On a cross-country flight, you’ll try anything to keep a seven-month old occupied.

We’re getting caught up on things here in Seattle after a fun trip to Las Vegas last week to visit Dianne’s family and getting a few pics posted to Flickr and here on the website.

Aside from having a great time catching up, showing off the little guy and relaxing, Del had a chance to visit with his cousin Angelo and meet (for the first time) his cousin Bryce. Bryce was a bit shy around Del, while Del was his usual social self, smiling for everyone (and the camera). We managed to snag a few good pics of Del and Bryce together on the couch, as well as Del enjoying some of Bryce’s mountain of awesome toys!

And of course we can’t forget one of the most exciting moments of the trip; our discovery that Del is indeed a big fan of strawberry shortcake…

Welcome to the New Year!  Today Delton is 3 months old.  His mother turns 31 tomorrow and Del’s gift to her was going to Oma’s house for the weekend so that his mom could sleep in. On December 16th, we flew to Las Vegas to visit Del’s maternal grandparents (Dianne’s parents).  We flew first class, and we have got to say, that is DEFINITELY the way to go when you are toting around a small child (although the other passengers in first class might not think so) – so much extra room for passing baby back and forth and so much extra room for all the accoutrements that come with baby. 

We were in Las Vegas for 4 days – just long enough for Del to be spoiled immensely.   Del had no less than 3 grandmothers tending to him at all times (Dianne’s mom, grandmother, and sister’s mother-in-law) and he was in heaven. Upon returning to Seattle, Del was quite irritated with the realization that there weren’t multiple people waiting to answer his every beck and call.

Christmas brought us to Lakewood for several days.  On Christmas Eve, Del gave us the best gift we could have asked for – he laughed for the first time.  It was an amazing sound!  Del received so many gifts from Oma and Opa – including a brand new savings account.  And, although we don’t have any proof as we had left the house to take the dogs for a walk, Opa held Del for the first time.  Yeah for Christmas miracles!Since Christmas, things have gotten back to normal.  Del has started sleeping through the night and only wakes up on the rare occasion to be fed.  No matter how awake he is, once 11:30 rolls around, his eyes close and he starts snoring.  We could not ask for a happier, calmer, and more relaxed baby.  One of our friends has already labeled him the “easy baby.” – a label we are proud to have.  In addition to being an easy baby, Del is quite the chunky monkey – weighing in at 15 ½ lbs (he is in the 95% for weight).

It’s been a couple weeks since our last post, so it’s definitely time to do some catch-up. We could best sum up the past couple weeks in one word — smiles. And lots of them! Delton began offering up “social smiles” (i.e., smiles resulting from something besides him farting in his sleep) a little over a week ago, just prior to Thanksgiving, and hasn’t let up since. We were told on more than more occasion how tough the first six weeks or so can be, but how rewarding it is once you receive that first real smile from  your baby, and that’s certainlythe truth.

Del has become extremely interactive now, smiling back and forth with both of us, cooing and actively mimicking our facial expressions (something he was doing from his earliest weeks, but now more so than ever).

He’s also been actively working on figuring our thumbsucking, as he’s really discovered his hands over the past two weeks. Though his dad’s been offering him some helpful tips, right now he’s more of a fist sucker, half gnawing  on his knuckles, than actually sucking a thumb, but he’s getting there!

We also celebrated Del’s first Thanksgiving last week, staying with his Oma and Opa Carmony down in Lakewood. Del even managed to join us at the table for the Thanksgiving supper, albeit in a Moby.

It’s been a busy past week for us here, wrapping up this morning with a reunion of our Great Starts prenatal class. Most of the couples were able to attend and we got to meet the new additions to the families and exchange delivery stories. It was nice chance to catch up, but the highlight was definitely the last ten minutes, as we parked all of the babies on the couch for group photos. Del was one of only two boys born from the class, so he’s sandwiched in between four girls in the photos. Quite the ladies man!

In addition to today’s class reunion, Del also began day care this week. We initially were leaning more toward having a nanny in a few days a week, rather than day care, but upon further review, the day care option seems to be a better match economically. Still pricey (the going rate in Seattle for infants starts at about $1,000 per month), and incredibly hard to find. In reviewing places the past couple weeks, we quickly found that most providers here in the Seattle area were backed up with waiting lists, most anywhere from six months to eighteen months!

We really lucked out though, finding a local in-home day care program that we quickly fell in love with (and that happened to have a single opening for an infant). We were initially a bit hesitant about a home-based program (given that the only time you really hear about them is when something goes wrong and they end up on the evening news), but were quickly put at ease when we met Julie.

Her home and program is local, about 1.5 miles from us (she’s in Madison Valley) and she and her husband Warren have been licensed providers for nearly twenty years. We spoke with a number of the current children’s parents and everyone had rave reviews for the program. Del seemed really comfortable in his first meeting with Julie, and so we’ve taken the plunge and signed him up.

He’ll be attending Monday-Thursday, which will give us some much-needed additional time each day to get work done, the house clean, and for Dianne to begin prepping for her new classes (she returns to teaching at Western Washington University in January).

That pretty much brings us up to date! With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up this week, we’ll be heading down to Lakewood for a few days, then getting ready for our trip to Las Vegas (to visit Dianne’s family) in mid-December.

It’s been a busy week thus far with Dianne’s mom and dad in town from Las Vegas to meet Delton. We’ve managed to bring him along for his first restaurant trips (which he slept through), a trip to the Ballard Locks (which he slept through) and a busy day at Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium (which he mostly slept through). It’s also been wonderful to have some extra helping hands around and for Del to get to meet some more of his loving family!

It’s been a few days since our last post and we just wanted to get a quick one up to thank everything that spent time with us and Delton over the past few days!

Mom, Dad, baby and hounds made the trip down to Lakewood Thursday afternoon to spend a couple days with the Grandparents Carmony. It was a great chance for them to catch-up with Del, particularly since they’d only previously seen him briefly in the nursery last weekend.

We made it back home to Seattle Saturday afternoon and began hosting friends to meet Delton. Kevin and Jenn stopped that afternoon with Sam, who’s closing in on 4 months-old and 14 pounds. It was really amazing for all of us to compare the difference in size at this point between Sam and Del, and great for them to get their first introduction to one another. I’ve known Kevin longer than anyone else (aside from my parents), so it’s particularly exciting for me to imagine the chance for the “next generation” of Carmony and Sutton kids becoming friends.

Gary and Kerri stopped by Saturday evening and brought us dinner, which was very much appreciated! Kerri had actually been one of the first to visit with Del earlier in the week, but it was nice to have them both get a chance for an extended visit with the little guy.

Sunday brought even more visitors, as Brian and Kristina, Jeff and Nikki, and Colleen all stopped by throughout the afternoon and evening for their first visits. It was a blast seeing everyone and getting the chance to show Del off a bit, but I think it’s safe to say that all three of us are exhausted at this point!

Time to catch a bit of sleep (fingers crossed) before our next visitors, Dianne’s parents, arrive from Las Vegas tomorrow morning.

Today was a rather slow day, aside from a brief visit back to Group Health for a follow-up hearing test, which Delton aced (and managed to do so without getting fussy). The examiner informed us that the hearing test was a mandatory follow-up based on Del’s stay in the Special Care Nursery, as well as his low initial Apgar score.

An Apgar score is a quick technique for assessing a newborn at birth. We figured that Delton’s initial Apgar was probably pretty low, given his rather rough condition in those first few “post-delivery” minutes and at this point, we’re really curious to find out what it was. You’ll often hear parents bragging about how high their child’s Apgar score was… “My child’s Apgar was a 10!”… At least knowing Del’s, we’ll be able to respond “Oh yeah? Well our son’s Apgar score was [insert expectedly low score], but look how great he’s doing now!”

Other than that, not much new to report, aside from lots of feedings, lots of naps and a fine five-hour night’s sleep!

And, of course, more baby pictures…