Otie's international buddies

My little stud with the French/Dutch, Swedish and British ladieshe loves the bumbo

Two timing it with the ladies
Hanging out on the playmat with his Aussie buddy Archie
tummy time with Ella and Aline
hanging out at Swiss Cottage next to Jacques from New Zealand

I hope he stays good friends with all these kiddos forever. I think he will.

4 months...

3 months4 months
Here are his stats from his 4 month appointment:

Weight: 15 lb 9 oz (75th percentile)
Length: 68 cm (99th percentile)
Head:45 cm (99th percentile)

Otie is at such a fun age. He is smiling and giggling all the time. He's reaching for things and putting whatever he can straight into his mouth. We've started taking him swimming every week and he loves it. He used to be really mellow in the bath, but since we've taken him swimming he is super hyper in the tub- almost to the point that he is a danger to himself. It's so funny, he gets a really serious look on his face and just starts frantically kicking and waving his arms. He is rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy. On Friday we went over to a friend's and laid him on a mat next to another baby and he laid there stroking the other baby's face for 10 minutes without making a peep, it was so cute. He is really into faces right now, he always wants to have his hands on my face (and in my mouth). He loves to snuggle. He wakes up so happy in the morning and from naps and likes to cuddle for awhile before he eats. His favorite toys to slobber all over and try to eat are Sophie the giraffe (from Grandma) and CoCo the chicken. He is discovering that he can scream, so when we're eating and out of no where he makes the loudest squaking noises then giggles like he's pleased with himself. He get's really excited and giddy when Ty comes home from work.

I love him.

Weekend to Letchworth

This weekend we went to Letchworth, a little town in Hertforshire to visit our good friends Tanya and Michael. We had such a great time and can't wait to visit again!Otie all bundled up because it was freezing!
Letchworth is called the first garden city. After eating the best Indian food we've had in London we went on a beautiful walk and saw so many quaint little cottages.

You had a birthday shout hooray!

Betsy turned the big 2-1 earlier this month and I've been thinking about how cool she is so I decided to post 21 of my favorite things about her

21. she gives the best massages
20. she has such unique and cute style
19. she bought a dress that, to me, looked like a potato sack, but somehow it looks like a really cute outfit on her
18. she can recycle ANYTHING into something cool and usable
17. she bought a vintage bird cage for decoration- who does that? but it's awesome
16. she is very cultured- she's loves museums, art galleries, ballets, theater
15. she appreciates the small and simple things in life- she can spend hours looking at every little thing in museums and especially, museum gift shops.
14. she's always the life of the party
13. she is the biggest procrastinator- does everything, especially pack for trips, at the last minute
12. you could also say she works best under pressure
11. she is so organized- from her color coded closet to every tin for different pens and pencils
10. she is more dedicated to journal writing that anyone I have ever known
9. one flash of her amazing smile can make your day
8. she loves to cuddle
7. she loves to travel, go to new places, eat new things and never waste a second of the day
6. she's not afraid to drop a few dollars on a worthwhile purchase
5. she put herself on a 'facebook diet' when she needs to get down to business in school
4. she doesn't yell at me when I call her every morning around 7am to see if she's awake (I just called her but she screened me this morning)
3. she never forgets a birthday or special event
2. she still likes to be 'tucked in' before she goes to bed at night
1. she is very photogenic and NEVER misses a photo op

and one for good luck: she is so easy to love

From the blizzard to the beach...

It was so nice to leave the freezing cold in Utah and go to sunny Huntington Beach. We had such a fun time.
you can never be too old for matching Christmas jammies


Otie loves his Aunties
Owen never missed an opportunity to kiss and hug Otie. They're going to be best buddies
This is a bad picture of me, but I will always have such good memories of this day so I had to post it. The waves were so good this day so everyone went to the beach and took turns surfing and watching the kids. Otie is hiding under the towel having a little afternoon snack while I soak up some sun and try to get feeling back in my fingers between surf sessions


And guess who ROLLED OVER for the first time?!? Otie surprised us and rolled from his tummy to his back. He did it 4 times in a row (but has refused to do it since)

Yes, I am wearing wet suit booties and a cap. The water was so freezing.

White Christmas in Utah

We finally got back up to the Utah mountains. Otie went to Solitude and Snowbird for the first time and loved it even though he just got to stay nice and cozy in the warm lodge.

Even got in some time for an 'at home' dental hygiene clinic for Bets.
Grandma and Grandpa Broadwater
Christmas Eve at Peggy's.
Otie's first snowstorm
snuggling with Grandma and Ono

4 generations with Grandpa Randy and Grandpa Rex
Grandma Peg got some serious giggles out of Otie man
smiling with Grandpa B
Our sweet baby Jesus in the nativity on Christmas Eve
hanging out with cousin Laz
the best of our many attempts for a Christmas pic of the boys.

Otie's blessing

Our trip home was such a blast. We blessed Otie on Sunday December 14th. It was such a special day. It was great to see so many of our friends and family there.

Most of the men that were in the circle

Cinnamon bears at 3am

I'm sitting here at 3am on a sugar high from cinnamon bears. Otie and I got back to London on Thursday after a wonderful trip home (not so wonderful was the 14 hr flight alone, but that's another story) The night we got back Otie came down with his first fever. He has an ear infection, my heart hurts for him.

Needless to say, I haven't had much sleep for a few days. Not only are we fighting his infection, but jet lag as well- poor little guy. He has been such a trooper through it all. I have been so worried about him that even when I should be sleeping, I can't because I'm worried about him and keep taking his temperature while he's sleeping to make sure it's not too high.

Well, tonight the fatigue finally hit me. Probably after looking at my zombie of a face, Ty told me he'd put Otie down so I could go to bed. At 2am I heard the door open and took a sigh of relief thinking that Otie was asleep. Then I heard his little noise and looked up and there he was smiling away in Ty's arm's (he's stuck on California time). Ty told me he had to hand the reigns over to me so he could go to work in the morning (I know, he's amazing. I'm so lucky I could never do this without him). I was so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open and when I saw a bag of cinnamon bears in the kitchen, the only sensible thing to do seemed to be to start pounding them so I could stay awake with Otie who seemed to be feeling better and ready to play.

Otie was finally started to doze off in my arms numb from not wanted to move an inch and wake him when he started to wake up again and as I frantically looked for the binki I saw it just within reach of my foot- so yes- I grabbed it with my toes, licked it "clean" and popped it in his mouth. Problem solved. I was officially desperate to get him to stay asleep.

Now his fever is down, he's asleep and I am totally wired. I think when I crash from this sugar high will be right around the time Otie will be getting up again.

I haven't uploaded any pics from Christmas yet, that can go on my to-do list, right up there with un-packing, brushing my hair and changing out of the pajamas I've been wearing for the last 4 days.