Happy Halloween!

It was an exciting and tiring first Halloween for Topher. We first got him all dolled up and took him on campus.

He's a Killer Bee. Not a Bumble Bee. A Killer Bee. An Africanized Killer Bee. Get it right, or pay the price.

He was sure a big hit with the girls on campus.  Every girl on campus.  One saw him sitting on my lap and asked "Is it real?" I didn't know how to respond to that.

Topher's grandma bought him a little husky dog while on campus.

The festivities began later in the day.  We baked ourselves a pizza, carved a pumpkin, and watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Something appears to have gone wrong.

Madness

We took Topher out of his Africanized Killer Bee With Laser Beam Eyes costume, and made him something more nefarious:

Someone came to the door dressed as Batman and Topher shot him with his umbrella rifle.

He kind of looks like road kill in this shot, but he's the cutest road kill I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot out here. Poor critters.).

Topher's first Candy OD

Be careful, or he'll bite your nose off.

The real excitement for the night was when Topher got chased by a stampeding herd of goats.

JUMANJI!!!

Err...

Two week check up

Topher had his two week check up today and he has gained a whole pound!!! He weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. when born and was 7 lbs. 5 oz. when we left the hospital. Today he weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz and the pediatrician said he looks "strong and normal." I was so grateful to see the weight gain and know that he's getting enough to eat. The funny thing about going to the doctor is that Topher will fuss and fuss but then we strip him down to his diaper and he'll act like an angel while the doctor checks him. I think we have a future streaker on our hands.

In other Topher news, a kind lady in our ward lent us a cradle to keep in our living room so Topher can sleep when he's in that room. He absolutely loves it! In fact the only reason I'm able to write this is because he's been alseep in it for well over an hour. He'll wake and fuss a little, but a quick rock in the cradle makes him fall right back asleep again. I'm just happy he has a way to get some sleep, and by extension, I have a way to get some sleep too! :)

Here are just a few pictures of my boys:

Terror

Topher's worst nightmare.

So, the other day we decided that Topher was due for a bath.  The fewer clothes he has on, the happier he seems to be, so we figured we were golden.  Not so.  I'd like to post some pictures of what happened during the actual process, but the three of us were so traumatized that all we could think about was getting done and getting him out of there.  For an idea of how Topher reacted, take this picture:

And take his displeasure to the 13th power. That's a start.  I imagine that his conception of the baby bath is something like that chair from the Star Trek episode with the alien abductions:

Don't pretend like you have no idea what I'm talking about.

All the screaming sure tired him out though.  Apparently the key to a good nights sleep is major emotional trauma. That's advice you can take right to the bank.

The other big event of the week was my mom's arrival on Saturday (Megan's mom flew out on Thursday.  Topher did not die in the two days in between.).

Grandmas actually like changing diapers.

The night she arrived, however, we lost power in a major rainstorm.

It appeared that we had a ghost.

But then I took the picture with the flash.

The power went out at 7:30 Saturday night.  We called the power company and their robot told us that they expected it to be back on in three hours.  I called every hour for updates, which were always "We expect your power to be back on in three hours."

This reminds me of the Haunted Mansion

The power was still off in the morning, at which point the robot refused to give any estimate at all of when it would be back.  We did make it to church and stayed for the full three hours.  It was still off when we got home, but finally came back at 2:30.  We didn't lose too many groceries, but we will be buying some supplies for the next time (Like candles that don't smell like Pomegranate).

Just in case this post was a bit of a downer for you.  Here is a cute picture of Topher:

Enjoy

Obstinance

When you are a child of a scholar of Human Development and Family Studies, you are afflicted with constant prodding by your parent. When you are the a scholar of Human Development and Family Studies, you are afflicted with non-compliant children:

No more than two days prior to this video, I got Topher to give Megan a perfect demonstration of the walking reflex (among other reflexes).  Once we decided to get a video of it, however, Topher moved quickly (and by "quickly" I mean "not at all") to stymie our plans.  Apparently, Topher has an innate ability to play dead when his parents get too silly.  I'm sure it will serve him well through the years.

While we're on YouTube, please watch the following.  You'll definitely enjoy the time watching; it's having the song stuck in your head for the next three days (and counting...) that will really get you:

Topher's Day Out

To stave off cabin fever after a week at home (the one time leaving featuring a stab in the foot for Topher), we decided to make a day trip of going to Gillette Castle on Saturday.  As the story goes, the castle was commissioned by William Gillette, a noted actor, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes.  After his death, Connecticut eventually converted his castle into a state park.  It was closed for the season, but we walked the grounds and took some pictures.

Topher bundled up in two blankets and his grandma's jacket.  It was colder than expected, but Topher managed to sleep the whole time.

The group

The castle is made entirely of rocks cemented together.

Even the hangings over the windows are slabs of rock.

Connecticut has an utter excess of loose rocks.  I thought their use was limited to rock walls, but apparently they make effective arches and castles.

This light is made of large shards of glass.

A view of the Connecticut River from the castle grounds.

An autumn landscape

Incidentally, today was Topher's first time going to church.  We would have taken more pictures, but it was super cold this morning and we were running late because of a last minute dirty diaper.  We only stayed for Sacrament Meeting, but Topher managed to sleep clear through it (today being the Primary Program, no less).  Afterwards, he got right on top of things and went for a Sunday afternoon nap.

Labor and delivery / Topher's first walk

Hi everyone :) It has been ages since I last wrote and so you will all now be presented with a topic smorgasbord. If you're reading this blog you know that our son Topher was born on Sunday, October 12th at 9:33 in the evening. The day before we took my mom to lunch and we were having a great time on the ride home talking about what it would be like to go into labor and what would happen if I needed to be induced. Odd enough, the doctor called me before we even got home and said that due to my blood pressure and high protein content I would need to be induced. We scheduled a time, 8:00 Sunday morning, and began as much mental prep as we could. Of course Scott and I had a difficult time sleeping that night, much regretted sleep that's for sure, and all of us were up at 6 in the morning getting stuff ready for the hospital. We got to the hospital and despite being told that it might take several days for the baby to come when induced, 7 1/2 hours later we had Topher. For more details, give me a call or write an email. I figure the general populace doesn't want to hear the gory details :).

On a different note, a couple of days ago we noticed Topher was starting to look yellow, indicating jaundice, so we took him for a walk around the apartment complex. The sun did him good, although he still looks really yellow in the last picture here. The pediatrician said his bilirubin levels weren't too high so we're hoping he regains some of his color before long.

Topher and Scott.
Finally, I have pictures of the two of them. It's hard when your husband controls the camera during labor and delivery. That's how certain photos ended up on the blog :)

Topher looking only slightly yellow.

This is almost Christmas cardable. Almost.

I love this picture but I think Topher looks so yellow compared to Scott. He's sleeping though which is all that matters.
I have no idea why I took a picture instead of taking a nap myself. Not smart.

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments and phone calls. We really appreciate everone's support and now if we could get any sleep we'd have it made. Funny how no one tells you how much sleep you're going to lose when you have a baby...

And now for something completely different

So, before we had Topher, we drove around a bit and took some Autumn pictures around here. Megan is going to post some more baby pictures later today (probably), so I wanted to put these up for those who wanted to know what a New England fall is like.

A church near the town green in Willington

Welcome to Cougar Town. The included Stop sign seems appropriate, all things considered.

This is my favorite picture of the bunch.

I wanted a picture of this sign to put up when I started school, but I never got around to it.

Megan took this one.  I really like the color.

Some really nice color, in my opinion.

There is a good chance we'll go out driving for some more pictures soon, so check back later for more.  And just in case you feel ripped off that there was nothing about Topher here, you can download this movie I made.  It's a big file (almost 20MB) and mostly uses pictures I've already posted, but it does include exclusive, never before seen footage of Topher.

Back By Popular Demand

Topher is doing great. We made it through the first night at home relatively unscathed.

Disagree if you must, but Topher is the cutest kid on earth in my book.  He also sneezed six times in one shot, another record in my book.

Topher coming home. Megan seems more pleased about it than Topher does.

This was the first time that Topher slept for any appreciable amount of time in his bassinet since we got home.  It was taken this afternoon.

Everyone  who did any tests or examinations on Topher told us "He's perfectly healthy, but his toes are kinda weird." His big toe is quite a distance from the rest of his toes.  There is some debate as to whether it is more like a monkey's foot, or a velociraptor's. Apparently we have Megan's dad to thank for this. 

As requested, a picture of me with Topher.

This is just before I finally showered again after two and a half days. No baby in this photo, just a lot of manginess.

Last but not least, here is a baby head I carved out of an apple the night before we went to the hospital.  Interestingly, I think it looks more like Topher than any of the makemebabies.com babies we tried out.