Winter has arrived here in Seattle (a good week or so early) and brought with it freezing temperatures and our first inch and a half of snowfall this past weekend. This was also the first opportunity for Del to experience snow (we had one afternoon of snow last winter, but he was very little and just watched the snowfall with us through the window).

On first exposure, Del didn’t seem that particularly interested in it. He stomped around a bit, grabbed a handful or two, then was ready to go back inside after about five minutes. It actually took us longer to dress and undress him in his down coat and winter hat than he spent outside.

We’ve been woefully behind here in recent weeks adding new posts to BabyDelton.com, but we figured we celebrate Thanksgiving by finally getting some Halloween photos posted! Better late than never, I say.

We took Del down to his Oma and Opa’s place in Lakewood, since they live in a quiet neighborhood that’s got a fair number of folks that answer the door on Halloween. Del seemed a bit perplexed by the whole trick or treating experience, especially early on as he tried to walk into everyone’s houses (maybe he thought we were on a Street of Dreams tour instead of collecting candy?).

He did manage to get completely spooked by one house that featured a bunch of animatronic ghosts and spooky sounds. Strangely though, a couple houses later we came across a crazy-looking guy dressed as Jason (from the Friday the 13th films) and a Sarah Palin at one house, neither of which seemed to scare him in the least. Go figure.

Overall, he seemed to survive the experience unscathed and even seemed to settle into the lobster suit after a while (he had a MUCH better reaction wearing it the second time, on Halloween, than when we tried it on him a couple days earlier).

Del had a rough start to this past week, taking a nasty fall off a chair at daycare and getting himself a nasty looking cut just above his right eye. It was a short “kiddie” chair and not a far fall, but one of the metal legs flipped up and caught Del on the brow.

A doctor’s visit was definitely in order, as I swung by and carted him off to Group Health. Everyone’s big concern was whether or not he’d need to get stitches to close the gash, but luckily, upon examination at the doctor’s office, it didn’t turn out to be particularly deep. His pediatrician actually determined that it was more of a “stretching” of the skin rather than a clean, deep cut, and that it should heal up just fine without further intervention (aside from keeping it clean).

While he was a bit shaken up initially, Del bounced back pretty quickly and was in good spirits by the time we left Group Health. We took a quick detour to Dianne’ work so she could check him out, then back to daycare for the remainder of the day (just in time for lunch!).

To quote the elder statesman of the daycare group, Miles (who’s two), pointing to Del, “Owie!”

Owie, indeed.

It’s taken us a bit to get photos posted here and on Flickr, but everyone seemed to have a great time (especially the birthday boy!) at Del’s recent first birthday party. We gathered friends, family, neighbors and daycare classmates on Sunday, October 5th on Mercer Island for two hours of hanging out, BBQ, cake and presents.

As would be expected, Del made off with quite a bit of loot, and quite the sugar rush from his share of the cake!

We don’t have any photos or video of it (yet), but after getting lots of recent practice with his standing and balance (including the photo above, taken two weeks ago at Kevin and Jenn’s wedding rehearsal dinner), Del took his first steps this week! Only a couple, and they were pretty tentative, but he definitely stumbled around upright and was super excited about it.

We were over at our friends’ Alejandro and Maggie’s this past Wednesday evening (August 20th), and after dinner, Del was standing around, holding onto Dianne for balance. I was seated on the floor in front of him and after letting go of Dianne, and balancing for 2-3 seconds, he began to teeter forward a bit. Instead of sitting back down on his butt, or falling forward, he caught himself by taking a step, then proceeded to take 2-3 more before grabbing a hold of me for support.

Needless to say, everyone was very excited and erupted in cheers. We were in a bit of disbelief, while we knew the first steps were coming, it was still a big surprise to see them.

Over the past couple days, we’ve been working with Del a bit to practice walking during his playtime, and he’s had a few additional successful “walks”. He still prefers motoring around by crawling (which he’s gotten insanely fast at!), but we’re sure he’ll start transitioning to more walking as he gets more confidence and better balance.

As soon as we can capture some steps on video, we’ll be sure to get them posted here.

Just a couple more pics from Del in the kiddie pool at his grandparents house this past weekend…

We’re finally getting some true summer weather here in the Seattle area this weekend (88º-90º), and it’s not even the Fourth of July yet! That kind of heat gets to be pretty unbearable in our third floor condo (particularly with all its large, south facing windows – which are awesome in the winter but murder in the summer). So early this morning we piled The Boy, The Hounds and our stuff into the X5 and headed down to Lakewood for the weekend.

The hot weather also meant that Del would finally get a chance to try out the new kiddie pool that his Oma and Opa recently got him, and it did not disappoint! He spent about a half hour in it this afternoon, splashing around with Dianne and his Oma, while dad took pictures. As much as he even likes his baths, he had a blast here. We’re looking forward to getting at least one more good pool session in tomorrow before we have to head back to Seattle.

After the Fremont Solstice Parade, we headed out to Mercer Island to help Kevin and Jenn’s son Sam celebrate his first birthday! Lots of toys, ice cream cake and pictures taken, and a fun afternoon was had by all. Del and Sam got some quality “hanging out” time as well, and it’s always a blast to see the second generation of Sutton and Carmony kids becoming friends!

We had an eventful Saturday, starting off with a trek to Fremont with Del’s Aunt Becky and friends to see the one-and-only Fremont Soltice Parade, complete with home-made float, clowns, naked bicyclists and more. Del had a front row seat for the action, but didn’t see all that interested.

» Click here to view a slideshow of pics from the parade (only a few are Del photos)

What a great way to spend my first Father’s Day – at the ballpark with my dad and my son. Three generations of cranky Carmonys, spending some quality "guy time" together.

I love you both…