My Favorite Photo: 4th Month

Dear Conrad,

This picture isn't really anything special. It's a little blurry, and a bit yellow. It was taken at the Applebee's in Columbia after we had come back from Arkansas. But it's special to me.

Whenever we went out to eat when you were this small, Daddy would take you out and hold you. You always liked sitting at the table with us. If we tried to keep you in your car seat, you would start to cry because you wanted to be part of whatever we were doing. While we were holding you, you would just take in everything. You never cried when we were eating out when you were this small (unless you were hungry, but we were always prepared and were able to stop the crying quickly.)

This picture also reminds me just how much your daddy loves you. Whenever he came home from school, one of the first things he wanted to do was hold you. You were his special little buddy.

A Brassy Christmas

Dear Conrad,

Your first concert was a Christmas concert put on by the various brass ensembles of Mizzou.

The  uniform for the event was an "ugly Christmas sweater" and slacks. I created ugly sweaters for both of the Christmas concerts your dad performed in while he was getting his master's. This is was 2012's looked like:

He was always so proud of his ugly sweaters.

Of course, I gave you mismatched socks for the event. It was only fitting.

You sat through the entire concert so patiently. You were such a quiet newborn. And still pretty tiny too.

I miss the beautiful churches that were in Columbia. Someday, when you can remember them, I hope I can bring you back to this wonderful city. It was the best place I ever lived.

We Give Thanks

Dear Conrad,

In very little time, you were a month old and Thanksgiving was upon us. We drove all the way from Columbia, Missouri, to our families in Russellville, Arkansas, for the first time since you were born. We were worried about the challenges of driving with a newborn, especially since the trip home was over 300 miles!

November 16th, 2012

We stopped at Arby's in a town called Lebanon on the way there. Your daddy has such a young-looking face in this photo ... maybe because of all the hair on his head. I wonder if you'll have as much hair as he does or if you'll be bald like your Poppy.

Thanksgiving was much busier than I could have ever expected. Nana and Papa normally make a full Thanksgiving meal, but this year your uncle Howard's family came to visit immediately following dinner so they could see your cousin Ryker. It was a pretty rushed event.

Hoo boy, did I over-process this photo or what?
Ryker (7 weeks) and you (5 weeks)

Normally, Poppy and Gigi don't really have a Thanksgiving meal; we normally just have a regular, but nice, dinner with your aunt and uncle and cousins. We still wanted to make sure that everyone got an equal amount of visiting time, so we were bouncing back and forth between houses a lot.

Your uncle Howard was sick during Thanksgiving. Even though he didn't handle you, he interacted with everyone else and his own baby, so you ended up receiving it from someone. Your daddy caught it too, though he was sick longer than you were. I think you only coughed and had a runny nose for three days, whereas Daddy was sick for the entire week after we came home from Thanksgiving. I ended up catching it the next week. I was so mad at Howard for being around when he was under the weather, but what can you do? I probably would have still come down and seen everyone if I were the one who was sick. At least you weren't sick for very long, and it didn't seem to hit you as bad as it did us.

Your First Halloween

Dear Conrad,

Well sweet boy, normally I adore Halloween. I spend months thinking about and putting together costumes. I drool over Halloween decorations, even though I usually don't end up buying any and therefore have never decorated my own house for the season.

I entertained the idea of your dad and I dressing up as a white mage (me) and a black mage (him) for Halloween, and putting together a baby red mage costume for you. But then I didn't get around to it before you were born. After you were born, I was too tired to do more than sleep, eat, and watch TV while I fed you (again.) So for your first Halloween, there were no costumes or decorations or Trick-or-Treating.

And that's totally okay.

At least you had some rocking orange socks that looked like high tops.