2009 Year in Pictures

2009 was a quite the year in for Megan and I. Having a child is by far the biggest challenge I've had. To say my life will never be the same would be an understatement. Most times in life, change is gradual. Not with a baby, one night you get 9 hours of sleep and the next (300+) you don't. But I'm getting ahead of the story...

Starting in December 2008, 2009 was a rather wintery year for the Willamette Valley...

Megan loved being pregnant (except she couldn't eat pizza (heart burn) and couldn't sleep on her back or stomach)...


Seems very long ago...


On February 11th Chase was born. Here is the first picture I have of him. He was blue when he was born...


After the initial scare, mother and baby where very healthy...


And we brought home a beautiful baby boy...

We stayed home a lot those first few months. It was much less stressful than going out...


Chase spent much of his first year in either a sling, a backpack or a frontpack. Not that he was awake for much of it...


Our little baby slowly showed us his personality...


Sometimes he looks like me...


Other times Megan...


We had our first house guests (looks like Oliver wants to fly away)...


It's no wonder that Chase dances whenever he hear music...


Finally some outside time...


After a pretty stressful plane ride we go to visit Pennsylvania. They had a very nice reception for us...
At one point Chase was in the 80th percentile for weight. He was chunky. Here he his next to his best bud Troy, three months older...


In July he even spent a night in the woods...


He did a lot of sleep packing (that's backpacking while sleeping). Opal Creek...


Hart's Cove, Oregon beach...


At some point, he got really good at smiling. One might even say he was addicted to it...


He also got good at blank stares...


One form of non-baby recreation I had was gardening. I would say it was a success (except the squash, the tomatoes took them over)...


For Chase's second plane ride we went to California. It was the first time he was with all his cousins (from my side)...


We stretched out the hiking season well into October. We were well prepared for the colder weather thanks to this puffer we received as a gift...


(No caption needed)

Once mobile he kept us on our toes. We purposefully didn't try to baby proof our house too much. He was quick to show us the areas we needed to pay special attention too...


Oliver and Chase have learned to get along pretty well. Especially with now that Mom and Dad watch their every interaction. They definitly had some good moments...


Chase fit the stereotype of liking the packing of the present more that the actual presents he got for Christmas...


We finished out the year with some skiing and sledding in Central Oregon. Chase enjoyed the action. Mom and Dad would have preferred to stay home and just do day trips...


Here's to 2010 and bathing with other people!