Packing for Utah

Topher just had his 9-month checkup and he's doing great! He's about 50th percentile for height (28"), 50th for head size (18"), and 90th for weight (22 lbs). You would never, ever know that he was a preemie. He's alert and interested in everything around him, and he can scoot and crawl and babble. We're so proud of everything he does.

Tomorrow morning we'll be waking up around 3am so we can shower, pack up the car, get our little one ready, drive to Des Moines, and park our car at the airport in time for our 6:05am flight out to Utah for the big Berbert Family reunion (my mom's side). We are still a little nervous about the almost 3-hr flight to Salt Lake, followed by a 2.5 hr drive up to Bear Lake, but once we get there, it should be a lot of fun. Topher even got a brand new "big boy" seat that we'll check as baggage (no charge for baby items checked, courtesy Delta) and then install in our rental car. It's a lot bigger and roomier than his infant car seat, and he seemed pretty excited when we tried it out in the living room yesterday.

As you can probably tell, he can "baby talk" now. It's like he just woke up one morning and decided that he had a voice. And he's been talking ever since. Sometimes in the car he'll just sit in the backseat and talk to himself the whole time. Here's a short video from last night of Topher telling us a story:

And since I haven't loaded any videos in quite awhile, here's one more from yesterday of Topher performing his most recent "trick." He loves to play with the dishwasher when it's open and he watches me whenever I'm trying to do the dishes, but he totally taught this one to himself:

After church today, we'll have plenty of packing to do, but we're looking forward to it. No matter what, it will be a 4-day family adventure (we land back in Des Moines at 11pm on Thursday) and we'll all be in it together. Look out, Utah! :)

--KC