Jed "Cheeks" Stanfill

So my brother and his friends have designated Jed. Here are some photos Mike took a few weeks back. As you can see, Eric was no match for my studly little man. Here's an interesting observation: nearly EVERY person under the age of 25 who holds Jed eventually refers to him as a "stud." Obviously he's gonna be a real catch when he's 21.



Eric pointed out to me one day that when you hold Jed overhead looking down at you, he has distinct "Jeffrey R. Holland" cheeks. Ever since that moment, every time I hold my baby upside down that's what I think. It's SO TRUE! Next time you see him, you can try it for yourself and be amazed.
Here's a brief comparo:

Super Boy

There's something miraculous about my child. I'm sure it's the same miracle that every parents since Cain has oooed and aahhhed over, but that doesn't minimize the fact that this tiny little boy is a miracle child, nonetheless.

Just now, for instance, Jed is playing in his Johnny Jump Up (borrowed from some good friends, they're between infants right now. :c) ) In the past, Jed has just kind of hung in it, like it's a baby sack for hanging up small children. His toes might touch the ground, but never with any particular purpose, just poking around to see how it feels.

Today, however, he looks up at me intelligently. Both feet touch the ground, one hand in the sack, one hand out. I hold my hand out and he looks at my fingers, carefully maneuvers his right hand between the straps, uses his feet to turn himself around, and with a look of intense focus reaches out his hand, spreads his fingers, and closes them around my pointer finger, pulling himself closer as he does so.
Amazing!

Next I put a little toy propped up at his head height. He's facing the opposite direction. "Hey, Jed!" I say and rattle the toy. He uses his feet to turn around and looks intently at what I'm making that noise with. I use my hand and twirl a piece on the toy. He looks at me, looks at the toy, reaches out his hand, and with precisely the same movement that I just used, twirls the toy. Then he does it again.
Amazing!

He rolled over three times yesterday. He still can only do it from his tummy to his back, but he is MUCH better at it than he was the first time he did it (A month and a half ago on May 17th, but it seemed kind of like an accident because it took him a month to repeat it.) He also can maneuver around in circles on his back and easily turn himself from side to back to the other side as needed.
Amazing!

Earlier today I pulled out his scrapbook to put in a few last photos from when he was just two months old. He looks totally different now. He's so.... solid! He's got chunky thighs that pump like a puppy dog when he eats. Little muscles are visible in his upper arms. (Yes, my five month old has more definition in his arms than I do. How humiliating.) He smiles when you make faces at him and hates being left alone, out of the action. You can see him becoming a little boy, already! Not just a little baby to be acted upon, but a little person who wants to act and do and be a part of living!
Amazing!

My Super Boy!

HOT

Did I mention that lately it has been REALLY HOT? Yes, unbelievably so. And our tiny little brick house with sand for insulation loves it. You can see its walls soaking up the heat, reveling in the fact that it becomes, in essence, a huge oven for the small, soft humans living inside. It's a cute little house, but it has a sadistic streak.

Today, for instance, is one of the cooler days. Only 88 degrees outside. Our house INSIDE in the shade is a frigid two degrees cooler: 86. Ugh. No wonder my poor little child always stinks by the evening. I undoubtedly stink, too.

Visiting From Grandma's House

I'm here visiting with Grandma Taylor and I wanted to show her my blog and how it works.

I'm biased

OK, none of those really pictures really showed any of the Stanfill clan, OR the reunion. What can I say, I'm biased. So here's a sample of the Stanfills, and really all you need to know regarding the general character of the evening.

More photos from our weekend

Any time the Stanfills are in town, its a guaranteed family reunion every day. Here are a few photos from a little evening reunion with the Stanfill side.

Baby playing with his Grandma Jan

Michael and I make such an astoundingly attractive couple, don't you think? So well matched. It's a miracle our child turned out as cute as it did.


Thoughtful little bugger



What can I say? I'm so... tasty!

Baby Meets a New Uncle

Baby got a new uncle this week! Michael's brother Clark just returned home from a mission to Croatia. When Clark left, his brother Michael was a single man with his eye on that flighty chikibob Vanessa Dowdle. Clark returned to find that Michael has not only a ball and chain, but also... a baby ball. :c) Clarky and Jed seemed to take an immediate liking to one another and sister Annie caught these photos over the weekend.

Family Picnic

This week we celebrate Emily and Mike's wedding... hurrah! Michael's family and lots of friends are in town, and we've had a jolly old time playing with everyone. Last night was a family picnic. Michael was playing around with a new camera and took a few photos. The best part was when all the kids (read: under age 28) got together and ran around throwing the frisbee and wrestling and stuffing grass down each others' shirts and playing the laughing game where you put your head on each others' stomachs and giggle as they laugh. Such fun. No photos of that, unfortunately. The situation was not suited to expensive electronics. :c) As usual, baby was a hit. I rarely saw him except when hungry or in need of a diaper change.

Momma and Baby

Best Buddies!
Around the house, Baby likes to ride in his black baby sling so he can help me bake bread and do the dishes. (See the flour marks on his cute little bottom?)


Grandma lets him borrow the red hat whenever we go take a walk at her house.

Baby Card Shark

Well, Granny, this isn't exactly the greatest hand for pinochle we've ever had.


Oh my goodness, look, there's absolutely NO MELD in this hand! Don't bid too high, Granny!


Too high of a bid! Waaaaaay to high! We'll never be able to get that!


That's it! You've bid way too high and now I'm going to have to get you out of this mess. Here's pick this card right here that I'm pointing at.



Granny, just let the card shark at it. Me and my binky are going to save your bacon this time!

One Hot Saturday Morning

The weather man predicts 100 degrees in Provo today. Yikes! Especially in a little house with no insulation. If yesterday's broiling hot home was any indication, and it was only 93 yesterday, I knew that today we were in for trouble. So, rather than lazing about at 6:45 I was already up and about, getting my hot chores done for the day. I made a Father's Day cake, planted some veggies in the garden, thinned the spinach, put on the tomato cages, watered front and back lawns, washed the outside of the, decluttered, washed windows, and armor alled the inside...all by 9:30 AM! Yee hah, what a woman. Here are some photos of our lovely morning and out little home.

Back Home in PG

Reasons why I haven't posted cont'd...

Meanwhile, whilst M partied down south, I stayed here with Babylicious. I thought the week would be loooooong and boring, but fortunately there were thrilling new life twists awaiting me. These included:

2) A new calling at church that introduced me to a new world of stuffed full 4-inch three-ring binders, an average of twenty phone calls a day, and lots and lots of meetings.

3) A reshoot of a film I'm doing back at EIZ (my old job, for those uninformed) requiring several more prep meetings.

4) Much ferrying of my poor car-less sibling to the doctors office, where I was occasionally known to pose as his wife so as to get a free consultation (whooee! Just bring the baby and only use first names! The doctor seemed to enjoy playing with baby enough that it didn't bother me.)

5) Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning I spent with Mom and dad eating too much, playing cards with Uncle Dave, sewing cute baby bubble-suits from bright prints, and visiting the new Ikea (Disneyland for grownups) with the 'rents.

Time flew by, I got fatter, and life was good. Don't worry, I did miss Michael. Between meals. ;c)

Here's "Unky Eric" playing with his nephew. Guess we can tell who's winning here, eh?

P.S. Look! Almost a thousand visitors! I feel so popular.

M's Trip to Moab

I know, I know! I haven't posted in forever! Please don't hit me! Here's a brief rundown of why:

1) Michael was gone nearly all of last week. He left Tuesday morning and got home Saturday afternoon. As part of his internship, he got an all-expenses-paid trip to Moab to assist his interner (what DO you call the person who has you on as an intern? Internist? ha ha ha) Lori Adamski-Peek on a shoot. His adventures in the desert included 8 hamburgers in 9 days, French Harley riders, long-dreadlocked hippies who drive a vegetable-oil powered camper, rescuing a girl about to fall off a cliff, and drafting a semi to save a near-empty car from the desert. I keep telling him he needs to post his stories (hilarious!) but so far he's too busy. So I'll put up a couple photos of the shoot for him.

Shower Buddies

Michael takes the baby in his shower with him every morning for a quick wash-down. I caught a few photos this morning of them playing together in the spray. Sorry there haven't been many photos lately--I'm learning to use Michael's Rollei camera and have 6 rolls of film waiting to be developed! Using these old-fashioned cameras is fun but doesn't have nearly the same immediate gratification.

Memorial Day Adventure

This Sunday past Michael and I decided to embark on a Grand Adventure for Memorial Day. We got online, scrounged around FamilySearch.org and the Utah Burial Registry to find all our relatives' graves here in Utah that we'd never visited before and planned out a route through Northern Utah to discover our ancestry! The trip also served as a "test run" to see how baby would do on a road trip.

I packed us plenty of snacks and lunch items to make it through the day. I also loaded up baby's diaper bag with lots and lots of diapers and wraps. The last couple months his bowel movement schedule has been erratic, to say the least. Since it had been a week since we last had a major poopy event, I suspected that the one day we choose to be in a hot, enclosed environment would definitely be the day he chose for a gigantor poop. Also included: baby toys, baby stroller, two baby carriers, two baby blankets, two extra baby outfits, pail, rags, and soap, rain jackets (which Michael removed, swearing it would never rain) our respective ipods, and the kitchen sink.

Oh, and the baby.

We planned to embark at 6 AM to avoid the traffic that our parents kept warning us about. We left at 8. Amazingly, however, there was ZERO traffic, less than we've ever seen, and we made it to 33rd South in no time. First stop: finding the graves of my grandparents Dowdle, which I dont' think I'd seen since they died. We followed my dad's superb directions which were to lead us across the world's largest cemetary straight to the graves of my grandparents. One hour, several hundred graves, and the discovery of my deceased aunt and uncle later, we decided to go to the office. They gave us a map and we found it in five minutes. On the other side of the cemetery. I surprised myself by feeling quite emotional when we found Grandma and Grandpa's graves. Funny how you can love and miss people you don't remember. Their graves were overgrown and really dirty so we cleaned and spit polished them. We also hauled out the video camera. Every time we stopped at a gravesite we took a little video explaining where we were, who we were visiting, and any memories we had about that particular relative. Before we left we changed baby's HUGE poopy diaper. Am I good or what.

Next stop: Centerville to find Michael's great grandparents. And change another poopy diaper. It rained.

Next stop: Willard for a failed attempt to find my great great grandfather John Clark Dowdle. But we did find a cool old pioneer graveyard. Fed baby and changed another poopy diaper.

Next stop: Tremonton Riverview Cemetery for Michael's other set of great grandparents. After a near-detour to the RiverSIDE Cemetery (thank goodness for cell phones and grandparents with good memories.) The Tremonton Cemetery is SO AMAZING! I want to be buried there! It had hundreds of flags, stars and stripes banners hanging everywhere, and nearly every grave was loaded with beautiful flowers, flags, and pendants. It was like a Fourth of July festival for dead people! Set on top of a hill overlooking the river, it was really a lovely spot. Changed another diaper.

Last stop: Logan City Cemetery. We thought that the SLC graveyard we'd been to was the largest in the world, but we were wrong. The Logan Cemetery was HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE! Even with the coordinates and a map, I did a fair bit of wandering before I found the proper location of my great-grandmother Lucy Almond and her father.

On the Way Home: I'd been drooling over Church History sites the whole day. Michael finally took pity on me and we stopped at the Brigham City Tabernacle for a tour. A delightful little local family, mom, dad, and two girls, were there dressed in their Sunday best to give us a tour. They didn't know much but they were SUCH fun to talk to. They even let us start up the old pipe organ and bang our way through a few hymns. We stayed for 45 minutes. What a beautiful little old building!


After nearly twelve hours of driving and getting in and out of his car seat, baby was letting us know in no uncertain terms that he was ready for home. He had been remarkably well behaved pretty much all day, much to our astonishment. We packed him up one last time, stopped by Papa Murphy's for a pizza, and headed home. We'd had a fantastic day, talking and laughing and visiting and swapping stories about our family history. Our Memorial Day adventure proved a resounding success and we can't wait to do it again next year!