Meeting Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt LoLo and Cousin Liam

The weekend of August 17th-20th my Dad, Step-mom, baby sister Laurel, and her little boy, Liam, flew out to Idaho to come visit us and meet Cannon for the first time! We had so much fun.

Friday the fam flew in and we went out for brunch. That afternoon we went to Bear World per the request o birthday girl, Laurel. It was time for her to return to her bear family that she met about 4 years ago when she came out to Rexburg to visit us for a week. Bear World was fun. The petting zoo was fun for the little boys. Dad and Nancy were also pretty happy to see a magpie, a "life bird" to mark off their birding list.

 

On Saturday we celebrated Laurel's 19th birthday by doing a day trip to Yellowstone. It was Cannon's first roadtrip and he did pretty well...especially considering he was cutting his first two teeth that weekend. We patiently awaited the magnificent eruption of Old Faithful.

Dad looked like an anxious and excited little boy watching and waiting for the geyser to go off. The most exciting part of the trip though was the matching coonskin hats that Grandpa bought for the boys. He had wanted one as a little boy, but sadly, never got one. So he insisted on spoiling the grandsons with a coonskin cap of their own, complete with a real raccoon tail. :) Lol!

I wonder if they realized that they wore matching clothes all weekend? Ha ha!

Sunday was a nice, relaxing day. After church the Mommies (and Dad) hung out with babies at home while Grandma and Grandpa had a chance to go out birding. We had a lot of fun letting the boys play together...even though Liam seemed pretty intent on wanting to poke Cannon's eyes out.

It was so precious to watch Grandpa having so much fun loving on his Grandsons. It's moments like these that make you realize what life is really all about...Family.

4 months!

15.5 lbs (62nd percentile)

16.25" long (83rd percentile)

16.25" head (25th percentile)

Four months hit and all of a sudden Cannon pulled some new tricks out his sleeve. It's like he was just waiting to actually turn 4 months old and then within days he had mastered blowing raspberries and standing up. 

 
In the past Cannon has blown raspberries, but it was exclusively when he was upset and/or frustrated. Now he does it for entertainment and likes to mimic Daddy doing it. He's so drooly right now (because he's teething) that when he does it spit goes flying! He ends up soaked in saliva but thinks its hilarious.

Lil Man also likes standing up now. When we hold him in our laps he likes standing, legs locked and bending forward to drool on your face. Ha ha!

At four months old Cannon is still a chatterbox. His "vocabulary" of noises and sounds continues to expand.
He gurgles and gargles and still let's out a high pitched squeal when he doesn't like something. He's quite the communicator and very expressive. We love how he has conversations with us and takes turns going back and forth talking.

Sadly, Lil Man's hair continues to fall out. The front "island" (as Anthony likes to call it) stayed long and stringy as the rest was rubbing off short or just all together falling out. We finally decided it was time for a haircut. We just trimmed the top so that we can still spike it in the front. His first haircut curl is now safely tucked away in a silver box marked "first curl" that Oma gave us.

Feae waking Up displaced
Pushes off with his feet

15 Weeks- accomplished in the last week

7/28 this morning I watched a video of cousin Ramona when she was 15 weeks old (I like to see if the cousins at the same stages). Cannon was nursing while I watched Ramona jabbering in her high chair. Cannon would stop nursing and look at my Phn and shoot dirty looks as if to say "hey! Who's interrupting my breakfast?!" I showed him the screen and told him it was. cousin Ramona. He raised a curious eyebrow (he has such an expressive face) and watched the rest of the video with me then contentedly went back to finishing his morning meal.

For whatever reason Cannon has started putting his hand on his face all the time. We were worried that maybe he had an earache or something, but over time it seems to just be a preference.


Cannon is becoming curious about food. He likes to watch us eat. And looks very inquisitive about what we are doing. He's really good with a bottle and recognizes what it means when he sees Anthony holding one. When we drink water bottles C gets a little miffed because he thinks it's his "ba ba" we are guzzling down.

Lil Man no longer gets cold and frustrates with baths, rather he loves the bath now.

3 Months! (13 weeks)

 3 Months!!

Cannon has been doing really well with the transition of using bottles while I'm at work. He so darling when he eats, dramatic even. He drapes his arm across his face and covers his eyes as if to say "oh what a rough day! I'm enjoying my dinner so nobody bother me." Even cuter still, he makes funny grunts and noises while eating.

On a sad note, Cannon's hair has continued lightening and is now falling out. :( There is still a large amount of hair down on his neckline and a long "island" on the top. We try to disguise that it's falling out by still putting a curl in that long patch.

C still loves his little puppy dog. When he's cranky or bored the puppy is always a lifesaver. He smiles so big when he sees it! He loves on it and snuggles it...but mostly he chews on it. Ha ha!

 

Anthony is continuing to encourage Cannon to "find his thumb." They are working on bending the other fingers so that he will stop poking himself in the eye when he finally gets his thumb in his mouth. He is constantly sucking his hands and slobbering. Still no teeth though. 

 This is our lil' man's way of telling us he wants to be picked up. He has quickly learned that this little pout is like kryptonite to Mommy and will get him pretty much anything he wants. How could anyone say no to this face? 

Cannon is now sleeping in his crib in his own room. It was a hard transition for me, but Anthony was more than happy to finally get back more than 6" of space on his side of the bed. Ha ha! Somehow this wiggly boy has figured out to finagle his way around and ended up turning sideways in his bed, with his feet in the slats of the crib and his blanket around his head. Kids..don't try this at home. 

12 Weeks

 Week #12

 Cannon has been drooling quite a bit the last couple weeks. It looks like he might be getting a bottom tooth coming in soon. It still might have a ways to go though. He doesn't really like to chew a pacifier expect right before going to sleep. But he LOVES to chew on his hands and on some new teething toys he has. He is also beginning to learn how to hold his toys so he can chew on them all by himself. :)

On Monday the 2nd, my friend Macie started babysitting Cannon during the day while I'm at work and Anthony is at school and work. He also got to go to my friend Christina's house on Friday. Macie has a 17 month-old daughter and Christina has 4 kiddos. Cannon is enjoying his days with all the other playmates and entertainment. We are really blessed to have such good friends who can help us until Anthony is out of school in a couple more weeks.

Anthony is really looking forward to having a break from school for a while. He will be off for the campus 7-week break and then work part-time and take just a few online classes in the fall since that is his off-track. The plan right now is for him to be a stay-at-home Daddy until he start full-time school again in January. 

Here is our handsome boy in some of his new ties. We think he looks pretty dashing. :)

Doesn't like his monkey mirror
video- almost started laughing




This week Cannon also experienced his first 4th of July. He had quite the wardrobe to celebrate. We went to the Rexburg Parade with my cousin Emalee and her family (hooray for tradition). We then went to Idaho Falls to watch the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration Fireworks. In all the years Anthony and I have lived here we've never gone to Idaho Falls to see the fireworks. It was a fun night. Cannon loved looking at the fireworks but fell asleep during the finale. 

11 Weeks

11 Weeks Old

...and we had a busy last week! It was Mom's last week before heading back to work full-time so we decided to make the most of it. By the end of the weekend we were all tuckered out. :)

Milestones

Cannon will copy mom and stick his tongue out. It's really funny, but later on  I'll probably regret teaching him that. :)

Cannon has also started noticing his feet. He stares at them while he's kicking them around or wiggling his toes. Anthony and I like to make up funny things for what he might be thinking while he is looking at them (like on te movie Look Who's Talking). We say things for him like...

 "What are those funny lookin' blobs down there? I wonder what they taste like."

Thursday

We got a bit touristy since Oma was visiting. On Thursday we went to Yellowstone Bear World. Oma LOVES bears! She was so excited to see the little cubs and she even got to bottle-feed them. It was pretty hot outside so Cannon decided to sleep instead of watch the bears. :)

Friday

On Friday we went to Rexburg Rapids with Macie and Christina and the kiddos. It was Cannon's first time swimming. I bought him these cute swim pants with turtles on them. Anthony thought the hat made him look like Gilligan. :)

Cannon liked the water and the sunshine. He enjoyed kicking and splashing around.

And once again...the warm sunshine put him to sleep.

 Saturday

On Saturday we held our first yard sale. The sale was a success and we made $250 in 4 hours! However, one of the sale items never even made it out to the yard. I was getting ready to put a price tag on this little puppy dog when it caught Cannon's eye. He spent the whole morning talking and smiling at the puppy. They are still best buddies. :)

Monday

 Mom went back to work on Monday the 25th. We were so grateful to have Oma here to stay home with Cannon while Dad was at school and Mom was at work. Cannon made Mom a pinky promise that he would be a good boy while we were gone, and Mom promised that she would come back home after work every day and snuggle him.