5 MONTHS

Phin turned 5 months last weekend. I had a little assistance from Seth with the 5 month pictures and as a result we got some pretty good smiles.  Our "little" guy now weighs 18 pounds and 8 ounces.  He is still in size 3 diapers.  The size 3 diapers go all the way to 28 pounds...so we are hoping he will be in there for quite a while.  He is wearing mostly 9 month tops but still can wear 3-6 month bottoms.  He is rolling both directions.  He tends to prefer his right side and rolls to his right side, slouches to his right side and likes to have his head turned to his right side.  He has became quite vocal this month.  He is starting to use some great prosody and inflection.  He makes a little noise that we call his PTERODACTYL.  When he makes it in the morning I like to take him into Seth when Seth is still sleeping and say "I release my pterodactyl on you"...kind of like Zeus says "release the kraken."  He has also been doing some fake little coughs.  I think he is just trying to figure out how his little vocal tract works.  He is fascinated with his hands and feet and seems to be maneuvering them with greater skill each day.  Some of his nicknames this month were PHINNER....usually followed by the words "chicken dinner" an PHINSTER...usually preceded by "Mister."

We bundled Phin up for some of Seth's last Ultimate Frisbee games of the season.  Here is a picture of Phin with his Aunt Em and Uncle Scott.  The week after this I forgot a jacket for Phin...but I had his Halloween costume in the car so he got to be a little alligator at Seth's game.

Phin is now sitting up in his highchair at lunch and dinner.  The first time I put him in I got a little teary because he looks so much bigger sitting up.  He loves sitting in his chair because he can see more of what is going on.

He also thinks his high chair is a potty chair.  Seriously almost every time we put it in it he has a little explosion.  Seth found the first and greatest explosion.  We came up with a little rule of finders keepers...so Seth was stuck changing this one.

But don't feel too bad...I have had my share of the yucky ones.

This is what Phin looks like when I go to get him up in the morning.  I think it is a pretty sweet face to wake up to.

Once I release him from his "straitjacket" as his Aunt Audrey calls them he stretches his arms and legs and arches his back just like I do in the morning.

I can't say that Phin is as happy to wake up from naps.  Usually he wakes up screaming...I tell him he can go back to sleep but he doesn't seem to understand.  Here is a picture of Seth and Phin taking an afternoon nap...really Seth had just woken up and was closing his eyes to humor me.

Phin would be content if we could spend all day everyday outside...just not covered in leaves.    

"I don't like leaves"

"Maybe I like leaves"

"No I really don't like leaves"

Phin got dressed up a few times this month.  Once for our friend Matt's birthday party.  We thought the hat was just Phin's size.  He wasn't too sure about the nose.

 

The second time was for Halloween of course.

 The day Phin hit his 5 month mark we tried him on some solids.  I roasted and then pureed some acorn squash.  Here Phin is ready in his highchair all ready for some food.

Here are a few pictures while we feed him a few bites.

 He didn't have a really strong reaction the first day....the second and third days he screamed like we were killing him...so needless to say we decided to back off for a few weeks and try again later.

The Farmington Home

As Seth and I shut the door on our apartment in South Carolina, I remember feeling a sense of loss.  The small two bedroom apartment overlooking the pool was the first place we had lived as a married couple.  Almost all of the memories from the first two years of our marriage had taken place within those walls.  In many ways the places we live become like members of our families.  

Back in August it was time to say goodbye to such a family member...it was time to say goodbye to the home where my father was raised.  I have to admit that I don't have many real memories of the house.  I was just three years old when my grandfather passed away and my grandmother sold the home not long after that.  The only memory I have is of sitting in a blue chaise lounge chair next to my grandfather.   

I wanted to collect a little history of the home.  I found out that my grandparents purchased the home from John Henry Robinson shortly after they were married.  They lived in the home for forty-three years.  They welcomed five children into the home, watched those children grow, sent those children off to college and on missions and eventually watched grandchildren totter into their home.  My grandmother wrote in her personal history "We changed the style inside and out and made it very livable and pleasant."  Below are two picture of the home when it was the original red brick. 

(L-R, Malcolm, Harriet, John (Dad), Mary Louise)

My grandmother, Golda pictured in the middle.

At some point the house was painted gray.  

Later on vinyl siding was put on over the brick.

Sometime after my grandmother sold the house it was turned into a duplex.  It was neglected and eventually abandoned.  For years I have driven by the house just to check on it.  I have dreamed of buying it and restoring it to its former glory...unfortunately I never found a money tree needed for such a task.  Before the house was torn down, I was able to walk through it.  It was not the house I had dreamed of.  I realized that the home was far beyond being saved.  A family of raccoons had burrowed their way into the upstairs rooms...the floor was covered with their droppings and the smell was unbearable.  At one time vandals had broken in and smashed the glass out of the bookcases that flanked the fireplace in the front room.  It was sad to see the house in such a state.

There was one thing very much worth salvaging and that was the four stained glass windows that adorned the home...it is remarkable the vandals had left them untouched.  My dad was able to arrange for our family to remove the windows.  I  tagged along on the trip with my brother Jeff and my dad to remove the windows.

I was also able to get a picture of my dad and Phin outside the home.

And a picture of them in the shade of the front porch.

A week or two later we returned on demolition day.  If Phin were old enough to care he would have loved watching the crew take down the house.

 
Here is a picture as the front porch came down.

In this picture you can see the red brick exposed.

This picture made me think of a dollhouse as the upper rooms were exposed.

 I love this picture of my dad and Aunt Becky watching the demolition.  I can't help but think that maybe they were reminiscing about the home.

At about this time in the demolition I saw a raccoon high tail it out of the second level.

 
And then the house was all gone.

You would think that with the house gone that I would stop driving by...but every time I am in Farmington, I can't help but to drive by.