The daylight, it's increasing!

On Monday Oskar turned one month old. Time flies when you’re not getting any sleep. We haven’t had an appointment in a while so we don’t know how much he’s grown, but the double chin would seem to indicate that he is doing just fine. He smiles a lot in his sleep and after eating, which is super cute, but hasn't started smiling in response to us. There were a couple times we thought he did, but I’m sure it was coincidental. Below is his one month photo. He is losing a bit of his hair, but it still looks better in real life than in the photo just because his hair is so fine and the flash just cuts right through it. Most of the time we think he’s a good and cute baby, but we still have a few really rough nights here and there. He learned a new trick. He has been able to grab my hair since he was about a week old, but now he can grab his own hair. This would be all fine and good except he is doing this without knowing that he controls his hands. Obviously it hurts him and he just starts screaming. It’s terrible. Besides that he is starting to make some more pleasant sounds. Not quite cooing yet, but it’s on the way I think. The other day I was putting Oskar in his sleeper/crib thing but needed to get a blanket out from underneath him. Once he was down I tried the waiter/tablecloth trick. It did not work, but he didn't mind, just had a bit of a tip.

The days are getting longer! Not that I go out much, but it’s getting me excited for the spring and summer. We still don’t know when our end date will be, but we are excited to take the train up to Denali in the summer sometime. It’ll be nice to see the city green again as well. Like all cities that have any legitimate form of winter, unless you have a lot of snow the city loses some beauty. One nice thing about anchorage I've found is that the trees tend to retain more of the snowfall so it often looks like a Christmas card instead of just dead and brown. The summer will also bring a trip to Chicago for a wedding in the middle of August, the traditional Park Rapids vacation, and of course, the state fair. August will be great.

The holidays were good here and brought us many visitors. It was very nice. Our next visitor will be coming in March and then I think we have some in the spring/summer as well. Good stuff. People are great here, but it’s always good to see the people we’re closest too.

Below is a picture of the grandparents with Oskar at Christmas. They are all laughing because Oskar just had a very loud and giant expelling of waste. It made for a very nice picture.