Almost 4 months old now

Hey there Grandson,

Almost 4 months old now! 4th of July right around the corner. This is Poppy's Fav Holiday. Christmas is good too but the 4th of July is THE BEST! I hope we get to do something fun together that day.

You stand and can walk with help. You grip fingers very well and have your fist in your mouth most of the time. It is crazy how much fluid comes out of your mouth! Soon you will have teeth.

I bought you a pool float last week but we've been so busy and haven't had a chance to use it. It looks a lot like a walker but the tray portion has two rings with air in them, like an inner tube off a bike.

Grandma and Momma have been very busy with you and decided to get you a jumping machine in an effort to keep you occupied so they could get some house work done. This monster has a dozen toys that go all the way around you. They make noise and blink when you hit them. You don't really have control over what you grab or hit but you do make contact with most of the items. This thing allows you to stand and use your legs to jump up and down. It's spring loaded to help you bounce. Your legs are a bit too short so we put a box under you to help your feet touch. You LOVE this thing!

You were doing a lot of time in your swing watching cartoons and listening to children's music. This didn't last very long and you seem much happier in the new toy. I know the ladies are getting more time to themselves because you are playing on your own.

Momma says you sleep good sometimes and other nights not so good. She is amazing! I would be a major crank pot if I only got a few hours of sleep at a time.

She and I went to Five Guys last week on our date. You will like this place and I hope we get to go together soon. They have free peanuts you through on the floor and great big nasty messy burgers.

You are the light of our lives. You are a wonderful boy with a pleasant smile.

I love you and miss you very much,

Poppy

Road trip to see Aunt Kelsey

Good Morning Grandson,

Today you and the girls are going to Bradenton Florida to see Aunt Kelsey. She travels in the summer with a group of girls from Her college and sings. She is at a Church a couple hours away from our home and You, Momma and Grandma are driving there for the day.

Aunt Kelsey has been a rock for your Momma since the news of your arrival. We Love and Appreciate her and she will be a special person in your life for sure. She is the person that mail you "Kyle".

I think you may even get a little beach time today!!!

Have fun little man,

Poppy

Update on you at 3 months

I guess it's time for me to tell you a little about what you are doing these days.

You can sit up with help from a leg, pillow, or dog behind you.

You slobber a lot and we think you will begin showing teeth any day.

You sleep through the night every once and a while but mostly like to nap and eat. Your Momma doesn't like this at all.

We can hold your hands or body and you will try and walk. You can stand on own with a little help to balance.

You LOVE the water! Good thing, because this family does water a lot.

You are starting to grab things. You like ceiling fans and cartoons.

You and I sit for an hour or two each day while the ladies have their time. We sit by the pool, read, talk and laugh.

You are the heart of our home and I love you more than I could ever say. I hope you read this when you get older and realize how special you are to all of us.

Love,

 Poppy

Poppop and the Space center

Good Morning little Man.

Sorry you missed this one but you were just a little to small to enjoy the day. Poppop and I drove up to the Kennedy Space center to tour the launch site and other things to do with space travel. I will try and give you a brief comment on the photo's below and will explain them more to you as you get older.

Below you will see vehicles from the Apollo program, Shuttle facilities and rockets of the early days of space travel.

Before I get into the pictures I should give you a little history of My Dad's small part in the moon landings. It's been said there were about 400,000 people responsible for putting the crew of "Apollo 11" on the moon and your Poppop was one of those folks.

There was a small company called "ILC", International Latex Corporation. These guys were based near my childhood home in Delaware. They would host each Astronaut and fit them for their space clothes. Below are some pictures of molds they used to fit the gloves and your Poppop worked for them. He helped design the latching wrist bands and helmet collars.

I was hocked to learn this was my Dads first visit to the Space Center.

Mercury rocket and capsule. This rocket was used by some of our first men in space.

Below is the assembly building for the Shuttle. They stood the vehicle on it;s tail, put it on the crawler, attached the fuel cells and loaded the cargo here before it was taken to the launch pad.

Tallest single story building in the world.

The tan road is the road the crawler uses to take the shuttle to the launch pad. This vehicle moves at 1 mile per hour.

The early days of our space program used small rockets lifting one or two men into orbit. Later in the program we needed something a little bigger to lift 3 men, the Command Module, and Lunar lander into space. This monster was called the "Saturn 5" rocket.

Here they have an awesome display of the rocket on it's side showing all the parts and stages.

Below is the main stage.

Once the main stage is empty the rocket breaks into two parts. On the left of the lower picture is the top of the main stage (also seen above). This lower unit breaks away and falls into the ocean. After that, a ring sealing the two peaces together pops off and the engine on the right (below), or second stage, fires. This lighter rocket will burn almost all the way into orbit when the final stage lifts the men into orbit. The stages allow the rocket to get lighter each time a fuel container is spent and falls back into the sea. Once each fuel container is empty, it and it's rocket motors are just dead weight.  As each lower stage (section) detaches from the rocket it gets lighter and requires less energy to lift the rest upward.

Once in orbit and the 3rd stage burned and jettisoned, the crew of Apollo 11 has to begin configuring the command ship and lunar lander ready for the trip out of Earth Orbit and into the Moons orbit.

The engine below will do this.

Below is a cutout of the vehicles attached to the top of the massive Saturn 5.

Once in space the crew must eject the Lunar lander (left), spin the craft around and dock with it way out on the right side. Once this is done the rocket motor seen on the center will fire and take this mess, along with 3 men, to the moon.

Below is an actual capsule recovered from a later Apollo flight. 3 men fit in this. Notice the burn marks around the bottom from re-entry.  

A look down the side of the Saturn 5.

Molds made at the ILC facility.

Lunar lander.

The 4 pictures below are from a serf ace rover competition going on while we were there. These College students were competing with their version of the next mars rover. These vehicles are launched in un-manned rockets to other planets and controlled remotely to explore and collect surface samples.

Mommom and Poppop visit from Washington

This was a big week for you little man. Here are some pics of you at 3 months old with my parents, your Great Grand Parents from Pasco Washington.