Holden's First Christmas

We spent Holden's first Christmas in Visalia with my family. We arrived on the 23rd to celebrate my grandma's 84th birthday. My sister and her family came that same day. We had fun hanging out and getting spoiled by Mom's great cooking. Holden really didn't get Christmas this year. He enoyed ripping off bows, but he lost interest in presents pretty quickly. Unfortunely, he came down with another little stomach bug so we spent the rest of the day changing diapers (and we still are...I've changed 14 diapers today!). He developed a horrible diaper rash, so he also got a little diaper-free play time. He loved it! Trey and I left Visalia at his bedtime on the 26th. We're home now trying to get everything put away.

Picking out our Christmas tree on December 10th.

Visiting Santa at UTC on December 21st.

Visiting all the Christmas fun at Grandmother's on the 22nd.

He LOVED the singing and dancing trio.

Holden didn't get to enjoy Nana's awesome homemade waffle breakfast; instead he feasted on frozen whole wheat waffles, Cheerios and bananas.

We were opening for a long time!

Let the opening begin...

Holden and Uncle Randy

Some naked play time to help relieve the terrible diaper rash.

Holden's first Christmas presents.

Ten Months Old

Holden turned ten months old on December 24th. The biggest change we've seend is that he is "talking" more. He says "Mom-mom-mom" or "Mah-mah" if he wants to be picked up, wants more food or if he wants me to come back in the room. He also answers the phone (or any other ringing sound like the microwave timer) with an "Ahhhh". He calls Houston "Uhhh" when he sees him outside in the yard, it is so cute. He says "uh-oh" minus the "oh" after he drops food over his high chair tray or drops a toy. It used to just be the one syllable "uh" but in the last couple of days he's added the second syllable, so now it's "uh-uh". As you can probably tell, it's a lot of the same sound used in different contexts. He has six teeth and one corner of another that has broken through. I can see one other that will be here any day now. He's standing on his own (without holding onto anything) every once and a while - his longest has been about 3 or 4 seconds. He's also starting to take some independent steps. He prefers to walk rather than crawl most places now, so he'll try to stretch between furniture edges to make it from place to place. More and more, he's letting go of the furniture and taking one or two steps. The most I've seen at a time is two, but they told me he took three consective steps at school last week. The pyrogenic granuloma (the red mole) next to his left eye fell off one night and has not returned; we've kept the appointment with the pediatric dermatologist just in case though. Other than that, his hair has gotten longer - it's almost time for his first haircut. This picture was taken on the 22nd when we stopped by to see Grandmother. She has had the lighted Santa and Rudoplph since Trey was young.

Stomach Flu

Holden has had his first bout with the stomach flu this week. He hasn't been able to keep much down. The doctor said we couldn't give him any dairy products, so that has meant little formula for our little guy. It's kinda hard to explain to a 9.5 month old why their bottle has apple flavored Pedialyte in it instead of milk. Luckliy, he doesn't seem as puzzled today when I give him his Pedialyte bottle. I think he's on the mend though. Yesterday all he wanted was to be held (all day); sleeping was out of the question. Today we've had a few sessions of playtime and one good nap. We're hoping Holden feels better soon.

Two Little Elves

Holden and I went up to visit Anna and Waylon a couple of weeks ago. I forgot to bring my camera, but luckily Anna caught our visit on film. Here's a link to her blog to see our boys playing together (and while you're there, you can see all the other fun stuff Waylon is doing!).

http://www.DavisFamilyPhotos.blogspot.com

Do "The Holden"

Some funny stories from school this week.....

Yesterday when Trey picked Holden up from school, Holden had a pink purse on his arm and was pushing a toy house around. Trey took the purse off his arm and said, "No we don't play with these." All the teachers started to laugh.

When I picked Holden up from school today Yvonne, the Director, said, "Oh, you're picking up the school mascot?" I looked puzzled. She said that all of the teachers from the two older kid rooms "borrow" Holden and take them to their classrooms. All the kids know him by name (Ho-den); it seems he's quite a social guy.

They have a new dance in Room 3. I guess when they turn on music, Holden starts to laugh and pump his right arm in the air (kinda the same as his banging-toys-on-a-table motion). The teachers say to the rest of the class, "Do The Holden," and the rest of the kids start pumping their arm in the air. I would pay large sums of money to have that captured on film. How funny!

9 Months and 12 Days

We had Holden's 9 month check-up today. His weight was 20 lbs. 14 oz. (55th %ile); his height was 30 1/8 in. (95th %ile); and his head was 45 cm (still the 25th %ile). He received his final Hep. B immunization, a blood test to check for anemia, and a flu shot. You may have noticed from some previous posts a big red mole looking thing on his right eye. Well, today we found out it's called a pyrogenic granuloma. Basically, it's an area where his blood vessels are growing in abundance. It's harmless, but needs to be removed. We have an appointment scheduled with a pediatric dermalotogist for January 5th.

A Black Eye & Waving Good-bye

Holden got his second shiner in one week yesterday (12/5). I got a call at work saying he took a spill while playing outside. He was trying to climb into a little turtle pool when he fell and hit his eye. His first black eye occured last Friday afternoon; I think he hit it with a toy on the way home from school. Both were on his left eye.

This morning Holden waved Good-bye to me for the first time. According to his teachers, he's done it a couple of times at school, but today was the first time Trey and I saw it in context. Oh we're so proud!

This picture was taken minutes before his first good-bye wave.