Trafton's Half Birthday

This past Saturday, Trafton turned six months old. I am so thankful that I have been able to spend these last six months at home with him, it has been so much fun! Although I would like to stay home for the rest of his first year, I am trying to be positive about all the things returning to work in a few weeks and sending Trafton to daycare will bring. Here are some images of Trafton at five months old.

Hanging with Daddy in his favorite outfit (naked!) at Pappy's house

Relaxing

Eating on Pappy's dining room table

Thanksgiving outfit (that I forgot to put him in on Thanksgiving!)

We were about to head home from Pappy's house (about an hour and a half ride) and we had packed up the Pack-N-Play and Trafton was just wailing his tired cry. I put him down on Uncle Jonathan's former bed and he fell asleep immediately.

We stopped at this cute little Christmas shop that I think is called Forever Green.

Trafton enjoyed trying to grab any little knick-knack that he could get at in this shop.

For Daddy's birthday this year Trafton gave him the Cold War Kids EP. A little album from a little guy.

Trafton no longer can sleep in socks, because he has them off and usually stuffed in his mouth within seconds.

Heading to the Moose Exchange Market - a great local market on Saturdays on Main Street in Bloomsburg that we can walk to. They have tons of vendors with food, crafts, art, delicious bread (my main reason for going), etc.

We are trying to teach Trafton how to touch Charley Hogan and Animal with 'nice touches" instead of tail and hair pulls. Here Animal is a little more tolerant than Charley Hogan.

Trafton was playing under his baby gym so vigorously one day that it just collapsed on top of him.

Apparently he thought this was funny and continued playing from within the blanket folds.

We keep Trafton's jumper in the kitchen mostly to occupy him while meals are being made.

Trafton in his toy basket!

He loves to feed himself bananas using the baby safe feeder tool.

Trafton was particularly happy because he loves the cats and Charley Hogan decided to curl up on the couch with us.

In front of our first ever live Christmas tree!

Christmas Tree!

This year was the first year that we purchased a live Christmas tree! Daniel worked on a tree farm for several years when he was younger, but the whole thing was a new experience for me! I loved it :) Often we travel a lot over the holiday break, but with Trafton we are trying to stay home more (for the sake of his sanity and ours) and so we figured we would be around to water it. Plus, it seems like a good tradition to start with Trafton's first Christmas. We went to Ecology III in Orangeville to make our selection.

It was cold and windy and Trafton had about five layers of clothing on.

Daniel with the measuring stick. We selected a nice six-footer. Everything I looked at was huge, but Daniel kept reminding me that they are a lot bigger in the house than they are growing on the farm.

Trying to wrap my head around what size tree I should be looking for

We found it! This is the one!

Time to get to work!

Okay, I am SO from the suburbs. At first I was sorta shocked that they just gave out saws and you could just cut it down yourself! I thought it would be a lot of work and take forever. But, well, it was pretty quick and easy. (Good thing I didn't have to do that!)

Loading it onto the wagon. I even got a kick out of this. What an operation!

Ecology III Christmas Tree Farm

How tall is Trafton?

He was getting pretty cold and fussy by this point. We were having so much fun picking out the perfect tree that we were there for a while!

Gotta love the trusty Subaru, which, at ten years old, is starting to become a classic :)

I couldn't believe how wonderful the tree smelled. We picked a Fraser Fir and it was delightful. Trafton was interested in touching it, although surprisingly, he didn't try to put a branch in his mouth.

Now we've gotta decorate!

Trafton's First Gift

Daniel's cousin, Kristen, gave Trafton his first Christmas present on Thanksgiving. Trafton was very into opening it and even more excited about stuffing each piece of wrapping paper that he ripped off into his mouth. So fun!

Carefully grabbing a piece then trying to get it to his mouth before I took it away

It's a Rudolph book and stuffed animal!

Now Trafton has been enjoying stuffing Rudolph's squishy red nose into his mouth!

(especially since he got that first tooth!)

Railroad Earth

For the past several years, Daniel and I, along with any friends who make the trip, have been seeing our favorite band, Railroad Earth, at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, PA the on the weekend of Thanksgiving. It has been so much fun! Last year was interesting because I was pregnant and SO tired that I fell asleep during the second set of music in one of the seats. This year was especially fun, because it meant a night out while Pappy babysat the little man! Oh, it was WONDERFUL to get out for the night! Usually Daniel and I see many shows over the course of a year, but how our lives have changed. We hadn't seen these guys play a show since last Thanksgiving weekend. As always, they put on a phenomenal show:)

So happy to spend the evening dancing!

Railroad Earth with new bass player Andrew Altman

Oh my - Todd is playing an electric guitar! Something I haven't seen in the last ten years of watching Todd Sheaffer play music!

Rich, Daniel and Scott - the usual show-going crew!

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Tooth!

Friday evening we discovered a little tooth poking through the bottom of Trafton's gums! How exciting :) The family was relaxing in the living room and Trafton was playing like usual putting everything possible into his mouth. He leaned over to grab my fingers (favorite chew toy of his) and I felt a little sharpness in there! It happened quick - I've been on the lookout for teeth lately and didn't notice any redness or whiteness on his gums at all. All the sudden - here's a tooth :)

Picking out Pappy's Christmas Tree

During our Thanksgiving weekend stay at Daniel's father's house, we took a trip to the tree farm to pick out a Christmas tree. I have never tagged a tree before, so it was a totally new experience for me. This year Daniel and I are getting a real tree for our house for the first time - which means we get to go to another tree farm and do this again for ourselves - so exciting :)

Checking out all the spots in the fading afternoon sun

Pappy has his red ribbon for tagging ready to go!

This one is perfect!

Trafton in the middle of the action

This is the one - all tagged!

On the front steps of the tree farm house

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year Aunt Sharon cooked her last dinner for the extended Beyer clan at her New York home. The feast was excellent as always! We were a little concerned at how Trafton would do with the whole event. He doesn't have a great history of good behavior at parties; it seems he gets overstimulated and tired out so quickly, then he just fusses endlessly. However, Trafton was wonderful! He took a nap in his pack-n-play right on schedule and the only time that he got very upset was when Jonathan woke him up (accidentally . . . ) about five minutes before we were going to sit down to eat.

Aunt Sharon, the chef

With Uncle Jonathan right after he woke Trafton up by peeking in on him taking a nap.

The Feast!

Trafton joined us at the table for some sweet potatoes.

Checking out Uncle Mike's dessert

At our corner of the table

With cousin Kristen

and cousin Kevin

and second cousins Michael and Justin

and Uncle Don

Getting ready to head outside for our trip back to New Jersey, but first saying goodbye to Aunt Sharon

A little happier now with Uncle Jon

With Uncle Don and Melissa