Past birthday celebrations

Feb. 1, 2013

With yesterday (Feb. 23, 2014) being your birthday, here are some photos from your past birthdays:
>>2014 (7 years old)
>>2013 (6 years old)
>>2012 (5 years old)
>>2011 (4 years old)
>>2010 (3 years old)
>>2009 (2 years old)
>>2008 (1 year old)

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

Found photo of you from summer 2008

I found some more photos of you while you stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's farm during the first half of 2008! I've been scanning them into my computer so that you'll have them later in life.

Here's one of them - you sitting on a swing in their backyard. You're only a year old in this photo! The grass is green, so it must have been taken during the summer. You definitely look sleepy!

Tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 16), you'll finally get to go back to Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's farm and see where you spent the early days of your life and to re-meet them. Everyone is so looking forward to seeing you again!

Your Uncle Chris' birthday is today!

You and Uncle Chris playing together
at you birthday party in 2008.

Today is your Uncle Chris' birthday! He was born when I was four years old. That was a long time ago!

I have tons of great memories about my brother and will have to tell you some of stories when we get together.

You got to spend lots of time with Uncle Chris when you stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Bignell in the winter/spring/summer of 2008. He even bought you a toy tractor for a birthday present!

He and his family miss you very much and can't wait until the time comes when they can see you again. I signed the birthday card I got him with both of our names on it.

Your visits to the state of Utah

At a wayside along I-15 in southern Utah.

Another state you've been to a couple of times is Utah. You were there twice, in September and October 2008. Both times we traveled on I-70 between the Colorado border and Cove Fort and then on I-15 between the Arizona border and Cove Fort.

The first time, we drove west in the early evening from the Colorado border. We stayed overnight in Green River, and I bought you a cool dinosaur shirt that was a little too big, but when older you wore it lots of times.

The second time, we drove east from the Arizona border. The day grew very cold as night approached and climbed into the mountains. We stopped at an Arby's near Cedar City for dinner then drove through the night into Colorado.

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!

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!

Remember your Dancing Elmo?

For Christmas 2008, when you were almost two years old, you received the hit gift of the season: a Dancing Elmo!

You thought it was absolutely cool. Elmo would talk to you and ask how you were feeling. He'd tell jokes and laugh and sing songs. Then he'd dance aorund as singing. Finally, he'd get tired and lay down and go to sleep.

You were absolutely fascinated by the Dancing Elmo and often tried to interact with it, as if it were actually living! You'd respond to what it was saying and dance along with it.

Eventually Dancing Elmo's gears or motors gave way, and he'd tip over as trying to dance. So we put him in the garage, but by that time you'd outgrown him.

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.

Your first words

I recall you being only five months old, and I'd carry you through our house in Crescent City, Calif., singing songs as puttering about. You'd listen so intently and try to mimic what I was doing, moving your mouth about, so confused at why words weren't coming out! I was so incredibly proud of you for trying so hard and so incredibly flattered that you wanted to do just what I was doing!

Your first three words were "baba," "dada" and "mama." Not too surprising given those were the three most important things to you! After that, you'd say other words, but never seemed to use them again or remember them. 

By about October 2008, your ability to speak really started to take off. Each month you mastered more and more words. I kept track of them, but within a matter of a few months, you were learning and using several words a day, and I couldn't keep up anymore!

But here's a list of words you were able to correctly say and indicate in some way that you knew what they meant:
g Oct. 2008 – moon
g Nov. 2008 – bye, bird, pickup (as in truck), truck, plane, playing, pink

g Dec. 2008 – okay, all right, why, hi, blue

I wonder what new words you're now using...