Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Here are some additional pictures from the photoshoot with Mom. This first one is my favorite:

I couldn’t decide if I liked this last one better in color or black and white:

These were taken on the side of our house by our neighbor’s fence.

I’m guessing a lot of people have been waiting for photos of Debi and Toren.  It’s taken me a good 6 weeks to convince Debi to let me do a good photoshoot with her and Toren, but I finally have some photos. We shot in two locations.  Today’s photos are from inside:

Also, here’s a fun tidbit for you:  With this photoshoot we’re closing in on 750 photos of Toren.  I digitized all of Debi’s and my photos from when we were young.  I’m not complaining or anything (Mom – I know you’ll read this eventually, so don’t take offense; I just thought this was interesting), but I didn’t have 750 photos of me until I was about 17.  Debi didn’t have that many until she was about 16.  Having a digital camera that makes shooting photos virtually free makes a huge difference.  Oh, and it helps that I have several terabytes of storage for all these photos.  Combined, I now have 23,000+ digital photos.  I wonder if I’ll ever look at them all…

When Steve booked his trip, we weren’t considering shuttle launches, but the day he arrived (Friday) we realized there was a launch the next day (Saturday).  It happened to be at the same time as the Rays game, so we opted for the Rays game.  However, the launch was delayed a day due to lightning strikes, which moved it to Sunday.  Since Steve had never seen a launch, we decided to try to see it.  We packed up the car, got Toren situated, and headed East toward Titusville and the shuttle.  To make the trip a little more interesting, we decided to make a stop along the way and see Deseret Ranches, a Mormon owned piece of property between Orlando and Cocoa Beach that is, well, enormous (and probably very, very lucrative).  There are several operations that are run out of the ranch, including cattle and harvesting of shell beds.  According to the Deseret Ranches’ website, they have 44,000 head of cattle.  My aunt and uncle served a Mormon mission on the ranch in just the last couple of years, but Debi and I never made it out to visit while they were there.  But since we were going to be driving past the ranch, we figured we’d stop by.

Alas, they only have tours Monday through Saturday, so we weren’t able to get a full tour, but we did drive around for a bit and snap some photos.

Ryan by the entrance sign

the sign at the visitor's center

the visitor's center

Steve in front of a field of cows

Oh, this reminds me of two fun stories.  Since newborns don’t require baths very often, Toren seems to go a little more than a week between baths (probably too long, but so it goes).  Well, he hadn’t had one for just over a week when Steve arrived.  Since we wanted Steve to meet his nice-smelling nephew rather than a stinky nephew, we decided we’d bathe Toren just after Steve got here.  This way he could also help (you know, be a good uncle and all).  So, about an hour after Steve arrived we filled up the baby bath, put it next to the sink, and went to work.  I washed Toren while Steve poured water on him to keep him warm.  Steve was near his legs, which were facing toward the sink.  About 2/3 of the way through the bath Steve jumped back and started to freak out.  Toren, aiming quite accurately, was making a perfect little urine arch into the sink (quite considerate of him, IMO).  Steve’s arm was initially in the way, but once he moved it Toren’s accuracy was impeccable.  So, Steve now has the new record for “time since meeting Toren before Toren urinated on him”: 1 hour!

I remembered that story because we had a fun little story at the Deseret Ranch.  As I drove slowly around the visitor’s center, Debi fed Toren.  Just before we left the ranch to head to Titusville we decided to change him.  I put him in my seat in the front of the car on a burp cloth and started changing his diaper.  I was just about finished when his deadly urinating accuracy was once again revealede.  The target this time – my seat (where my back rests).  He caught me so off guard that I didn’t get anything over the stream until he was basically finished.  Luckily it was hot and it wasn’t a lot of urine, so I was able to dry off the seat and not feel wet the rest of the trip.  I figure that, at this rate, by the time we potty train him he’ll have urinated on pretty much everything we own!

We finally made it to Titusville at around 6:00 pm, just over an hour before the launch was supposed to take place.  We were worried because a storm with lightening was moving in.  But we found some viewing spots in Space View Park anyway and waited.   They scrubbed the shuttle launch 11 minutes before liftoff.  We then, of course, got stuck in traffic on the way home (twice, actually, once leaving Titusville and once leaving Orlando).  We got home around 12:30 with just a short stop at Burger King for dinner (which means about an hour as we have to feed Toren during our pit stops now).  All in all, I’d say it was a good trip.

Toren was supposed to have a 2 month checkup, but we’ll be in Utah at that point, so our pediatrician had us come in 2 weeks early to do his 2 month checkup.  Everything looks good.  Size-wise, Toren has grown enough to become a perfectly average baby (hooray!).

Length – 22.5 inches (somewhere between 50th and 75th percentile)

Weight – 11 lbs, 5 oz. (around the 50th percentile)

Head circumference – 15.5 inches (around the 50th percentile)

Alas, included in the 2 month checkup are shots.  Toren received 4 shots and one oral vaccine: (1) polio, (2) diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis, (3) Haemophilus Influenzae Type b; (4) Pneumococcal conjugate; and (5) rotavirus.  As scientists, we fully embrace vaccinations and are ecstatic that they exist.  Granted, watching a nurse poke your son with four needles in rapid succession, turning him from content baby to red-in-the-face-I-can’t-scream-loud-enough baby is hard.  But, it turns out, far from giving him autism (which is total BS), the vaccinations actually gave Toren superhuman powers.  You may be saying to yourself right now, “Pshaw!  Ryan, the skeptic, can’t really believe that…”  But really, they did.

Let me set the scene…  Debi was able to calm Toren down after the shots in the office and eventually got him into a very light sleep, which was sufficient to get him home from the doctor’s office.  He clearly still wasn’t feeling well and would occasionally just begin wailing.  We finally got him to the point where we thought he would sleep.  His eyes were fully closed (not always the case when Toren is sleeping) and he was snoring, which usually means he is deep asleep.  Carefully, I went to put him down in his bassinet.  As I inched him away from me and started to lower him into the bassinet he began to wail – eyes still closed!  His new super-sensory powers of bassinet detection allowed him to detect the bassinet!  Amazing!  I pulled him back up to my chest and he instantly calmed back down and continued to sleep.  I gave him a couple of minutes then tried again – same thing!  Here you have it, folks – vaccines don’t give babies autism; they give them superhuman powers of bassinet detection! 

For about 24 hours Toren could tell when we weren’t holding him even while he was asleep.  So, we held him and let him sleep on us most of the last 24 hours.  Granted, his superpowers wore off within about 24 hours, but still, I’m a believer (in babies wanting to be held when they are uncomfortable or in pain, not in that autism BS).