Brigham is 4 months old

Yesterday was  Brigham's 4 month bday. Notice him holding his new favorite toy from Grandma - the sock monkey - he always wants to be holding it.

Isn't that the best smile you've ever seen? I think his favorite pass-time is to just smile and giggle all day long. He is such a fun baby!

More of the National Mall

There were a few places along the National Mall that we still wanted to see. One day we decided to try and see it all. So, we put on our tennis shoes for all the walking and set out.

First, we went to see the Vietnam Memorial. This is the other memorial I had been dying to see since block history class so we went to see it first in the day. We laughed at ourselves when we got there because it is remarkably right in the middle of the National Mall and somehow we had never seen it before. 

 While we were there, a whole tour bus of Vietnam vets showed up to see the memorial for the first time. It was especially humbling to be there with them while they traced the names of their friends who fought.

Next we decided to stop by the Lincoln Memorial since it was on the way.

 As well as the Washington Memorial.

While we were there, Brigham needed to eat. So, like I said in an earlier post, most of our sight-seeing pictures are of us feeding Brigham. So, this was taken on the side of the giant reflection pool just after eating. ha.

We stopped by the Korean memorial to get a look on our way to the Tidal Basin. 

As we walked around the Tidal Basin we were able to see some landmark sites. Honestly, it was a perfect day with perfect weather with virtually no tourists besides ourselves. It made for a great, peaceful stroll around the water.

Here are the memorials surrounding the water:

Martin Luther King Jr.
They centered the entire monument around his quote "out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" from his 'I have a dream' speech. I don't know if this pic portrays it well, but notice how the stone he is carved into is pulled forward out of the mountain stone behind it.

As we continued to walk the edge of the Tidal Basin we came across the FDR memorial. It was a fitting memorial considering everything he did as president. The memorial was more of an "experience" than a statue or anything. It is designed to highlight his 3 terms. So you start at one end and walk through stone snapshots and quotes of moments in his presidency. For example, his fireside chats he did in his first term:

Soup kitchen and bread lines during his second term:

Quotes and speeches and policies from his third term. It was a lot bigger and more involved than I'm portraying on this little blog post. Very very appropriate memorial for FDR:

Of course they also had to highlight wonderful Eleanor Roosevelt:

On our way to the Jefferson Memorial we saw this 'Japanese Memorial' I think Adam remembered it being a bit bigger the last time he saw it, but I made him take a picture with it anyway. He's a good sport.

The last thing we squeezed in for the day was the Jefferson Memorial. I've only ever driven by it and was amazed with how huge it is. Actually, I found out that FDR was a huge admirer of Jefferson and was the driving force in getting the Jefferson Memorial built. It seems pretty fitting that FDR's memorial is across the water from it then.

Busy day and so rewarding. I'm really glad we were able to fit it all in. Brigham was so cute and seemed to really enjoy walking around outside all morning and afternoon. 

More of D.C.

We've tried to do a lot of exploring the city while the weather has been so nice. As I've looked back at the pictures we took at each place, I noticed a common thread. We seem to feed Brigham at every site we visit. We have so many pictures of feeding him on benches outside famous places.

See...this is us outside of the State Capitol building feeding him just before our tour.

 

In the Capitol they have 2 statues for every state. Of course, we had to get a pic of Utah's since it was Brigham Young. After all, that is Brigs great great (etc) grandpa. 

We also went to Arlinngton Cemetery and spent a couple hours walking around there. We saw the Kennedy graves and eternal flame.

We also toured the Robert E. Lee family mansion home.

We saw a few other little and big memorials as well as just enjoyed being humbled by all of he graves and soldiers who gave their lives.

Ever since my block history class in high school I have been so eager to see specific places. One of them is the change of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was a special experience.

Another day we went to the National Harbor with everyone. It was really fun. It is a lot like Pier 49 in San Francisco but even fancier. 

This is my nephew playing on this cool giant statue of a man buried in he sand. It's fun.

Oh, there is also a Peeps store! In the Peeps store they give a wall to Mike n Ike and another wall to Hot Tamales. It is awesome! They have so many different and unique flavors that you can fill your bag with. It's like a fozen yogurt wall or a giant soda fountain but of different kinds of Hot Tamales or of Mike n Ikes. 

And after that long day of fun, we were sure tired. 

both the Good and the Bad

So, I'll talk more about Brigham since he is just the greatest!
There have been some good things and some bad things develop in the last month or so that we've been out of the hospital and in DC. Mostly good things.

Good news is he has dimples! Love them. There seems to be a trend in my fam and extended fam. The first borns have a dimple or two.

Good news is we took him into the Godiva store and he was so smiley. I feel like this was the official test to see if he has Shields blood in him since we love chocolate.

Bad news is he already struggles with going to church :) Seriously though....I've never seen anything like it. He is normally very happy, but when we walk into the church building he screams for almost the whole 3 hours. Last week, I had to take him on a walk around the parking lot for 45 minutes before he calmed down enough to go back in the building. haha! It was kinda epic.  This is Adam so happy once Brigs finally fell asleep at church.

Good news is that he has amazing quad muscles. Not the best pic, but I think it shows his quads off alright. I've only ever known cute chubby babies and didn't realize they can develop such huge muscles.

Good news? Bad news? Brigham looks like this when he yawns. We didn't think it was that out of the ordinary to have this big of yawns, but everyone reacts to them. It always makes us chuckle.

Great news is that Brigham can take thin liquids! We've been waiting to redo a 'swallow study' for months since after birth he aspirated his food and has major reflux. I've called the radiology dept every weekday for 3 weeks and never got through to anyone in scheduling. So, when we were seeing the cardiologist I asked Adam if we could stop by radiology. Well we basically stormed in, told them we'd been waiting so long to repeat the swallow study, and told them we wanted it today. They were SO nice and accommodating since it was the end of the day and mult docs had to stay late for us. Those doctors are amazing. We were able to repeat the swallow study that day (which is quite the ordeal by itself). The best news is, he was cleared for thin liquids! YES! Basically, that means we don't need to add a Tbsp of rice cereal to every ounce of formula. It may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but it is huge to us. It also means he can eat frozen bm. I'm not going to lie, we felt so much parent pride in storming into radiology. ha.

Us in the x-ray room getting ready.

Brigham eating a normal, thin liquid for the first time. Yay for him learning how to eat correctly.