"The distance is nothing; It is only the first step that is difficult." Marquise du Deffand

Forrest's first Christmas.....

consisted of.....
cookies


apple bread


a mobile baby and presents


a helicopter for dad



leftover pizza, (okay, so it's not all egg noggy and cinnamon buns in this house, and the pizza hit the spot for Alex before our.....)



.....Hike up to the secret meadow



cranberry treats for the animals



mandarins and chocolate


and........
the most delish melt in your mouth crab EVER.....

:-)

Happy Holidays!

Wishing all of you a very wonderful Solstice, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! This has been an amazing year for us and you all are a big part of it, believe me! Thanks for taking the time to peek into our lives in this crazy world we live in, where we happen to live hundreds of miles from most of you, and 50 miles from the nearest town, but yet can magically, it seems, send out glimpses of our lives in seconds flat through the blogging world!
Come visit the real thing someday! I promise it's much better in person.....
Lots of love,
Katie, Alex, and Forrest......

"Christmas Eve Gift!"

Natalie won it this time! Or perhaps it was my dear mama who evidently made a sign bluntly spelling out the words and posted it at 11:59pm to take the cake. Regardless, our household was poorly unprepared for the traditional "Christmas Eve Gift" tradition and I just plain spaced it when the phone rang at 12:04 am on Christmas eve with my sister's number on the caller ID. My first thoughts were, "what does she want at this hour?" and "She must be out drinking...." (Sorry Nat).
So, you win, dear mom and sister Nat. I hope the gift was a good one!

Over the river and through the woods to granmothers house we go...

This last weekend has been the big Christmas shindig for my side of the family down in So. Cal. After an 11 hour all night drive down the state of Cali we made it to the house of never ending Christmas suprises at my mom and dad's. Forrest has been thoroughly pampered by over 50 family members and friends, and made out good, (as well as his parents....!) with some awesome gifts...!!! I'd have to say the BOB off road stroller takes the cake. We can't wait to get it back up to our place and give it a spin on our trails...!
Forrest loved it and everyone loved Forrest....
Here is a glimpse of our happy Christmas elf....

All I want for Christmas....

So, even if all of us adults, (me, an adult?) are not ready for Christmas, Forrest is! He's starting by contemplating how the heck to get into this present. He hasn't quite figured it out, which is nice considering I really don't feel like re-wrapping present after present. He definitely tries though....scratching at it. Note that there is purposely no ribbon on here yet. With a baby, the ribbon is like the candy....
He's fun, and very much into the bright lights and paper.
And adding his own personal touch...his drool...onto each and every present....
mmmmmm.

9 month old Forrest G.

Yes, 9 months TODAY!
Boy, what a busy time for ALL of us. I can only imagine what's going on in our little boy's head. He is turning into more of a boy every day. Still cuddly like a baby, but he LOVES the outdoors and with our recent cold snap, this is a bit difficult. Alex calls him a Fargo baby when I bundle him up from baby hairs to toes...somehow though he always gets a bit cold. Those baby hands turn out beet red.
I guess it doesn't help that he loves water of all kinds. Today, we got a break in the weather with no rain and 43 degree temps. So we went tromping. He's not quite walking on his own but its fun to let him lead the way in our huge "yard" and let him go where his little heart desires. He quickly found our fence and a lone chair with water.
And the water immediately got him. This face tells all....
The bath is also his favorite, and ours too. In his "I've had enough of mom, dad, and this house" which routinely hits at about 5:30 pm, into the bath he goes and he's happy as a shriveled up raisin for an hour.
It's great. A little baby jacuzzi.

His gourmet baby tastes are also changing. He's moved on to food with texture icluding CHEERIOS! Our new favorite. He won't feed them to himself yet, making the parents do this job, but he definitely is preferring foods with a bit more substance these days, and also good ole organic, (or home juiced) apple juice, watered down pretty well. He glugs it down in his sippy cup like he's a parched baby living in a desert...or just a baby living indoors a lot with a dry wood stove. He's still getting the mom milk, and doing well with that.
He's got the words mama, dada, and a lot of baby garble, shrieks, cries, and laughs down pat and is very vocal.
Still is not a crawler, more of a slitherer and furniture surfer. And as of this morning he is can now pull himself up in his crib after his naps and be found standing just waiting to make the leap over the railing....uggghhhh. Gotta do something about that. I'm praying our crib mattress can be moved down a touch.
And still no teeth. And not much hair. It's great. :-)
Don't know his exact weight, but he's fitting into many 12 month clothes pretty well, with just a little room to spare, and 9 month duds are becoming a bit small.
And, he amazingl still fits in his swing.....and loves it for his down time. Mom and dad have their comfy lazy boys, and Forrest has his swing. Here is a little comparison shot, Forrest at 3 weeks old,
and at 9 months.
I find it amazing he can sleep! But he almost prefers it, hanging his head off the side and taking in the view upside down.I think the thing has a 20 lb weight limit. But it's still rockin and works as long as he's strapped in tight! A nice cozy winter.
He still sleeps well most nights, with exceptions. Last night he decided he was thirsty, ( I think from my mama mind reading skills that hone in at 1:30am,) and screamed like he was being branded for quite awhile before I caught on and gave him some water. And then he was up again at 5:30 wanting milk. So I guess it's hit and miss. But for the most part he's down at 7:30 for the night until about 6am. And then will often go down again after milk for another hour or so. Makes for an eventful day with few naps, but we do feel very lucky we've got a good sleeper.He also wakes up a couple of times because he's kicked his blankets off or lost his pacifier. Yep, still a total baby plug guy. I'm mentally preparing myself for when I decide to make the thing disappear. I think soon here we will make the decision to limit it at nap time and bed time only....but easier said than done.
We are loving him up more and more each day. His smiles and shrieks are amazing and make us crack up. He's so fun, and even when he's challenging, those laughs get you every time. He is such an amazing kiddo.....

23 degrees

Yep, feeling pretty warm and cozy in our little dwelling, kept warm by the trusty woodstove. 70 degrees inside....nice! Makes me think of all the critters trying to keep warm out there. And here I am nice and toasty making my squash apple soup for dinner tomorrow. We are going to Chris and Tera's place in Somes Bar near the Salmon River. A place even more wild and remote than our neck of the woods. They are probably a good 2 hours from a good sized city, double our drive! AND they had a little girl Lila in June of this year! AND she was born 2 months early! Wow....after having Forrest be an incredibly healthy infant, I can't imagine having a little one that weighed 3 pounds at birth...my goodness.
But, Lila is a champ, doing great despite her early entry to this world. I can't wait to meet her and enjoy the cold frosty day in Somes Bar. I'm thankful for wood stoves, healthy babies, (especially healthy small teeny tiny babies!) and the good smells coming from my soup.
And for nice freezing days with a little boy who loves to be outside despite the frigid temps....
Must run in the family!
Even after he was hauled in by his mama his favorite thing to do is put his little baby hands up to the window, and scream at the top of his baby lungs in delight at the great view.....

Our room with a view....

I think I've written about the Bird Perch before, but this day was exciting as it was Forrest's first time up here, or at least his first time out of his mama's belly. Despite a baby melt down, we had the viewing pleasure of spotting this elf owl directly in front of us. We didn't even notice him until Forrest had let out plenty of wails and much time had passed. Pretty amazing and lucky!


Actions speak louder than words, so enjoy the video......

Giving Many Thanks

Fish, fish, and more fish!

The Trinity River is suddenly full of salmon....as of today. Finally.
Alex has had a lot of angst over the "missing run" this year.
Well, 7 salmon and 1 steelie later we found them! They are here, (I hope), and hopefully will continue to swim upriver in the weeks to come spawning and doing their thing. This first
video is of a steelehead I pulled in, and was extra special as we got to keep him! He was nice and bright and great quality. The salmon are a bit too dark so they were released.
Forrest enjoyed it...well, he a perhaps enjoyed about half of it. The
other half of the time he was a fussy Fulton baby, making his mama pull her hair
out. But, better to pull your hair out on the river catching fish than
at home, right? Enjoy the last two clips. Alex's fight with a monster salmon ensues. The total length is actually 5 minutes but the limits of satellite internet caused a much shorter two parter for your viewing pleasure. The total deal is pretty funny as it includes some of the craziness that is included with fishing for these big guys with a baby, but you'll have to come visit to see that version. The second part is the conclusion of the saga. Did Alex get his prized fish? Or did baby Forrest and the salmon triumph over the parents in a plotting scheme?
Only you will know. So watch them both, (I know, watching fishing is not your favorite thing to do, it's about as exciting as watching grass grow, but hey, Forrest is cute at least!
Okay, I promise that this isn't just the baby and fishing blog, even though it seems like it. Hopefully turkeys, (or some other eventful thing,) will be in the future!

8 month old Forrest

Okay, so this is a bit late. Little Forrest G. is actually more like 8 months and a week at this point, which doesn't seem to be too late, but in baby time it can be like night and day. For instance, he just took his first little real "crawl" in the past few days, where that was not so at the 8th month mark. He was only slithering.....
Details I know, but that's what it's all about!

8 month old Forrest is a bundle full of smiles, cries, and eat, eat, eat! He is the lug of baby love at this point tipping the scales at 19.5 pounds....YES that was 19.5....as in my little baby is almost 20 lbs.
I truly can't believe it.
He eats EVERYTHING mashed. If you can dream it up, he can gobble it down, and he does with a vengeance. He is also trying his first pureed chicken, and actually had some mashed crab the other night. We're talking gourmet baby food here. And he adored the crab. I don't think I've seen him happier...

A typical day for him starts at about 6:30-7:00am, sometimes earlier, (yep, no sleeping in in this household anymore!) He is still breastfeeding 3-4 times a day, with maybe a formula bottle thrown in there once in a while. He'll drink his milk, play for a bit, (mornings are by far his best times,) and then chow down a big bowl of baby cereal mixed with pears, bananas, and perhaps some avocado on the side. Then more play time ensues. He loves pulling himself up and standing and is quite good at it at this point.
He also is starting to copy cat and will clap his hands mimicking you as well as wave. His baby babble can be quite hilarious as well, with plenty of mama's and dada's thrown in there. His furniture surfing is starting as well.
We try to get him on his belly to practice his crawling, but unless it's his own idea, he protests, and heavily. This continues all day, with, (if we're lucky,) a nap or two, (usually short lived,) in between. Diaper changes are also not his favorite. He used to like his changing table, and now screams like it's the torture table. No diaper rash, he just plain doesn't like it, and with all the food he's chowing there are plenty of dirty diapers. He LOVES to be outside. If you stay inside all day, (which sometimes is necessary with our winter weather,)you have one cranky baby.
Outside he'll last for hours in the carrier, sitting on the dirt or grass playing, or trying to pull himself up on our fence. He does definitely crave attention and loves people.

It is now increasingly difficult to get anything done during the day other than baby care. I guess that comes with him sleeping through the night in long stretches. Yep, he is a great sleeper! We are blessed I know. He regularly goes to bed between 7-8 and will sleep till 6am-7am with maybe one wake up in there once in a while.
Amazing. I never would have believed it at 4mos when he was still up every 2 hours.
Makes for an eventful day for this lug, but still amazing.
And, NO teeth yet.

Keep waiting for the little buggers to poke out, but for now we're just enjoying our toothless grin.
Life is incredibly busy for us. I feel I am working too much, and missing out too much as well. It's not all floats down the river as told in my last post. But we are all healthy, happy, and enjoying each other to bits. And looking forward to time off for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thank goodness for holidays!
And Forrest's first!
Let the household baby proofing begin ;-)