Green Mattress Down
Hello to you all.
The mattress in Xavier's crib has three height settings. We have kept the mattress raised at its highest level. It's easier to get him in and out, especially for Dad.
Well, since Xavier has mastered crawling (much to the Dalmatian's dismay), he has started showing signs of developing the desire to stand. He has been practicing with one of the carpeted steps in the house. He can almost press himself up, but can't get the leverage just yet. He's too short in relation to the step's height. He also tries by pressing himself up with his forehead and tiptoes when no step is available. So far, this has only pushed his little behind up into the air.
Still, he has learned to "stand" on his knees, and he can (while holding onto something) crawl on his knees.Just this week, we walked in to the nursery to find Xavier awake, up on his knees playing with his kick piano. I mentioned to Rebecca, "I'm going to have to drop the mattress at least one notch." What do we discover a few days later:
Xavier is fully capable of pulling himself up over the railing from this kind of vantage, though this photograph does not show him trying to do so. Now, the mattress is set as low as it can go, about six inches off the floor. That should keep him contained for some time, at least until he learns to climb the railing!
Xavier has strained and fought to get hold of his fuzzy mobile dinos. Now that he has done so, he is intensely happy for it. To bad Dad came in and lowered the mattress. As Xavier watched, he was thinking "I did it once. I'll do it again!"
Easter Portraits
Hello to everyone.
Our mortgage company offered a sitting with a professional photographer to take Easter pictures. We could choose one of the pictures and get a 8x10 print free. The photographer snapped 53 shots.
We were offered several premium packages, apart from the one free print. It was difficult to decide. In the end, we bought the digital images and the copyrights for them. It was not that much more than paying for the three packages we initially selected, but we got fifty more pictures.
Sitting in his high-back leather chair, Xavier, working closely with the photographer, thoughtfully considers which images should be chosen. He knows there is a budget; his parents are discussing the exact number elsewhere in the room.
Rebecca thinks there should be a farm house in the background and Xavier should be holding a pitch fork. Dad is getting better with photo manipulation, so that may one day happen.
Dad's expression seems to keep with the unplanned American Gothic theme.
Happy Easter 2014 from the Ogden family!
Feisty
Hello to everyone.
Rebecca had an opportunity to go to a women's conference in Colorado Springs today. It was a much-needed break from the house for Rebecca. She went alone, leaving Xavier and Dad to order pizza and watch B-grade 1950/60s SciFi movies all day.
One of the many women Rebecca met at the conference was a person who worked for a crisis pregnancy center. She and Rebecca got to talking. Of course, the topic of Xavier came up, and with it, the elevator speech about the pregnancy. Somewhere in this conversation, Xavier's independence and his growing insistence on doing things himself came up.
This woman told Rebecca that most boys who experience such struggles coming into this world are feisty like Xavier. "They're survivors," she told Rebecca. She stated this in a very encouraging way.
Dad and son hanging out in the back yard on so nice a spring day. Xavier wears his new sun hat. I want to get a fishing lure, remove the hook and affix it to the hat.