in my files; I don't remember the name of the place, but it was on the coast in southern Oregon where you walk through the forest, which has a bunch of fake dinosaurs arranged in dioramas. Kind of kitschy, I know, but it was pretty drive and lots of fun! I'm a sucker for kitschy dinosaur displays, btw.

The trail through the displays started with concrete, so we took you in your stroller. Then the trail turned to dirt and got rough, so we had to carry you and bring the stroller back to the beginning!

Here we are in front of a pteranodon. We did this trip in September 2007, so you are only 6 months old! On the way back, we stopped for a nice meal at a restaurant in Brookings, Ore. We were living in Crescent City, Calif., at the time.

Living in Santa Clarita, Calif.

While Grandma and Grandpa Bignell took care of you from December 2007-September 2008, I moved from Eureka to Santa Clarita, Calif. While the job I took at the Santa Clarita newspaper wasn't any different than - I was still the copy desk chief - Santa Clairta offered some great opportunities. I was tasked with redesigning the newspaper and with setting up new software for reporters and editors to work on. In addition, it was in sunny Southern California, where I longed to live!

In September 2008, you returned to live with me in Santa Clarita. I met you at the airport in Minneapolis, and we drove cross country through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California! I remember the first time you saw the mountains - you were so impressed with how they soared so high. You'd tap me and point at them!

I was so happy to finally be reunited with you. Though I'd missed seeing you learn how to walk, what began was three years of wonderful time spent together!

Unfortunately, the economy crashed in autumn 2008. I was laid off at the newspaper in November 2008. On the plus side, I was able to dedicate all of my time to you as a stay-at-home father!

Working in Crescent City, Calif.

After working in Palm Springs for a year-and-a-half, I made the big leap and became a managing editor of a newspaper once again. In October 2006, I went to work in Crescent City, Calif., at The Daily Triplicate newspaper.

It was a wonderful opportunity, and my staff and I made a lot of changes in the news we covered and the paper's look. Perhaps the biggest story we covered was when a tsumani wiped out part of our harbor. We won lots of awards for our writing!

I lived in a really nice three-bedroom ranch house with a garage and huge yard. It was about a mile or so from the Pacific Ocean.

But the most important thing that happened to me in Crescent City was that you were born while I was living there! I shall tell you all about that in a future entry!

Pics at Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's

Today I'm posting several pictures from winter 2007-2008 when you stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Bignell. You turned one years old that February (2008). I hope you enjoy them!

You and your cousin Rebekah Bignell.

Rebekah, Grandpa Bignell, you and Bryan Bignell.

You and Grandpa Bignell.

You with Rebekah and Bryan Bignell in background
and Grandpa Bignell in chair.

You in Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's kitchen.

"3, 2,1, Blast off!"...Playing "Countdown"

When you were a baby, one of my favorite things to play with you was "Countdown". I'd hold you in front of me and then count backward from 10, and after reaching one would go "Blast off!" and lift you really fast above me then hold you up there and say "And baby is on his way to the moon!" You'd laugh gleefully every time!

After a few times of playing the game, though, when I'd get to three in the countdown you'd shut your eyes really tight and tense up in anticipation of the quick blast off! Once I got you in the air, though, you'd open your eyes and giggle as wiggling your hands and feet in the open air!

You always were disappointed when I brought you back to Earth - I think you wanted to fly!

First time you ever enjoyed popcorn

You might remember this story that I used to tell you about when you were a baby - no more than nine or 10 months old - about when I had made popcorn one evening. I sat in my lap, snug against my left side, as I watched television with a bowl of hot buttered popcorn tucked against my right side.

Once I started eating the popcorn, you sniffed the air and looked at me with this facial expression that said, "Can I have some, too?"

Because you didn't have any teeth yet, I was worried that you might choke on it, so I broke off a bit of the popcorn and placed it in you mouth. You sucked on it and had this look on your face that said, "Hmmm! This is good!"

After maybe half a minute, once all of the butter and salt had been sucked off the bit of popcorn, you spit it out! Patooie! Then you looked at me again with this expression that said, "Can I have some more?"

So I gave you another bit. And after sucking off all of the butter and salt, you spit out the popcorn bit again!

You must have done that for the next 10 minutes until you were all full and didn't want anymore!