Okay I created a new log in for when we’re in India so I can post to the blog without worry.  Let’s see if this works out and make sure I can post with it.

If it does then I’ll be able to update from India, though probably no pictures, when we get to an internet cafe.

Desmond had his 18 month appointment today. It went well, he is 50% for weight and around 75% for height and somewhere between 50 and 75% for head circumference. He has grown quite a bit since his last appointment. He was 26 pounds clothed without shoes today and 33 inches. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt so he is probably right around 25 pound 4 ounces to 25 pounds 8 ounces without clothes on. He gained around 2 inches and right around 2 pounds since his last appointment 3 months ago, we knew he had had a growth spurt and his new weight and height just confirm it.

His appointment went well and we were in and out quickly. His doctor has no concerns about him.

Anyways here are his stats from birth to now.
At birth he was 7 pounds 14 ounces and 20 3/4 inches
At one months he was 11 pounds and 23 inches
At two months he was 14 pounds and 24 1/2 inches
At four months he was 17 pounds 13 ounces and 26 1/2 inches
At 6 months he was 19 pounds 13 ounces and 27 inches
At 9 months he was 22 pounds 3 ounces and 29 inches
At 1 year (12 months) he was 23 pounds 8 ounces and 30 inches
At 15 months was 23 pounds 10 ounces and 31 inches
At 18 months he is 26 pounds and 33 inches

So Tuesday morning is normally Gymboree day with Desmond, but my natural parenting group was having a play date today at the park across the street from us, so we decided to go to the playground instead of Gymboree, since we can make up Gymboree tomorrow or Thursday.

So we walked over to the playground and met some other mamas and their kids, and Desmond enjoyed playing and running around with the other kids. All and all it was a good play date. We didn’t stay the full 2 hours though, because Desmond started getting grumpy around 11:15 even with a snack so we headed home for lunch and nap. It was a lot of fun though so we’ll probably try to make the next one as well, especially if it is at the playground.

Happy quarter of a century Nancy and Noah! Hope you both have a great day.

So we’ve been planning to take Desmond to the Zoo for the past month/month and a half, it just kept never working out due to other plans or bad weather, etc. Yesterday we ended up with the perfect day so we packed up Desmond and headed to the metro to go visit the zoo. He had fun there and it definitely wore him out.

We started our journey with a ride on the metro. Desmond rode on Dan’s back for this part.

Once we arrived at our stop, we got out and went to California Tortilla for lunch before walking to the zoo. Once we got to the zoo we headed down the Asian trail and saw a bear!

We then headed on and saw a spotted leopard, and the giant pandas, I didn’t get any pictures because there were too many people there to get good ones. We continued on our way and stopped to see the Elephants.

Desmond liked to look around, but he tended to look more at me, or away from the animals, then at the animals.

We continued on and saw the hippo in his pond. He’s all the way in the back. We’ll miss the hippo, the zoo is getting rid of their hippos because of the new elephant trails, we have always enjoyed seeing the hippos though.

Desmond then wanted down to run around, so we took him off Dan’s back and he took Dan’s hand and started walking with him.

We then found a water fountain and so Desmond decided he needed a drink.

He also decided it had been over an hour since lunch so he was hungry. We stopped at an area with picnic tables and he had an apple and some water.

We then continued on our way and walked to the lions and tigers! Desmond decided it was time for another rest, so he sat down.

We then headed into the area with the lions and tigers and Desmond got to see the big cats. First we saw the tiger.

Then we saw the lion.

After seeing the cats Desmond was basically done. I remembered there was a play area right where we were so we went over to the prairie dog play area and Desmond climb around a bit.

We then headed towards the front of the zoo and the metro. We did stop and see a monkey, we couldn’t find the golden tamarin trail though, we think the elephant trail construction may have closed the area down. We also saw the zebras and had ice cream on our way out. By the time we got to the metro, Desmond was all worn out. He had a nice nap on the metro back to our car.

We had a nice day at the zoo and it was fun watching Desmond watch the animals, he was much more into the animals now then he was when we went in April and definitely a lot more into them then when we went last year.

And here is the last set of apple pictures, of Desmond walking back with his apple as we follow with our bounty of apples.

You carry the bags of apples Daddy, I'll eat mine

And when I finish this apple, I'll eat all the ones in the left bag, then the right bag

I wanted to get more apples, but Mommy and Daddy said 20 pounds was enough

Okay Daddy take my hand, let's go buy our apples

Here are some more pictures of our apple picking adventure.

Yes I know the apple is almost as big as I am, but it is still good!

This apple is yummy!

My precious apple, yes it is, my precious...

Okay Mommy you can take my picture if you want, I have an apple!

An apple in hand is worth two on the tree, an apple in the tummy is even better though!

Let's do the apple march!

So after our adventures in getting Desmond’s picture taken, we headed to lunch at Panera, and then to the car, we were planning to head home, but Desmond fell asleep about 10 seconds later, so Dan and I talked and decided to go apple picking. We have been talking about going apple picking for weeks, but we hadn’t gotten to it yet, and if we didn’t go this weekend we won’t be going before India, and the season is over when we get back. So we headed over after a couple of stop to get cash and our camera, since I hadn’t brought it with us to get Desmond’s picture taken.

Once we got to the farm we noticed it was very crowded, the apparently have hayride and other things on the weekends in October. We got to the apple area and parked. Desmond woke after we stopped so we got him up and headed out to the fields. They had Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Ida Red, Mutsu, and Empire apples. Did you know how easy it is to pick 20 pounds of apples? Erm neither did we, but we succeeded with almost exactly 20 pounds of apples, 10 pounds of Mutsu and 10 pounds of Empire.

Anyways here are the pictures of Desmond having fun picking and eating his apple (he only picked one, but it kept him entertained for the whole time, since it was huge and yummy).

I spy an Apple!

Okay this apple won't come off!

Okay fine I'll try to get it off again

Fine, if it won't come off, I'll just eat it while it is on the branch!

Mommy took it off for me, yum apple!

My apple, you can get your own!

Desmond turns 18 months old tomorrow, wow did that go fast. Anyways today we had an appointment at The Picture People at the mall to get his 18 month portraits done. We have been going to Kiddie Kandids, but they had a major management changeover right around when he had his year pictures and we weren’t impressed. We decided to try somewhere new to see if we could find somewhere we like.

So we went to Picture People, we were beyond unimpressed, the staff all acted like they had better things to do then take pictures and the girl who was photographing Desmond didn’t seem to understand that he was 18 months old, so he doesn’t like staying still. We also felt very rushed with the picture taking. It was not a fun experience. We then had to wait 20 minutes for our pictures to come up on their computers so we could chose what prints we wanted. They all sucked. Part of that was our fault, his bangs hang in his eyes so it can be harder to get a good shot, but it is possible, I’ve done it, and since they use basically the same camera we have they should have been able to get at least a few cute shots, if they worked at it or cared. We looked at all the pictures and decided to skip getting any of them, they were all really rather bad. There were a couple of okay shots, but honestly I got better at the playground with the small camera while he was on the swing (which is tough based on timing).

So we left after deciding that we didn’t like any of the pictures, fortunately there was no sitting fee so all we lost was about 45 minutes of our morning. We then discussed what we wanted to do. I thought about cutting his bangs, which we are planning to do in India, but we really would prefer to do it in India, not this weekend. We decided to buy him a comb and see if we could comb his hair out of his face a bit instead. We also decided to try Kiddie Kandids again since we wanted the pictures this weekend so we can take some with us to India. So we went in made an appointment for 30 minutes later, since Desmond was hungry by then and heading downstairs to get Desmond some fries.

After heading back up I chose the backgrounds I wanted (at Picture People you have the choice of Blue, Charcoal, Light Blue and White, and they don’t list this anywhere), which there was a nice selection of choices at Kiddie Kandids, we chose the two we liked, changed Desmond into the shirt we wanted to start with and headed to the bay.

Here is where the huge difference happened, the photographer was having fun and understood that Desmond wasn’t inclined to stay still, he was 18 months after all. She had no problem with this and didn’t have a problem with the fact it took awhile to get his pictures done. She brought over props that she hoped would work, I brought over props I hoped would work and we got 6 good pictures. We were hoping for one more, but Desmond was quite emphatic that he was done after the 6th one, so we went with what we had gotten, rather then trying for the 7th pose (which would have replaced the one that was okay rather then great in the set of 6 we had).

Soon as we were finished with the pictures they were on the computer waiting for us to go through and decide which ones we wanted. It was nice, and the professionalism and care was so much better, and we liked all the photos. So we went ahead and got a package, so we have pictures for India.

Anyways the moral of this long story is I have Desmond’s 18 month pictures to post. We are also pretty sure that the management changed at Kiddie Kandids again, since these pictures went so much better then his 12 month pictures. I may try to find a coupon so we can try JC Penny’s and Sears studios to see how we like them, but at the moment it looks like we are sticking with Kiddie Kandids for now. Now here are the pictures.

On a Ladder

Look at that smile!

With a Truck

A grin

I can sit, see!

This shoe, I am not sure about it.

Sit on the stump, only if I can ride it!

Look at me smile!

So when I turned 29 my sister called me to remind me I was almost 30. So now it is her turn, she is only 18 months younger then me so it isn’t like she is that much younger then me, unlike Nancy and Noah. Anyways Happy one year to 30 birthday Laura, hope you have a great day!