Well Darren's first big trip out of the city will be on Sunday. My parents and I are going to Vernon with Darren and the dog, Samantha, in tow. Everyone up in Vernon can't wait till we get there to see him. Especially Brian, who completely adores children. He's got four himself and he's such a character. Mom says he'll snatch Darren right out of my arms the minute he sees him. We're up there so I can get my boating license at the Vernon boat show. Darren keeps surprising me with these all nighter sleep periods. A new phenomenon happened today which delighted my mother to no end. Darren was lying across mom's legs face down (for some reason he likes this position) and he actually crawled around on my mothers legs 90 degrees before she caught him. He ran out of my mother's legs for his hands and almost fell head first down her legs. It was bizarre to watch and he wasn't upset or anything, just exploring. Mom thinks he'll be an early crawler/walker but we will see. He lifts his head just fine now when mom sits him up which is great. Everyday he surprises us with something new!

That picture with great granddad is a four generation picture. My grandfather is so excited to finally have a great grandson and loves it when we bring him and Darren together. He has a greatgranddaughter but he doesn't get to see her very often so any chance to see a child is heaven to him.

A few more pictures for all you folks! We have here a picture of me holding Darren when he was only 4 days old, and a couple more pictures a few days after that, when Tracy went to visit her Granddad, Darren's great-Grandfather!

For all you folks that have been sending me mail about the lack of pictures recently, have this one. It's really nice! Honest, I have a bunch more and will put them up soon, but you'll notice from the time on this post that I don't get a whole lot of time to work on this!

Today Darren was very under the weather. His little stomach couldn't take the formula we fed him and he threw it all up on the car seat coming home. He's had this formula before but today for some reason it didn't like him much. It was kinda scary watching him choke it up and watch his face go all red and then he'd stop breathing for a second. But in the end we got it all up and out and he slept peacefully while Mom and I watched him. He was famished when he woke up later and we got into our old routine again. At this moment he's had his last feed for the day and he's sleeping in his crib. He smiled at everyone today and he even cooed for daddy this morning. He's such an angel.

Well for the past three days Darren has slept through the night without waking up. I'm so glad too. I was worried that he wasn't feeding like he normally would during the night but now I guess it's fine with him. He's getting lots during the day I suppose but for a minute there he had me doubting. I'm over it now. I like this sleeping through the night thing very much. I'm able to do other things now and I don't have to sleep when he sleeps. It would be nice to tackle the weeds in the yard but it's too big a job for me to do alone, especially during the three hour window he gives me during the day between feeds. If anyone wants to come over and help with the weeding I'd appreciate the company and help. I need to get some weed and feed but I can't carry the baby and get the bag at the same time if you know what I mean. That stuff is not good for baby to be around. The yard needs it too. It drives me insane looking at the weeds taking over the yard everyday and not being able to do it. Especially the crawling ivy in the backyard I tried so desperately to kill last summer.

Darren smiles now at mom and I. This morning he smiled and cooed at Dave which is a step up from what he does with us. Soon he'll be saying Da Da with a little help from momma. It's really exciting when you can get a communication going with your month old son, even if it's only a smile. I was thrilled and every morning we do this little exchange while I do his diaper. Life is cool at our house!

The shower was fabulous and Heather did a great job. We had food and punch served in crystalware and lots of room for everyone to mingle with each other. There was lots of gifts to rip my way through. Some of the things I got were a diaper genie, baby monitor, baby gate, a bath, lots of clothes and receiving blankets. Darren was a perfect angel and enjoyed all the attention he was getting. He was passed around the room a few times. He is so exhausted that he's probably going to sleep all through the night. I wish! I got to see some people I missed seeing while I was locked away in my house for the last half a year. I enjoyed myself immensely.

Today we went to Costco to hand in some more pictures for development. These ones I'll have to scan to get on the website but I'm sure I'll have some good ones of Darren. Pat and Rob gave us a baseball outfit and baseball hat and George and Jean gave us some runners and they all match so I took some pics of him in the outfit today on mom's couch. He looks adorable in the outfit. I had a perfect opportunity to take a cute pic this morning at 7 am but I couldn't find the digital camera. If I used the normal camera the flash would have woken him up and that wouldn't have been good. I don't need the flash on the digital so it was the camera of choice for this moment. Gone! All gone! Maybe next time...

I met up with Mommy in the mall for lunch the other day, and had to dig out the camera so I could snap a few more photos. Figured I'd share with all you folks. Notice the NEAT little red clamp on bear that is on the arm of the carseat - which Iris and Marco gave to Darren. It goes everywhere he does. Next time you see us, ask about the crinkly ears!

We do things day to day now. It's amazing how the day goes by so quickly and I have no time to do anything in it. Planning is key some days and for others it's play it by ear. I take lots of pictures of Darren with my cameras and soon I might have a roll of film to take to Costco. I forget to take pictures some days when I should be recording this time together. Being a photographer you'd think I'd be taking rolls and rolls of film but when you are the primary caregiver those things go by the wayside. All you think about is his welfare and not your own sometimes. That's why I guess it's important to have people there to take charge of my meals and stuff so I don't forget those things. My mom has been helping me and this week she's out of town so I'm on my own. Dave works all week and then he goes biking on the weekend so we don't see much of each other except to steal kisses and hugs in between all that and baby feedings. We went out to the movies yesterday without Darren and saw The Hunted with two other friends. Dave's mom babysat which was wonderful of her to do for us. I enjoyed every minute because I love going to the movies. There are alot of movies coming out soon and Dave and I will be looking for babysitters. Don't be shy about offering cause we'll take you up on the offer. I don't want to be one of those moms whose life revolves around her baby's life instead of having one of her own too. We don't want to get in that rut. Darren is enhancing the life we already lead and that's the way we see it.

It's been a little while since anyone posted anything significant to this page, and I've had these pictures floating around for a while, so... Many (or all???) of you have seen these already, but that's ok. I have lots more where these came from!

Ok, I finally got growly about how much work it was to maintain this site, so I switched Tracy over to a new publishing system. Things should be a lot smoother now - at least for me! Readers will not likely notice a huge difference, but this is a lot easier to maintain now, that's for sure.