Now You're Cookin'!

Too cute! Roy helped me make dinner for his first time tonight. I was making some fried, breaded pork chops, and I started out by offering to let him stand on a chair so he could see the counter and watch. But he kept pushing the chair closer until it was right up against the counter, so finally I asked him if he wanted to help make the pork chops? He shouted "chops!" and then watched as I dredged the first one, and then helped me do the rest. He was actually a very good helper, up until the point where he decided he should start dredging other things too. Then the cooking lesson had to end.

I'll have to ask mom, but I think Roy has me beat for earliest cooking experience now. :)

Oh, and while I'm at it, he makes a pretty cute dinosaur:



And here he is, just as the sugar rush started to hit:

Chronicles of Cute

As a hide and seek superstar...


As a mechanic's assistant...


As a lazy hiker...

He'll Remember This Christmas!

These are Christmas Lights, Roy!


Yes... and I will wreak havok with them!


Just kidding! I'm going to help Daddy decorate the front of the house!


I'm also going to hang my first ornament!


But Mommy did the tree in front of the house without my help.

Vacation Wrap-up

Well we've been home for over a week now, and I finally feel somewhat back into the swing of things. The drive home was easy, and since we grabbed 64 to C-ville and then took 29 the rest of the way home rather than going up 81 to 66, the last few hours, which are normally the worst, actually were rather pleasant. I don't know if you've been on 29 between Charlottesville and Warrenton lately, but they've increased the speed limit to 60 for most of it.

The Dallas trip, lacking the torrential downpours and flooding that marked the OK leg of our vacation, turned out to be actually vacation-like. We got some time to really relax, including pool time at Richard and Leigh's. Roy got his first taste of what a swimming pool was like with an inconclusive verdict. As long as mommy or daddy was actively holding him, and another kid was in the pool, he liked it. Otherwise, not so much. But he took his first long walk (long meaning in excess of 5 steps) in order to greet his baby cousin Anna.

We had Richard, Leigh and Anna over to Mom and Neil's for dinner one night, and here's a good shot of Grandma with her Grandson and his Cousin:

We even had an evening off where just the three of us were able to relax, while Mom and Neil were out at a gig.


This is probably my favorite picture from the entire trip, because Russ and Roy both look so outrageously happy in it. :)

So now that we're home, Roy is walking all over the place, although for only short distances, and has started feeding himself. He had pancakes and banana chunks for breakfast yesterday. Russ and I are still trying to get back into a work-week mindset. That's the only problem with a vacation that long - your body forgets how to manage a 40+ week.

... and one more from Florida

Rusty and Roy developed quite the symbiotic relationship during the visit, with Rusty acting as a human vacuum cleaner for all of Roy's little discards. Roy thought it was cute, so about half of the treats or snacks we gave him were handed directly over to Rusty, with Rusty doing his damnedest to extract the cookie from between chubby little baby fingers without taking any of the fingers with it. Both of the doggoes were generally very sweet and careful around Roy, they were very good boys.

Time Flies...

And Roy keeps getting cuter!

He's standing on his own, as long as you don't make a big deal out of it. If you deign to notice his amazing balance and progress, he sits back down.

... oh, and we got our driveway paved. Doesn't it make the house look nicer?

Big Mistake

This is the face of a baby that is going to be up until past 1am:


There are some disadvantages to feeding your child an all-natural diet. Namely, when you feed him a big fat honking piece of chocolate cake - one made with over a lb of chocolate in the frosting alone - it causes a reaction much like dousing an already lit grill with a gallon of gasoline. He sure did love his cake; after we swept up all the crumbs and dumped him in the tub, we estimate he ate at least half of the entire slice. But he isn't used to anywhere near that amount of sugar, and we had a little mini-cornholio for the next five and a half hours afterwards. I finally gave up and made Russ take over a little after midnight. He says Roy finally collapsed around 1am.

Happy Birthday, little buddy! We're not going to try that again for a whole 'nother year.

Say 'Hello' to Anna Wetzel!

Last night, at 7pm, Anna Wetzel was born! She was 6lbs 1.5oz, and Richard reports that momma and baby are doing fine, although it was a very looong delivery. Congratulations, Richard and Leigh!

I'm so excited. Now Roy has a little cousin less than a year younger than he is! Outstanding timing!

Baby Teeth

Lemme tell you... it is not easy to get a picture of a baby's teeth without a clamp and forceps. But after several attempts, I finally managed...

Here they are, in all their glory. Roy's first two bottom teeth, picture taken through a torturous (for him) breakfast where momma was holding the spoon in one hand, and the camera in the other. See what I put him through for you guys?

A Little Something for the Romero Fans

Since you guys haven't posted anything in a while, I guess it's time for more baby blogging!

Braaaaaaaiins!!!

Actually, they're beets, but doesn't it look like he's been gorging on a dismembered corpse? He's quite fond of them (beets, not dismembered corpses - I haven't tried adding that to the menu yet).

Priceless!!

It's rare that you get a shot that makes you burst out laughing when you check it in the camera, but this is what I got when I was taking pictures of Roy learning how to play with the cats.

This is now my favorite picture of Roy.

Flash sure is being a good sport, isn't she?

Because I Can't Resist One More

Is this one of his daddy's faces, or what?

argh! All right, two more... sorry, Russ took some really great shots last night and I just can't help myself:

I think he's trying to warn the cats away from his play-yard.
They keep trying to nap on it.

I Did Not Drop Him

For all his limbs are sprawled about in the picture below, this is not Roy after I've dropped him on the floor. This is Roy vigorously trying to roll over.


He can roll in one direction all the way across the living room floor now. He just hasn't figured out how to go the other way. Yep, he's my little Zoolander!

When You're Learning To Crawl...

... you've gotta have a goal to reach for.

Roy Gets His First Lesson On Sharing

... and he doesn't even have a little sister yet!

Teaching Mommy A Lesson

Hey Girls.... You wouldn't believe the burn I put on mommy today. She had a really important end to end test demo that she had to do, and it was supposed to start at 11am, and kept on getting pushed back further and further. It was past 3pm before they finally got started. I found that really annoying, so to express my displeasure, I laid in wait and pretended to be napping until mommy was right in the middle of her presentation and then I started screaming.

Ain't I a stinker? I got her good!

You should have seen her scrambling, trying to calm me down and carry on with her dumb old presentation at the same time. I thought her head was going to spin completely around. It was hilarious.

Anyway, I know y'all were just dying to see another shot of me, so here's my latest pose for the camera, from our photo shoot last night. Does the camera just love me or what?

Clumsy

Aunt Livvy can't hold a baby! Livvy can't hold a baby! Nyah nyah nyah.

- Roy

Do I look gay?

There's nothing gay about a man lying on top of another man is there? Even if he's trying to do a pushup?

What's shakin' bacon?

Is Aunt Lissa a geek or what? Whoever thought this would be a good substitute for actually, you know, visiting their fantastically gorgeous baby nephew obviously spends waay too much time in front of a computer.

Oh, and my mom says she'll talk about whatever damn thing she pleases and rant all she wants. So there!