Mommy's Little Alligator

This is one of my favorite outfits for little V. Mom and I got it at the Animal Crackers half off sale. It is hard to believe that I DON'T have a ton of clothes stocked up for fall but Vake is so big that most of what I thought he would wear between September and December he actually wore between April and May. I do think that this is super cute- sorry the picture isn't very good.


Vake's making big strides: he's getting interested in toys and really working on holding things that he likes in his little hands. My new obsession is (don't laugh) the Martha Stewart craft line at Walmart, so today while I was there I picked up this toy. It is a little glowworm/butterfly that makes different noises when you move it. Vake thinks it is possibly the coolest thing in the universe right now.




I've got a long post about the change in the bedtime ritual but the pics I took are currently stuck on E's camera, which is out of juice. I'll try to post them before we go to Shrinemont for the bluegrass festival tomorrow.

My New Kicks

A marvelous package arrived in the mail today from Portland, Oregon from our friends Jen and Cara and their daughter Katherine. In it were these little miniature Vans, which actually fit perfectly right now so they will be perfect for our Fourth of July weekend.

We had our first "sick" baby visit to the pediatrician this week. Vake has a rash on his face that was getting worse and not better. I called the doctor's nurse yesterday and they recommended one course of action but when Vake woke up today his face was not better, but worse. I was glad I brought him in because the diagnosis wound up being different from what we originally thought.

Vake weighed 22.02 pounds and was 27" long. I've just looked at the height/weight chart and he is well off the chart for both. I am trying to take it easy that his weight is so much off the chart because his height is also now well off the chart. Yikes, he's a big baby.

A Whole Octopus

It's a clever phrase and useful in so many ways: forewarned is forearmed and forearmed is half an octopus. When I was searching for the original coiner of the phrase before I started this post, I couldn't easily find the person to whom attribution is owed but I did learn that 1.) about 1/2 the people who use this phrase say four-armed is half an octopus (note the tricky spelling difference) and 2.) four (or fore) armed is 2/5s of a squid. Which isn't nearly as funny as half an octopus, I don't think.

Here's my little octopus today wearing an outfit courtesy of Aunt Andrea by way of Wills maybe and more recently Henry. Vake is wearing these cute little suits with animals appliqued on them all the time- they're reasonably easy to get on and off and we avoid all the ideological problems that Eric has with dressing little boys in smocked outfits all the time.

Speaking of smocked outfits, Eric has been in Seattle for most (and he will fight this characterization, but it really was most) of June. When he was on a break from one of the depositions he was taking, he and the partner he's working with went to get lunch. At the restaurant, one of the workers recognized E. from his McDonald's days. Eric showed the dude the picture of Vake, who asked how old the little girl was. Harrummph I say.


Seriously, how cute is this expression. V's got a little rash on his face and I am treating it with some topical ointment, but that's why his skin is so red. (By the way, am I the only one who only sees six (6) arms on this octopus???)


As he was sitting for his photo shoot, he lost his balance, poor little guy! Not his favorite experience.

He REALLY likes the mobile.

You've seen it all before on the blog, but Vake LOVES the mobile above his crib. I mean he really loves the mobile. When's he's fighting going to sleep, he will pick his little baby head up and try to see the animals spinning above him.

We are running out to see Aunt Andrea and Uncle Rob right now, but I just continue to be overwhelmed by the amazing gift but also responsibility of parenthood. Gosh I hope I am doing it right.

Because forewarned is forearmed (and forearmed is half an octupus), I want everyone out there to know that the video below is not all that exciting. And the last fifteen seconds are punctuated by Vake realizing that his feet are also pretty interesting to look at!

Seattle Friends' Style: Part III: Big Game Hunter

Taren's been putting off dressing Vake up in his camo from Uncle Brad. Uncle Brad and his wife Cindy and their daughters Emily and Mary are some of my favorite people. Brad is Eric's good friend from law school, and Cindy is one of the nicest people you are likely to meet. Plus, she's a nurse and an amazing Mom...she's the person who remembers to bring the cheese sticks on a hike, whereas I am the person who is hunting for the Diet Coke machine. But I digress.

Anyway, Brad gave V some camo gear when we were in Seattle. Taren had been dressing Vake in and taking pics of all the clothes/toys we got in Seattle so I could post them, but had been putting off the camo shot. And Taren teases me as much as anyone about the fact I am dressing little V in "girls'" clothes...

So this morning, it was super quiet in Vake's room. Eric woke up and asked me if the baby should still be asleep and I went down to check on him. Lo and behold, my little baby had gotten out of his crib, dressed himself and gone big game hunting. By the time I found him, he already had the hide/pelt of a blue animal and he was so pleased that he was sitting on it!!!!

Sitting in My Big Boy Chair

Look at me in my big boy highchair that Aunt Martha, Aunt Julie and Martha's Mother gave me.

Now if Mom would just let me have some real chow, I could go to town.

How is it possible that he's getting so big so fast?

Vake and Domingo Visit the JCP Portrait Studio

One of my guilty little pleasures is the JC Penney Portrait Studio. Andrea turned me on to it- in Vake's first month, I went to Kiddie Kandids at Babies 'r' Us and paid the unseemly price of $19.95 a sheet for pictures. After that, I learned better- Jacques Penne will give you a sheet of pics for the bargain rate of $3.99 a sheet and Lindsey the manager at the Regency Square Store is A-W-E-S-O-M-E. She does a GREAT job.

So, Vake, Domingo, Dennis, MS and I trekked out to Regency tonight for a cousin pic. I think Dennis truly believes he has died and gone to h-e-double toothpicks- what a night. Please go to the mall with your mother and sister in law, your infant nephew and your puppy for glamour shots of the nephew and the dog.

We started out with Vake with clothes on, trying to take pics of him in a basket with Domingo but that wasn't going so well- the basket just wasn't big enough and everyone was miserable. So we decided on an "action shot" and the only thing big enough for the two of them was a bathtub.

Here's the first picture: in it, Vake's saying, "Who's this dude in the bathtub with me? Where's the water? What about the music we always play? Seriously people, what are you doing to me?"


Domingo looks similarly nonplussed- all you can see is the little white in his eye.

But they actually got used to each other: see below where Vake is staring at Domingo, petting Domingo, getting kissed by Domingo and finally about to fall out of the tub!

Seriously, too cute. What's next for me, though? A minivan with a stick figure family decal on the back cannot be all that far away.